Dynamic Landmark Creation for Mobile Fleet Tracking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Fleet operations management systems face challenges in monitoring supervisor visits and time spent at job sites due to changing locations, which require significant administrative costs and increased record-keeping when trying to set up landmarks in advance.
Innovation Solution
An event-triggered dynamic landmark creation system that uses tracking devices to wirelessly transmit information about mobile objects, allowing the management system to create non-physical dynamic landmarks and record visits without pre-defined locations, reducing computational and administrative burdens.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If landmarks are set up in advance for job sites, then supervisor visit monitoring can be performed, but location information must be available ahead of time which is not possible when job sites change regularly
Solution Approach 1:
The system transitions from static pre-defined landmarks to dynamic landmarks that are created automatically when mobile objects (work crews) arrive at job sites. The landmarks are no longer fixed in advance but are dynamically generated based on real-time location data from tracking devices, allowing the system to adapt to changing job site locations while maintaining monitoring capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables automatic landmark creation without requiring manual intervention or advance planning. When a work crew's tracking device reports arrival at a location, the system automatically creates a landmark at that location, eliminating the need for administrative setup of landmarks before job sites are established.
2Ease of manufacture
If dynamic landmarks are created automatically, then administrative costs are reduced, but computational resources are needed to process real-time tracking data
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses event-triggered processing where computational resources are activated only when specific events occur (such as a work crew arriving at a job site). Instead of continuously processing all tracking data, the system processes data selectively based on trigger events, reducing overall computational burden while maintaining the ability to create dynamic landmarks when needed.
3Measurement precision
If tracking devices continuously transmit location data, then visit recording accuracy is improved, but communication bandwidth and power consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of continuous data transmission, the system uses periodic or event-triggered transmission where tracking devices send location data at specific intervals or when significant events occur (such as arriving at or departing from a job site). This approach maintains sufficient accuracy for visit recording while significantly reducing power consumption and communication bandwidth usage compared to continuous transmission.
Data Source
AI summary
An event-triggered dynamic landmark creation system includes a management system and tracking devices attached to mobile objects. Each tracking device is configured to wirelessly transmit information pertaining to current time, identification and location of tracking devices, and status of mobile objects. The management system is configured to wirelessly communicate with each tracking device and is operable: to receive information transmitted from each tracking device; in response to occurrence of an initial event respecting status of a first mobile object, to create a non-physical dynamic landmark about the first mobile object relative to location of a first tracking device attached thereto; and in response to occurrence of successive subsequent events respecting location of a second tracking device attached to a second mobile object, to record a visit of the second mobile object within the dynamic landmark about the location of the first mobile.