Fleet management efficiency visualization

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10794747-B2
Application number	US-201715793493-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 25, 2017
Priority date	Oct 25, 2017
Publication date	Oct 6, 2020
Grant date	Oct 6, 2020

Abstract

A powertrain controller of a vehicle provides a fuel pump actuator signal indicative of fuel flow to a vehicle bus. A processor is configured to receive data from the vehicle bus. The processor performs an integration of the actuator signal to accumulate fuel usage of the vehicle, and periodically sends the accumulated fuel usage, vehicle speed, engine speed, engine status, and vehicle location to a remote server. A subset of accumulated fuel usage is retrieved for a set of the vehicles of a fleet traversing a route during a timeframe, the accumulated fuel usage compiled from fuel pump actuator signals. Fuel waste is computed for identified idle time periods within the accumulated fuel usage. Monetary waste is computed from the fuel waste. A report is generated including the monetary waste.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a remote server;
a powertrain controller of a vehicle configured to provide a fuel pump actuator signal indicative of fuel flow to a vehicle bus; and
a processor of the vehicle configured to receive data from the vehicle bus, programmed to
perform an integration of the actuator signal to accumulate fuel usage of the vehicle, and
periodically send the accumulated fuel usage, vehicle speed, engine speed, engine status, and vehicle location to the remote server;

a memory of the remote server storing accumulated fuel usage for vehicles of a fleet compiled from fuel pump actuator signals, each of the vehicles including a powertrain controller configured to provide a respective fuel pump actuator signal indicative of fuel flow within the respective vehicle, and a processor programmed to perform an integration of the actuator signal to accumulate fuel usage of the vehicle, and periodically send the accumulated fuel usage, vehicle speed, engine speed, engine status, and vehicle location to a server, the fleet including the vehicle; and
a processor of the remote server programmed to
retrieve a subset of accumulated fuel usage for a set of the vehicles traversing a route during a timeframe,
compute fuel waste for identified idle time periods within the accumulated fuel usage,
compute monetary waste from the fuel waste, and
generate a report including the monetary waste.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the fuel pump actuator signal is a pulse-width modulated (PWM) signal generated by the powertrain controller to drive a fuel pump.

3. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a global position controller configured to provide information indicative of the vehicle location to the vehicle bus, wherein the processor is programmed to retrieve the vehicle location from the vehicle bus.

4. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a data port configured to provide access to the vehicle bus, wherein the processor is included in a dongle connected to the data port.

5. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a telematics controller in communication with the vehicle bus, wherein the processor is included in the telematics controller.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the engine status indicates whether the engine is on or off.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor of the remote server is further programmed to:
compute an average monetary waste for the vehicles traversing the route during the timeframe, and
include the average monetary waste in the report.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor of the remote server is further programmed to include, in the report for each vehicle in the set of the vehicles, a graphical representation sized in proportion to an amount of the monetary waste identified for the respective vehicle, with an indication of the average monetary waste placed at a location along the graphical representation to indicate the waste of an average vehicle.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor of the remote server is further programmed to periodically receive the accumulated fuel usage data from the vehicles in the set of the vehicles.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the monetary waste is computed according to a local fuel cost for an area of operation of the fleet.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor of the remote server is further programmed to, responsive to receipt of a selection to expand data for one of the vehicles in the set of the vehicles, expand the data for the vehicle to show details for each traversal of the route performed by the vehicle within the timeframe.

12. A method comprising:
providing, by a powertrain controller of a vehicle, a fuel pump actuator signal indicative of fuel flow to a vehicle bus;
receiving data from the vehicle bus by a processor of the vehicle;
performing an integration of the actuator signal to accumulate fuel usage of the vehicle;
periodically sending the accumulated fuel usage, vehicle speed, engine speed, engine status, and vehicle location to a remote server;
retrieving, by the remote server, a subset of accumulated fuel usage for a set of vehicles of a fleet traversing a route during a timeframe, the fleet including the vehicle, the accumulated fuel usage compiled from fuel pump actuator signals indicative of fuel flow within the set of vehicles, each of the vehicles including a powertrain controller configured to provide a respective fuel pump actuator signal indicative of fuel flow within the respective vehicle, and a processor programmed to perform an integration of the actuator signal to accumulate fuel usage of the vehicle, and periodically send the accumulated fuel usage, vehicle speed, engine speed, engine status, and vehicle location to the remote server;
computing fuel waste for identified idle time periods within the accumulated fuel usage;
computing monetary waste from the fuel waste; and
generating a report including the monetary waste.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising
computing an average monetary waste for the vehicles traversing the route during the timeframe, and
including the average monetary waste in the report.

14. The method of claim 12 , further comprising including, in the report for each vehicle in the set of the vehicles, a graphical representation sized in proportion to an amount of the monetary waste identified for the respective vehicle, with an indication of the average monetary waste placed at a location along the graphical representation to indicate the waste of an average vehicle.

15. The method of claim 12 , further comprising periodically receiving the accumulated fuel usage data from the vehicles in the set of the vehicles.

16. The method of claim 12 , further comprising computing the monetary waste according to a local fuel cost for an area of operation of the fleet.

17. The method of claim 12 , further comprising, responsive to receipt of a selection to expand data for one of the vehicles in the set of the vehicles, expanding the data for the vehicle to show details for each traversal of the route performed by the vehicle within the timeframe.

18. The method of claim 12 , further comprising sending the report over a communications network to a display device for viewing.

Assignees

• Ford Motor Co

Inventors

• Hofmann Brian
• Schmotzer John William
• Gordon Richard
• Salman Darcy

Classifications

• G06T11/26

  Drawing of charts or graphs · CPC title

• G01F9/008 Primary

  where the other variable is the flight or running time · CPC title

• G01F15/068

  with electrical means (G01F15/063 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06T11/206

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06Q50/30

  Physics · mapped topic