Data processing: generic control systems or specific application – Specific application – apparatus or process – Article handling
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-04
2002-03-12
Ellis, Christopher P. (Department: 3651)
Data processing: generic control systems or specific application
Specific application, apparatus or process
Article handling
C700S225000, C700S214000, C235S385000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06356802
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for identifying and determining the location or address of cargo containers which are deposited or located in a cargo container storage area.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the present day and age, cargo containers are used almost exclusively for transporting large shipments of merchandise and goods. The containers are transported long distance by ship, rail, and truck. When they are empty, and at various times during their movement between the points of origin and destination, containers may be deposited in the storage area of a container or rail or harborside terminal. The location or address of the parked container is recorded in the container terminal management system (CTMS). Errors in the process can result in a lost container which inevitably will result in an interruption of operations and lost time when it is discovered or must be located.
Cargo containers are transported between destinations either by placing them on a trailer truck chassis, or on a flatbed rail car, or depositing them in container cells onboard a ship. The containers can be moved for relatively short distances between each of these different modes of transportation by various types of cranes which in a wharfside area include large shipboard and dockside gantry cranes and in storage areas usually include straddle carrier transporters, forklifts, toplifters, and conveyors.
At the time a truck driver, having a tractor with a container mounted on a trailer chassis, enters a storage area to leave or deposit a container therein, or when a crane or machine operator is transporting a container for deposition in the storage area, the driver or operator is assigned a parking or repository address for the container by the parking lot or storage area manager. The driver or operator is then expected to park the container at the assigned repository address.
All cargo containers are assigned an identification number which is displayed on the side and roof of the container in the form of a painted code ID tag. These are required by numerous government agencies and shipping regulators. As a result, painted ID tags comprised of numerals and letters are utilized universally and internationally.
Different transportation companies may in some cases utilize their own additional identification means. For instance, some railroad cars carry magnetic tags which, when a train carrying containers passes a magnetic code reader, allow the containers on the train to be identified in sequence. However, once a container passes the reader, it can be outbound or inbound and be moved anywhere. Thereafter, no information is obtained from the tag reading concerning the container's physical location.
The magnetic tag identification means suffers from the fact that because the tags are only installed by the individual shipping line owners at their discretion, not all transporters carry such tags. Additionally, a magnetic tag must pass in close proximity to the magnometer in order for the tag to be read. The present invention allows a mobile reader to go find any container in a storage area including those containers not associated with or carrying specialized or magnetic tag identifiers and remotely interrogate it for identification information.
A technically more sophisticated and expensive system can identify containers from a distance. However, it requires attaching a transponder tag to each container which can be interrogated by radar. Such devices can be programmed to divulge different kinds of information in the form of a coded signal when they are interrogated by a radio frequency transmitter/receiver. The disadvantage with this system is that the transponders are both expensive and somewhat delicate and subject to damage, dislocation, or disengagement as result of rough handling or severe jolting while in transit.
The addresses for identifying the repository locations for the containers in the parking lot or storage area can be of numerous forms of designation such as: painted on the pavement; identified by a monument marker; or a magnetic or transponder tag secured to the pavement. The truck driver parks the trailer chassis with the container secured thereto or the crane the operator deposits one or more containers at the assigned parking lot address. The truck driver disengages the trailer chassis from truck tractor and leaves the chassis with the container secured thereto at the assigned address. The crane operator deposits the designated containers on the assigned address and then moves the crane for pickup of the next container assigned for movement.
In the event either the truck driver or crane operator leaves the container at the wrong address, the container is thereafter lost, and the computer which keeps track of the containers which are parked in the container terminal storage area has an error in its tracking data. As a result, the lost container is effectively rendered invisible to the existing container terminal management system. Whenever and however it is discovered, lost time inevitably results.
A cargo container can become lost for several reasons such as: when a container is inadvertently placed in a different location (yard address) than the one assigned; the container ID number was incorrectly inputted to the CTMS; the container ID number is physically unreadable due to being dirty, scratched, covered, or was incorrectly labeled on the container. Any of these or other errors may result in disruptions of the inventory database. These errors become particularly serious when one attempts to place a second container into a supposedly vacant location only to find that the location is already occupied. Even more time can be lost in trying to locate a lost container. In order to prevent these time consuming interruptions, it is necessary to have a way of locating containers and continuously updating and correcting the inventory database.
There is a very large turnover of cargo containers in sea ports due to the very large volume of cargo the ports handle. It is therefore necessary to update errors in the database of the CTMS on a regular basis. The present invention allows an operator to drive down a row of parked containers and update the database in real-time, and on the fly, even during rush hour traffic in a container, rail, or harborside terminal.
Prior to the present invention, there was no known method for locating misplaced cargo containers deposited in a container terminal storage area and lost to the CTMS database except by the accidental actual discovery of a misplaced container. Randomly searching for a lost container is impractical, but sometimes necessary, requiring a great expenditure of time.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is a cargo container locating system and method for locating containers in a container storage area wherein the containers each have an identification means which can be remotely machine read and each container repository location in the storage area has an identifiable address. The container terminal has a management system containing a database of information related to container ID numbers and letters and the location of the containers in the terminal area.
The apparatus of the invention includes the transportable machine reader capable of remotely interrogating the identification means on the containers and creating a first electronic signal containing information obtained from the identification means and specific thereto which can be processed by the container terminal management system (CTMS).
A means is provided for generating a second electronic signal which identifies any particular repository address in the storage area and which also can be processed by the CTMS.
A means is provided for transporting the machine reader and the second electronic signal generator together whereby when a container identification means is interrogated, location of the container is correlated with an address in the storage area.
A means is provided for integrat
Ng Thomas
Takehara Toru
Bruce & McCoy
Ellis Christopher P.
McCoy Ernest H.
Paceco Corp.
Tran Khoi H.
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