IP Library › Granted Patent US 12,229,149
Granted Patent B2
US 12,229,149 · App. 18/232,728 · Granted Feb 18, 2025

Systems and methods for predictive augmentation of vehicle service procedures

Inventors: Patrick S. Merg (Hollister, CA); Jacob G. Foreman (Hollister, CA); Todd Mercer (Descanso, CA)
Assignee: SNAP-ON INCORPORATED
G06F16/24575G06F16/248G06F16/738G06F16/783G06Q10/06G06Q10/20G07C5/008G07C5/0808
View Patent ↗
Loading inventors, assignments & file history…
Monitor This Case
Get email alerts when status or documents change.
Order Certified Copies
Most orders are placed with the USPTO same day — all within 24 business hours.
Order via The Patent Place →
Pre-filled with this patent's details
Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,229,149
App. No.
18/232,728
Granted
Feb 18, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

An example method includes receiving a first service procedure including a plurality of procedural steps for servicing a vehicle, identifying at least one procedural step of the plurality of procedural steps to supplement with supplemental service information, receiving information about vehicles sharing one or more attributes with the vehicle, determining at least one piece of supplemental service information to supplement the at least one identified procedural step, and providing a supplemented service procedure comprising the first service procedure with the at least one piece of supplemental service information included with the at least one identified procedural step.

Claims (34)

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a remote server from a client device, a request for a service procedure including a plurality of procedural steps for servicing a vehicle;

supplementing, by the remote server, the service procedure, wherein the supplemented service procedure includes a piece of supplemental service information to supplement a particular procedural step of the service procedure;

providing, by the remote server to the client device, the supplemented service procedure in response to the request; and

providing, by the remote server to the client device, a definition of a trigger event associated with performance of the particular procedural step of the service procedure, wherein the client device displays the piece of supplemental service information in response to detecting an occurrence of the trigger event during performance of the particular procedural step of the service procedure.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the trigger event comprises a technician action associated with the particular procedural step of the service procedure.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the trigger event comprises a vocal input.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the trigger event comprises a detected technician movement.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the trigger event comprises a request for vehicle information.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the trigger event comprises information representative of a current state of the vehicle.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the trigger event is based on captured image data showing the vehicle during performance of the service procedure.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the image data comprises video data received from a camera associated with the client device.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the piece of supplemental service information is overlaid onto the video data as part of an augmented reality (AR) presentation.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the client device is a portable display device which includes the camera.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the portable display device is a head-mountable device (HMD).

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the piece of supplemental service information comprises a metric associated with a vehicle component.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the metric associated with the vehicle component comprises at least one of a torque specification or a torque pattern for at least one fastener of the vehicle component.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the particular procedural step of the service procedure comprises a direction to add a fluid to one of a vehicle component or a vehicle system, and wherein the piece of supplemental service information comprises at least one of a fluid capacity or fluid specifications of the one of the vehicle component or the vehicle system.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the piece of supplemental service information comprises a location in the vehicle of a vehicle component.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the piece of supplemental service information includes a notification to inspect at least one proximate vehicle component.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the piece of supplemental service information includes an indication of availability of at least one vehicle part to be used in performance of the service procedure.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the piece of supplemental service information includes an indication of customer approval of the particular procedural step of the service procedure.

19. A server, comprising:

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory computer-readable data storage device storing computer-readable program instructions, wherein the computer-readable program instructions are executable by the one or more processors to:

receiving, by the server from a client device, a request for a service procedure including a plurality of procedural steps for servicing a vehicle;

supplementing, by the server, the service procedure, wherein the supplemented service procedure includes a piece of supplemental service information to supplement a particular procedural step of the service procedure;

providing, by the server to the client device, the supplemented service procedure in response to the request; and

providing, by the server to the client device, a definition of a trigger event associated with performance of the particular procedural step of the service procedure, wherein the client device displays the piece of supplemental service information in response to detecting an occurrence of the trigger event during performance of the particular procedural step of the service procedure.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored therein instructions, that when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform functions comprising:

receiving, from a client device, a request for a service procedure including a plurality of procedural steps for servicing a vehicle;

supplementing, the service procedure, wherein the supplemented service procedure includes a piece of supplemental service information to supplement a particular procedural step of the service procedure;

providing, to the client device, the supplemented service procedure in response to the request; and

providing, to the client device, a definition of a trigger event associated with performance of the particular procedural step of the service procedure, wherein the client device displays the piece of supplemental service information in response to detecting an occurrence of the trigger event during performance of the particular procedural step of the service procedure.

Assignments (2)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Aug 21, 2023
From: MERG, PATRICK S; FOREMAN, JACOB G; MERCER, TODD
To: SNAP-ON INCORPORATED
Reel/Frame 064650/0135 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Aug 14, 2023
From: MERG, PATRICK S.; FOREMAN, JACOB G.; MERCER, TODD
To: SNAP-ON INCORPORATED
Reel/Frame 064579/0127 →
Continuity (4)
Continuation 17206296 · Mar 19, 2021
Continuation 16244679 · Jan 10, 2019
Continuation 14812941 · Jul 29, 2015
Related Publication 20230385290A1 · Nov 30, 2023
References Cited (137)
US 6263322B1 · Kirkevold et al. · 2001 [cited by applicant]
US 6560516B1 · Baird et al. · 2003 [cited by applicant]
US 6615120B1 · Rother · 2003 [cited by applicant]
US 6714846B2 · Trsar et al. · 2004 [cited by applicant]
US 6768935B1 · Morgan et al. · 2004 [cited by applicant]
US 6845307B2 · Rother · 2005 [cited by applicant]
US 6859699B2 · Carroll et al. · 2005 [cited by applicant]
US 7117194B2 · Costantino et al. · 2006 [cited by applicant]
US 7142960B2 · Grier et al. · 2006 [cited by applicant]
US 7209815B2 · Grier et al. · 2007 [cited by applicant]
US 7209860B2 · Trsar et al. · 2007 [cited by applicant]
US 7363129B1 · Barnicle et al. · 2008 [cited by applicant]
US 7373225B1 · Grier et al. · 2008 [cited by applicant]
US 7373226B1 · Cancilla et al. · 2008 [cited by applicant]
US 7385479B1 · Green et al. · 2008 [cited by applicant]
US 7551993B1 · Cancilla et al. · 2009 [cited by applicant]
US 7555376B2 · Beronja · 2009 [cited by applicant]
US 7698104B2 · Cousin et al. · 2010 [cited by applicant]
US 7739007B2 · Logsdon · 2010 [cited by applicant]
US 7957860B2 · Grier et al. · 2011 [cited by applicant]
US 8005853B2 · Cancilla et al. · 2011 [cited by applicant]
US 8019503B2 · Andreasen et al. · 2011 [cited by applicant]
US 8024083B2 · Chenn · 2011 [cited by applicant]
US 8046251B2 · Scarborough et al. · 2011 [cited by applicant]
US 8068951B2 · Chen et al. · 2011 [cited by applicant]
US 8190749B1 · Chi et al. · 2012 [cited by applicant]
US 8265977B2 · Scarborough et al. · 2012 [cited by applicant]
US 8266066B1 · Wezter et al. · 2012 [cited by applicant]
US 8452629B2 · Chaar et al. · 2013 [cited by applicant]
US 8527441B2 · Singh · 2013 [cited by applicant]
US 8630765B2 · Chen · 2014 [cited by applicant]
US 8825271B2 · Chen · 2014 [cited by applicant]
US 8977423B2 · Merg et al. · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 9014908B2 · Chen et al. · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 9117319B2 · Chen et al. · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 9142066B2 · Chen et al. · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 9369760B2 · Jacobsen · 2016 [cited by examiner]
US 9577866B2 · Rogers et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 10109119B2 · Keane · 2018 [cited by examiner]
US 10216796B2 · Merg · 2019 [cited by examiner]
US 10643158B2 · Merg et al. · 2020 [cited by applicant]
US 10984004B2 · Merg · 2021 [cited by examiner]
US 11755593B2 · Merg · 2023 [cited by examiner]
US 20020007237A1 · Phung et al. · 2002 [cited by applicant]
US 20020007289A1 · Malin et al. · 2002 [cited by applicant]
US 20020065826A1 · Bell et al. · 2002 [cited by applicant]
US 20020082893A1 · Barts et al. · 2002 [cited by applicant]
US 20020138185A1 · Trsar et al. · 2002 [cited by applicant]
US 20020184178A1 · Tasooji et al. · 2002 [cited by applicant]
US 20030004624A1 · Wilson et al. · 2003 [cited by applicant]
US 20030093286A1 · Myers et al. · 2003 [cited by applicant]
US 20030195681A1 · Rother · 2003 [cited by applicant]
US 20040176885A1 · Quinn · 2004 [cited by applicant]
US 20050015186A1 · Kelly et al. · 2005 [cited by applicant]
US 20050085964A1 · Knapp et al. · 2005 [cited by applicant]
US 20050272478A1 · Larson et al. · 2005 [cited by applicant]
US 20060106797A1 · Srinivasa et al. · 2006 [cited by applicant]
US 20060229896A1 · Rosen et al. · 2006 [cited by applicant]
US 20070043487A1 · Krzystofczyk et al. · 2007 [cited by applicant]
US 20080004764A1 · Chinnadurai et al. · 2008 [cited by applicant]
US 20080183351A1 · Grier et al. · 2008 [cited by applicant]
US 20090018890A1 · Werth et al. · 2009 [cited by applicant]
US 20090062977A1 · Brighenti · 2009 [cited by applicant]
US 20090295559A1 · Howell et al. · 2009 [cited by applicant]
US 20090313078A1 · Cross · 2009 [cited by applicant]
US 20090327024A1 · Nielsen et al. · 2009 [cited by applicant]
US 20100063668A1 · Zhang et al. · 2010 [cited by applicant]
US 20100087981A1 · Orozco-Perez · 2010 [cited by examiner]
US 20100179844A1 · LaFerfola et al. · 2010 [cited by applicant]
US 20110035094A1 · Van Den Berg et al. · 2011 [cited by applicant]
US 20110118905A1 · Mylaraswamy et al. · 2011 [cited by applicant]
US 20110153151A1 · Rogers · 2011 [cited by examiner]
US 20110172874A1 · Patnaik et al. · 2011 [cited by applicant]
US 20110213733A1 · Cail, II · 2011 [cited by applicant]
US 20110218703A1 · Uchida · 2011 [cited by applicant]
US 20110238258A1 · Singh et al. · 2011 [cited by applicant]
US 20120040612A1 · Lee et al. · 2012 [cited by applicant]
US 20120245791A1 · Yun et al. · 2012 [cited by applicant]
US 20120303205A1 · Subramania et al. · 2012 [cited by applicant]
US 20130174205A1 · Jacobsen · 2013 [cited by examiner]
US 20130223684A1 · Townsend et al. · 2013 [cited by applicant]
US 20130268310A1 · Wilson · 2013 [cited by applicant]
US 20130275187A1 · Patel · 2013 [cited by applicant]
US 20130304306A1 · Selkirk et al. · 2013 [cited by applicant]
US 20140075356A1 · Gray et al. · 2014 [cited by applicant]
US 20140121888A1 · Guo et al. · 2014 [cited by applicant]
US 20140139332A1 · Mouchet · 2014 [cited by examiner]
US 20140142998A1 · Kroeger et al. · 2014 [cited by applicant]
US 20140207771A1 · Merg · 2014 [cited by examiner]
US 20140277908A1 · Fish et al. · 2014 [cited by applicant]
US 20140278661A1 · Nielsen et al. · 2014 [cited by applicant]
US 20150006018A1 · Tesanovic et al. · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 20150066781A1 · Johnson · 2015 [cited by examiner]
US 20150142255A1 · Gormley · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 20150142491A1 · Webb · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 20150242822A1 · Magara et al. · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 20150371455A1 · Abdel-Rahman et al. · 2015 [cited by applicant]
US 20160100000A1 · Dey et al. · 2016 [cited by applicant]
US 20160148446A1 · Corriere et al. · 2016 [cited by applicant]
US 20160314627A1 · Fish et al. · 2016 [cited by applicant]
US 20170031997A1 · Merg et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 20170076241A1 · Kunde et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 20170173262A1 · Veltz · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 20170301039A1 · Dyer et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 20170372532A1 · Merg et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 20170372533A1 · Merg et al. · 2017 [cited by applicant]
US 20180005199A1 · Abuelsaad et al. · 2018 [cited by applicant]
CN 104025573 · 2014 [cited by applicant]
WO 200217118 · 2002 [cited by applicant]
WO 2004092918 · 2004 [cited by applicant]
WO 2013063232 · 2013 [cited by applicant]
WO 2014001799 · 2014 [cited by applicant]
WO 2017019693 · 2017 [cited by applicant]
Enblom, Gustav, and Hannes Eskebaek. “Real Time Vehicle Diagnostics Using Head Mounted Displays.”. (Year: 2015). [cited by examiner]
Billinghurst, Mark, and Thad Starner. “Wearable devices: new ways to manage information.” Computer 32.1 (1999): 57-64. [cited by examiner]
Cook, C. W., & Sonnenberg, C. (2014). Technology And Online Education: Models For Change. Contemporary Issues in Education Research (CIER), 7(3), 171-188. https://doi.org/10.19030/cier.v7i3.8638Cook, C. W., & Sonnenberg… [cited by examiner]
Ashok, Roy L., and Dharma P. Agrawal. “Next-generation wearable networks.” Computer 36.11 (2003): 31-39 . . . (Year: 2003). [cited by examiner]
Datta, Anik, et al. An abstract for Design and Implementation of An IOT Based Smart Trolley And Billing System For Super Shop. Diss. Faculty of Engineering, American International University—Bangladesh, 2023. (Year: 202… [cited by examiner]
Agarwal, Vivek. “Assessing the benefits of auto-ID technology in the consumer goods industry.” Cambridge, University of Cambridge (2001). (Year: 2001). [cited by examiner]
Rögnvaldsson, Thorsteinn, et al. “Self-monitoring for maintenance of vehicle fleets.” Data mining and knowledge discovery 32 (2018): 344-384. (Year: 2018). [cited by examiner]
Van Der Burg, Robbert-Jan, et al. “Investigating the on-demand service characteristics: an empirical study.” Journal of Service Management 30.6 (2019): 739-765. (Year: 2019). [cited by examiner]
Boose et al., “A Scalable Solution for Integrating Illustrated Parts Drawings into a Class IV Interactive Electronic Technical Manual,” Proceedings of the Seventh Conference on Document Analysis and Recognition (ICDAR'0… [cited by applicant]
Card et al., “Making Statistics Part of Decision Making in an Engineering Organization,” IEEE Software, May-Jun. 2008, pp. 37-47, vol. 25, No. 3, doi: 10.1109/MS.2008.66. [cited by applicant]
Clarke et al., “A Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem With Synchronized Pick-Ups and Drop-Offs: The Case of Medication Delivery and Supervision in the DR Congo,” IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Aug. 2017, p… [cited by applicant]
Cordeau et al., “Scheduling Technicians and Tasks in a Telecommunications Company,” Journal of Scheduling, 2010, pp. 393-409, vol. 13, No. 4. [cited by applicant]
International Searching Authority, International Search Report and Written Opinion mailed on Jul. 26, 2016 issued in connection with International Patent Application No. PCT/US2016/044057 filed on Feb. 2, 2017, 10 pages. [cited by applicant]
Jain et al., “Data Clustering: A Review,” ACM Computing Surveys, Sep. 1999, pp. 264-323, vol. 31, No. 3. [cited by applicant]
Jain et al., “Artificial Neural Networks: A Tutorial,” Computer, IEEE, Mar. 1996, pp. 31-44, vol. 29, No. 3. [cited by applicant]
Liang et al., “A Survey on Big Data Market: Pricing, Trading and Protection,” IEEE Access, 2018, pp. 15132-15154, vol. 6, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2806881. [cited by applicant]
Meghana et al., “Inspection, Identification and Repair Monitoring of Cracked Concrete structure—An Application of Image processing,” Proceedings of the International Conference on Communication and Electronics Systems (… [cited by applicant]
Müller et al., “A Heuristic Approach for Offboard-Diagnostics in Advanced Automotive Systems,” SAE World Congress 2009, Detroit, MI, USA; SAE Document No. 2009-01-1027, Apr. 20, 2009, 9 pages. [cited by applicant]
Pavlopoulos et al., “A Mobile System for Emergency Health Care Provision via Telematics Support—“Ambulance”, ” IEEE, 1998, pp. 150-154. [cited by applicant]
Pillac et al., “On the Dynamic Technician Routing and Scheduling Problem,” HAL open science [Research Report] Ecole des Mines de Nantes, 2012, 18 pages. [cited by applicant]
Solomon, Marius M., “Algorithms for the Vehicle Routing and Scheduling Problems with Time Window Constraints,” Operations Research, 1987, pp. 254-265, vol. 35, No. 2. [cited by applicant]
Toyota, 2012 Toyota Camry Owner's Manual, 2012. [cited by applicant]
Willett et al., “Embedded Data Representations,” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, Jan. 2017, pp. 461-470, vol. 23, No. 1, doi: 10.1109/TVCG.2016.2598608. [cited by applicant]
Xu et al., “Effective Heuristic Procedures for a Field Technician Scheduling Problem,” Journal of Heuristics, 2001, pp. 495-509, vol. 7, No. 5. [cited by applicant]