Abstract:
A monitoring apparatus for tanks and the like, comprising detecting means ( 4; 506 ) to detect the filling level of a tank, detecting means ( 5, 106; 206 ) to detect the opened and closed states of opening/closing means ( 6 ) of said tank, and gathering and processing means ( 106 ) to gather and process the detected data, characterized in that said processing means ( 106 ) are integrated with an RFID unit ( 116 ) which can communicate said data with at least one appropriate remote transceiver unit ( 7 ).

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application claims priority to Italian Patent Application No. GE2006A000106, filed Nov. 10, 2006, and to Italian Patent Application No. GE2007A000022, filed Feb. 28, 2007, the contents of both of which, including any intervening amendments to these applications, are incorporated herein by reference. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0003]    The present invention relates to a monitoring apparatus for tanks and the like, and particularly it relates to an apparatus for monitoring tanks of motor vehicles. 
         [0004]    2. Description of the Prior Art 
         [0005]    The control of the quantity of fluid contained in a tank and of the modes of charge and discharge thereof is of noticeable importance, especially in the transport field. More typically, a careful control of the fuel consumption is a key factor in the cost control, and it is hence important to avoid that the fuel can be stolen. One of the main problems is due to the fact that the control of accesses to the tanks should be carried out independently of the driver, who may often be responsible, or at least partially responsible, for the fuel thefts performed to the detriment of the transport company. Therefore, it is not sufficient to just connect the means of access to the tank, i.e. the filler cap, to the vehicle&#39;s anti-theft device, as this device may still be switched off; more specifically there is a need for a filler cap provided with a device capable of signalling its state. 
         [0006]    Systems which sense the presence or absence of a filler cap on the mouthpiece of a vehicle tank are already known in the art, for example from EP-B1-1052131; however, these systems are structured in such a way as to signal the opening state of the filler cap only to the interior of the vehicle, and furthermore there is currently no way of establishing when the opening took place and how long it lasted. During the research that led to the present invention, we have considered devices comprising an integrated microcontroller provided with an RFID interface and a non-volatile memory, which can be conveniently adapted according to the aforementioned requirements, so that information relative to the filler cap state can be both stored and transmitted. 
         [0007]    Moreover, it would be useful, for a much more complete analysis of the history of the fluid contained in a tank, to have the possibility of monitoring also the actual content of the tank. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0008]    Therefore, an aim of the present invention is to provide an apparatus comprising means capable of sensing the time of removal of the filler cap and the duration of such removal. 
         [0009]    Another aim of the present invention is an apparatus capable of monitoring tanks and the like, in which it is possible obtain information regarding both the opened or closed state of the filler cap and the filling state of the tank, with an opportune correlation. 
         [0010]    Accordingly, the object of the present invention is a monitoring apparatus for tanks and the like, comprising detecting means to detect the opened and closed states of opening/closing means of said tank, and gathering and processing means to gather and process the detected data, characterized in that said processing means are integrated with a radio frequency identification unit which can communicate said data with at least one suitable remote transceiver unit. 
         [0011]    Another object of the present invention is an apparatus as above described, in which are also provided means to detect the filling level of a tank, cooperating with the said gathering and processing means. 
         [0012]    In a first embodiment, said tank is provided with a filler cap having means to detect its opened/closed state with respect to the mouthpiece of said tank, said filler cap being provided with a data processing unit integrated with a radio frequency identification unit, said filler cap being further provided with means to detect the level of fluid in the tank, said data processing unit being able to collect a set of data regarding the opened/closed state of the filler cap, the opening/closing event of the filler cap and the level of fluid in the tank, such set of data being available to a remote receiver. The data processing unit is provided with a powering circuit. 
         [0013]    Preferably, said filler cap comprises two portions which are coupled to each other and can be in relative motion with each other, said relative motion being associated with the opened or closed state of said filler cap. Specifically, one of the said portions is provided with a permanent magnet, said sensing means comprising a Hall effect sensor. 
         [0014]    Alternatively, said portions are coupled to switching means which can switch on or switch off a circuit component of the powering circuit of said data processing unit, said circuit component being adapted to modify the electrical features of the power supply for said data processing unit. 
         [0015]    In another embodiment, the data processing unit is arranged in the filler cap and communicates with the detecting means for the opened/closed state of the filler cap, which detecting means are also located in the filler cap, while the detecting means for the level of fluid in the tank are arranged inside the tank itself and communicate with said data processing unit through appropriate transmission means. In the specific case of a vehicle tank, the detecting means for the level of fluid in the tank are interfaced to the central processing unit of the vehicle itself, and the CAN/LIN (Controller Area Network/Local Interconnect Network) network of the vehicle, which connects the various devices to the central processing unit, comprises an RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) type transceiver unit capable of communicating with the RFID unit integrated into the data processing means. 
         [0016]    In this case, according to the selected embodiment, the central processing unit can control the data gathering process of the apparatus and, in the same time, it can generate a table containing data about the state of the filler cap and the fuel level of the tank within its processing unit, so as to send them to the filler cap once they have been registered, or it can simply supply the cap with periodical updates about the fuel level in the tank, leaving the data correlation to the processing unit of the filler cap. 
         [0017]    In a further embodiment, the detecting means for the state of the opening/closing means of the tank can be arranged outside the filler cap. In particular, if the filler cap if provided with a processing unit integrated with a Radio Frequency IDentification unit, this RFID unit can be in communication with another RFID unit, like the unit mentioned in the above-described embodiment, and hence the displacement between the two units can be interpreted by the logic of the apparatus as an opening event of the cap itself. The resulting data can then be correlated with the data about the fluid level in the tank in a similar fashion as before. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0018]    Other advantages and features of the apparatus according to the present invention will be apparent from the following description of certain embodiments thereof, which are provided by way of illustration, and not by way of limitation, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: 
           [0019]      FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram depicting the filler cap according to the present invention in a closed state; 
           [0020]      FIG. 2  is a view similar to that of  FIG. 1 , but with the filler cap in an opened state; 
           [0021]      FIG. 3  is a schematic block diagram showing the gathering and processing means included in the filler cap of the invention; 
           [0022]      FIG. 4  is a schematic block diagram showing an embodiment of the apparatus according to the present invention; 
           [0023]      FIG. 5  is a schematic diagram showing the logic of a device of the apparatus according to the invention; 
           [0024]      FIG. 6  is a schematic diagram showing a first alternative embodiment of a device of the apparatus according to the invention; and 
           [0025]      FIG. 7  is a schematic diagram showing a second alternative embodiment of a device of the apparatus according to the invention. 
       
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0026]      FIG. 1  is a schematic plant view of a filler cap, designated with the reference numeral  10 ; reference numeral  1  denotes a micro-controller, that is to say the gathering and processing means according to the present invention, which is arranged in an innermost portion  11  of the filler cap  10 . This portion  11  is relatively free to move with respect to an outermost portion  12  of the filler cap  10 . The microcontroller  1  is provided with two contacts  101 , externally projecting from the portion  11  and cooperating, as shown in  FIG. 2 , with a metal plate  17  which is arranged on the portion  12  of the filler cap  10 . Furthermore, the portion  11  has two cavities  13  and  16  arranged at a given angle to each other; as can be noted, in the condition shown in  FIG. 1 , which corresponds to the closed state of the cap  10  on the tank (not shown), the cavity  13  is occupied by a sphere  14  projecting from the portion  12  due to a spring  15 . 
         [0027]    In  FIG. 2 , in which like reference numerals refer to like elements, it can be viewed how a rotation imparted to the filler cap to open it results in a relative rotation between the portions  11  and  12 , so that the contacts  101  are now cooperating with the metal plate  17  and the sphere  14  is now located in the cavity  16 . 
         [0028]      FIG. 3  shows schematically the microcontroller  1 ; as can be noted, in addition to the above described contacts  101 , it comprises a processor  201  which incorporates a memory unit  211  and an interface RFID  221 , connected to an antenna  301 . The processor  201  is powered by a battery  401 , which is also connected to a resistor  501 ; the contacts  101  are inserted in the circuit branch where the resistor  501  is located. 
         [0029]      FIG. 4  shows a diagram illustrating a further embodiment of the apparatus according to the present invention; in this embodiment, the apparatus is applied to motor vehicles and their tanks. Reference numeral  20  designates the electronic central processing unit of the motor vehicle, which unit is connected, through a CAN/LIN network  2 , to peripheral devices  3  and  4  which detect specific data of the vehicle; in particular, the peripheral device  4  can be a fuel level sensor located in the tank of the motor vehicle. Also connected to the network  2  is an RFID card  5 , the logical scheme thereof being shown in  FIG. 5 , which can communicate with an RFID unit integrated in a microcontroller  106  of a filler cap  6 . A remote transceiver unit  7  is in turn capable of communicating with the RFID unit of the filler cap  6 . As shown in  FIG. 2 , the RFID card  5  includes an interface  105  to the CAN/LIN network, an RFID transceiver  205 , and an antenna  215 . 
         [0030]      FIG. 6  shows a first alternative embodiment of the device incorporated in the filler cap  6 . The microcontroller  106 , provided with an integrated RFID unit  116  and connected to an antenna  126 , is powered by a battery  306 . The microcontroller  106  is also connected to a sensor  206 , such as a Hall sensor, to sense the state of the filler cap, so as to detect the displacement of a permanent magnet in the movable portion of the filler cap, and hence to communicate the opening/closing event to the microcontroller  106 . The circuit also includes a resistor  406 . 
         [0031]    The circuit in  FIG. 7  represents another alternative embodiment of the device incorporated in the filler cap  6 ; like reference numerals refer to like elements. In this embodiment, the filler cap  6  comprises, along with the sensor  206 , a sensor  506  capable of sensing the fluid level in the tank; the two sensors are coupled to the microcontroller  106  through a multiplexer  606 . 
         [0032]    The operation of the apparatus according the present invention will be clear from the following. When the filler cap is on the tank mouthpiece, the portions  11  and  12  are relatively positioned to each other as shown in  FIG. 1 ; in this way, as shown in  FIG. 3 , the power supplied to the processor  201  by the battery will have the highest current intensity. On the contrary, when the filler cap is opened and the relative position of the portions  11  and  12  of the filler cap  10  is as shown in  FIG. 2 , with the contacts  101  connected to each other by the metal plate  17 , there will be a noticeable change in the current intensity and/or tension detected by the processor  201 , and the processor  201  will initiate a procedure of storage of the opening event, which procedure will finish only when the cap  10  is again positioned according to the configuration depicted in  FIG. 1 . The stored data, which report the date, time and duration of the opening, can then easily be read by an external reader cooperating with the RFID unit of the microcontroller, through the antenna  301 . 
         [0033]    Advantageously, blocking means, such as the cavities  13  and  16  and the sphere  14  loaded by the spring  15 , are provided in order to avoid accidental relative displacements of the portions  11  and  12  of the filler cap  10 . It is obvious that the microcontroller is capable of working together with an RFID system arranged in the interior of the vehicle. 
         [0034]    In the embodiment illustrated in  FIGS. 4 to 7 , the apparatus is capable of gathering all the information about the opened/closed state of the filler cap of a tank and about the quantity of fluid contained in the tank, simply through a RFID card which is suitably interfaced to the detection means of the fluid quantity in the tank, and which is capable of communicating with the RFID unit integrated in the cap. Based on the relative displacement between the two RFID units, the apparatus can detect the opening and closing of the filler cap and combine both data in the processing unit of the microcontroller arranged in the filler cap in order to obtain a comprehensive database. 
         [0035]    Of course, when the subject tank is that of a motor vehicle, it is clear that the apparatus can rely on a previously existing data transmission network, i.e. the CAN/LIN network  2 , which transfers information from the various peripheral devices of the vehicle to the central processing unit  20 ; in order to allow a continuous implementation, this network can include a series of accessible nodes in which the RFID card  5  can be inserted in a parallel fashion. The card  5  can then easily acquire data about the state of the tank, and hence various operative solutions can be configured. 
         [0036]    The first is the one aforementioned: the central processing unit  20  interrogates the filler cap  6  and establishes if the filler cap is closed or opened based on whether the microcontroller RFID  106  arranged in the filler cap responds to the RFID card  5  of the network. If the filler cap  6  is closed and near the card  5 , it can answer to the transceiver, which will understand that the filler cap is closed and in place; if the filler cap is opened and far from the card, it cannot answer to the transceiver, which will understand that the filler cap  6  is opened and not in place. This information can be easily correlated with the information on the fuel level, already present in the central processing unit  20  itself, and can then be collected together with the information on the filler cap  6  either in the central processing unit  20  or in the microcontroller  106  located in the filler cap  6 , from which it can be transmitted to the remote transceiver  7 . 
         [0037]    In another alternative embodiment, as shown in  FIG. 7 , the filler cap contains, along with the sensor  206  to detect the (opened/closed) state of the filler cap, a sensor  506  to detect the fuel level in the tank. Such sensor is connected to the same analog interface of the microcontroller  106  through the multiplexer  606 , which allows selecting one of the sensors at a time. Now the filler cap can store a table containing the following information: “Cap Open/Closed-Event Date-Fuel Level” and can be read by an external transceiver (gateway, hand-held device, etc. . . .) or communicate with the central processing unit through a transceiver (RFID card) inside the vehicle and connected to the CAN/LIN network of the vehicle itself. 
         [0038]    In the other alternative embodiment, as shown in  FIG. 6 , the filler cap  6  is provided with the sensor  206 , but not with a sensor for the fuel level; in this case, the apparatus can operate according to different modes. In the first mode, the cap contains the table: “Cap Open/Closed-Event Date,” and the fuel level is transmitted from the central processing unit  20  which interrogates the filler cap through the RFID card  5 . The central processing unit  20  interrogates the filler cap  6  on a cyclic basis; when the filler cap shows a state transition, e.g. from a closed state to an opened state, the central processing unit stores a table containing the following information: “Cap Open-Event Date-Fuel Level” in its internal memory by reading the portion “Cap Open-Event Date” from the cap and the portion “Fuel Level” from the CAN/LIN network. The central processing unit  20  continues to interrogate the filler cap  6 ; when the cap signals the closing event, the central processing unit stores a table containing the following information: “Cap Closed-Event Date-Fuel Level” by obtaining the information in a similar fashion to the “Opening” event. Also in this alternative embodiment, of course, the filler cap can communicate with the remote transceiver  7  through the RFID unit  116 . 
         [0039]    In the second case, the data collection, i.e. the data table, is contained in the microcontroller  106  of the cap  6  and not in the logical scheme of the central processing unit  20 . The operation is substantially the same as in the previous case; the central processing unit  1  writes the information “Fuel Level” in the memory of the cap and correlates it to the information “Cap Open-Event Date”. A third possibility involves that the data collection is stored both in the memory of the central processing unit and in the memory of the microcontroller of the filler cap. 
         [0040]    It is absolutely clear that the different potential uses of the apparatus according to the present invention can be perfectly suited to different needs; indeed, the apparatus can be used in such a way that the driver of the vehicle provided with the apparatus cannot view the data, which can be only retrieved through a remote RFID unit, or the apparatus can be fully integrated into the controls available as on-board instrumentation. 
         [0041]    The apparatus according to the present invention offers a wide range of potential applications which are not merely limited to motor vehicles, as it can be adapted, through modifications that do not alter its core characteristics, to almost every fluid container that requires a constant control over its content.