Patent Description:
When trailers are backed into loading bays, they face several challenges related to location and driver awareness. One problem occurs with the status of the doors on a truck or trailer. In particular, doors on the truck or trailer may not be secured properly and thus be only partially open. During reversing maneuvers, such unsecured doors may be damaged.

Further, it is sometimes desirable for fleet tracking purposes, cargo management purposes and/or facility management purposes to know the location of a vehicle or trailer. Knowing the location of the trailer or vehicle while it is backing up to a loading or unloading facility is sometimes problematic. Specifically, during the backing up into the loading bay, if an overhang exists over the loading bay, this may obscure GPS readings and make it impossible for the trailer to report its location.

Further, even without an overhang, loading bay doors are often very close together and therefore an accurate location of the trailer with regard to the particular loading bay that the trailer has backed into may not be readily apparent. <CIT> discloses an industrial truck, in particular a counterbalanced front forklift truck, which can be operated both manually and automatically. The forklift truck is equipped with a fork to handle pallets and loads located thereon. The forklift truck is equipped for automatic operation with a control system which can be brought into active connection with the vehicle drive system, the vehicle steering system, the vehicle braking system or the movement control system for the fork. The truck further includes a system for the input and storage of possible travel routes and a transport task, a system for the autonomous determination of the position of the vehicle in the room, a system for the control of the movement of the vehicle as a function of its position in the room and of the predefined transport task, a system for detection of the presence, the position, and the orientation of a pallet, a system for the control of the movement of the fork and/or of the vehicle as a function of the position, the orientation of the pallet, and the transport task, and a system for the deceleration of the vehicle in the presence of obstacles. <CIT> discloses a computer-implemented method for mapping, localization and pose correction which includes determining a current position of a vehicle along a travel route and a set of currently observable landmarks along the travel route relative to the current position. <NPL>) discloses an unsupervised method for automatic selection and subsequent recognition of suitable visual landmarks using images acquired by a mobile robot.

According to aspects of the presented disclosure, there are provided a method, a system and computer program as detailed in the appended claims.

The present disclosure provides a method for identifying a loading bay at a facility to which a vehicle is reversing.

The present disclosure further provides a system comprising a sensor apparatus connected with a vehicle and a server.

The present disclosure further provides a computer program.

In vehicle operations, sensor systems may be included on the vehicle and include a plurality of sensor apparatuses operating remotely from a central monitoring station to provide remote sensor data to a management or monitoring hub. For example, one sensor system involves fleet management or cargo management systems. In fleet management or cargo management systems, sensors may be placed on a trailer, shipping container or similar product to provide a central station with information regarding the container. Such information may include, but is not limited to, information concerning the current location of the trailer or shipping container, the temperature inside the shipping container or trailer, or that the doors on the shipping container or trailer are closed, whether a sudden acceleration or deceleration event has occurred, the tilt angle of the trailer or shipping container, among other data.

The sensor apparatus may be secured to a vehicle itself. As used herein, the term vehicle can include any motorized vehicle such as a truck, tractor, car, boat, motorcycle, snow machine, among others, and can further include a trailer, shipping container or other such cargo moving container, whether attached to a motorized vehicle or not.

A sensor apparatus may be any apparatus that is capable of providing data or information from sensors associated with the sensor apparatus to a central monitoring or control station. Sensors associated with the sensor apparatus may either be physically part of the sensor apparatus, for example a built-in global positioning system (GPS) chipset, or may be associated with the sensor apparatus through short range wired or wireless communications. For example, a tire pressure monitor may provide information through a Bluetooth™ Low Energy (BLE) signal from the tire to the sensor apparatus. In other cases, a camera may be part of the sensor apparatus or may communicate with a sensor apparatus through wired or wireless technologies. Other examples of sensors are possible.

A central monitoring station may be any server or combination of servers that are remote from the sensor apparatus. The central monitoring station can receive data from a plurality of sensor apparatuses, and in some cases may have software to monitor such data and provide alerts to operators if data is outside of the predetermined boundaries.

One sensor apparatus is shown with regard to <FIG>. The sensor apparatus of <FIG> is however merely an example and other sensor apparatuses could equally be used in accordance with the examples of the present disclosure.

Reference is now made to <FIG>, which shows an example sensor apparatus <NUM>. Sensor apparatus <NUM> can be any computing device or network node. Such computing device or network node may include any type of electronic device, including but not limited to, mobile devices such as smartphones or cellular telephones. Examples can further include fixed or mobile devices, such as internet of things devices, endpoints, home automation devices, medical equipment in hospital or home environments, inventory tracking devices, environmental monitoring devices, energy management devices, infrastructure management devices, vehicles or devices for vehicles, fixed electronic devices, among others.

Sensor apparatus <NUM> comprises a processor <NUM> and at least one communications subsystem <NUM>, where the processor <NUM> and communications subsystem <NUM> cooperate to perform the methods described herein. Communications subsystem <NUM> may comprise multiple subsystems, for example for different radio technologies.

Communications subsystem <NUM> allows sensor apparatus <NUM> to communicate with other devices or network elements. Communications subsystem <NUM> may use one or more of a variety of communications types, including but not limited to cellular, satellite, Bluetooth™, Bluetooth™ Low Energy, Wi-Fi, wireless local area network (WLAN), near field communications (NFC), ZigBee, wired connections such as Ethernet or fiber, among other options.

As such, a communications subsystem <NUM> for wireless communications will typically have one or more receivers and transmitters, as well as associated components such as one or more antenna elements, local oscillators (LOs), and may include a processing module such as a digital signal processor (DSP). As will be apparent to those skilled in the field of communications, the particular design of the communication subsystem <NUM> will be dependent upon the communication network or communication technology on which the sensor apparatus is intended to operate.

Processor <NUM> generally controls the overall operation of the sensor apparatus <NUM> and is configured to execute programmable logic, which may be stored, along with data, using memory <NUM>. Memory <NUM> can be any tangible, non-transitory computer readable storage medium, including but not limited to optical (e.g., CD, DVD, etc.), magnetic (e.g., tape), flash drive, hard drive, or other memory known in the art.

Alternatively, or in addition to memory <NUM>, sensor apparatus <NUM> may access data or programmable logic from an external storage medium, for example through communications subsystem <NUM>.

In <FIG>, sensor apparatus <NUM> may utilize a plurality of sensors, which may either be part of sensor apparatus <NUM> in some examples or may communicate with sensor apparatus <NUM> in other examples. For internal sensors, processor <NUM> may receive input from a sensor subsystem <NUM>.

Examples of sensors in the example of <FIG> include a positioning sensor <NUM>, a vibration sensor <NUM>, a temperature sensor <NUM>, one or more image sensors <NUM>, accelerometer <NUM>, light sensors <NUM>, gyroscopic sensors <NUM>, and other sensors <NUM>. Other sensors may be any sensor that is capable of reading or obtaining data that may be useful for sensor apparatus <NUM>. However, the sensors shown in the example of <FIG> are merely examples, and in other examples different sensors or a subset of sensors shown in <FIG> may be used.

Communications between the various elements of sensor apparatus <NUM> may be through an internal bus <NUM>. However, other forms of communication are possible.

Sensor apparatus <NUM> may be affixed to any fixed or portable platform. For example, sensor apparatus <NUM> may be affixed to shipping containers, truck trailers, truck cabs. In other examples, sensor apparatus <NUM> may be affixed to any vehicle, including motor vehicles (e.g., automobiles, cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, etc.), aircraft (e.g., airplanes, unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned aircraft systems, drones, helicopters, etc.), spacecraft (e.g., spaceplanes, space shuttles, space capsules, space stations, satellites, etc.), watercraft (e.g., ships, boats, hovercraft, submarines, etc.), railed vehicles (e.g., trains and trams, etc.), and other types of vehicles including any combinations of any of the foregoing, whether currently existing or after arising, among others.

In other cases, sensor apparatus <NUM> could be carried by a user.

In other cases, sensor apparatus <NUM> may be affixed to stationary objects including buildings, lamp posts, fences, cranes, among other options.

Such sensor apparatus <NUM> may be a power limited device. For example sensor apparatus <NUM> could be a battery operated device that can be affixed to a shipping container or trailer in some examples. Other limited power sources could include any limited power supply, such as a small generator or dynamo, a fuel cell, solar power, among other options.

In other examples, sensor apparatus <NUM> may utilize external power, for example from the engine of a tractor pulling the trailer, from a land power source for example on a plugged in recreational vehicle or from a building power supply, among other options.

External power may further allow for recharging of batteries to allow the sensor apparatus <NUM> to then operate in a power limited mode again. Recharging methods may also include other power sources, such as, but not limited to, solar, electromagnetic, acoustic or vibration charging.

The sensor apparatus from <FIG> may be used in a variety of environments. One example environment in which the sensor apparatus may be used is shown with regard to <FIG>.

Referring to <FIG>, three sensor apparatuses, namely sensor apparatus <NUM>, sensor apparatus <NUM>, and sensor apparatus <NUM> are provided.

In the example of <FIG>, sensor apparatus <NUM> may communicate through a cellular base station <NUM> or through an access point <NUM>. Access point <NUM> may be any wireless communication access point.

Further, in some examples, sensor apparatus <NUM> could communicate through a wired access point such as Ethernet or fiber, among other options.

The communication may then proceed over a wide area network such as Internet <NUM> and proceed to servers <NUM> or <NUM>.

Similarly, sensor apparatus <NUM> and sensor apparatus <NUM> may communicate with servers <NUM> or server <NUM> through one or both of the base station <NUM> or access point <NUM>, among other options for such communication.

In other examples, any one of sensors <NUM>, <NUM> or <NUM> may communicate through satellite communication technology. This, for example, may be useful if the sensor apparatus is travelling to areas that are outside of cellular coverage or access point coverage.

In other examples, sensor apparatus <NUM> may be out of range of access point <NUM>, and may communicate with sensor apparatus <NUM> to allow sensor apparatus <NUM> to act as a relay for communications.

Communication between sensor apparatus <NUM> and server <NUM> may be one directional or bidirectional. Thus, in one example sensor apparatus <NUM> may provide information to server <NUM> but server <NUM> does not respond. In other cases, server <NUM> may issue commands to sensor apparatus <NUM> but data may be stored internally on sensor apparatus <NUM> until the sensor apparatus arrives at a particular location. In other cases, two-way communication may exist between sensor apparatus <NUM> and server <NUM>.

A server, central server, processing service, endpoint, Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), Uniform Resource Locator (URL), back-end, and/or processing system may be used interchangeably in the descriptions herein. The server functionality typically represents data processing/reporting that are not closely tied to the location of movable image capture apparatuses <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc. For example, the server may be located essentially anywhere so long as it has network access to communicate with image capture apparatuses <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc..

Server <NUM> may, for example, be a fleet management centralized monitoring station. In this case, server <NUM> may receive information from sensor apparatuses associated with various trailers or cargo containers, providing information such as the location of such cargo containers, the temperature within such cargo containers, any unusual events including sudden decelerations, temperature warnings when the temperature is either too high or too low, among other data. The server <NUM> may compile such information and store it for future reference. It may further alert an operator. For example, a sudden deceleration event may indicate that a trailer may have been in an accident and the operator may need to call emergency services and potentially dispatch another tractor to the location.

In other examples, server <NUM> may be a facilities management server, and direct loading and unloading of goods to vehicles in particular bays of the facility.

Other examples of functionality for server <NUM> are possible.

In the example of <FIG>, servers <NUM> and <NUM> may further have access to third-party information or information from other servers within the network. For example, a data services provider <NUM> may provide information to server <NUM>. Similarly, a data repository or database <NUM> may also provide information to server <NUM>.

For example, data services provider <NUM> may be a subscription based service used by server <NUM> to obtain current road and weather conditions.

Data repository or database <NUM> may for example provide information such as image data associated with a particular location, aerial maps, or other such information.

The types of information provided by data service provider <NUM> or the data repository or database <NUM> is not limited to the above examples and the information provided could be any data useful to server <NUM>.

In some examples, information from data service provider <NUM> or the data repository from database <NUM> can be provided to one or more of sensor apparatuses <NUM>, <NUM>, or <NUM> or processing at those sensor apparatuses.

A sensor apparatus such as that described in <FIG> and <FIG> above may be used for backing up of a trailer, shipping container or other vehicle. Various examples are provided below. In a first example, a camera associated with the sensor apparatus may be used. However, in other examples low-power communication methods including BLE, ZigBee, near field communications, among other short-range wireless communications could be utilized, as described below.

A method and system is provided to provide accurate loading or unloading location information for trailers to improve yard management. Specifically, if the exact location for a trailer becomes known, a trailer yard becomes similar to an airport and the management of trailers into and out of the facility can be more efficiently done, for example through a central monitoring station.

Under normal operation, a trailer and a truck typically have unobstructed views of the sky to obtain accurate GPS location fixes. When a truck is backing up, a second set of location management algorithms may be engaged to improve accuracy and safety. Such algorithms may assist an operator to avoid damage to the trailer or doors by providing alerts. Further, using such algorithms, location accuracy may be improved at loading bays.

A detection of whether a door is secured during backing up is provided. Reference is now made to <FIG>.

The process of <FIG> starts at block <NUM> and proceeds to block <NUM>, in which a check is made to determine whether or not the trailer is backing up. The check at block <NUM> may comprise various techniques. In a first example, sensors may be located on the engine of the tractor pulling the trailer. In this case, when the engine is placed into reverse, the sensors may indicate to a controller or sensor apparatus that the trailer is backing up. In other examples, the trailer may know its orientation and utilize the GPS to determine whether or not it is backing up. In other examples, a sensor apparatus may have a camera which indicates that objects in the rear of the trailer are getting larger and therefore that the trailer is backing up. In other cases, the fact that the trailer has entered a geo-fenced area may indicate that the trailer is, or soon will be, backing up. Other options are possible.

If, at block <NUM>, the check determines that the trailer is not backing up then the process proceeds to loop back to block <NUM> until a determination is made that the trailer is backing up.

Once a determination is made at block <NUM> that the trailer is backing up, the process proceeds to block <NUM> in which a check is made to determine whether the doors of the trailer are secured. In particular, the check at block <NUM> may be accomplished in various ways. In the first example, sensors on the door may indicate if the doors are completely closed or are anchored in an open position. For example, in some examples, the design of a loading bay may necessitate the trailer reversing with the doors pinned to the side of the trailers in a fully open position. In other cases, the trailer should reverse with the doors fully closed.

Various sensors may be part of the doors or latching system or anchoring system which may provide feedback to a sensor apparatus to indicate that the doors are in such a position.

A camera on the door may indicate whether the door is fully closed or fully open. For example, if the camera shows that the image of objects behind the trailer are not completely perpendicular to the direction of motion then the doors may not be fully closed. Similarly, if the objects on the side of the trailer are not moving parallel to the direction of motion, then the doors may not be in a fully open position. Various imaging processing software may be used to make the determination of whether the doors are fully open are fully closed.

A camera may be mounted to the back of the trailer but above the doors. This camera may then be used to detect the position of the doors through image recognition.

Other options for the determination of whether the door is secured would be apparent to those skilled in the art having regard to the present disclosure.

From block <NUM>, if the doors are secured then the process proceeds to block <NUM> and ends.

Conversely, if the doors are not secured and the vehicle is reversing, then the process proceeds from block <NUM> to block <NUM>, in which an alarm is raised. The alarm at block <NUM> may be one or a combination of an audio, visual or sensory alarm within a cab of a tractor to alert the operator that the doors are not closed. In other examples, the alarm may be a signal to a central controller, which may then provide an alert, for example to the loading bay to which the trailer is being backed up, to allow visual or auditory indicators to be provided to the driver or loading bay staff. In other cases, a test or data notification to an in-cab solution or mobile phone may be made. Other options for alerts would be apparent to those skilled in the art having regard to the present disclosure.

Further, in some cases, in addition to an alarm, or instead of an alarm, a processor may take positive action to stop potential damage of the doors. This may include, for example, actuating or overriding braking functions on a vehicle to stop the motion of the vehicle and/or trailer. If the doors can be opened or closed electronically, the functionality may further include closing the doors or opening them fully.

From block <NUM>, the process proceeds to block <NUM> and ends.

Thus, a sensor apparatus on a vehicle may contain a camera or other sensors, including a gyroscope, time-of-flight (TOF), radar, light detection and ranging (LIDAR), among other options. This sensor apparatus may be used to determine if the door is open. If the door is open a series of potential alerts can be sent to the driver or loading bay operator to stop backing up in order to reduce potential door damage, or positive action may be taken without driver input.

Knowledge of the exact bay that a trailer is being reversed into may be desirable at a central station. Such knowledge may allow management of the loading or unloading of the trailer, provide end to end goods tracking at a more refined level, provide which bay the goods were loaded at and which bay the goods were unloaded at, provide for terminal management functionality, among other benefits.

However, it may be difficult to detect in the exact bay that a trailer is being backed into by merely using a GPS sensor on a sensor apparatus. In particular, loading bay doors are often located very close to each other and the level of granularity of the GPS system may not be sufficient to allow the exact determination of the loading bay that the truck or trailer is backing into. For example, in some cases GPS may only be accurate to <NUM> meters, <NUM> meters or even <NUM> meters depending on the quality of the position fix.

In other cases, loading bays are located under an overhang or other obstruction. In this case, the sky is obscured and a GPS fix may be impossible to obtain.

Therefore a visual sensor on the rear of the trailer may be used to take photos or images of the loading bay that is being approached. Specifically, bay doors may, be labelled with a letter, number or code that is highly visible. Optical recognition of the image may then be used to determine which loading bay is being approached. In this case, the accurate location may be used with imperfect GPS location information to determine the exact bay that it is being backed into.

In particular, reference is now made to <FIG>, which shows a perspective view of a facility having three loading bays. Such loading bays are labeled as loading bays <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> in the example of <FIG>.

In the example of <FIG>, a letter is placed on a canopy above each door, shown as letters A, B and C. The use of letters on a canopy however is only one example. In other cases, the door marking may be placed on the building, awning or on a canopy at any location, including above, at the sides or below a door. Further, the marking may be placed on the door itself.

The marking may be a letter, number or other code that could be detected and would be visible in an image of the door.

Reference is now made to <FIG>, which shows one process for the determination of a location at the sensor apparatus. In particular, the process of <FIG> starts at block <NUM> and proceeds to block <NUM> in which a determination is made as to whether the trailer or vehicle is backing up. The determination of block <NUM> may be done similarly to the determination made at block <NUM> above.

If the vehicle is not backing up, the process proceeds back to block <NUM> until a determination is made that the vehicles is backing up.

Once a determination is made that the vehicle is backing up, the process may optionally proceed to block <NUM>. In block <NUM>, a determination is made of whether the vehicle is within a threshold proximity to a bay door. This may be done, for example, through visual processing indicating that there is a bay door behind the trailer and that the trailer is within a certain distance of the day door. In particular, in some cases the trailer may be backing up for other reasons, including parking in a trailer yard, among other options. In this case the determination of a bay door is not relevant.

Further, in some cases the vehicle may not be able to back straight into a bay. For example, the backup path may involve turning the trailer during reversing. In this case, image capture while the bay door is not within a captured image may be irrelevant. Therefore, in the determination at block <NUM>, if the vehicle is not within proximity to a bay door or not facing the door, then the process may proceed back to block <NUM> to determine whether or not the vehicle is continuing to backup.

Once the vehicle is within a proximity and visual range of the door, or if block <NUM> is omitted, the process proceeds to block <NUM> in which an image is captured. The image capture may occur, for example, utilizing a camera sensor on the trailer. However, the camera sensor may be located on the tractor with a view behind the vehicle. The camera may be part of the sensor apparatus or may be communicating with the sensor apparatus.

Once the image is captured, in accordance with the example of <FIG>, the sensor apparatus may process the image at block <NUM>. The processing of the image may utilize any image processing techniques including symbol detection to detect the symbol around the bay door. Alternatively, the sensor apparatus may send the image to a server for processing, and as discussed herein, processing steps may be performed at the sensor apparatus and/or a server system.

Further, in some cases supplementary information may be used to assist the image processing. For example, information such as the location of the vehicle may be utilized to focus the image processing. Specifically, the sensor apparatus, through sensors on a trailer, may know at least a rough estimate of the location of the trailer. and therefore may know the facility that it is at. Supplemental information may further include information such as the orientation of the trailer, a tilt angle of the trailer, other images recently captured by the image capture device, among other supplemental information. The use of such information may be beneficial in image processing to narrow the possible bay doors that the trailer may be at. Supplemental information may further include a map overlay of information relating to the specific location and identification of bay doors on a more general purpose map. Such supplemental information may be used to allow the image processing to locate the bay markings. For example, the facility may have bay markings on the left of the bay door, and the marking may be numbers. Knowledge of such information may allow for better accuracy in identifying the bay. Other examples of supplementary information may include a last position fix for the vehicle, stored information regarding types of markings on loading bays at the facility, stored information regarding location of markings on loading bays at the facility, physical characteristics of the facility, a bearing the loading bay is facing.

In other cases, if the facility is not known, data from the image may be compared with data stored locally or in a remote database. In this case, a lookup may be performed based on information within the image, such as the type of marking, the location of marking, facility color, whether the bay doors include a canopy or awning, whether the driveway is paved, among other information that may assist the image processing.

The information about the facility may be stored at the sensor apparatus, or may be obtained from a remote store.

In some cases, no supplementary information is available, and the image processing at block <NUM> relies solely on the image captured at block <NUM>.

Any symbol recognition software or algorithm may be utilized to facilitate the image processing at block <NUM>. User input may assist such image processing.

Based on the processing at block <NUM>, a bay is identified and the process proceeds to block <NUM>. At block <NUM> the identification of the bay into which the trailer is reversing is sent/signaled/transmitted to a central location. The signaling at block <NUM> is however optional. In some cases, instead of signaling, the information may be stored on the sensor apparatus for later processing. Other options are possible.

From block <NUM> the process proceeds to block <NUM> and ends.

The image processing occurs at a remote location. Reference is now made to <FIG>.

In the example of <FIG>, a sensor apparatus on the vehicle starts the process at block <NUM> and proceeds to block <NUM> in which a determination is made of whether the trailer or truck or vehicle is backing up. Such determination is similar to the determinations made at blocks <NUM> and <NUM> described above.

The process may then optionally proceed to block <NUM> in which a determination is made whether the trailer is within a proximity and visual range of the loading bay. This is similar to the process described above with regard to block <NUM> above.

From block <NUM>, the process proceeds to block <NUM> in which an image of the loading bay door that the trailer or vehicle is backing into is captured.

From block <NUM> the process proceeds to block <NUM> in which image is transmitted to a central server. In particular, the image data may comprise one or more pictures or may comprise a video of the trailer backing into the loading bay.

The image data has other supplemental information included. Such supplemental information includes location data for the last position fix of the trailer, which is utilized to narrow the potential locations that the trailer is backing into. Supplemental information further includes information such as the orientation of the trailer, and may further include a tilt angle of the trailer, other images recently captured by the image capture device, among other supplemental information.

Referring to <FIG>, on the central monitoring side the process starts at block <NUM> and proceeds to block <NUM>. At block <NUM>, the central server receives the image data, which includes supplemental data such as location data sent by a trailer.

The process then proceeds to block <NUM> in which the image is processed. Such processing involves deriving information from the image. For example, through a database at the central monitoring station or accessible to the central monitoring station, a lookup is performed based on information within the image, such as the type of marking, the location of marking, facility color, whether the bay doors include a canopy or awning, whether the driveway is paved, among other information that may assist the image processing.

The processing at block <NUM> may further use information that was sent in conjunction with the image data, such as the last position fix from the vehicle, previous image data, identity of the sensor apparatus unit, or other such information to further facilitate the processing.

The processing at block <NUM> allows a bay that the trailer is backed into to be determined. This information may be stored or associated with the particular trailer for future use. It may also be used by management or coordination software for the particular facility to enable operations or optimize the facility utilization at the particular loading bay facility.

The process then proceeds to block <NUM> and ends.

In still further examples lying outside the scope of the claims, instead of using visual data, other sensor data may be utilized to determine which bay the vehicle is backing into. For example, short range communications may be utilized to provide information on the bay that the vehicle is backing into.

Reference is now made to <FIG> which shows a perspective view of an example loading bay facility having three loading bays.

In the example of <FIG>, short range communications transmitters <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM> are placed above each loading bay door. For example, such sensors may be short range wireless transmitters such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth™, BLE, ZigBee, near field communication, among other options. However, in other examples, the transmitters may be placed at other locations relative to the loading bays.

A sensor apparatus on a trailer may look for the signals transmitted by transmitters <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM> and determine which signal is the strongest. Based on the strength indicator, the sensor apparatus on the trailer may know which is the closest transmitter and therefore which bay the trailer has backed into.

Specifically transmitter <NUM> may be a Bluetooth™ Low Energy transmitter in which a preamble or other signal characteristic is different from the preambles or signal characteristics from transmitter <NUM> and <NUM>.

Transmitters <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM> may be calibrated to provide the same power level when transmitting. Alternatively, the transmitters at a location may be fingerprinted, or otherwise characterized for later processing. For example, certain transmitters may be stronger or less powerful than others. Knowing this information, the sensor apparatus may understand that each location has a particular profile and that adjustments can be applied. Moreover, the system may feed back information about a location to be analyzed and sent back to other devices that may happen upon the location. The profiles/fingerprints for locations may be stored at a server and sent to the sensor apparatus. If a destination for a sensor apparatus is determined, then profiles for that location may be sent to the sensor apparatus before, en route, or after arrival. Alternatively, the sensor apparatus may request a location's profile.

Therefore, a sensor on the trailer may detect signals from the three transmitters but determine that the signal from transmitter <NUM> is the strongest. The sensor may therefore read the preamble from the transmitter <NUM> and report that this signal was received with the strongest signal power level to a central controller.

Reference is now made to <FIG>. In particular, the process of <FIG> starts at block <NUM> and proceeds to block <NUM> in which a determination is made that the trailer is backing up. Such determination is similar to the determination made in blocks <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> above.

From block <NUM> the process proceeds to block <NUM> in which a determination is made whether the trailer detects one or more signals from a bay. Thus, if the trailer is not backing into a facility that includes wireless communications to indicate bay doors, the detection at block <NUM> may not exist. Therefore, if no signal is detected the process proceeds to block <NUM> and ends.

If one or more location signals are detected at block <NUM> then the process proceeds to block <NUM> in which a strongest signal is determined.

From block <NUM> the process may proceed to block <NUM>, in which the strongest signal and information from within that signal is reported to a central monitoring station. Alternatively, the process may proceed from block <NUM> to block <NUM> in which the determination of the bay is made at the sensor apparatus and the particular bay that the trailer is backing into is then reported at block <NUM>.

From blocks <NUM> or <NUM> the process proceeds to block <NUM> and ends.

Referring again to <FIG>, in some examples, a low-range transmitter such as transmitters <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM> may exist. Such low-range transmitters may only have a range of a few centimeters, inches, meters or feet. In this case, a corresponding sensor on the trailer may be located in a position that, when the trailer is close enough to transmitters <NUM>, <NUM> or <NUM>, the sensor apparatus can detect such transmitters and report that it is close to that particular bay. In this case, the distance the transmitter can be detected may be smaller than the width of the bay door, and thus only the transmitter on the bay door that the trailer is reversing into is detected.

Therefore in accordance with the examples of <FIG> and <FIG>, instead of a camera, a low-power local network such as BLE, ZigBee, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth™, near field communications, or other radiofrequency identification may be used to determine the bay at which the vehicle is now parked. The cost of installing such small transmitter devices used to broadcast the door name or identity and its GPS location may be low in many cases.

The information provided based on the location could therefore substitute inaccurate GPS location information and provide for the accurate determination of which loading bay the trailer has backed into. Again, such information may be utilized by a central controller or an operations management controller for a particular facility in order to optimize operations, provide end-to-end tracking of goods, or be used with other factors which may be useful for the shipping or trailer industry.

The examples described herein are examples of structures, systems or methods having elements corresponding to elements of the techniques of this application.

In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be employed. Moreover, the separation of various system components in the implementation descried above should not be understood as requiring such separation in all implementations, and it should be understood that the described program components and systems can generally be integrated together in a signal software product or packaged into multiple software products.

Except where otherwise described as such, a server, central server, service, processing service, endpoint, Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), Uniform Resource Locator (URL), back-end, and/or processing system may be used interchangeably in the descriptions and examples herein. Mesh networks and processing may also be used alone or in conjunction with other types as well as fog computing. Moreover, communication may be from device to device, wherein they may use low power communication (e.g., Bluetooth, Wi-Fi), and/or a network, to communicate with other devices to get information.

Typically, storage mediums can include any or some combination of the following: a semiconductor memory device such as a dynamic or static random access memory (a DRAM or SRAM), an erasable and programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable and programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) and flash memory; a magnetic disk such as a fixed, floppy and removable disk; another magnetic medium including tape; an optical medium such as a compact disk (CD) or a digital video disk (DVD); or another type of storage device. Note that the instructions discussed above can be provided on one computer-readable or machine-readable storage medium, or alternatively, can be provided on multiple computer-readable or machine-readable storage media distributed in a large system having possibly plural nodes. Such computer-readable or machine-readable storage medium or media is (are) considered to be part of an article (or article of manufacture). The storage medium or media can be located either in the machine running the machine-readable instructions, or located at a remote site from which machine-readable instructions can be downloaded over a network for execution.

Claim 1:
A method for identifying a loading bay towards which a vehicle is reversing, wherein the vehicle is a trailer and wherein the loading bay (<NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>) is located at a facility, the method comprising:
determining (<NUM>), at a sensor apparatus (<NUM>, <NUM>) connected with the vehicle, that the vehicle is reversing;
capturing (<NUM>), at the sensor apparatus (<NUM>, <NUM>), an image of the loading bay into which the vehicle is reversing;
transmitting (<NUM>), by the sensor apparatus (<NUM>, <NUM>), the image in conjunction with supplemental information to a server (<NUM>, <NUM>), wherein the supplemental information comprises location data for a last position fix of the vehicle and the orientation of the vehicle;
receiving (<NUM>), by the server (<NUM>, <NUM>), the image and the supplemental information;
processing (<NUM>) the image by using image recognition to identify at least one marking on the loading bay;
performing a lookup procedure through a database, the lookup procedure being based on the identified at least one marking to determine the identity of the loading bay, wherein the supplemental information is utilized to narrow the potential locations that the vehicle is backing into;
determining the identity of the loading bay towards which the vehicle is reversing; and
determining a location of the vehicle based on the determined identity of the loading bay.