Patent ID: 9256849
Filing Date: 2016-02-09
CPC Classification: E21B,E21D,G06Q,H04W

Claim Text:
1. A method executed by a computer for evaluating a quality of a locate operation to identify a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility at a work site pursuant to an instruction to a field-service technician, the computer comprising at least one hardware processor, at least one tangible storage medium, and at least one input/output (I/O) interface, the method comprising: A) receiving, via the at least one I/O interface, first information describing at least one act of the field-service technician following issuance of the instruction to the field-service technician, the first information comprising an electronic manifest of the locate operation, wherein the electronic manifest is generated by a portable electronic device used by the field-service technician to create the electronic manifest, the portable electronic device comprising a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver for providing a current location of the GNSS receiver, wherein the portable electronic device automatically obtains an aerial image based on the current location and determines a centroid of the aerial image, the electronic manifest comprising: B) electronically analyzing the first information, comprising: C) automatically generating, based on B), at least one indication of a quality assessment of the locate operation, comprising: D) electronically storing on the at least one tangible storage medium, and/or electronically transmitting via the at least one I/O interface, the at least one indication of the quality assessment so as to provide an electronic record of the quality assessment.