JP4152835B2 - Gas station theft monitoring system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a system for monitoring theft of fuel oil at a gas station.

  Conventionally, an oil level gauge has been provided to know the remaining tank capacity for each underground tank that stores fuel oil (for example, Patent Documents 1 to 3).

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 03-111300 (FIG. 1, pages 1 to 9) JP 03-021825 (FIG. 1, pages 1-6) JP 2001-249045 (FIG. 1, pages 1-3)

In recent years, the oil level gauge is connected to a POS system and used for inventory management and the like. At the time of inventory management, the tank level is transmitted from the oil level gauge in response to a request from POS, and the total amount of POS refueling data is compared with the tank level.
However, even if there is a discrepancy between the total amount of POS refueling data and the remaining amount of tank due to theft such as oil withdrawal, it is detected only at the time of such inventory management, so it is not useful for identifying the cause.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a gas station theft monitoring system capable of monitoring the theft of fuel oil.

  The present invention relates to a theft monitoring system for a fueling station that monitors theft of fuel oil from an underground tank that stores fuel oil, and controls the fuel oil supply by a fueling device that pumps fuel oil from the underground tank and supplies the fuel oil. A refueling control device, a remaining amount monitoring device that knows the remaining amount of fuel oil in the underground tank based on a signal from an oil level detector installed for each underground tank, and a refueling amount from the refueling control device And a POS terminal that manages the sales and inventory of the gas station, and the refueling control device, the monitoring device, and the POS terminal can communicate with each other via a LAN. The fuel oil theft can be monitored on the basis of the refueling situation obtained by intercepting communication between the POS terminal and the refueling control device and the change in the remaining amount of fuel oil.

  In the present invention, it is possible to easily monitor theft by simply changing the software of the existing system.

  In the present invention, for example, theft can be monitored as follows.

In the first aspect of the present invention, when it is determined that there is an underground tank that is not supplying fuel oil as a result of intercepting communication between the POS terminal and the fuel supply control device, the fuel oil in the underground tank is determined. When the amount of decrease per unit time is larger than a predetermined threshold value, it is determined that the theft has occurred.

  When the remaining amount of fuel oil decreases during a short period of time during non-operation (non-business hours) when fuel is not being supplied, it can be determined that the theft is not a leak from the tank. In this case, it is preferable to set another threshold for tank leakage so that tank leakage can be distinguished from theft.

In the second aspect of the present invention, when it is determined that there is an underground tank supplying fuel oil as a result of intercepting communication between the POS terminal and the fuel supply control device, The amount of decrease in the remaining amount per unit time is calculated by excluding the amount of oil supply from the start to the end of refueling, and when the amount of decrease is greater than the predetermined threshold value, it is determined that the theft has occurred.

  According to this embodiment, theft can be monitored even during refueling.

In the third aspect of the present invention , when it is determined that there is an underground tank supplying fuel oil as a result of intercepting communication between the POS terminal and the fuel supply control device, refueling is completed for the underground tank. Judgment whether or not the theft was based on the change of the remaining amount later.

  According to this aspect, there is no possibility that the decrease in the remaining amount of fuel oil due to refueling during fueling is erroneously determined as theft.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
1 to 5 show a first embodiment.
As shown in FIG. 1, one or a plurality of fueling devices Ui are installed on the ground of the fueling station, and an underground tank Li for storing fuel oil is buried in the basement of the fueling station. On the other hand, a remaining amount monitoring device 4 for knowing the remaining amount of fuel oil in the underground tank Li and a POS terminal 5 are provided inside the filling station.

  A plurality of underground tanks Li are buried for each oil type in the basement of the gas station, and are connected to a plurality of fueling devices Ui provided on the ground. Each underground tank Li and refueling device Ui are connected to a plurality of supply pipes (not shown) for each oil type. For the sake of simplification of explanation, in the following explanation, one underground tank is used. Only Li and the fueling device Ui will be described as an example.

Refueling device Ui:
The fueling device Ui pumps up the fuel oil in the underground tank Li and supplies the fuel oil, and is provided with a fueling control device 7 for controlling the fueling of the fuel oil by the fueling device Ui. The fuel supply control device 7 includes a flow meter (not shown) for counting the amount of fuel oil pumped from the fuel supply device Ui, that is, the amount of fuel supply. The fuel supply control device 7 outputs the amount of fuel pumped up by the flow meter to the POS terminal 5.

Underground tank Li:
In the underground tank Li, an oil level detector 6 is provided for each underground tank Li. The oil level detector 6 detects the level (oil level) of the fuel oil in the underground tank Li, and outputs an oil level signal obtained by the measurement to the monitoring device 4. The monitoring device 4 calculates the remaining amount of fuel oil in the underground tank Li based on the oil level signal, and transmits the remaining amount to the POS terminal 5. Although various mechanisms can be considered as the oil level detector 6, for example, a measuring device using a float described in JP-A-7-63595 can be used.

POS terminal 5:
The POS terminal 5 is a terminal of a comprehensive operating system (POS system) of the retail business, and manages the sales and inventory of the gas station by inputting the amount of fuel supplied from the fuel supply control device 7 and the remaining amount from the monitoring device 4. .
In the case of a company that owns multiple gas stations, a wider network has been established so that management information from the POS main unit installed at each gas station can be centralized and managed on the head office computer. May be. As such a POS system, a system disclosed in JP-A-6-255699 can be employed.

Connection configuration of each device:
The oil supply control device 7, the monitoring device 4 and the POS terminal 5 are connected to each other via a communication line by a LAN (Local Area Network). For example, the industry standard SS-LAN system is adopted as the LAN communication specification.
In the SS-LAN system, all devices are connected to the same communication line, and communication contents to a specific device are also transmitted to all devices. By ignoring the communication content, stable communication is realized. Therefore, all communication contents including the refueling permission message from the POS terminal 5 to the predetermined refueling control device 7, the refueling end message from the refueling control device 7 to the POS terminal 5, and the refueling status such as the refueling amount are transmitted to all the devices. It is sent to.

Monitoring device 4:
As described above, the monitoring device 4 has a function of monitoring the theft and leakage of fuel oil in addition to the function of calculating the remaining amount of fuel oil in the underground tank Li.
Here, in the SS-LAN system, since the communication content of each device in the LAN is transmitted to all devices, the monitoring device 4 can intercept the communication content between the POS terminal 5 and the fuel supply control device 7. Is possible. The monitoring device 4 determines whether or not the fuel oil has been stolen and leaked based on the fuel supply situation obtained by intercepting the communication and the remaining amount of fuel oil as follows.

Theft discrimination;
FIG. 4 shows the temporal transition of the remaining amount of fuel oil in the underground tank Li.
For example, as shown in FIG. 4 (a), when no fuel oil is pumped up from any fuel supply device Ui and theft starts, the fuel oil in the underground tank Li suddenly appears. Decrease. Therefore, the theft determination can be performed using, for example, the following equation (I).
Qi-1−Qi = ΔQ1 (I)
However, Qi: Remaining amount measured at time Ti Qi-1: Remaining amount measured at time Ti-1 before time Ti As an interval between times Ti-1 and Ti at which the remaining amount is measured, For example, it is preferable to set the time to about 30 seconds.

  Therefore, the POS terminal 5 does not give any fueling permission to any fueling control device 7 (not sending a fueling permission message), and the amount of fuel oil per unit time in the underground tank Li (hereinafter referred to as “refueling permission message”) If ΔQ1 (referred to as “first decrease amount”) is larger than a predetermined theft threshold value Qsh1, it can be determined that the theft has occurred.

Leakage detection;
On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 4 (b), if no fuel oil is allowed to be pumped up from any fuel supply device Ui and the fuel oil leaks from the underground tank Li, it takes a long time. The remaining amount of fuel oil gradually decreases. Therefore, leakage discrimination can be performed using, for example, the following equation (II).
Qi-j−Qi = ΔQ2 (II)
However, Qi: remaining amount measured at time Ti Qi-j: remaining amount measured at time Ti-j (Ti-j is earlier than Ti-1)
The interval between the times Ti-j and Ti for measuring the remaining amount used for leakage determination is preferably set to about 10 minutes to 1 hour, for example.

  Therefore, the POS terminal 5 does not give any fueling control device 7 a fueling permission, and a reduction amount per unit time for a long time (hereinafter referred to as “second reduction amount”) ΔQ2 is a predetermined leakage threshold. If it is greater than Qsh2, it can be determined that there is a leak.

Equipment configuration of the monitoring device 4:
As shown in FIG. 2, the monitoring device 4 includes a microcomputer 40. When the microcomputer 40 receives a remaining amount request from the POS terminal 5 at the time of inventory management or the like, the microcomputer 40 transmits the remaining amount of fuel oil in each underground tank Li to the POS terminal 5. On the other hand, the microcomputer 40 calculates the remaining amount of each underground tank Li every predetermined time, and monitors theft and leakage.

The microcomputer 40 includes a CPU 41, a memory 42 and a timer 43. The memory 42 includes a remaining amount storage unit 42a, an abnormality history storage unit 42b, and the like, and stores a theft threshold value Qsh1, a leakage threshold value Qsh2, and the like in advance.
As shown in FIG. 3A, the remaining amount storage unit 42a stores the remaining amount and the time at which the remaining amount was intercepted for each underground tank No. in association with each other.
As shown in FIG. 3B, the abnormality history storage unit 42b sequentially stores the time, tank number, remaining amount, and previous remaining amount determined as theft or leakage.
For example, an alarm device 44 including a buzzer is connected to the microcomputer 40 via an interface (not shown).

Monitoring method:
Next, a fuel oil monitoring method in the present system will be described based on the flowchart of FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5, when the present system is started, the monitoring device 4 starts intercepting all communication contents in the LAN and proceeds to step S0.
In step S0, the CPU 41 determines whether or not a predetermined time (for example, 30 seconds) has elapsed based on the time measurement signal from the timer 43. If the predetermined time has been exceeded, the timing is restarted from 0 and the process proceeds to step S1. On the other hand, if the predetermined time has not elapsed, the time is kept and the process proceeds to step S3. Note that the CPU 41 starts timing from 0 only for the first time, and proceeds to step S3.

In step S1, the CPU 41 of the monitoring device 4 calculates the remaining amount of fuel oil in the underground tank Li based on the oil level signal from the oil level detector 6, and proceeds to step S2.
In step S2, the CPU 41 associates the remaining amount detected from the timer 43 with the time when the remaining amount is detected and the tank number, and stores them in the remaining amount storage unit 42a. Note that the storage content of the remaining amount storage unit 42a is rewritten to a new value in order from the oldest value, and a value of a plurality of times is always stored recently.

  In step S3, it is determined whether or not a refueling permission message has been transmitted from the POS terminal 5 to the refueling control device 7 among the refueling situations known by the monitoring device 4 intercepting communication between the POS terminal 5 and the refueling control device 7. I do. When the monitoring device 4 does not receive the refueling permission message, that is, when it is determined that the fuel oil is not being refueled, the process proceeds to step S4. On the other hand, when an oil supply permission message is intercepted, the process proceeds to step S11.

Processing during non-operation;
In step S4, the CPU 41 reads out the remaining amounts corresponding to the current measurement time Ti and the previous measurement time Ti-1 in the underground tank Li from the remaining amount storage unit 42a shown in FIG. Based on the equation, the first reduction amount ΔQ1 is calculated, and the process proceeds to step S5.
In step S5, it is determined whether or not the theft has occurred. The CPU 41 reads the theft threshold value Qsh1 from the memory 42, and compares the first decrease amount ΔQ1 with the theft threshold value Qsh1. If the first decrease amount ΔQ1 exceeds the theft threshold value Qsh1, it is determined that the theft has occurred and the process proceeds to step S6. On the other hand, when the first decrease amount ΔQ1 is equal to or smaller than the theft threshold value Qsh1, the process proceeds to step S7.

  In step S6, the CPU 41 causes the abnormality history storage unit 42b shown in FIG. 3 (b) to store the date and time Ti, the tank No. Li, the remaining amount, and the first reduction amount ΔQ1 at the time of the current measurement in association with each other. Then, the buzzer of the alarm device 44 is sounded to issue an alarm, and the process returns to step S0.

In step S7, the CPU 41 reads from the remaining amount storage unit 42a the remaining amount at the current measurement time Ti in the underground tank Li and the remaining amount corresponding to the time Ti-j a predetermined time before, based on the above-mentioned equation (II). The second reduction amount ΔQ2 is calculated, and the process proceeds to step S8.
In step S8, it is determined whether or not there is a leak. The CPU 41 reads the leakage threshold value Qsh2 from the memory 42, and compares the second decrease amount ΔQ2 with the leakage threshold value Qsh2. If the second decrease amount ΔQ2 exceeds the leakage threshold value Qsh2, it is determined as leakage and the process proceeds to step S6. On the other hand, when the second reduction amount ΔQ2 is equal to or less than the leakage threshold value Qsh2, the process returns to step S0.
In step S6, the CPU 41 causes the abnormality history storage unit 42b to store the second reduction amount ΔQ2 in association with the date and time Ti at the current measurement, the tank No. Li, and the remaining amount.

As described above, when the remaining amount of fuel oil decreases during a short period of time when the engine is not being refueled (during non-business hours), it can be determined that the theft is not a leak from the tank. On the other hand, if the fuel oil has decreased for a relatively long time, it can be determined that there is a leak from the tank. If it is determined that the theft or leakage has occurred, the date and time of the underground tank Li are stored in the abnormality history storage unit 42b together with the remaining number, the remaining amount and the decrease amount.
Therefore, in the case of theft, it is possible to specify the date and time of illegal refueling, the amount stolen (decrease amount), and the like. In addition, since the date and time when the theft occurred can be specified, how the theft was performed by examining the record of the state of the POS terminal corresponding to the date and time (for example, the power of the POS terminal 5 is turned off at the time of the theft) Or whether the POS terminal 5 is set in a non-interlocking state and the refueling amount is not recorded).

  Here, the threshold values Qsh1 and Qsh2 need to be set in advance with a margin in consideration of the accuracy of the oil level detector 6 and the volume change due to the temperature of the fuel oil. However, in the case of theft determination, the remaining amount is measured at a relatively short interval, so that the change in the volume of the fuel oil with time is extremely small. Therefore, it is possible to accurately determine theft by obtaining an accurate remaining amount.

  In addition, this system uses an existing remaining amount monitoring device for knowing the remaining amount of fuel oil to monitor theft, so there is no need to provide a separate monitoring device, and software for existing systems can be installed. It is possible to easily monitor the theft simply by changing.

Processing during refueling;
In step S11, when the monitoring device 4 intercepts the communication between the POS terminal 5 and the refueling control device 7 and knows the refueling situation, when the refueling end message is transmitted from the refueling control device 7 to the POS terminal 5, Proceed to step S12.
In step S12, the monitoring device 4 intercepts the fueling amount transmitted from the fueling control device 7 to the POS terminal 5 together with the fueling end message, and proceeds to step S13.
In step S13, the CPU 41 reads a past remaining amount related to the underground tank Li from the remaining amount storage unit 42a, calculates a remaining amount obtained by subtracting the fuel amount from each remaining amount (hereinafter referred to as “subtracted remaining amount”), Proceed to step S14.
In step S14, the past remaining amount in the remaining amount storage unit 42a is erased, the subtracted remaining amount is stored, and the process returns to step S0. That is, the past remaining amount is rewritten to the subtracted remaining amount obtained by subtracting the fueling from the remaining amount. This is to prevent erroneous determination of leakage in the leakage determination.

After that, if it is determined in step S3 that the device is not operating, the processing after step S4 is executed to determine theft and leakage.
Here, in step S14, the remaining amount storage unit 42a stores a subtracted remaining amount obtained by subtracting the amount of fuel supplied. Therefore, in the theft and leakage determination, the remaining amount reduction amounts ΔQ1 and ΔQ2 per unit time excluding the amount of fuel supplied from the start of fueling to the end of fueling are used. Therefore, by comparing the decrease amounts ΔQ1 and ΔQ2 with the predetermined threshold values Qsh1 and Qsh2, it is possible to determine theft or leakage in any case including during refueling.

  The monitoring device 4 is preferably driven by a power source different from the POS terminal 5 so that the monitoring device 4 does not stop in conjunction with the POS terminal 5 even if the power source of the POS terminal 5 is set to OFF. . This is because the POS terminal 5 may be stopped so that the fuel oil theft record is not recorded in the POS terminal.

  In addition to monitoring theft, the monitoring device 4 can also be used as a total tank remaining amount management device by calculating the amount of unloading based on the remaining amount of fuel oil in the underground tank Li. is there.

In the first embodiment described above, only when a theft or leakage occurs, the abnormality history storage unit 42b is stored. However, the date, remaining amount, decrease amount, etc. are sequentially stored for each underground tank Li. You may make it make it.
Further, the alarm device 44 is not necessarily provided. Further, in the event of theft or leakage, the matter may be automatically notified to the administrator through a telephone line or the like.

FIG. 6 shows a second embodiment.
Steps S21 and S22 in FIG. 6 indicate processing during refueling, and correspond to steps S11 to S14 in the first embodiment described above. In step S3 (FIG. 5), when the monitoring device 4 intercepts a fueling permission message from the POS terminal 5 to the fueling control device 7, the process proceeds to step S21.

In step S21, it is determined whether or not the monitoring device 4 has intercepted a refueling end message from the refueling control device 7 to the POS terminal 5. If the refueling end message has been intercepted, the process proceeds to step S22.
In step S22, all the stored contents of the remaining amount storage unit 42a corresponding to the underground tank Li are erased (0 cleared), and the process returns to step S0.
Other configurations are the same as those of the first embodiment, and detailed description and illustration thereof are omitted.

  As described above, in this second embodiment, when it is determined that there is an underground tank Li supplying fuel oil, the remaining amount before refueling in the underground tank Li is deleted, and a new value detected after refueling is detected. Monitor based on Therefore, since it is determined whether or not the theft is based only on the change in the remaining amount after the end of refueling, there is no possibility that the decrease in the remaining amount of fuel oil due to refueling is erroneously determined as theft.

  The present invention can be used in a gas station system equipped with a POS system.

1 is a schematic layout diagram of a gas station system showing a first embodiment of the present invention. It is a schematic block diagram which shows a monitoring apparatus and an oil level detector. It is a graph which shows the memory content of a memory. It is a graph showing the change of the residual amount at the time of theft and leakage. It is a flowchart which shows the monitoring method. It is a flowchart of the monitoring method which shows Example 2 of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

4: Monitoring device 5: POS terminal 6: Oil level detector 7: Refueling control device Li: Underground tank Qsh1: Theft threshold Ui: Refueling device ΔQ1: First reduction amount

Claims (6)

A fuel station theft monitoring system for monitoring theft of fuel oil from underground tanks storing fuel oil,
A fuel supply control device that controls fuel oil supply by a fuel supply device that pumps fuel oil from an underground tank and supplies the fuel oil;
A remaining amount monitoring device that knows the remaining amount of fuel oil in the underground tank based on a signal from an oil level detector installed for each underground tank;
A POS terminal for managing the sales and inventory of the gas station, with the information on the amount of oil supplied from the fuel supply control device and the remaining amount from the monitoring device as inputs,
The oil supply control device, the monitoring device and the POS terminal can communicate with each other via a LAN,
Based on the refueling situation obtained by intercepting communication between the POS terminal and the refueling control device and the change in the remaining amount of fuel oil, the monitoring device can monitor the theft of fuel oil ,
As a result of intercepting communication between the POS terminal and the refueling control device, when it is determined that there is an underground tank that is not refueling fuel oil, the reduction amount per unit time of the fuel oil in the underground tank is predetermined. A theft monitoring system at a gas station where it is determined that the theft is greater than the threshold. Oite to claim 1,
As a result of intercepting communication between the POS terminal and the refueling control device, if it is determined that there is an underground tank that is refueling, the amount of refueling between the start of refueling and the end of refueling for the underground tank A theft monitoring system for a gas station where the amount of decrease in the remaining amount per unit time is calculated except for, and when the amount of decrease is greater than the predetermined threshold, it is determined that the theft is stolen. Oite to claim 1,
As a result of intercepting communication between the POS terminal and the refueling control device, when it is determined that there is an underground tank that is refueling, the underground tank is based on a change in the remaining amount after refueling is completed. A gas station theft monitoring system that determines whether or not it is stolen. A fuel station theft monitoring system for monitoring theft of fuel oil from underground tanks storing fuel oil,
A fuel supply control device that controls fuel oil supply by a fuel supply device that pumps fuel oil from an underground tank and supplies the fuel oil;
A remaining amount monitoring device that knows the remaining amount of fuel oil in the underground tank based on a signal from an oil level detector installed for each underground tank;
A POS terminal for managing the sales and inventory of the gas station, with the information on the amount of oil supplied from the fuel supply control device and the remaining amount from the monitoring device as inputs,
The oil supply control device, the monitoring device and the POS terminal can communicate with each other via a LAN,
Based on the refueling situation obtained by intercepting communication between the POS terminal and the refueling control device and the change in the remaining amount of fuel oil, the monitoring device can monitor the theft of fuel oil ,
As a result of intercepting communication between the POS terminal and the refueling control device, if it is determined that there is an underground tank that is refueling, the amount of refueling between the start of refueling and the end of refueling for the underground tank A theft monitoring system for a gas station where the amount of decrease in the remaining amount per unit time is calculated except for, and when the amount of decrease is greater than the predetermined threshold, it is determined that the theft is stolen. A fuel station theft monitoring system for monitoring theft of fuel oil from underground tanks storing fuel oil,
A fuel supply control device that controls fuel oil supply by a fuel supply device that pumps fuel oil from an underground tank and supplies the fuel oil;
A remaining amount monitoring device that knows the remaining amount of fuel oil in the underground tank based on a signal from an oil level detector installed for each underground tank;
A POS terminal for managing the sales and inventory of the gas station, with the information on the amount of oil supplied from the fuel supply control device and the remaining amount from the monitoring device as inputs,
The oil supply control device, the monitoring device and the POS terminal can communicate with each other via a LAN,
Based on the refueling situation obtained by intercepting communication between the POS terminal and the refueling control device and the change in the remaining amount of fuel oil, the monitoring device can monitor the theft of fuel oil ,
As a result of intercepting communication between the POS terminal and the refueling control device, when it is determined that there is an underground tank that is refueling, the underground tank is based on a change in the remaining amount after refueling is completed. A gas station theft monitoring system that determines whether or not it is stolen. In any one of Claims 1-5 ,
A gas station theft monitoring system that stores a history of the remaining amount of the underground tank when it is determined that the theft has occurred.

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