MXPA99008479A - Method of and system for determining a route or travel by a vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

A system and method for determining a route of travel and associated mileage of a vehicle is disclosed. The system records a vehicle's location and odometer reading, transmitted via satellite to a fixed station (40). The location data is provided to a processor which determines an estimated route of travel by the vehicle using a routing program (44). The estimated route is comprised of a plurality of position segments, each position segment having a corresponding mileage and average expected speed. The route of travel may be checked for accuracy by comparing the estimated route mileage to the odometer mileage (50). If a significant difference is found, a diagnostic procedure is performed (52, 58) which attempts to correct the mismatch by evaluating alternate routes of travel. Once the route of travel has been determined, the mileage travelled by the vehicle can be accurately determined and used for various computations. For example, state-imposed fuel taxes may be accurately calculated from the mileage information.

Description

SYSTEM AND METHOD TO DETERMINE A TRAVEL ROUTE TRAVELED BY A VEHICLE I BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 5 I. Field of the Invention The present invention relates in general to a method and to a system for determining a travel route traveled by a user. vehicle. More specifically, the invention relates to electronic systems for estimating the travel routes taken by a vehicle and the mileage and distance associated with this route, without the need for manual intervention by an operator. of the vehicle.

II. Description of Related Art It is recognized by many people dedicated to the area of mobile vehicles the need for tracking the movement of vehicles or their activity in different jurisdictions and, in particular, determining the miles or kilometers traveled by a vehicle within a particular jurisdiction. In particular, in the truck industry For commercial purposes this information is needed in order to determine the amount of fuel and the payment of taxes for roads that must be paid to a state or another jurisdiction previously defined.

P1558 / 99MX The motorcycle fuel tax and road fees to be paid to each jurisdiction depend on the number of miles or kilometers traveled by road, within that jurisdiction and the amount of fuel purchased within that jurisdiction. . The methods to report taxes on fuels in the truck industry today are still quite inefficient and extremely costly. Most companies invest large amounts of money in resources to determine their use of roads, to calculate fuel taxes and to comply with the requirements of making reports to the state. The evaluation of additional taxes, interest charges and fines can make the lack of compliance extremely costly. The cargo is in the individual truck companies that must comply with the regulations and keep a detailed record to substantiate their report. To date, mileage or mileage information has been provided to the domestic base of the trucking company by the truck drivers themselves. Most freight companies have relied on travel records, driver records and fuel purchase receipts / bulk storage records for P1558 / 99MX make the fuel tax reports. These items are subsequently reviewed and then entered by the office staff as the basis for the fuel tax reports. The determination of the tax payable in each jurisdiction normally involves the calculation of average miles per gallon for the entire fleet, calculating the total miles traveled in each state for the vehicle or vehicles under consideration and the amount of fuel purchased in each state for which the vehicle traveled. From this, an estimate of the fuel consumed in each state is made and then compared with the actual purchases of fuel in order to determine the tax payable or to be credited. Another method to determine the miles spent within a specific jurisdiction involves presenting to a route packet of my liaje the origin, destination, stops and different additional points of the vehicle (ie stops for fuel, places of advance payment for cash), in order to obtain the "most practical route" of travel and then report it as the route actually traveled. Freight companies that use this method usually suffer the imposition of additional taxes since other documents allow the auditor to dispute the actual route traveled.

P1558 / 99MX Another method for determining the state level requires read-write transponders at predetermined locations along the vehicle's travel routes. For example, the transpodendores can be located in each state border, and detect or send a signal of the crossing of the state borders by the vehicles, allowing at this moment the determination of the mi in relation to the reading of the odometer of the vehicle at the moment of the crossing. The main obstacles to widespread acceptance of this method are its cost and privacy issues. Another known method for the determination of my jurisdictional liaison is based on satellite communications to convey the position of the vehicle, the time in which that position was determined and the odometer number in a fixed station where it was processed to determine the position of the vehicle. my li that was scanned in each jurisdiction. An example of this method is described in International Publication No. WO 96/36018 entitled "METHOD AND DEVICE FOR DETERMINING TAXES OF A VEHICLE" published on November 14, 1996 and assigned to Highwaymas ter Communica ions of Dallas, Texas. This same disclosure was filed as United States Patent Application No. 08 / 437,404 filed May 9, 1995. To date, none of these patents has been granted. The main P1558 / 99MX The problem with this method is that it requires odometer readings that have to be transmitted along with each position of the vehicle. This can be very expensive when using satellite communications due to the costs that are incurred in proportion to the length of the data message. The transmission of the odometer readings with each transmission of vehicle position results in substantially higher costs to truck companies, especially to companies that have very large vehicle fleets. Another known method for determining state mileage involves determining and recording the mileage traveled by a vehicle within a particular state using a GPS receiver, an odometer, a memory device containing state latitude / longitude information and a processor to determine continuously whether the positional information received by the GPS receiver corresponds to being within a particular state boundary, and record the mileage of the truck when the comparison of position and state boundary determines that a change has occurred at the state borders. An example of this system is set forth in U.S. Patent No. 5,359,528 entitled "SYSTEM TO DETERMINE EXACTLY THE MILES TRAVELED BY" A VEHICLE WITHIN A STATE, WITHOUT HUMAN INTERVENTION " P1558 / 99 X granted on October 25, 1994 and assigned to Rockwell International Corporation. The data output that includes the desired mileage within a particular state is stored in the vehicle in a storage device. This method requires additional effort and expense to remove the information from the storage device on board the vehicle and upload it to a computer system of the freight company. An additional problem with this method is that the information is not immediately available for a multiplicity of vehicles, for example for the entire fleet, and the information is not easily available in a single central location, where it would be more useful for them to drive it. depending on the need, specific people such as the fleet manager. An additional problem with this method is that it requires continuous location monitoring with GPS receivers and the processing unit in order to determine as closely as possible the exact time and mileage of the odometer when the vehicle crosses a state boundary.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention aims to provide an improved system and method for estimating the travel routes of a vehicle and the miles associated therewith, without intervention P1S58 / 99MX manual of a vehicle operator. Fuel taxes can be calculated from the route information or a database can be generated that tracks the miles traveled by a fleet of vehicles. The invention provides a method for determining the travel route of a vehicle, comprising the steps of: determining the location of the vehicle in a first predetermined event; provide a dater corresponding to each location of the vehicle and a vehicle identification number to a fixed station when the vehicle position determination is made; transmitting at least two odometer readings from the vehicle to the fixed station at a second predetermined event; estimate a vehicle travel route using a route determining program; validate the vehicle route using at least two odometer readings. The invention also provides a system for determining a travel route of a vehicle, the vehicle has a mobile communication terminal for transmitting an MCT number, odometer readings and text messages to a fixed station, the system comprising: mobile communications to transmit the odometer readings and text messages to the fixed station; means for determining the location of the vehicle for calculating a plurality of vehicle locations and a P1558 / 99 X corresponding dater for each location; a storage device for storing vehicle locations, daters, vehicle identification numbers and odometer mileage transmitted from the vehicle; and a processor to determine the travel route of the vehicle, in order to determine a total of miles traveled by the vehicle along the route and to correct the travel route using the odometer mileage. The invention further provides a system for determining information pertinent to the movement of a vehicle, the system comprising: a receiver for eventually receiving data sets, where each represents distance information produced by a vehicle and data identifying the position of the vehicle, and a processor for processing the received position data in order to estimate a route covered by the vehicle and to validate the estimated route by comparison with the distance information received and the time information. A feature of one embodiment of the present invention is to include a satellite-based system for determining vehicle locations and providing location data and a dater to a fixed station for processing. In addition, the actual odometer readings provided by the odometer or cube tachometer, P1558 / 99MX they are transmitted to the fixed station to be used as an aid to retinal the estimated miles traveled in a specific jurisdiction. The frequency at which the odometer readings are transmitted in general depends on considerations of transmission costs. Therefore, a feature of the present invention is to accurately calculate the jurisdictional mileage regardless of the frequency of the odometer transmissions. The embodiment of the present invention can provide location information at predetermined time intervals, for example at one hour intervals, to a fixed station. The location of the vehicle can be achieved using a variety of methods to determine vehicle position, for example the LORAN-C or Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) methods. In the preferred embodiment, the position data is calculated by the fixed station using a dual satellite navigation system as set forth in U.S. Patent No. 5,017,926, entitled "METHOD AND DUAL SATELLITE NAVIGATION SYSTEM" issued on May 21, 1991 and assigned to the assignee of the present invention, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. A dater or the date and time when the location information is taken, are also recorded at the fixed station. Readings P1558 / 99MX odometer / cube tachometer are not transmitted during the hour position reports. In contrast, the odometer / cube tachometer readings are transmitted at the time other events occur, for example when a vehicle operator initiates a text message from the vehicle to the fixed station. The fixed station records the vehicle location, dater data, and odometer / tachometer readings as they are transmitted by the vehicle. A plurality of vehicles in a fleet can be monitored simultaneously. The fixed station contains a processor and a memory device that stores every information transmitted from the vehicle. The position information is verified first to determine its validity, and then it is provided in sequence to a route determining program, which returns an estimate of the route traveled by the vehicle. The estimated route is presented as a series of segments with a corresponding mileage or mileage and an expected average speed associated with each segment. The miles associated with each segment are added to determine the total distance traveled. The roadmap program contains a database that identifies state borders and other jurisdictional information, for example the presence of fee roads. When the program P1558 / 99MX The route identifier identifies that it has crossed a border in a position segment, the miles are assigned to each jurisdiction based on the locations of the vehicle just before and just after crossing the border. The position of the border crossing is inserted as if it were a position in the data set. In addition, the dater information for the crossing of the border can be estimated through the interpolation of the daters in the position data transmitted by the vehicle. In this way, the route determining program can usually provide a good estimate of the miles traveled within each identified jurisdiction. An even more accurate estimate of the route traveled by a vehicle is obtained by comparing the estimated miles as provided by the route determiner program with the actual odometer / cube tachometer readings transmitted from the vehicle, if available. The estimated miles traveled differ from the actual miles traveled, by a predetermined amount, the estimated route is reviewed to determine if the vehicle traveled by a route different from the one originally estimated and / or to identify segments in which the apparent average speed of the vehicle is significantly different from the average speed expected in each segment. Mileage can P1558 / 99MX assigned or unassigned to the suspect segments and in this way to the appropriate jurisdiction. Resulting in an accurate determination of the miles traveled in each jurisdiction. As just described, the system works well even using odometer / log readings from the cube tachometer. It may be undesirable to make more frequent readings of the odometer / cube tachometer due to the costs involved in transmitting the information in a satellite communication system. Additionally, some communication systems are limited by their message sending protocols in terms of the amount of data that can be sent within a single message packet. In these systems, an additional data packet must be transmitted to communicate the odometer / cube tachometer information to the fixed station. By providing the odometer / bucket tachometer information on a low frequency basis, costs are kept to a minimum without compromising the accuracy of the mileage determination.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The features, objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description set forth below for an embodiment of the present invention.

P1558 / 99MX invention, when taken in conjunction with the drawings in which the reference numbers are used consistently and where: Figure 1 is an illustration of a vehicle in communication with a fixed station; Figure 2 is an illustration of an exemplary embodiment of a system of the present invention that includes the components necessary to store, process and report the miles traveled by a vehicle within predetermined jurisdictional boundaries; Figures 3a and 3b are a flow diagram illustrating the process for determining and validating the routes; Figure 4 is an illustration of a map showing the position locations and odometer / tachometer readings of a vehicle traveling on it. along a highly jurisdictional route; Figure 5 is an illustration of a detailed map showing how the routes are estimated and how the position segments are determined; Figure 6 is an illustration of the estimated route traveled, as determined by a route determination program.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED MODALITIES I. Overview The method of route determination and P1558 / 99MX The distance embodied in the present invention is best illustrated in the context of a land based mobile unit, typically a vehicle of the commercial truck industry. It should be understood that the present invention can be used, however, in any application where it is desired to make exact mileage determinations within specific jurisdictional limits. The components required for the determination of the route and distance are illustrated in Figure 1. A flow chart illustrating the method of route determination and mileage assignment is shown in Figures 3a and 3b. A fixed station or communications center 2 in Figure 1 is able to establish communication with the data satellite 4 and the position satellite 6 the fixed station 2 communicates via satellite with the vehicle 8 which in this case is a truck vehicle commercial that has a mobile communications terminal (MCT-Mobile Communications Terminal) mounted in the cab or tractor of the vehicle, which is not shown. The mobile communications terminal is capable of transmitting and receiving respectively communication signals to and from the data satellite 4 and receiving communication signals from the position satellite 6. It is well known in the art that vehicle locations can be determined via satellite, for example through trilateration to P1558 / 99MX Starting from a dual satellite navigation system, as set forth in U.S. Patent No. 5,017,926 entitled "DUAL SATELLITE NAVIGATION SYSTEM AND METHOD" (the "AMES" patent) assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated herein as reference. The position data and a corresponding dater are calculated in the fixed station 2, while other information, for example ignition of the vehicle, vehicle identification and odometer information are transmitted at different times by the vehicle 8 to the fixed station 2 and they are stored for later use. When it is desired to determine the route taken by the vehicle, this data is recovered and it is first evaluated to determine errors using a series of validation checks. After the data has been validated, it is provided to a route determining program that uses the position data to produce an estimated route by which the vehicle has traveled. The estimated route is comprised of a series of position segments, each position segment has a mileage and an estimated speed associated with it. The process of determining the mileage can be done in a fixed station 2 or it can be done in a remote location, for example a dispatcher center, shown in Figure 1 as dispatcher center 10.

P1558 / 99MX Position segments returned by the route determination program are verified to determine obvious errors by a second set of validation tests. Once these tests have been successfully completed, the mileage traveled by the vehicle in each jurisdiction can be calculated by adding the mileage of the position segment in each jurisdiction. The route determination program contains a database that stores the location of jurisdictional boundaries, allowing the route determination program to allocate miles proportionally between adjacent jurisdictions, if desired. The estimated travel route for the vehicle and provided by the particular route program can be verified as to its accuracy by comparing it with the odometer mileage of the vehicle, when two or more odometer readings were transmitted by vehicle 8 throughout of the route. The route traveled by the vehicle 8 between two odometer transmissions is called an odometer segment, which is comprised of one or more position segments. The position segments are defined as the route traveled between two reported vehicle locations, transmitted at least once in each predetermined time interval. In the exemplary mode, the time interval P1558 / 99 X default is one hour. If a mileage deviation is not found 'significant between the actual miles elapsed according to what was reported by the odometer of the vehicle and estimated route miles as calculated by the route determining program, the estimated travel route is considered correct and the mileage assigned to each jurisdiction is considered highly accurate. , 10 If there is a significant mileage discrepancy between the odometer mileage and the estimated route mileage within an odometer segment, alternative travel routes are examined to see if the difference in mileage can be reduced or eliminated.

If this mileage discrepancy is not resolved by an alternate route, tests are performed on each position segment to identify suspicious segments that indicate either abnormally high apparent vehicle speeds or abnormally casualties. Then the identified position segments are analyzed to determine in which segments the mileage difference can be assigned. After the mileage difference has been assigned to the suspect position segments, the The resulting mileage within the odometer segment is checked again against the actual odometer mileage and if there is still a significant difference, the user is encouraged to manually assign the P1558 / 99MX differences in mileage.

II. Generation of Data As shown in Figure 3a, the data generation step 40 is performed and provides the basis on which the route and mileage estimates are to be achieved. In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention the location of the vehicle 8 is determined by the method set forth in the AMES patent and is calculated by the fixed station 2 at predetermined time intervals. In the emply ficative mode, the position data is determined once per hour. It should be understood that any of a variety of position determination methods can be used, for example that of the Global Positioning System (GPS). The location can be expressed according to any system of fixed coordinates to ground, for example, latitude and longitude. The location information - as well as the date or date and time information of the location - are captured and stored in a memory device located in the fixed station 2. In addition, for each position determination, an identification number is transmitted of vehicle by vehicle 8 that uniquely identifies each vehicle in the system. The vehicle identification number can be any number that uniquely identifies the vehicle. By P1558 / 99 X example, the vehicle identification number may be the actual vehicle registration number stamped on the vehicle or it may be a terminal serial number of the mobile communication associated with the particular vehicle. In the modality ej emplif icativa, the identification number of the vehicle is the serial number MCT. Due to cost and system capacity constraints, position data is collected only once per hour in the exemplary mode. However, position data can be obtained more frequently, for example when a text message is transmitted by a vehicle 8. Text messages can include pre-formatted messages that are sent by vehicle operators to communicate predefined messages to the station fixed 2. For example, a formatted text message may be sent by a driver immediately after delivering a load and may include a previously defined data field that identifies the operator, at his current location, at the time of unloading the load and / or to another type of information of interest. By transmitting the data in a formatted text message, a minimum amount of data is sent to the fixed station 2, thus reducing the length of the data message and, thus, the transmission costs. In the system for determining the position of the vehicle P1558 / 99MX set out in the AMES patent, the position of the vehicle is determined during the transmission of any text message, preformatted or not preformatted, since the vehicle positions are calculated based on the time differential between the data received from the data satellite 4 and the data received by the position satellite 6. Therefore, when a data message is sent the position of the vehicle is calculated at no additional cost. In addition to allowing the position of the vehicle to be calculated when a text message is sent, it is economically feasible to include the actual mileage of the vehicle as reported by the vehicle odometer, also in this type of message. The odometer information represents any mileage reading from the vehicle that indicates the incremental change in the distance traveled for any segment of vehicle operation. Therefore, the odometer information does not necessarily originate from the actual board odometer, nor does it necessarily represent the total mileage to the vehicle date. For example, the mileage information transmitted by the vehicle 8 may originate from a hub tachometer located in the vehicle, totally independent of the mileage presented to the driver by the odometer of the vehicle located on the dashboard.

P1558 / 99MX In the exemplary mode, the mileage information is transmitted along with any text message sent due to the relatively low frequency in which the text messages are transmitted. It is not feasible to include mileage information with all position transmissions in large systems because these systems can process three to four million transmissions per day from thousands of vehicles in the system. Additional mileage information would strain system capacity as well as add significant costs to trucking companies that pay for message delivery services. It should be understood that vehicle mileage information may be sent when events other than the transmission of text messages occur and may be sent more or less frequently depending on cost or other considerations. Other useful information is transmitted by the vehicle 8 when a position is determined. For example, in the exemplary mode, the ignition condition of the vehicle, whether on or off, is automatically included as part of any message that is transmitted by vehicle 8. This information is useful for refining the apparent velocity analysis of the vehicle between two reported positions as will be discussed here later. This kind of information is profitable and P1558 / 99MX it can be included in any position determination since it requires only one bit to carry the information. Figure 2 is a block diagram of the preferred embodiment of the present invention. The memory 20 stores vehicle information as it is received and processed by the fixed station 2. The stored data may include vehicle locations within corresponding daters, a Mobile Communications Terminal number (MCT).

Mobile Communications Terminal) that corresponds to the identity of a particular vehicle, actual mileage readings and other information pertaining to the vehicle's operating characteristics. The mobile communications terminal number (MCT) can be any alpha numeric sequence that uniquely identifies the vehicle. The memory 20 is typically located within the fixed station 2 but may also be located remotely. The computing device 22 executes a data validation process, a route determination program to perform an initial mileage estimation and a post-validation process to validate the route determined by the route determination program and to compare the Estimated mileage with actual odometer readings, if available. The route determination program uses vehicle locations to produce an estimate of P1558 / 99MX the real route traveled by the vehicle. The actual mileage information, the vehicle identification number, the estimated route traveled, the longitude / latitude data and other useful data can be displayed to a user of the system through a screen 24 or printed using a printer 28. The data is well they can be stored on a secondary memory 26, for example a diskette, sent to a second location, and / or further processed using the processor 30. Any and all of the functions described above can alternatively be achieved at a remote location, for example a dispatch center 10 III. Data Validation Step 42 in Figure 3a represents the step of validating the data stored in the memory 20 before presentation to the route determining program. Several checks are made in this step including position validation, odometer validation and vehicle speed validation. All vehicle positions stored in the memory 20 are verified to determine any location that is inconsistent with the adjacent vehicle positions. For example, if a series of position locations indicates that a vehicle is traveling at 55 miles per P1558 / 99MX time along a particular road, then a single vehicle position indicating that the vehicle was 200 miles from that road will be marked with a flag indicating a roving location point in step 42 and will not be included as an entry to the route determining program. Additionally, each position location is verified in step 42 to verify that it does not coincide with an unlikely vehicle location, such as in a lake or river. Several validations involving odometer readings are also verified in step 42. Each odometer reading is checked first to ensure that it is greater than the last odometer reading. Occasionally, a defective vehicle odometer or tachometer is replaced with a new one that has fewer miles than the defective unit. The abrupt change in the odometer / tachometer readings corrupts the calculations in the subsequent mileage determinations if this verification is not carried out. If this validation fails, the system user receives a notification of the problem and the odometer reading is discarded. The mileage between odometer readings, defined as odometer segments, is also checked to ensure that it is equal to or greater than the point-to-point mileage for all position segments that make up the odometer segment. By P1558 / 99MX For example, if your vehicle reports five position locations (that is, four position segments) that have odometer information provided at the endpoints of the odometer segment, the estimated mileage between the odometer readings would be greater than or equal to Straight line mileage for the four combined position segments. The mileage of each straight line position segment can be easily determined using the latitude / longitude coordinates of the position locations. The amount of actual miles traveled by any segment of position by a vehicle is usually greater than the calculation of straight line mileage due to curves and changes in elevation on the road. If this verification fails, the system operator receives a notification of the problem and the odometer readings are ignored. The average vehicle speed between any two odometer readings is checked to ensure that it does not exceed a predetermined maximum. In the exemplary mode, the maximum speed allowed is 70 miles per hour, although this figure can be set by the user. The odometer information and the time between readings is used to arrive at an average vehicle speed by simply dividing the distance traveled between the time between odometer readings. Nap P1558 / 99MX validation fails, the system operator receives notification of the problem and the odometer reading is ignored. The final data validation check carried out in step 42 ensures that two vehicle positions are not greater than two predetermined time periods separated from each other. In the exemplary mode, vehicle positions are reported once per hour, therefore two vehicle positions that have an "on" condition must not be greater than two hours apart in time. A vehicle position transmission may be lost, for example, when the communication satellite link is lost between the vehicle and one or more satellites. This may be due to an obstruction - physical, for example, an overpass or a tall building. In addition, no vehicle position is expected to follow a "shutdown" message until an "on" message is received.If two or more positions are lost consecutively with the "on" condition, it is assumed that a malfunction occurred. The position determination system and the system operator are notified of the problem.If this validation is satisfied, the vehicle position data, the daters and the odometer readings are provided to the route determining program for P1558 / 99MX determine the estimated route traveled by the vehicle, shown in step 44 in Figure 3a.

IV. Estimated Route Determination Figure 4 is a map illustrating the locations of vehicle position 8 captured by fixed station 2 as vehicle 8 travels between jurisdictions 61 and 63. Data points 62, 68, 70, 72 , 76, 78, 80 and 82 represent vehicle locations determined by the fixed station 2 in increments per hour, although it should be understood that vehicle positions can be determined with greater or lesser frequency depending on the capacity of the system and / or the restrictions of the vehicle. costs. The data points 64, 74 and 84 represent locations where a text message was sent by the vehicle 8 which enables the fixed station 2 to determine the location of the vehicle at those points as well. The odometer information is also received by the fixed station 2 at the data points 64, 74 and 84 together with the text message. Vehicle 8 is shown moving from a jurisdiction 61 to a jurisdiction 63, these jurisdictions are usually representative of individual states, although they may also represent local jurisdictions. The location, the dater, the vehicle identification number, the odometer information, the ignition condition and P1558 / 99 X any other relevant data is stored in the memory 20 in the fixed station 2. The vehicle locations are taken from the memory 20 located in the fixed station 2 and are provided to a commercially available route determining program containing the coordinates identifying the Travel routes known as for example road, tatale's interest roads, highway and other roads. For example, any commercially available software program for example the Miler PC sold by ALK Associates Inc. may be used. The commercial route determination program uses the position data stored in the memory 20 to return a set of position segments that estimates the route traveled by the vehicle 8. The route determining program provides an approximation that "fits better" to the route traveled by the vehicle 8 that may not coincide exactly with each position data point. The position segments may be provided in alpha numeric format, by correlating the position segments with a map showing the route taken, or both. Additional data may be provided to the route determination program such as cargo collection points, unloading, fuel purchase and reception transaction records to provide a P1558 / 99MX greater accuracy in determining the most probable route traveled by the vehicle 8. The route determining program also returns a set of expected average speeds corresponding to each segment of position, representing the expected speed of the vehicle along each segment of position . Position segments that cross jurisdictional boundaries are segmented into two position segments, each segment ending at the jurisdictional border. This allows the route determining program to accurately assign miles between jurisdictions when vehicle 8 crosses from one jurisdiction to another. Once all the position segments have been identified, the total distance traveled within a specific jurisdiction can be calculated by adding up the mileage of each segment of position traveled within that jurisdiction. However, the analysis, validation, correction and / or mileage assignment of the route can be done using the odometer information from the vehicle 8, such as an estimate of the estimated mileage provided by the route determining program. Mileage per jurisdiction would be recalculated once all additional changes had been completed. Figure 5 shows a detailed map of how the routes are estimated and how the routes are determined.

P1558 / 99MX position segments. As the vehicle 8 travels along the highway 96, the fixed station 2 calculates the vehicle positions once per hour in the emplif icative mode, shown as positions 98, 100, 102 and 104. Each position has an associated a dater, or a date and time at which the position of the vehicle was determined. In this example, it is assumed that vehicle 8 did not send text messages and, therefore, odometer information is not available. The route determining program first determines the most likely route the vehicle 8 took using the position data from memory 20. The route determining program estimates that vehicle 8 traveled first along highway 96, then over Highway 92 and finally on Highway 94, using only the position data. Although the vehicle 8 was able to travel along a different route and record the displayed location locations, the route determining program makes decisions based on the location data of the vehicle to arrive at the route most likely taken by the vehicle . Note that the estimated route does not include point 100 of the position data. The route determining program estimates that vehicle 8 traveled on highway 92 based on a "best fit" scenario. As a result, the position P1558 / 99 X 100a is used to denote the end point of the position segment. The route segments are shown in Figure 5 as letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H. Each route segment is defined as a fixed and known distance between two points of intersection along a route segment. road or between a point of intersection between the highway and a jurisdictional border, as shown in Figure 5, the jurisdictional boundary 90. The route determining program then combines the route segments into position segments defined by the data points 98, 100a, 102 and 104 of vehicle location. For example, the route determining program will define the position segment 1 as the route traveled between the data point 98 and the data point 100a, the position segment 2 as the route traveled between the data point 100a and 102, and so on The route determination program will calculate the miles of each position segment by summing the route segments and estimating the mileage when a vehicle location is between the route segments. If a position segment crosses a jurisdictional border, it is divided into two distinct position segments, each defined by the distance between the vehicle's location and the border. For example, in Figure 5, a position segment will be defined between data point 102 and P1558 / 99MX the boundary 90 and another position segment between the boundary 90 and the data point 104.

V. Route Validation After an initial estimated route has been generated, it is verified that no significant discrepancies have occurred during the route estimation process, as shown in Figure 3a, step 46. The first route verification compares the mileage reported for each position segment by the route determining program with the straight line mileage calculated from the latitude / longitude information corresponding to the endpoints of the position segment. If the estimated miles for any position segment from the route determining program are less than the straight line miles between the end points of the position segment, an error is indicated to the system user so that a correction can be made. manual by the user of the system. The following validation evaluates the average apparent velocity of the vehicle in each position segment to determine if it exceeds a predetermined maximum threshold. In the exemplary mode, the predetermined maximum speed is 80 miles per hour. The apparent average speed of the vehicle is determined by dividing the P1558 / 99MX miles in any position segment as reported by the route determination program by the difference in time between the endpoints of the position segment. If the predetermined threshold of the average speed is exceeded in any position segment, an error is indicated to the system user, so that the user can manually review the route segment and investigate the source of the problem.

SAW. Calculation of Mileage in each Jurisdiction After the estimated route traveled by vehicle 8 has been generated by the route determining program, the miles traveled each jurisdiction can be determined by adding the mileage of the segment of contained position within each jurisdiction, shown in the Figure 3a as step 48. Referring to Figure 5, the mileage traveled by vehicle 8 in jurisdiction 91 is calculated as the mileage associated with position segments 1, 2 and 3, while the mileage traveled in jurisdiction 93 is the mileage associated with the position segment 4. It should be understood that one or more route segments comprise a position segment, and that one or more position segments comprise an odometer segment. If an odometer segment is not entirely within a single jurisdiction, for example, entirely within a P1558 / 99MX specific state border, then the mileage associated with the odometer segment is used as the correct mileage figure and the estimated mileage of the route determiner program is ignored.

VII. Route Validation Using Odometer Information Once the miles traveled by each jurisdiction have been calculated, the estimated travel route can be verified by comparing the estimated route mileage with the actual odometer mileage reported by vehicle 8, which is shown in step 50 of Figure 3a. The odometer information is available at any time when the text messages are transmitted by the vehicle. 8. The estimated route mileage closely matches the mileage of the odometer and thus it can be assumed that the vehicle actually traveled along. the estimated route provided by the route determining program and, therefore, the mileage allocation in each jurisdiction is also accurate. This concept can be demonstrated with reference to Figure 6 which is an illustration of an estimated route traveled by vehicle 8, as determined by the route determining program. As already described above, vehicle positions are determined at one hour intervals in the modality and emplificativa, shown as P1558 / 99MX data points 116, 118, 120, 122 and 124 in Figure 6. The data points 114 and 126 represent vehicle locations at the time a text message was sent by the vehicle 8. The actual odometer mileage in the locations 114 and 126 is also transmitted to the fixed station 2 together with the text message. As previously stated, the route between the odometer readings is called an odometer segment that is comprised, in this case, of several position segments. The route determining program determines that the vehicle 8 traveled along the highway 128 from the data point 114 to the data point 126. The route determining program divides the estimated route traveled into marked position segments of the A to G, according to the vehicle's position data, and then add the miles of each position segment to determine the total miles traveled within each jurisdiction. For example, in jurisdiction 108, the mileage associated with the segment of position A is added to the mileage associated with the segments of position B, C and D to reach an estimated mileage traveled in that jurisdiction. similarly, in jurisdiction 110, the mileage associated with the segments of E, F, and G are added to estimate the miles traveled in that jurisdiction. The mileage that vehicle 8 travels P1558 / 99MX it can really be easily calculated in this example by simply subtracting the odometer mileage from the mileage of the final odometer. The actual mileage can be compared to the estimated mileage in the odometer segment and if a significant discrepancy is found, the estimated route mileage is analyzed to determine if the discrepancy can be reconciled with the actual mileage of the odometer. If, for example, the estimated mileage in the odometer segment is estimated to be 110 miles, but the actual odometer mileage indicates a distance of 135 miles, the 25-mile discrepancy is noted and a diagnostic procedure is performed to determine if the discrepancy can be corrected. In the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, two general methods of reconciliation are available. One method determines whether the vehicle 8 may have traveled another route between the endpoints of the odometer segment. A second method identifies the position segments that appear with significant speed variations with respect to the expected speeds provided by the route determination program. 1. Alternative route analysis The route determination program deals P1558 / 99MX first to reconcile the discrepancies in the mileage by trying an alternative route in an odometer segment to determine if any new route reconciles the mileage discrepancies. This 5 step is shown in Figure 3b as step 52. In addition, each position segment can be examined to determine if an alternative route within the position segment could reduce or eliminate the mileage discrepancy. ilO The initial estimated route calculated by the route determination program is based on the most "practical" route according to the position data. Other alternative routes can be calculated using the route determination program based on the shortest possible route, routes that exclude toll roads, routes that use toll roads or any other possible variations. If additional information is available from the truck, for example quota receipts that indicate If you traveled on a toll road or not in the time table that is being processed, it can be used to specify a fee route or free roads. If a quota receipt is available, verification can be done to see if the The estimated route provided by the route determination program includes a toll road and if so, "the name of the road as a double check." If the discrepancy in the mileage P1558 / 99MX using one of the alternative routes is within an acceptable tolerance, that route is selected as the most likely route traveled by vehicle 8 and no further analysis is required. If the alternate routes still do not reconcile the miles of discrepancy, the most "practical" route is taken by default as the most likely route traveled by the vehicle 8 and then each individual position segment is checked to determine whether alternate routes were possible within the position segment that could reconcile the discrepancy in my liaj e. Alternative routes can be processed automatically or manually. In the exemplary mode, alternate routes are only attempted manually, although several mileage assignments can be automatically made. The user of the system will be prompted to manually try route reconciliation and / or mileage designation as a final step after having completed automatic processing. In an alternative mode, manual or automatic correction of the route is presented before the mileage allowances. Automatic mileage assignments are handled automatically, unless the mileage discrepancies exceed a predefined threshold set by the user. The user of the system will be prompted to try P1558 / 99 X manually reconcile the route if the number of miles of discrepancies exceeds the predetermined threshold. This can be achieved by projecting a map of the estimated route on a map of all possible routes that vehicle 8 may have taken. For example, position locations that are located very close to each other may indicate a possible deviation of the position segment. Referring again to Figure 6, the map may indicate the presence of highway 130, for example, which has a truck stop 109 located just north of highway 128. The user of the system may then assume that the vehicle 8 it was diverted to truck 109, and then resumed its route along highway 128. The operator would then compare the mileage of the estimated route using the alternative route with the odometer mileage in the odometer segment. If the mileage discrepancy between the estimated miles and the odometer miles is less than the predetermined threshold, any remaining miles may be allocated proportionally to each segment of the odometer segment, as will be described here below. If the discrepancy in the mileage using the alternative route is outside the acceptable tolerance, another alternate route may be selected and the process may be repeated. Any of these P1558 / 99MX Route corrections can optionally be confirmed later with the vehicle operator in order to ensure accuracy. In the alternative mode if alternative routes are not available, the most practical route is taken by default and a procedure is used to identify the suspect position segments to reconcile the mileage discrepancy. 2. Detecting Suspicious Position Segments A second general method to reduce or eliminate a mileage discrepancy is to detect suspicious position segments based on the apparent average speed of the vehicle in each segment, shown in step 54 in Figure 3b. For each position segment, the apparent average speed of the vehicle is calculated and compared with an expected average speed provided by the database of the route determining program. If a significant difference is found in the average speeds this could indicate that there is a problem in the estimated route traveled by the vehicle 8 within that segment of position. For example, the average expected speed of a vehicle on a main road could be stored in the database of the route determining program as 55 miles per hour. In P1558 / 99MX Figure 6, the position segments between the data points 114 and 126 are analyzed to find which segment position indicates an apparent average speed significantly greater or less than 55 miles per hour. The apparent average speed of the vehicle can be calculated in each position segment by dividing the estimated mileage in each position segment by the difference in time between the end points of the position segment. If the difference between the apparent average speed and the expected average speed exceeds a predetermined threshold in any position segment, the position segment is flagged to establish that it is a suspect segment. Alternate travel routes within the position segment are evaluated to determine whether the alternate route will resolve the mileage discrepancy. if not, miles from the position segments are added or subtracted, based on an allocation method that will be analyzed later. Another way to determine the suspicious position segments is to determine if any actual vehicle position is at a predetermined distance farthest from the end point of the position segment that is associated with it. For example, the route determining program provides an estimated route comprised of P1558 / 99 X Position segments, presenting it to the user of the system, based on the actual positions transmitted by the vehicle. However, the route determination program only returns a "best-fit" route that can not be aligned exactly with any actual vehicle position. In most cases, the actual position of the vehicle and the end point of the route segment will effectively align with each other. However, when a real position does not align with the estimated route, the end point of the position segment defined by the actual position is reported by the route determining program as exactly matching the estimated route. Therefore, it is possible that the actual vehicle position and its associated position segment end point have two different locations. If a real vehicle position is at a predetermined greater distance away from the end position of the associated position segment, then the two position segments containing the end point are marked as suspicious with a flag. The suspect position segments can then be verified to determine the possibility of a deviation from the estimated route when dealing with alternative travel routes.

P1558 / 99MX VIII. Elimination of Suspicious Position Segments Suspicious low velocity position segments are sometimes removed from suspicious consideration if certain criteria are met. For example, if a suspect position segment has an "off" condition at any endpoint of the position segment, that segment will be excluded from the list of suspect segments. The step of removing the suspect position segments is shown in step 56 in Figure 3. As described above, the ignition condition of the vehicle is transmitted at any time at which a position is calculated. If you define a low speed position segment that has an "off" condition at any endpoint, this would mean that the vehicle stopped, which would make it appear that the vehicle is traveling more slowly in that segment. The same reasoning applies if any position segment endpoint is the result of a text message being received. In this case, it is assumed that the vehicle was stopped in order to transmit the message, again resulting in a lower average speed in that segment of position. Another way in which low-speed suspicious position segments are eliminated by P1558 / 99MX Being suspicious is when multiple low speed position segments are discovered adjacent to each other. In this case, it is assumed that the vehicle was slowing down due to traffic congestion, therefore the mileage reported by the route determination program is probably valid. In the exemplary mode any low-speed suspect position segment that has at least one other low-speed segment adjacent to it will be removed from the list of suspect segments. Yet another way in which the low-speed suspicious position segments of the investigation are removed is to determine if any access route was available at some point within the position segment. If not, it is unlikely that the vehicle has deviated from the estimated route and, therefore, the estimated mileage of the route determining program is probably correct. For example, if a position segment is comprised only of a toll road, then no other route in general will be available to the vehicle, and there is a high degree of probability that the deviation will not be taken. therefore, there is a high degree of accuracy that the mileage reported by the program _determinador de ruta is correct.

P1558 / 99 X IX. Correction of Suspicious Position Segments Suspicious position segments can be corrected by treating alternative travel routes within the position segment or assigning miles to suspect segments in a predetermined procedure. Either method can be done automatically without manual intervention. Nevertheless, a user of the system can set a limit on the number or percentage of miles that are corrected automatically. If the number of corrected miles exceeds the predetermined amount, no mileage will be assigned and the operator will be prompted to manually perform the correction. 1. Alternative Routes Within the Position Segments - High Apparent Average Speeds As shown in Figure 3b, step 58 is performed to determine if an alternative travel route was taken by the vehicle within each suspect position segment. If the apparent average speed of the vehicle in any segment of position is greater than the average expected speed in the segment of position, it is assumed that the vehicle actually traveled in a shorter route than the one estimated by the route determining program. In P1558 / 99MX In this case, one or more shorter alternative routes are calculated by the route determining program and the new apparent average speeds are calculated based on the shortest distance of the alternative route. If one or more of these shorter routes results in the average speed being within an acceptable tolerance of the expected average speed of the new route, then the route that has the closest match is selected as the most likely route it took. the vehicle. If none of these routes results in a match like the one described, but one or more of the results is of a low average speed, then the route with the highest average speed is selected as the route most likely to be taken. Finally, if none of these results is presented, then the alternative route with the lowest average speed (among those that were considered very high) is selected. In the case of empl icative mode, a position segment will be signaled with a flag to identify it as suspicious if the average apparent speed of the vehicle is 20% and 10 miles per hour greater than the expected average speed, as provided by the route determining program. .

P1558 / 99MX 2. Alternative Routes Within the Position Segments - Apparent Average Speeds Lows If the apparent average speed of the vehicle in any segment of position is less than the average speed expected in the segment of position, it is possible that the vehicle traveled a longer route than the one that had estimated the route determining program. In this case, any potentially longer alternative route is calculated by the route determining program and a new apparent speed is calculated, based on the longest distance of the alternative route. If the new apparent average speed is within an acceptable tolerance of the average speed expected for the new route without exceeding the expected average speed, that route is selected as the most likely route taken by the vehicle. If not, the longest alternative route now within the tolerance is selected as the most likely route taken by the vehicle. In the emplif icative mode, a position segment will be marked with a flag to indicate it as suspicious if the apparent average speed of the vehicle is 20% and 10 miles per hour less than the expected average speed, as provided by the route determining program. . A method to determine if a vehicle is P1558 / 99MX Deviating from the calculated position segment is identifying the surroundings by known points or places by which the vehicle has traveled. This deviation could be expected if any known place or "waypoints" were present in proximity to the estimated route. A non-exhaustive list of known locations or points includes truck stops and refueling stations. The locations of known points and road points are predetermined and stored within the route determining program. If an alternative route through known locations or points is reconciled with the mileage discrepancy within the odometer segment, that route will be used as the most likely route traveled by the vehicle. Otherwise, the "most practical" route is taken by default. After any route correction, no more analysis is needed on odometer segments that are completely within a specific jurisdiction if the only information that is desired is the mileage traveled in each jurisdiction. The current odometer mileage that is transmitted by the vehicle is used to determine the miles traveled and any mile of estimated route that has been calculated according to the route determining program is ignored. Nevertheless, if other information is desired, for example P1558 / 99MX an exact determination of the actual route traveled by the vehicle, then the mileage discrepancy between the actual mileage and the estimated route mileage can be made in the following way. 3. Mileage Assignment If the mileage discrepancy can not be corrected using an alternate travel route, the difference in mileage may be assigned or unassigned between position segments within the odometer segment, shown in step 60 of Figure 3b. The following steps are taken to sign the mileage: a) Greater Route Mileage to Odometer Mileage If the estimated route mileage is greater than the actual reported odometer mileage after trying to correct it by alternative routes, the operator may either choose to accept the highest mileage figure or try to deallocate miles along the route, starting with suspicious segments that have high average speeds. A user may wish to use the higher mileage figure, for example, in order to arrive at a conservative figure to report taxes on fuel to tax jurisdictions. The decision to automatically use the highest figure can be configured by the user. That is to say, P1558 / 99MX the highest mileage figure will be used unless the difference between odometer miles and estimated miles exceeds a predetermined tolerance. If the highest mileage figure obtained from the route determining program is used, a check is made to ensure that the apparent average speed of each segment of position does not exceed a predetermined maximum speed, for example, 80 miles per hour in the modality eg emplificativa. If one or more position segments show an excess of the predetermined maximum speed, the miles in those position segments are reduced so that the apparent average speed is below the predetermined maximum speed. The miles that were withdrawn are subsequently allocated proportionally to any position segments whose apparent average speed is well below the predetermined maximum speed. If the actual odometer mileage is selected to calculate the miles traveled in each jurisdiction instead of the highest estimated route mileage, the miles are first removed from the location segments that have significantly higher apparent average speeds, up to a predefined limit. The remaining miles are removed from all position segments in the P1558 / 99 X proportional while ensuring that no position segment is below the predetermined minimum average speed for each position segment. b) Mileage Assignment - Minor Route Mileage to Odometer Mileage If the estimated mileage of the route determining program is less than the odometer mileage reported between two positions, the mileage difference between the two figures can be assigned proportionally between the position segments Low-speed suspects, previously identified. Miles are allocated until the apparent average velocities of the suspect position segments are equal to the average expected velocity in each position segment. The assignment is made automatically up to a predefined number of miles. If there is still a significant mileage difference between the estimated route mileage and the odometer mileage reported after the initial allocation, the difference in remaining mileage can be assigned to other low-speed position segments that have not been classified as suspect. Mileage is assigned to those segments of low speed position proportionally, until their average speeds P1558 / 99MX apparent are equal to the average expected speeds of the database of the route determining program. The assignment is made automatically up to a predefined number of miles. If there is still a significant difference in mileage between the estimated route mileage and the odometer mileage reported after the secondary allocation, the difference in remaining mileage can be assigned to all the position segments proportionally, until each apparent average speed of the segment of position is equal to the maximum speed that is considered credible, for example, 80 miles per hour. Once again, the assignment is made automatically up to a predetermined number of miles. If there is still a significant difference in mileage between the estimated route mileage and the odometer mileage reported after the third assignment, the user is encouraged to allocate the remaining miles or manually reprocess the data to a more appropriate number for the route traveled by the vehicle.

. Miscellaneous Validations A validation of the overall accuracy of the vehicle odometer can be made using the mileage of the estimated route as determined by the program P1558 / 99MX route determiner First, any position segments that show a large discrepancy between the reported odometer readings and the mileage obtained from the route determining program are excluded from consideration for this validation. Second, the total mileage of the odometer is compared to the mileage of the route determining program. The two figures should, on average, closely match each other as long as a significant number of miles are in the data set, as well as several segments and odometer readings. If there is a significant discrepancy between the two miles, this may suggest a problem with the odometer calibration or perhaps a global problem involving position data and / or deficiencies in the route determining program. In either case, the operator can receive notification and take corrective action. for example, the operator may order a calibration of the vehicle odometer or a full manual re-examination of the results of the previous jurisdictional computations. The above description of the preferred embodiments is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the present invention. Various modifications to the modalities and principles will be readily apparent to those experts in this area.

P1558 / 99MX generics defined here that may be applied to other modalities without the use of the inventive faculty. Therefore, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein but to be in accordance with the broadest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

P1558 / 99 X

Claims (17)

1. NOVELTY OF THE INVENTION Having described the present invention, it is considered as a novelty and, therefore, the content of the following CLAIMS is claimed as property; A method for determining the travel route of a vehicle comprising the steps of: determining the location of the vehicle at a first predetermined event; provide a corresponding dater for each vehicle location and a vehicle identification number in a fixed station when making the vehicle position determination; transmitting at least two odometer readings from the vehicle to the fixed station at a second predetermined event; estimate a vehicle travel route using a route determining program; Validate the trip route using the at least two odometer readings.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of determining the location of the vehicle comprises the step of calculating the location of the vehicle on board it.
3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the GPS positioning system is used to determine vehicle locations.
4. 4. The method according to claim 1, in P1558 / 99MX where the location determination of the vehicle is calculated at the fixed station.
5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the dual satellite positioning system is used to determine vehicle locations.
6. 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first predetermined event is a time interval.
7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the time interval is one hour.
8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second predetermined event is the transmission of a text message from the vehicle to the fixed station.
9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of pre-validating the vehicle locations, the daters and the actual mileage of the vehicle before estimating the travel route using the route determination program.
10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the route determination program provides a plurality of estimated position segments, each position segment having a corresponding mileage and an expected average speed, where the miles traveled by the vehicle are estimate by adding the miles of each of the position segments to each other.
11. 11. The method according to claim 1, in P1558 / 99MX where the validation step comprises the steps of: comparing the actual mileage traveled by the vehicle with the mileage provided by the route determining program and detecting the differences between them; and correcting the vehicle mileage provided by the route determining program if the difference in mileage exceeds a predetermined amount.
12. 12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the step of correcting the vehicle's mileage is performed without the intervention of a system operator.
13. The method according to claim 11, wherein the step of correcting the vehicle mileage is performed manually by a system operator.
14. The method according to claim 11, wherein the step of correcting the vehicle mileage comprises the steps of: identifying the at least one segment in which an apparent average speed of the vehicle is less than an expected average speed provided by the vehicle. route determining programmer, in a predetermined amount; and proportionally assigning the difference in mileage between the identified position segments.
15. 15. The method according to claim 11, in P1558 / 99MX wherein the step of correcting vehicle mileage comprises the steps of: providing an alternative estimated travel route for the vehicle, whereby the alternative estimated route comprises at least one item segment, each item segment having a mileage figure corresponding associated with the same; add each mileage sum to each other to form a new total estimated mileage; "compare the new estimated total mileage with actual mileage and detect the difference between them, and use the alternative mileage route as the actual route traveled by the vehicle if the difference in mileage is less than a predetermined amount
16. 16. A system for determining a travel route traveled by a vehicle, the vehicle has a mobile communication terminal for transmitting an MCT number, odometer readings and text messages to a fixed station , the system comprises: a mobile communication terminal for transmitting odometer readings and text messages to the fixed station, a vehicle location determining means for calculating a plurality of vehicle locations and a corresponding dater for each P1558 / 99MX Location; a storage device for storing the vehicle locations, the daters, the vehicle identification number and the odometer mileage transmitted from the vehicle; and a processor to determine the travel route traveled by the vehicle, in order to determine a total mileage traveled by the vehicle along the route and to correct the travel route using the odometer mileage.
17. 17. A system for determining information pertaining to the movement of a vehicle, the system comprising: a receiver for eventually receiving data sets where each one represents distance information produced by a vehicle and data identifying the position of the vehicle; and a processor for processing the received position data in order to estimate a route covered by the vehicle and to validate the estimated route by comparison with the received distance information and the time information. P1558 / 99MX