Urea Monitoring And Replenishment Scheduling of Vehicles

Abstract

Urea supply information with is integrated with vehicle location, routing and urea consumption information to generate driver guidance for obtaining urea resupply or, at a minimum, automatically generating orders to position supplies of urea at a target location.

1 . For a vehicle equipped with an internal combustion engine and an exhaust after-treatment system using urea, a urea replenishment management system comprising:
 a position determining unit installed on the vehicle;   a urea tank and urea tank fill level sensor;   a remote server having access to geographic information including locations providing urea replenishment for vehicles;   a body computer installed on the vehicle and coupled to receive data from the position determining unit and the urea tank fill level sensor and to receive inputs from and display information on driver input/output interface;   a communications system link between the remote server and the body computer;   the remote server being responsive to vehicle location and urea tank fill levels for providing urea supply locations over the communications system link to the body computer for display on the driver input/output interface.   
   
   
       2 . The urea replenishment management system of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 the remote server further providing analysis of available urea replenishment locations with vehicle location, vehicle destination and routing information to generate driver guidance to the driver for obtaining urea resupply for display on the driver input/output interface.   
   
   
       3 . The urea replenishment management system of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 the remote server being further programmed to generate orders for delivery of urea to locations accessible from a vehicle's projected route.   
   
   
       4 . The urea replenishment management system of  claim 3 , further comprising:
 the remote server tracking fuel consumption against urea tank fill levels and estimating vehicle operating range based on urea reserves.   
   
   
       5 . The urea replenishment management system of  claim 4 , further comprising the body computer providing for removing, adding and reordering a destination list. 
   
   
       6 . A method of managing replenishment of urea on a diesel engine equipped vehicle using urea for exhaust after treatment, the method comprising the steps of:
 periodically updating a list of destinations for the vehicle;   determining routes for the truck from the list of destinations and a geography information system;   monitoring urea tank fill levels and estimating remaining range of vehicle operation as a function of urea consumption and reserves; and   generating for display a list of supply depots keyed to the determined routes for the vehicle driver.   
   
   
       7 . A method of managing replenishment of urea as claimed in  claim 6 , comprising the additional step of:
 responsive to indication that no supply depot is acceptable, ordering delivery of a supply of urea to a designated location for use in replenishing the vehicle.   
   
   
       8 . A data integration system for motor vehicle urea replenishment servicing, comprising:
 a central database of urea service facilities located across a geographic area and availability of urea at the urea service facilities;   a plurality of vehicles requiring periodic urea servicing traversing the geographic area; and   a communication system linking the plurality of vehicles to the central database allowing the vehicles to indicate a need for urea replenishment and the central database to distribute to the vehicles individualized lists of prospective urea service facilities.   
   
   
       9 . A data integration system as claimed in  claim 8 , further comprising:
 the plurality of vehicles including data processing facilities allowing generation and updating of a list of destinations.   
   
   
       10 . A data integration system as claimed in  claim 9 , further comprising:
 the central database providing routes for each vehicle based on the list of destinations and responsive to forecast need for urea replenishment.   
   
   
       11 . A data integration system as claimed in  claim 10 , further comprising: means for ordering positioning of urea for a vehicle.