IE67545B1 - Vehicle information system - Google Patents

Abstract

A system for recording information concerning vehicles in which a data word including the distance travelled by the vehicle, an indentification of the vehicle, and information about the load is continuously transmitted and is picked up as the vehicle passes a receiver at a fixed station. The transmitter is of limited range and is powered by rechargeable batteries. The information in the data word may be transmitted automatically to a central station.

Description

The invention relates to a system for controlling the operation of a number of vehicles. It will be described here by way of example in its application to fleets of vehicles delivering goods to supermarket depots, but it is applicable to any situation where it is required to control the operation of a number of vehicless for example the movements of railway containers, farm milk collections and dairy deliveries,, petrol and domestic fuel deliveries and dockside loading and unloading installations.

It is necessary to maintain records of the movements of commercial vehicles, both to satisfy legal requirements and to allow proper administrative control,, for example for journey planning,, scheduling loading and unloading times, and ensuring regular maintenance. Furthermore, whenever a vehicle arrives at a depot a record must be made available of the goods to be loaded or unloaded, and often also of their condition, i.e. whether refrigerated goods have exceeded, prescribed temperature limits, or whether sealed containers have _ 7 _ been opened or their seals tampered with. To satisfy such requirements it is generally necessary for the driver of the vehicle to stop and make a report, and. for some purposes, for example in particular for checking the condition of container seals, a responsible managerial official must be called to make an inspection. It has been proposed that certain information should be transmitted from the vehicle automatically by electronic means, but this has required the vehicle to stop on arrival and the driver to take some action to initiate the transfer.

The present invention, which is defined in the appended claims, allows information to .be transferred from the vehicle to the depot without the vehicle necessarily having to stop for the purpose, or the driver taking any action to control or initiate the transfer.

The invention will be described further with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a diagram representing a truck and trailer fitted with apparatus according to the invention; Figure 2 is a block schematic diagram of the truck- and trailer-mounted apparatus of Figure 1; Figure 3 represents schematically the transfer of information from a vehicle to the depot installation, and from the depot installation to a central office; and Figure 4 is a block diagram representing an overall view of the whole system.

Referring first to Figure 1, a truck 1 is towing a trailer 2, both vehicles carrying goods for delivery to a supermarket depot 3. The depot 3 is one of a number of such depots, all of which are linked by communication means to a central control station (not shown). The central station is part of a headquarters which supervises and controls, inter alia, th® allocation of lorries and trailers to depots, route planning, cost-effective usage of vehicles, and their routine maintenance. Information received at the depots is transmitted onwards to the central station, either automatically as it is received, or as a batch file at the end of each working day.

Mounted on the truck 1 is apparatus, which will be described more fully below with, reference to Figure 2, consisting of a unit 4 comprising data processing means coupled to a radio transmitter, together with various sensors and a programmable memory providing inputs to the data processing means. Similar apparatus, including a similar unit 5, is provided on the trailer 2. At the entrance to the depot 3 is a receiver (not shown) which is so positioned as to pick up the signals transmitted from the truck and trailer as they are driven past and which passes them to data processing apparatus, where they are decoded to recover the information content of the signals.

The radio transmitters on the truck and trailer transmit continuouslyί They transmit at a low frequency, e.g. under 150 kHz, and preferably in the range 70 to 100 kHz. They are of low power, having an effective range of, say, two to four metres. They are battery-operated, the batteries being of the rechargeable type. The apparatus has no moving parts and no other power-hungry components, and the processor and memory use CMOS chips of very low power consumption, and so the drain on the batteries is small. They are charged from the vehicle’s electrical system, and in the case of the trailer this may be done from the occasional current supply from the main vehicle to the trailer brake lights whenever the brakes are applied.

Although the transmitters operate continuously, 10 because of their low frequency, low power and consequently limited range, they do not cause radio interference and do not require to be individually licensed.

Figure 2 shows schematically the apparatus 15 mounted on the truck 1. This comprises a data processor having an internal memory which is initially programmed with information including truck identification, customer and contents identification and an initial odometer reading. The processor 10 receives an odometer input from a sensor Fi coupled to one of the truck wheels, and this may be a unit of the type used for anti-lock braking systems. The processor also receives, via a multiplexer 12, a series of inputs 13, 14, 15 from various other sensors. These may include the fuel level and a measure of the truck temperature, particularly in the case of refrigerated vehicles, or vehicles carrying loads which are sensitive to extremes of temperature. Other inputs may be obtained from monitors arranged to detect opening or tampering with the locks of sealed containers, transient rises of temperature above an acceptable level, or truck speeds in excess of a prescribed limit.

The processor processes the input information and assembles it into a data word in a transmit buffer register 15. This data word contains the truck, customer and load identification, distance travelled, and such other numerical information as is required, and also flags which indicate, by their SET or CLEARED state, factors such as mentioned abovee for example, tampering with seals, above-limit transient temperature rises, over-limit speeds, or excessive distances travelled during a prescribed time interval.

A signal from the processor clock is divided down in a clock circuit 17 to produce an interrupt at intervals, causing the data word stored in the transmit buffer 16 to be sent to a UART which converts it to serial form and passes it to the transmitter II8, while the processor meanwhile proceeds with the assembling of an updated data word. The interrupt frequency and the transmitter range determine th® maximum speed at which the truck can be driven past the receiver to ensure the successful transfer of information - for example, if the range of the transmitter is 4 metres and the processor interrupt frequency is twice per second, a truck speed past the receiving aerial of four metres per second will enable the complete data word to be received twice, thus allowing an adequate margin for error. In general, the interrupt frequency will need to be at least once per second.

When the truck or trailer has been driven past the receiving aerial and the data have been transferred it will be known at once whether the goods carried have been subjected to an unacceptable temperature rise, or th© seals have been tampered with, and so the load can generally be accepted or rejected without the need for calling for a personal inspection, thereby economising on time and manpower. The truck is then able to proceed at once to unload.

In order for the truck to be able to unload without delay it may be necessary to schedule the usage of the unloading bays. Information as to the scheduled availability of unloading bays may be pre-programmed into the computer at the depot, so that on arrival the truck may be directed under computer control to the next available bay, or may have to be instructed to wait until a specified time if all bays are occupied.

The truck and trailer units are provided with connectors for coupling to a programming device so that the units can be pre-programmed with the vehicle, customer and goods identifications and the initial odometer readings, and so that any flags can be set after temperatures have been checked, or containers sealed, as the case may be. Preferably the programmer is hand held, and is retained in the possession of a suitably senior member of the depot staff.

Referring now to Figure 3, the signal from the truck Ί is picked up by the loop aerial 21 of a receiver 22. In this receiver the data word is decoded and passed vie a serial interface to the depot computer 23. Here it is decoded and the information it contains is displayed and checked by an operator. The operator confirms, at the computer keyboard, that all is in order, whereupon the computer extracts the truck identification and load particulars from the data, inserts these into its unloading bay utilisation -7program, and causes a signal to be displayed to the truck driver indicating the unloading bay to which he should proceed, or, if the program determines that all appropriate bays are occupied, the anticipated time at which he will be able to unload.

Information from each of the trucks arriving at the depot is accumulated by the depot computer in a disc batch file, and at the end of each working day, or at such other intervals as may be convenient, it is transmitted by cable link to the central office 24. Here it is subjected to statistical analysis to determine due dates for routine maintenance of the vehicles, efficiency of truck and trailer usage and such other infor matron as may be of use in management and planning.

If the volume of data to be transmitted so justifies, it may be sent on to the central office 24 over a permanent data link, instead of being accumulated in a batch file.

Figure 4 is a general overview of the system as a whole, indicating the relationship between the central office 24 and the depots 25, 26 etc.

Claims (13)

1. CLAIMS;

1. System for recording information concerning vehicles comprising vehicle-mounted apparatus including measuring means for measuring data including at least the distance travelled by the vehicle, data processing means for encoding the data and assembling it together with an identification of the vehicle into a data word for transmission, a continuously operating low power radio transmitter repeatedly transmitting the data word,, and a plurality of fixed stations each provided with a radio receiver and data processing means for receiving and decoding the data word, whereby, as and only as the vehicle passes near to a receiver, the data are transferred to the corresponding fixed station without driver intervention.

2. System according to claim 1 in which the vehiclemounted apparatus is battery powered.

3. System according to claim 2 in which the batteries are rechargeable and are recharged from the vehicle electrical system.

4. System according to any preceding claim, wherein the fixed stations are each arranged to transmit the received information automatically to a central control station. 5. System according to any preceding claim in which the vehicles include driven vehicles and trailers, and the vehicle-mounted apparatus is provided on both th® driven vehicles and the trailers. -S~

5. System according to any preceding claim in which the data words are updated and transmitted at a frequency of at least once per second.

6. 7. System according to any preceding claim in which the data words include a flag indicating whether or not a predetermined condition has been satisfied.

7. 8. System according to claim 7 in which the flag is set if the vehicle has exceeded a pre-set speed limit.

8. 9. System according to claim 7 in which the vehicle is a refrigerated vehicle and the flag is set if the temperature within the vehicle has exceeded a pre-set limit.

9. 10. System according to claim 7 in which the vehicle comprises a sealed container and the flag is set if the seals have been opened or tampered with.

10. 11. System according to claim 7 in which the flag is set if the vehicle has exceeded a pre-set mileage.

11. 12. System according to any preceding claim in which the data processing means at at least one fixed station is pre-programmed with, information relating to times and locations at which vehicles should unload, and is arranged,., on receiving a data word identifying the vehicle, to indicate to the driver of the vehicle his unloading location and/or time.

12.

13. System according to any preceding claim in which the vehicle-mounted apparatus is provided with a connector and interface for connection to programming means. -1014, System for recording information concerning vehicles, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.