1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of computerized vehicle organization. Most particularly, this invention relates to an apparatus, method, and system for the use of computer software to organize vehicles into a convoy for transporting cargo along at least one roadway.
2. Description of Related Art
Frequently, cargo and personnel are transported from a source location to a destination location. When the cargo and personnel are of sufficient quantity, the cargo and personnel are transported by two or more vehicles traveling in a group. This group is commonly and herein termed a “convoy.” Typically, a convoy commander in a military environment or a convoy planner in a civilian environment plans the convoy.
The convoy commander or planner plans the convoy based on a number of different variables. These variables may include: requirements about the cargo to be transported, the availability of vehicles used to transport the cargo, the availability of drivers to operating the vehicles in the convoy, the choices of routes between the source and destination, and conditions likely to be encountered en route.
As the number of vehicles increase, the planning complexity also increases. A tool to assist in planning would be desirable.
A first principal embodiment of the invention provides a convoy planning tool for planning a configuration of a convoy that travels one or more roadways. The convoy planning tool includes a computer processor, a selection device, and data storage. The convoy planning tool includes software executable by the computer processor and stored in the data storage. The convoy planning tool can find one or more available vehicles for the convoy and display the available vehicles in a vehicle corral. A user of the convoy planning tool can select available vehicles from the vehicle corral and can place the selected vehicles in a position within the convoy. The convoy planning tool can display a configuration of the convoy, including the one or more selected vehicles. The convoy planning tool can determine that the configuration of the convoy is complete and, in turn, display the complete configuration of the convoy.
A second principal embodiment of the invention provides a computerized method for planning a convoy with a convoy planning tool, wherein the convoy travels on one or more roadways. One or more requirements for the convoy are determined from a convoy requirements database. One or more vehicles are determined as available from a vehicle database. The one or more available vehicles are displayed in a vehicle corral of the convoy planning tool. The one or more available vehicles are selected from the vehicle corral. Upon request of the user of the convoy planning tool, the one or more selected vehicles are placed in a configuration of the convoy. The configuration of the convoy is determined to be complete based, at least in part, on input from the user of the convoy planning tool and on one or more requirements for the convoy.
A third principal embodiment of the invention provides a convoy planning system for planning a convoy, wherein the convoy carries cargo and travels along at least one roadway in a complete configuration. The convoy planning system includes a vehicle database. The vehicle database has one or more vehicle records. Each of the one or more vehicle records has availability data and vehicle data. The convoy planning system includes a convoy requirements database that has a plurality of convoy requirements records. The convoy planning system includes a convoy planning tool, having a computer processor, a selection device, data storage, and machine language instructions executable by the computer processor and stored in the data storage. The machine language instructions are executable to search both the convoy requirements database for one or more convoy requirements records and the vehicle database for one or more available vehicle records. The availability data of the one or more available vehicle records indicates a vehicle is available. The vehicle data of the one or more available vehicle records indicates the vehicle would at least partially fulfill the one or more convoy requirements for the convoy.
The machine language instructions are executable to, while the configuration of the convoy is not determined to be the complete configuration of the convoy: (a) display the one or more available vehicles to a user in a vehicle corral, (b) allow the user, using the selection device, to select one or more available vehicles from the vehicle corral, (c) allow the user, using the selection device, to place one or more selected vehicles in a placed position of the convoy, (d) display a configuration of the convoy that includes the one or more placed vehicles in the placed position of the convoy, (e) display the vehicle corral without the one or more placed vehicles, (f) allow the user, using the selection device, to re-select one or more vehicles in the convoy, (g) allow the user, using the selection device, to return the one or more re-selected vehicles to the vehicle corral, (h) display the one or more returned vehicles in the vehicle corral, (i) display the configuration of the convoy without the one or more returned vehicles, and (j) determine the configuration of the convoy is complete, based, at least in part, on the one or more convoy requirements for the convoy. The machine language instructions are executable to display the complete configuration of the convoy.
A convoy planning tool, which includes computer software, may allow a user of the convoy planning tool, typically a convoy commander or planner, to plan a convoy interactively. The convoy planning tool may have computer software to: find available vehicles for the convoy, display the available vehicles, allow the user to select and place vehicles in a configuration of the convoy, display the convoy, determine the configuration of the convoy is complete, and display the complete configuration of the convoy. The convoy planning tool may be included in a method or system for planning a convoy.
Data storage 175 may comprise one or more storage devices 177. Storage device 177 may include read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), removable disk drive memory, hard disk memory, magnetic tape memory, flash memory, and similar storage devices. Storage device 177 may store machine language instructions 180. The computing device 170 may have one or more selection devices 145 that may act also as user input mechanisms, such as a computer mouse, keyboard, keypad, touch screen, and similar selection devices. The computing device 170 may have one or more displays 178, including cathode-ray tubes (CRTs), liquid crystal displays (LCDs), light emitting diodes (LCD), and similar displays. Display 178 may be used to display part or all of the information provided by convoy planning tool 100 to a user of convoy planning tool 100. The computing device 170 may be stationary or portable. A portable computing device 170 may be a laptop or notebook computer, personal data assistant (PDA), mobile phone, or any similar device that is portable and equipped with a processing unit and at least a portion of the convoy planning tool software. The computing device 170 may have a locator device 190 and one or more communication interfaces 192.
Returning to
First convoy 120 may include one or more vehicles.
First convoy 120 may be planned using vehicles in the pool of available vehicles 130. As shown in
A vehicle may be found to be available and added to the pool of available vehicles 130 in one or more ways. Convoy planning tool 100 may include an available vehicle database. The available vehicle database may be stored on the same computing device on which convoy planning tool 100 is executed or the database may be stored on one or more other computing devices. The available vehicle database may be stored in one or more of a variety of database file structures, including flat files, relational database tables, tree structures, or any other database file structure now in use or to be invented. The database software may be created by the authors of the convoy planning tool or may be provided by third party database providers. The available vehicle database may store information for any vehicle that can travel on one or more roadways. The available vehicle database may store information in one or more vehicle records. Each vehicle record may include the type of vehicle, the availability of the vehicle, location information for the vehicle, required permits to use the vehicle, driver qualifications needed to use the vehicle, and equipment information that indicates a vehicle is equipped with environment-specific equipment and/or cargo-specific equipment as described above. A vehicle may be found to be available depending on the value of the availability of the vehicle in the vehicle record. A vehicle may also be found to be available based on user input.
Convoy planning tool 100 may have one or more convoy planning database interfaces to access the available vehicle database. A local convoy planning database interface may provide access to the available vehicle database stored on the same computing device as convoy planning tool 100. A network convoy planning database interface may provide access, directly or indirectly through one or more database servers, to the available vehicle database stored on the one or more other computing devices through a data communications network, such as the Internet, a private data communications network, or a virtual private network (VPN), with or without the network being secured. As is well known in the art, communication between convoy planning tool 100 and the available vehicle database may take place through the form of database queries using a database query language or an information retrieval query language, such as Structured Query Language (SQL), SQL in Java (SQLJ), Common Query Language (CQL), Object Query Language (OQL), or another database query language or information retrieval query language.
An interactive method of planning first convoy 120 may involve selecting vehicles from the pool of available vehicles 130 depicted by convoy planning tool 100 and adding them to first convoy 120 to determine a convoy configuration. Selecting one or more vehicles from the pool of available vehicles may involve the user selecting one or more vehicles from the pool of available vehicles with a selection device. The one or more selected vehicles may be placed in a convoy in a placed position or returned to the vehicle corral by use of the selection device. For example, the one or more selected vehicles may be placed in the convoy by first selecting the one or more available vehicles, moving or dragging the one or more selected vehicles with the selection device to the placed position, and then un-selecting or dropping the one or more selected vehicle at the placed position.
Once the user has finished placing vehicles in the convoy, the configuration of first convoy 120 may be determined to be complete such that first convoy 120 may travel in the complete configuration to carry the cargo along at least one roadway. The convoy planning tool may determine the configuration of the convoy is complete based on input from the user.
Alternatively, convoy planning tool 100 could automatically or algorithmically determine the configuration of first convoy 120 is complete, based, at least in part, on several configuration completeness variables, such as the convoy requirements, the number and types of available vehicles, and the route to be traveled. In another alternative, convoy planning tool 100 determines that the configuration of first convoy 120 is complete using a combination of user input and algorithmic determination. For example, convoy planning tool 100 may provide a pictorial, textual, and/or audio notification to the user that the configuration of first convoy 120 meets the convoy requirements and, then, the user may provide input to convoy planning tool 100 that the configuration of the first convoy 120 is complete. Once the configuration of first convoy 120 is complete, the complete configuration of first convoy 120 may be displayed to the user of convoy planning tool 100.
It may be desired that the user travel with first convoy 120. To allow the user to travel with the convoy, the convoy planning tool 100 may be provided on a portable computing device 170. Both portable and stationary computing devices 170 frequently permit communication using one or more communications interfaces 192, particularly to communicate between portable computing devices. A user may use the communication between portable computing devices to keep the convoy organized en route by voice and/or data communication with drivers and subordinate commanders or planners equipped with their own portable computing devices. A portable computing device frequently is used to connect to voice and/or data networks with the one or more communications interfaces 192. Portable computing devices may search for information on data networks, such as the Internet, and then to provide that information to other personnel in the convoy. An exemplary method for providing en route communications for a convoy is by use of a configuration aware packet routing method. An exemplary configuration aware packet method is described in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 11/613,749, 11/613,700, and 11/612,730. The three aforementioned patent applications are incorporated by reference herein.
Convoy requirements and selections 230 may be depicted by convoy planning tool 200. Convoy selections may be depicted as summary values that require algorithmic or other calculation before display, such as tonnage capacity total 231, tonnage difference 233, total number of vehicles 235, estimated fuel usage 237, number of serials 238, number of march units 239, and hazardous materials indicator 241. Convoy requirements and selections may include convoy requirements, such as tonnage to haul 232, estimated time of arrival (ETA) 234, estimated mileage 236, and start time 240. Depending on specific convoy requirements and selections, such as routes or types of vehicles, certain indicators may reflect selections made the user of convoy planning tool 200, convoy requirements, or both selections made by the user and requirements, such as ETA 234, estimated mileage 236, number of serials 238, number of march units 239, or hazardous materials indicator 241.
Convoy selections and requirements 230 may indicate information about the vehicles selected to be in second convoy 220, such as tonnage capability total 231, total number of vehicles 235, and hazardous materials indicator 241. Convoy selections and requirements 230 may indicate information about the route, such as estimated mileage 235. Convoy selections and requirements 230 may indicate information that combines information about the vehicles and the route, such as ETA 234 and estimated fuel usage 237.
Convoy selections and requirements 230 may be provided to convoy planning tool 200 through one or more convoy requirements databases. Convoy requirements may be stored in the convoy requirements database in one or more convoy requirements records. The discussion above about possible choices of database interfaces, structures, and providers for the available vehicle database applies as well to the one or convoy requirements databases. Convoy selections and requirements 230 may be determined based, wholly or in part, on one or more inputs by the user of convoy planning tool 200. Convoy planning tool 200 may provide one or more convoy requirements input views to allow the user to input one or more convoy requirements, such as route information, cargo information, and ETA, among others. In another embodiment of the invention, convoy requirements may be provided to convoy planning tool 200 by one or more convoy requirements servers sending one or more convoy requirements to convoy planning tool 200.
The pool of available vehicles may be shown in a vehicle corral 250. The vehicle corral 250 may indicate an individual vehicle or a class of vehicles, such as “Refrig (small)” class 253. Vehicle corral 250 may also indicate the available number of a class of vehicles, such as the “1 of 7 left” for flatbed haulers 255. While only textual depictions of classes of vehicles are shown in
The pool of available drivers may be shown in a bullpen 260. The bullpen may include lists of available drivers based on driver qualifications. The user of convoy planning tool 200 may be able to select portions of driver list 268 to be presented using one or more driver qualifications buttons, such as the qualification to drive tankers button 261, 80k cargo vehicle driving qualification button 263, hazardous material handling qualification button 265, and flatbed qualification button 267. For example, by selecting hazardous material handling qualification button 265 using selection device 145, driver list 268 is shown with five drivers having hazardous material handling qualifications. Alternatively, hazardous material handling qualification button 265 may be selected by the user using a keyboard, a keypad, a touch screen, or by other types of selection devices. Driver list 268 may include a total number of drivers available and/or may include individual names of drivers. As shown in
Tactical command 270 may be indicated on convoy planning tool 200. Tactical command 270 may allow viewing of the serial lead identifier of second convoy 220 when the user of convoy planning tool 200 selects the serial lead identifier button 272 using selection device 145. Similarly, tactical command 270 may allow viewing of the serial configuration, the march unit configuration, or command and control of second convoy 220 when the user selects a tactical command button, such as serial configuration button 274, march unit button 276, or command and control button 278, respectively. The tactical command buttons may be selected using selection device 145 or by a keyboard, keypad, a touch screen, or by other types of selection devices. Tactical command 270 may change the depiction of one or more tactical command buttons depending on the view the user of convoy planning tool 200 has selected.
Convoy planning tool 200 may also provide other information to the user. As shown in
Upon selection of selected vehicle 320, additional information 330 may be displayed. Additional information 330 may include vehicle information 340, such as vehicle identifier and vehicle type as shown in
Additional information 330 may include cargo information 350 such as cargo identifier, cargo size, cargo type, cargo value, hazardousness information about the cargo, taxation information, date/time information, source/destination information, as well as other cargo information and attributes. Cargo identifier may be identified using the same identifiers and technologies described above as used for vehicle identifiers.
Additional information 330 may include driver information 360, including a driver identifier, driver qualifications/permits, amount of driver rest, and other driver information and attributes. The driver identifier may include a name or names of the driver, social security numbers, drivers license numbers, group of numeric, alphabetic, or alphanumeric characters, or any other suitable identifier for a driver. Additional information 330 may come from one or more driver records stored in a driver database. The driver database may use the database interfaces, structures, and providers discussed above for the available vehicle database and the convoy requirements database. Note that the available vehicle database, the convoy requirements database, and the driver database may be combined into a convoy planning database. Additional information 330 may also include vehicle communication information 370, shown in
Convoy template 400 may take aspects of the convoy configuration into account, such as the size of the convoy.
Convoy template 430 may be created based on input from one or more artificial intelligence systems. An artificial intelligence system may be part of convoy planning tool 100 or may communicate with convoy planning tool 100 through one or more convoy planning intelligence interfaces. Advice 435 that “communication may be required” may be from one or more artificial intelligence systems, such as an expert system, case based reasoning system or other such artificial intelligence system. The one or more artificial intelligence systems may operate on information gathered from a variety of sources, alone or in combination, including but not limited to debriefings from previous convoys, intelligence estimates, military and/or commercial reports and orders, and searches of the Internet and/or other computer networks, The one or more artificial intelligence systems may provide advice 435 about other topics, such as route conditions, vehicle capabilities, driver capabilities, and cargo handling, among others. Advice 435 may also be provided to a user of convoy planning tool 100 separately from convoy template 400, such as in an advice window.
Route 500 may have one or more sources or starting points. As shown in
Different types of points along route 500 may be indicated using different colors, shades, and/or patterns for the different types of points. As shown in
Communications attributes 620 may include vehicle information, communications information, and personnel information, as well as other types of information. As shown in
Communication information shown in
Personnel information shown in
As with the points along the route, the real-time position of a convoy may be shown both textually and pictorially.
As fifth convoy 800 reaches various points along route 500, one or more vehicles of fifth convoy 800 may communicate with central planning entity 830 using data, voice, or both data and voice communications. While central planning entity 830 is shown as being accessible at checkpoint 530, it is to be understood that central planning entity may be accessible at other points along route 500. The data and voice communications may provided, wholly or in part, by the aforementioned configuration aware packet routing method or as part of convoy planning tool 100. Data communications may include use of a wireless or wired wide-area network, a Wi-Fi or other short-range network, or other such data communications networks. The data communications may include one or more World Wide Web (WWW) web pages, web portals, electronic mail, file transfer protocol, or other such data communications methods or protocols. Voice communications may use wired and/or wireless telephone networks, voice over IP (VoIP) networks, or other voice communications networks.
Central planning entity 830 may provide information about various types of convoy-related information, including changes in the route, en route cargo deliveries, changes in delivery times, amount of cargo to be delivered to one or more destinations, weather conditions, addition or removal of vehicles from fifth convoy 800, and the like. The occupants of the one or more vehicles in fifth convoy 800 may also communicate convoy-related information to central planning entity 830, such as en route conditions, updated delivery, vehicle, driver, and/or occupant status information, or the like.
For purposes of this embodiment of convoy planning tool 100, a user role is defined by values of a set of user role assignments.
As shown in
Assignment values may be binary (e.g. yes/no or on/off) in nature and/or may permit a range of values. For example, the configuration convoy assignment 922 is a binary value shown with Yes or No values in
At block 1020, convoy planning tool 100 finds available vehicles and displays the available vehicles to the user, such as in vehicle corral 250. Convoy planning tool 100 may find the available vehicles from a user entering information about the available vehicles into the convoy planning tool, from the available vehicle database, a combination of user entry and the available vehicle database, or from some other source or combination of sources. The available vehicles are displayed to the user in pictorial form, textual form, or a combination of text and pictures. Available vehicles may be displayed individually or grouped by vehicle type, such as a group of refrigerator trucks. Additional information, such as maintenance information, may be displayed with the available vehicles.
At block 1030, convoy planning tool 100 finds available drivers and displays the available drivers to the user, such as in bullpen 260. The convoy planning tool may find the available drivers from a user entering information about the available drivers into the convoy planning tool, from the driver database, a combination of user entry and the driver database, or from some other source or combination of sources. The available drivers are displayed to the user in pictorial form, textual form or a combination of text and pictures. Additional information, such as driver licensing information, may be displayed with the available drivers.
At block 1040, the user of convoy planning tool 100 selects one or more available vehicles and drivers. The user may select an available vehicle and/or an available driver using a computer mouse operation such as selecting or clicking on a depiction of an available vehicle or an available driver, by keystrokes on a keyboard or keypad, by use of a touch screen or touch pad, or by another equivalent selection device. The user of convoy planning tool 100 may associate one or more selected drivers with one or more available vehicles as well, by using the computer mouse to drag or move the depiction of an available driver to the depiction an available vehicle and then dropping or unselecting the depiction of an available driver onto the depiction of the available vehicle. Preferably, convoy planning tool 100 ensures available drivers and available vehicles are associated one-to-one. Alternatively, the user may associate one or more selected drivers with one or more available vehicles by keystrokes on a keyboard or keypad, by use of a touch screen or touch pad, or by another equivalent selection device. Further, the association of available vehicles and available drivers may be done as part of blocks 1020 and/or 1030, obviating the need for the user of convoy planning tool 100 to associate drivers and vehicles.
At block 1050, the user of convoy planning tool 100 orders the one or more available vehicles within a convoy, to create a convoy configuration. The user may order the vehicles by using the computer mouse to select or click on depictions of one or more available vehicles, dragging or moving the depictions of the one or more available vehicles to a position within a depiction of the convoy, and dropping or unselecting the depictions of the one or more available vehicles at the position in the depiction of the convoy. Alternatively, the user may order the vehicles by keystrokes on a keyboard or keypad, by use of a touch screen or touch pad, or by another equivalent selection device.
At block 1060, convoy planning tool 100 determines if the convoy is completely configured. Convoy planning tool 100 may determine that the convoy is completely configured based on input from the user, algorithmically, a combination of user input and algorithmically, by external signals, or by other means. If convoy planning tool 100 determines that the convoy is completely configured, convoy planning tool displays the completed convoy configuration in block 1070. Alternatively, if convoy planning tool 100 determines that the convoy is not completely configured, convoy planning tool 100 returns to block 1020 and begins processing from that point.
The term “convoy”, as used herein, is not limited to military convoys. Instead, a convoy may refer to any fleet of vehicles in a commercial or non-commercial setting, such as fleets of commercial trucks or a fleet of school buses.
While certain features and embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail herein, it is to be understood that the invention encompasses all modifications and enhancements within the scope and spirit of the following claims.