Methods and apparatus to detect loads lost from vehicles during transit
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsKeith Weston, Eliza Rose Bifano, David Michael Russell
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and apparatus to identify loads lost from vehicles are disclosed. An example apparatus to identify a load lost from a vehicle includes at least one memory, machine readable instructions, and processor circuitry to at least one of instantiate or execute the machine readable instructions to determine a first load carried by the vehicle at a first time, determine a second load carried by the vehicle at a second time after the first time, identify a lost load occurrence in response to a load difference between the first load and the second load satisfying a lost load threshold, and generate an alert indicative of the lost load occurrence.
Claims18
An apparatus to identify a load lost from a vehicle, the apparatus comprising:
- at least one memory;
- machine readable instructions;
- and
- processor circuitry to at least one of instantiate or execute the machine readable instructions to:
- determine a first load carried by the vehicle at a first time;
- determine a second load carried by the vehicle at a second time after the first time;
- define a lost load threshold as a percentage of a weight of the vehicle;
- identify a lost load occurrence in response to a load difference between the first load and the second load satisfying the lost load threshold;
- and
- generate an alert indicative of the lost load occurrence.
A vehicle comprising:
- at least one of pressure sensors associated with a suspension assembly or ride height sensors;
- and
- processor circuitry to execute instructions to:
- determine a first load carried by the vehicle at a first time based on first signals from at least one of the pressure sensors or the ride height sensors;
- determine, in response to gross body motion data associated with the vehicle being within a predetermined gross body motion data range, a second load carried by the vehicle at a second time later than the first time based on second signals from at least one of the pressure sensors or the ride height sensors;
- and
- cause a lost load alert to be presented to an operator of the vehicle in response to the second load being less than the first load by at least a lost load threshold.
A method comprising:
- determining a difference in a load carried by a first vehicle at a first time and a second time;
- detecting a lost load occurrence associated with the first vehicle in response to the difference satisfying a threshold;
- causing a lost load alert to be presented in the first vehicle;
- determining an area traversed by the first vehicle between the first time and the second time;
- flagging the traversed area as a lost load location;
- causing transmission of the lost load alert to a second vehicle via vehicle-to-vehicle communication, the second vehicle is within a threshold proximity of the first vehicle;
- and
- adjusting the lost load location based on a signal from the second vehicle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.