Marking apparatus configured to detect out-of-tolerance conditions in connection with underground facility marking operations, and associated methods and systems
AssigneeCertusView Technologies, LLC
InventorsSteven Nielsen, Curtis Chambers, Jeffrey Farr
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods, apparatus, and systems for facilitating a marking operation to indicate a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility. Marking information, including one or both of environmental information representative of at least one environmental condition of an environment in which the marking operation is located, and operating information representative of at least one operating condition of a marking device used to perform the marking operation, is received and compared to a target value or a range of values to determine if an out-of-tolerance condition exists.
Claims73
A marking apparatus for performing a marking operation to indicate a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility, the marking apparatus comprising:
- a housing;
- a holder configured to hold to the housing at least one marking dispenser containing a marking material;
- at least one actuator configured to actuate the marking dispenser to dispense the marking material;
- an input device to provide an output signal;
- a memory to store processor-executable instructions, and a target value or range of values;
- and
- at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the input device to receive the output signal from the input device wherein, upon execution of the processor-executable instructions, the processor:
- A) compares the output signal to the target value or the range of values to determine if an out-of-tolerance condition is indicated by the output signal.
A method for facilitating a marking operation to indicate a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility, the method comprising:
- A) electronically receiving marking information including at least one of:
- environmental information representative of at least one environmental condition of an environment in which the marking operation is located;
- and
- operating information representative of at least one operating condition of a marking device used to perform the marking operation;
- B) comparing the marking information to a target value or a range of values to determine if an out-of-tolerance condition exists.
At least one computer readable storage medium storing processor-executable instructions which, when executed by at least one processor, perform a method for facilitating a marking operation to indicate a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility, the method comprising:
- A) electronically receiving marking information including at least one of:
- environmental information representative of at least one environmental condition of an environment in which the marking operation is located;
- and
- operational information representative of at least one operating condition of a marking device used to perform the marking operation;
- B) comparing the marking information to a target value or a range of values to determine if an out-of-tolerance condition exists.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.