Remote Work Vehicle Starting With Camera-Based Safety Checks
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Off-road self-propelled work vehicles, such as construction equipment, lack practical remote starting features due to safety precautions and impracticality in their operating environments, which hinders job efficiency and convenience.
Innovation Solution
A system utilizing an onboard camera system to detect vehicle surroundings and conditions, allowing authorized users to initiate a remote start process only when predetermined conditions are met, such as closed service doors and appropriate tool positions, via a mobile device interface, ensuring safety and operational readiness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional remote starting features are implemented in off-road work vehicles, then job efficiency and operator convenience are improved, but safety risks increase due to lack of safety precautions in harsh operating environments
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary safety checks before allowing remote start by detecting whether service doors are closed and working tools are in safe positions. This preliminary verification ensures that safety conditions are met before the engine is started remotely, resolving the contradiction between convenience and safety.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors vehicle conditions (door status, tool positions) and provides feedback to determine whether remote start is permitted. This feedback mechanism ensures that safety conditions are verified in real-time, allowing remote starting only when safe, thus improving both convenience and safety.
2Reliability
If safety precautions are strictly enforced to prevent remote starting in unsafe conditions, then safety is maintained, but job efficiency deteriorates due to inability to prepare vehicles ahead of operator arrival
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary safety checks before allowing remote start by detecting whether service doors are closed and working tools are in safe positions. This preliminary verification ensures that safety conditions are met before the engine is started remotely, resolving the contradiction between convenience and safety.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts remote start availability based on real-time detection of safety conditions. When conditions are safe (doors closed, tools positioned correctly), remote start is enabled; when unsafe, it is disabled. This dynamic approach optimizes both safety and efficiency.
3Reliability
If an array of cameras and condition detection tools are added to detect vehicle surroundings and pre-conditions, then safety and operational readiness are improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The camera system serves multiple functions: detecting service door status, determining working tool positions, and monitoring overall vehicle surroundings. By making the camera system multi-functional, the patent reduces the need for separate sensors for each detection task, thereby managing complexity while improving safety.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses cameras as intermediary devices to indirectly detect safety conditions (door status, tool positions) without requiring direct contact with these components. This intermediary approach simplifies the detection mechanism while maintaining comprehensive safety monitoring.
Data Source
AI summary
A remote starting system and method are provided for self-propelled work vehicles having work attachments supported from a main frame thereof. Cameras are arranged with respective fields of vision proximate to the work vehicle, and a communications unit is configured to exchange messages with a user device via a communications network. A local or remote controller is configured to receive first user input comprising a remote startup request for the work vehicle from the user device, and to automatically detect parameters respectively associated with predetermined remote startup conditions, at least one of the parameters comprising images obtained from the cameras. The images are transmitted to the user device, responsive to which second user input is received comprising remote startup confirmation from the user device via the communications network. Responsive to at least the second user input, engine startup is automatically controlled for the work vehicle.