Methods and systems for operating a vehicle subject to a travel restriction

A method of operating a vehicle carrying material from a loading area to a discharge area and returning to the loading area, comprising:

• defining a normal operating condition for the vehicle;
• establishing at least one performance parameter for the vehicle under the normal operating condition;
• measuring the at least one performance parameter during vehicle operation;
• determining when the vehicle operation is subject to a travel restriction;
• when the vehicle operation is not subject to the travel restriction:
• comparing the at least one measured performance parameter during vehicle operation with the at least one established performance parameter for the vehicle under the normal operating condition;
• and
• changing future vehicle operation based on said comparing;
• and
• when the vehicle operation is subject to the travel restriction:
• continuing to operate the vehicle without performing said comparing.

A system for determining when a vehicle is subject to a travel restriction, comprising:

• a speed sensor operatively associated with the vehicle and producing an output signal related to a speed of the vehicle;
• a state sensor operatively associated with the vehicle, the state sensor producing an output signal related to a state of the vehicle;
• a control system operatively associated with said speed sensor and said state sensor, said control system being responsive to the output signals produced by said speed sensor and said state sensor, said control system:
• determining, based on the output signal from said state sensor, when the vehicle is traveling in the unloaded state;
• determining, based on the output signal from said speed sensor, the speed of the vehicle when the vehicle is traveling in the unloaded state to produce an actual travel empty speed of the vehicle;
• comparing the actual travel empty speed with an historical travel empty speed for the vehicle;
• and
• determining that the vehicle operation is subject to the travel restriction when the actual travel empty speed is less than a predetermined percentile of the historical travel empty speed;
• and
• a user interface operatively associated with said control system, said user interface providing a user-discernable indication of whether the vehicle operation is subject to the travel restriction.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that, when executed by at least one computer processor cause the computer processor to:

• determine when the vehicle is traveling in an unloaded state;
• determine a speed of the vehicle when the vehicle is traveling in the unloaded state to produce an actual travel empty speed;
• compare the actual travel empty speed with an historical travel empty speed for the vehicle;
• determine that the vehicle operation is subject to the travel restriction when the actual travel empty speed of the vehicle is less than a predetermined percentile of the historical travel empty speed for the vehicle;
• and
• generate an output signal that is indicative of whether the vehicle operation is subject to the travel restriction.