# US 2021/0241377 A1 · Vehicle Supply Chain Damage Tracking System > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2021/0241377 A1 - Document ID: US20210241377A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 17/167,039 - Filed: 2021-02-03 - Published: 2021-08-05 - Earliest claimed: 2020-02-05 - Assignees: Fulpruf Technology Corporation - Applicants: Fulpruf Technology Corporation - Inventors: Richard T. Megherby; Tyler Crain; Aleksander V. Tropp; Michael T. McClure; Emily S. Yale; Domenico Marco Di Donna - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20210241377A1 ## CPC - G06Q 40/08: Insurance - B25J 9/1664: {characterised by motion, path, trajectory planning} - B25J 19/023: {including video camera means} - G06Q 10/08: Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management - G06T 7/0008: {checking presence/absence} - G06T 7/001: {using an image reference approach} - G06V 10/10: Image acquisition (document image scanning and transmission H04N1/00; control of digital cameras H04N23/60) - G06V 20/17: taken from planes or by drones - G06V 20/20: in augmented reality scenes - B64U 10/60: Tethered aircraft - B64U 20/87: Mounting of imaging devices, e.g. mounting of gimbals - B64U 50/19: using electrically powered motors - B64U 50/30: Supply or distribution of electrical power - B64U 2101/30: for imaging, photography or videography - B64U 2201/202: using tethers for connecting to ground station - G05B 2219/45066: Inspection robot - G06T 2207/10016: Video; Image sequence - G06T 2207/30136: Metal - G06T 2207/30156: Vehicle coating - G06T 2207/30164: Workpiece; Machine component - G06T 2207/30252: Vehicle exterior; Vicinity of vehicle - G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR - B25J: MANIPULATORS; CHAMBERS PROVIDED WITH MANIPULATION DEVICES ({manipulators specially adapted for use in surgery A61B34/70; manipulators used in cleaning hollow articles B08B9/04}; manipulators associated with rolling mills B21B39/20; manipulators associated with forging machines B21J13/10; {manipulators associated with picking-up and placing mechanisms B23P19/007}; means for holding wheels or parts thereof B60B30/00; {vehicles with ground-engaging propulsion means, e.g. walking members B62D57/02, B62D57/032; devices for picking-up and depositing articles or materials between conveyors B65G47/90, B65G47/91; manipulators with gripping or holding means for transferring packages B65H67/065}; cranes B66C; {manipulators used in the protection or supervision of pipe-line installations F17D5/00; walking equipment adapted for nuclear steam-generators F22B37/006}; manipulators specially adapted for, or associated with, nuclear reactors G21C; {apparatus used for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor H10P72/50}) - G06T: IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL - G06V: IMAGE OR VIDEO RECOGNITION OR UNDERSTANDING - B64U: UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES [UAV]; EQUIPMENT THEREFOR - G05B: CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS (systems for controlling or regulating non-electric variables G05D; systems for regulating electric or magnetic variables G05F; control devices or systems insofar as characterised by mechanical features only G05G) ## Abstract A system for capturing VIN numbers and vehicles images to track vehicle damage through vehicle supply chains which includes a mobile software application and/or robot(s) which moves autonomously around parking lots. The mobile application can direct the user to capture VIN images and/or vehicle images from certain views and collect GPS positions of the same and the robot includes various cameras and sensors to identify vehicles and take pictures of them. All of the captured images of vehicles are sent to a central server/storage where the vehicle images can be checked for damage as compared to locations so that it can be determined who was in possession of the vehicle when damage occurred. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A system for autonomous scanning of vehicle VIN numbers comprising: a robot comprising a camera and a controller with software executing thereon which identifies a vehicle positioned in a frame of the camera, the software controlling movement of the robot to position the camera in a location where a VIN number is expected to be visible from an exterior of a vehicle; said software, moves the camera to position the VIN number within a frame of the camera and captures the VIN number. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1 wherein said software identifies the vehicle positioned in the frame of the camera by recognizing at least one identifying feature of the vehicle and matching the at least one identifying feature to at least one known vehicle identifying feature from a database of known vehicle identifying features to determine the location where the VIN number is expected to be visible based on an expected VIN location associated with the known vehicle identifying features as compared with a position of the at least one identifying feature; and wherein said software moves the robot to or adjacent the location where the VIN number is expected to be visible as determined by the software. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The system of claim 2 wherein the database of known vehicle identifying features is on a storage on the robot. ### Claim 4 (depends on 2) The system of claim 2 wherein the matching further includes selecting from known vehicle identifying features which are associated only with at least one make of vehicle within a group of a plurality of vehicles for the robot to capture a plurality of images of. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1 further comprising: said software determining if the VIN number was captured and communicating over a network with a computer having a data store, the data store containing a plurality of VIN numbers wherein the VIN number captured with the first image is matched with at least one of the plurality of VIN numbers in the data store; wherein said software captures a plurality of images of the vehicle around a periphery of the vehicle and associates said plurality of images, in a data store, with a vehicle record associated with the VIN number. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1 further comprising: said software capturing a first image and determining if the VIN number was captured and communicating over a network with a computer having a data store, the data store containing a plurality of VIN numbers wherein the VIN number captured with the first image is matched with at least one of the plurality of VIN numbers in the data store; wherein said software captures a plurality of images of the vehicle around a periphery of the vehicle and associates said plurality of images, in a data store, with a vehicle record associated with the VIN number. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The system of claim 6 wherein if the software determines that the VIN number was not captured, said software identifies one or more impediments to capture of the VIN number based on the image and moves the camera to a different position to capture a new first image used for determining if the VIN number was captured. ### Claim 8 (depends on 6) The system of claim 6 wherein the software determines if the VIN number was captured by performing ocular character recognition on the image and comparing to and expected makeup of VIN numbers to determine if the VIN number captures is complete prior to matching the captured VIN number to the at least one of the plurality of VIN numbers in the data store. ### Claim 9 (depends on 6) The system of claim 6 wherein the software directs the robot to capture the plurality of images for a plurality of the vehicles within a defined geographical space; the robot includes a global positioning system (GPS) receiver and the captured VIN number and/or the images are associated with one or more locations based on the GPS receiver; the software positions the robot to a next position based on identifying a next vehicle of the plurality of vehicles such that a location of the next vehicle is a different location than all previous locations of the captured VIN numbers and/or the images. ### Claim 10 (depends on 9) The system of claim 9 wherein the robot receives instructions via the network which identify previous locations that other robots have captured VIN numbers and/or the images at. ### Claim 11 (depends on 9) The system of claim 9 wherein the robot captures images of more than one of the plurality of vehicles at one or more of the one or more locations and associates those images with different ones of the captured VIN numbers. ### Claim 12 (depends on 6) The system of claim 6 wherein the electrical connection is further associated with a semi rigid support structure comprising a plurality of linkages which fold and unfold from within the first body. ### Claim 13 (depends on 6) The system of claim 6 wherein the camera is mounted on a gimbal on a drone which is tethered to the portion of the robot which includes a source of electrical potential which powers the drone. ### Claim 14 (depends on 6) The system of claim 6 wherein the robot includes a drone tethered to a first body of the robot and the first body includes a cradle wider than the drone such that a maximum width of the drone is less than a width of the first body, the width of the drone and first body measured perpendicular to an axis of rotation of one or more propellers of the drone when positioned in the cradle. ### Claim 15 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1 wherein the robot further comprises: a first body comprising one or more motors which are configured to propel the body over a surface and a source of stored electrical potential; a second body comprising a camera and one or more air thrusters which are configured to propel the second body in air; an electrical connection between the first and second body wherein the source of electrical potential powers the one or more air thrusters via the electrical connection; wherein the second body is configured to be mounted on the first body in a first configuration having a maximum height over the surface less than 12 inches. wherein the electrical connection is configured to extend to at least three times the maximum height over the surface; a maximum combined thrust of the one or more air thrusters is half or less than a weight of the robot; the software executing on the controller controls movement of the one or more motors and activation of the one or more thrusters and image capture by the camera to position the first body so that the second body can be moved apart from the first body by the air thrusters in order to capture the plurality of images of each of the plurality of vehicles and to capture the VIN number of each vehicle wherein a maximum image capture height for each of the plurality of images is less than 12 times the maximum height over the surface; a network connection device on the first body and configured to transmit the plurality of images taken by the camera to a remote computer via a network, the plurality of images each associated with the vehicle record based on the VIN number further associated with a location as determined by a global positioning system (GPS) receiver of the robot. ### Claim 16 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1 wherein the camera comprises a plurality of cameras, one of which identifies the vehicle positioned in the frame and a second of which captures the VIN number and/or images of the vehicle. ### Claim 17 (depends on 15) The system of claim 15 wherein the source of stored electrical potential is at least 1.5 times the weight of the second body not including the electrical connection to the first body. ### Claim 18 (depends on 1) The system of claim 1 wherein the robot comprises a plurality of robots and the system further comprising: for each robot, said commands generated by the software based on identifying one of the plurality of vehicles in proximity to each robot and said commands determined based on a location of that one of the plurality of vehicles as compared to previous locations of others of the plurality of vehicles for which images have already been captured by that robot and said commands further based on data received via the networking hardware indicating locations of others of the plurality of the vehicles that others of the plurality of robots have already captured images of such that the commands direct each robot to a location that the robot and others of the plurality of robots have not yet captured. ### Claim 19 (depends on 10) The system of claim 10 wherein at least one of the previous locations is associated with a heading indicative of a direction in which the camera was pointed to capture an image associated with that previous location, the heading determined by a direction indicated by a heading reference system on the robot as compared to a position of the camera in rotation relative to that heading. ### Claim 20 An autonomous image capture robot comprising: a first body comprising one or more motors which are configured to propel the body over a surface and a source of stored electrical potential; a second body comprising the camera and one or more air thrusters which are configured to propel the second body in air; an electrical connection between the first and second body wherein the source of electrical potential powers the one or more air thrusters via the electrical connection; wherein the second body is configured to be mounted on the first body in a first configuration having a maximum height over the surface less than 12 inches. wherein the electrical connection is configured to extend to at least three times the maximum height over the surface; a maximum combined thrust of the one or more air thrusters is half or less than a weight of the robot; the software executing on the controller controls movement of the one or more motors and activation of the one or more thrusters and image capture by the camera to position the first body so that the second body can be moved apart from the first body by the air thrusters in order to capture a plurality of images of each of a plurality of vehicles and to capture a VIN number of each vehicle wherein a maximum image capture height for each of the plurality of images is less than 12 times the maximum height over the surface; a network connection device on the first body and configured to transmit images taken by the camera to a remote computer via a network, the images each associated with a VIN number and a location as determined by a global positioning system of the robot. ### Claim 21 (depends on 20) The system of claim 20 wherein the source of stored electrical potential is at least 1.5 times the weight of the second body not including the electrical connection to the first body. ### Claim 22 (depends on 20) The robot of claim 20 further comprising: a heading reference system on the second body which is configured to measure a magnetic heading; the camera on the second body rotates about an axis and each of the images further associated with a heading determined by a comparison of the magnetic heading to a rotational position of the camera about the axis, the heading indicative of a direction in which the camera was pointed when capturing each of the images. ### Claim 23 (depends on 20) At least two robots according to claim 20 wherein the network connection device allows the two robots to communicate with each other to transmit and receive VIN numbers captured and locations of images captured. ### Claim 24 A system of autonomous capture of images of a plurality of vehicles comprising: a plurality of robots each having: one or more motors to move the robot over a surface, a camera, a controller with software executing thereon, networking hardware for communication over a network and a global positioning system (GPS) receiver; said controller controlling movement via the one or more motors based on commands from the software; for each robot, said commands generated by the software based on identifying one of the plurality of vehicles in proximity to each robot and said commands determined based on a location of that one of the plurality of vehicles as compared to previous locations of others of the plurality of vehicles for which images have already been captured by that robot and said commands further based on data received via the networking hardware indicating locations of others of the plurality of the vehicles that others of the plurality of robots have already captured images of such that the commands direct each robot to a location that the robot and others of the plurality of robots have not yet captured. ### Claim 25 (depends on 24) The system of claim 24 wherein each robot further comprises: a first body comprising the one or more motors and a source of stored electrical potential; a second body comprising a camera and one or more air thrusters which are configured to propel the second body in air; an electrical connection between the first and second body wherein the source of electrical potential powers the one or more air thrusters via the electrical connection; wherein the second body is configured to be mounted on the first body in a first configuration having a maximum height over the surface less than 12 inches. wherein the electrical connection is configured to extend to at least three times the maximum height over the surface; a maximum combined thrust of the one or more air thrusters is half or less than a weight of the robot; the software executing on the controller controls movement of the one or more motors and activation of the one or more thrusters and image capture by the camera to position the first body so that the second body can be moved apart from the first body by the air thrusters in order to capture the plurality of images of each of the plurality of vehicles and to capture the VIN number of each vehicle wherein a maximum image capture height for each of the plurality of images is less than 12 times the maximum height over the surface; the network connection hardware on the first body and configured to transmit the plurality of images taken by the camera to a remote computer via a network using the networking hardware, the plurality of images each associated with the vehicle record based on the VIN number further associated with a location as determined by the GPS receiver of the robot. ### Claim 26 (depends on 24) The robot of claim 24 further comprising: a heading reference system on the robot which is configured to measure a magnetic heading; the camera rotates about an axis and each of the images further associated with a heading determined by a comparison of the magnetic heading to a rotational position of the camera about the axis so that the location of each image already captured indicates the corresponding heading.