Back to results
US 2002/0120394 A1Published application
Fleet position monitoring system
OwnerMark W. Rayneinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Loading patent…
Loading patent…
OwnerMark W. Rayneinventor
Estimating the term…
A system which allows a central control unit to track automatically the positions of a fleet of mobile units. Each mobile unit carries a position updating apparatus which includes means to determine its position, and processing means in the form of computing equipment in communication with the position determining means. The processing means in turn controls a transmitting means, such as a radio transmitter of the private mobile radio system that the mobile unit uses for communication, for transmitting information to the central control. The position determining means and processing means are arranged to send the latest position of the mobile unit to the central control at intervals. The processing means stores a number of rules for determining the interval between the transmission of position update messages to the central control. These rules are based upon the direction of travel of the mobile unit and other factors, such as its location.
A method of monitoring the position of a mobile unit, comprising the steps of said mobile unit determining its position, determining its direction of travel, and transmitting information relating to its position to a central unit at intervals, wherein the interval between successive position transmissions is selected in accordance with the direction of travel of the mobile unit.
A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the position transmission interval selection is made from a set of two or more predetermined position update intervals on the basis of one or more predetermined selection criteria or rules.
A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims comprising selecting a default update interval until the mobile unit moves in a given direction in which case a new interval is selected.
A method of monitoring the position of a mobile unit, comprising:
A method of selectively monitoring the position of a mobile unit, comprising:
A method of monitoring the position of a mobile unit comprising;
A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims comprising transmitting position update information from the mobile unit to a or the central unit at regular spatial intervals.
A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims comprising determining the absolute position of said mobile unit.
A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims comprising determining the position of the mobile unit at sufficiently regular intervals that the mobile unit will not move more than a predetermined minimum aspatial resolution between determinations.
A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims comprising transmitting from the mobile unit to a or the central unit information relating to the velocity of the mobile unit.
A method as claimed in any preceding claim comprising monitoring the position of a plurality of mobile units.
A position updating apparatus, comprising:
An apparatus for monitoring the position of a mobile unit, comprising:
An apparatus for selectively monitoring the position of a mobile unit, comprising:
An apparatus for monitoring the position of a mobile unit, comprising:
A method of monitoring the position of a mobile unit substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
An apparatus for monitoring the position of a mobile unit substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.