Patent Application
20060136105
1. Technical Field
The invention relates to vehicle telematics and more particularly to a system providing interaction between information processing facilities on a vehicle, at maintenance providers and under the control of the vehicle owner to optimize maintenance scheduling in accordance with operator objectives.
2. Description of the Problem
Periods when commercial vehicles must be removed from service for maintenance is costly to vehicle operators. Unplanned maintenance can be particularly burdensome. Better anticipation of maintenance needs may allow an operator to stagger servicing of vehicles, to better anticipate maintenance needs and to route and schedule vehicles to minimize transit time to service facilities and to synchronize required service procedures with one another.
Cost effective sensors which can accurately provide data directly relating to the condition of vehicle fluids such as engine oil and transmission fluid are not generally available at the time this is being written. Such on board sensors as exist for engine, drive train and electrical system functions are useful for the identification of faults and are used for indicators or for implementing control of the vehicle, but have limited predictive capacity. Accurate assessment of the condition of engine oil, by way of example, has depended upon spectrographic analysis conducted on samples of engine oil drawn from a vehicle and sent to a industrial laboratory for analysis and has not been directly available from the vehicle.
Present maintenance practice frequently involves acquiring information by direct inspecting and manually recording the observations. For example, when a vehicle is serviced an oil sample may be drawn and sent to an outside laboratory for analysis. The results are typically returned to the service facility hard copy report after a few days. The maintenance manager then reads the results, and, if the results are within in limits, the analysis report is filed for future reference or discarded. If the result is out of limits, a maintenance manager may identify the issue on the basis of personal experience or by calling the laboratory for aid. Obtaining an overview of trends, and correlation of the results with data relating to vehicle use has not generally been possible.
According to the invention there is provided a data integration system for motor vehicle service scheduling. The data integration system comprises a central data repository which receives data from diverse sources to improve operator facility for maintenance scheduling. These sources include an integrated data network and sensor package installed on at least a first motor vehicle for generating vehicle data. A vehicle service facility provides for periodically inspecting motor vehicles including the first motor vehicle and generating inspection data. Vehicle fluid analytical services provide for analyzing fluid samples drawn from the motor vehicles and generating data relating to the results of the analysis.
Data communication facilities including internet, satellite and short range radio links couple the various data generated by the integrated data network and sensor package, at the vehicle service facility and through the vehicle fluid analytical services to the central data collection facility. The central data repository including database services for facilitating organized recordation and retrieval of the data for comparison analysis. A website generated by the central data repository may be used for display of results from the comparison analysis for operator use in scheduling maintenance.
Additional effects, features and advantages will be apparent in the written description that follows.
The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself however, as well as a preferred mode of use, further objects and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Referring now to the figures and in particular to
Commercial vehicle 102 includes an electronic control system based on a controller area network (CAN) system 104. Controller area network system 104 links numerous controllers onboard commercial vehicle 102 for data communication and allows central activation and control of remote data communications services as through cellular phone link 108 and use of services such as global positioning using a global positioning unit 106 reading GPS satellites 110.
As is conventional, cell phone base station 112 is linked by land lines including, if advantageous, internet services, to transfer data from cell phone link 108 to a vehicle operator's server 114. The data from the vehicle 102 can include, as set forth in detail below, information relating to engine loading, extreme brake use and other vehicle operating variables collected by the CAN system 104 as well as conventional telematics services. Records forwarded from vehicle 102 are time, date, location and mileage stamped. Data can be forwarded from a vehicle over a cell phone link by connection 115 (such as short range RF or direct hand wire connection) to a service tool at a maintenance base.
Server 114 also collects data from other sources including at least a first remote service provider server 116, such as an independent engine maintenance facility. Data collected in the course of vehicle service 118, such as mileage at the time of service, tire tread depth, vehicle damage, etc. is entered through a lap top computer for placement on server 116 and from there forwarded to server 114. In addition, fluid specimens, particularly engine oil samples may be drawn and sent in standardized containers 170 using a courier, freight or postal service to an analytical laboratory 120 to be analyzed. The results of the analysis are then placed on a secure website 122 to be accessed by server 114.
Server 114 maintains databases of vehicle statistics indexed by mileage on databases 128. These records allow trends to be detected by comparison operations 124 with the results being placed on a second secure website 126 for the use of management.
Referring now to
CAN system 104 includes two distinct controller area networks based on a first bus using the public codes of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) standard for J1939 networks and a second using proprietary codes, the definition of which is allowed under the standard. By “proprietary” it is meant only that standard format J1939 data block may be defined as desired by an OEM. The public bus connects first CAN interface 250 to a plurality of system controllers including an instrument and switch bank 212, a gauge cluster 214, an anti-lock brake system controller 219, a transmission controller 216 and an engine controller 220. Any of these controllers may in turn be connected to one or sensors of packages of sensors associated with a specific controller. For example, ABS controller 219 collects data from sensors 231 which include at least the wheel speed sensors used for determining skidding. Transmission controller 216 may track transmission fluid levels or include a drive shaft tachometer from drive train sensors 217. By far the most important collection of sensors though is the engine sensor package 221 connected to the engine controller 230 which includes an engine tachometer, an air intake temperature gauge (providing a reasonable reading of ambient temperature), coolant temperatures, and engine oil temperature, level and dielectric constant readings.
Body computer 230 is itself a controller and can be used for direct monitoring of vehicle components, such as the working status of lights connected to an electrical system 233. Body computer 230 operates as a controller on two distinct CAN busses. Devices using proprietary codes are coupled to the second bus and here include a GPS receiver unit 242, a specialized controller 244 and a cell-phone transceiver unit 240, each of which include a CAN interface 250. Transceiver unit 240 additionally a microcontroller 241, a modulating unit 243 and a transceiver unit 245 connected to an antenna 247. Data collected by body computer 230, mostly over the first CAN network, is transferred using code blocks defined for that function over the second CAN network to cell phone unit 240 where it is used to modulate a carrier for transmission. Body computer 230 has access to data such as mileage and to clock information, as well as GPS data, allowing the body computer to stamp data records as to time, date, mileage and location relating to sensor reading falling outside of normal reading categories or otherwise meeting some criteria defined by the operator. This is based on a need or desire to maintain the record for use of the central server 114.
Representative flow charts illustrate the collection of data. Referring to
Collected data is reported upon interrogation of the vehicle or upon internally triggered reporting conditions being met (step 314). Whenever triggering conditions are met step 316 is executed to report selected results to a server 114. Whether results are reported or not step 318 provides for determining if conditions indicate discontinuing monitoring variables (or alternatively, the need to re-execute the automated self inspection routing) or whether it is necessary only to continue with routine operations.
Referring to
Referring to
The subject invention draws information from three types of sources: (1) data acquired directly from vehicle sensors and systems; (2) laboratory analysis data; and (3) vehicle component condition data entered by a vehicle service agency. Ideally, the information is acquired on a real time basis and transferred to a central sever computer as part of a communication linkage component of the telematics system. Service facilities are to be equipped with sampling containers from a contracted with laboratory to facilitate the collection of data generated by analytical work. When the vehicle is serviced, vehicle information (mileage, tire tread depth, etc.) is entered via an interactive web page that can be displayed on a portable computer. Fluid samples are shipped by expedited means to the laboratory. Analysis results are electronically provided to the telematics service provider (typically the vehicle operator, or potentially yet another service provider) by the laboratory. The server computer merges vehicle data, service center data and laboratory analysis results to derive various types of information relating to scheduling vehicle maintenance. These are: (1) vehicle “State-of-Health”, a weighted score of the faults, component condition and performance compared against standards; (2) trends reports, i.e. indications of engine wear based on metals occurring in the fluid samples, excessive tire wear, etc. and possible causes of the trends; (3) next service interval, based on timing, subsystems needing service, shop availability vehicle routing and synchronization of procedures; and (4) occurrences of out-of-limits vehicle operation (e.g. excessive speed, braking, operating temperatures, etc.).
The advantages of such a system relate particularly to correlation of fluid analysis with vehicle operating variable excursions into out of bounds areas. For example, an oil analysis report may indicate that a sample had a low viscosity. The real time vehicle information can then serve to indicate as a possible cause of the low viscosity an occasion of an engine temperature excursion correlated with a time and location stamp.
While a telematics system is preferred, other system configurations are possible. For example, the vehicle on-board computer could acquire and hold data for later downloading by direct link or short-range radio connection for transfer to the central server. However, the system elements will include: (1) vehicle onboard electronics to sample and store engine, drive train and vehicle performance data; (2) data transferal to the central server; (3) quantitative analytical inputs; and (4) a real time system (e.g. electronic, optical) for the dissemination of results to an end user. Record keeping is centralized.
While the invention is shown in only a few of its forms, it is not thus limited but is susceptible to various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
