Self-Audited Shipping Container Routing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional shipping container routing in supply chains is inflexible and prone to delays due to centralized planning, leading to increased costs and potential disruptions when external factors cause route failures, as it relies heavily on re-negotiation and re-routing through a centralized administrator.
Innovation Solution
A self-audited routing method where a computing device affixed to the shipping container continuously monitors its location and adjusts the route in real-time by querying a data store of known nodes to compute new paths and request re-routing, allowing the container to self-correct and re-route without centralized administrator intervention, ensuring timely delivery.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If centralized scheduling entity selects route a priori and negotiates contracts, then routing planning is simplified and centralized control is maintained, but routing flexibility and response time to external factors deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the routing decision-making authority into segments: the centralized administrator handles initial route selection and contract negotiation, while the container's onboard system handles real-time route monitoring and deviation detection. This segmentation allows centralized planning simplicity while enabling distributed adaptive response to external factors.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements continuous feedback loops where the container's location is monitored in real-time, compared against the planned route, and automatically triggers re-routing actions when deviations are detected. This feedback mechanism enables the system to respond dynamically to external factors while maintaining overall centralized coordination.
2Reliability
If centralized administrator executes recovery through re-negotiation and re-initiation of transport, then routing control remains centralized, but time loss and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The container is pre-equipped with onboard computing devices, location-based circuitry, and communication systems before deployment. These preliminary actions enable the container to autonomously detect route deviations and initiate re-routing immediately without waiting for centralized administrator intervention, significantly reducing recovery time while maintaining centralized oversight.
Solution Approach 2:
The container performs self-monitoring of its location, self-comparison against the planned route, and self-initiation of re-routing actions when deviations are detected. This self-service capability eliminates the time delay associated with centralized re-negotiation and re-initiation, while the centralized administrator retains ultimate control and awareness of routing decisions.
3Productivity
If container location is continuously monitored and real-time route adjustment is implemented, then routing flexibility and on-time delivery improve, but device complexity and computational requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The onboard computing device performs multiple functions: it monitors location via integrated circuitry, compares current position against the planned route, determines deviations, computes alternative routes, and communicates with the centralized administrator. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate dedicated components for each task, thereby managing complexity while enabling real-time route adjustment and improving delivery speed.
Data Source
AI summary
The self-audited routing of a shipping container includes acquiring a contemporaneous location of a shipping container within location based circuitry of a computing device affixed to the shipping container and retrieving from memory of the computing device affixed to the shipping container, an expected node and a destination node from a sequence of nodes in a path from an origin node of the shipping container, to the destination node. The contemporaneous location is then compared to a location of the expected node and, on the condition that the contemporaneous location is not within a threshold distance of the location of the expected node, a message is transmitted from the computing device over a wireless computer communications network to a remotely disposed client computer indicating a fault in routing of the shipping container to the destination node.