Field of the Invention

In general, the present invention relates to controlling and monitoring of a vehicle washing system. More particularly, the present invention relates to end-to-end health monitoring of an intelligent vehicle washing system.

Background of the Invention

With the increase in number of private automobiles, the vehicle washing industry has transitioned from conventional manual vehicle washing to vehicle washing by machines in the last decade. Automation for vehicle washing has been widely adapted by such industries for enabling automatic vehicle washing that reduces reducing washing time, requires minimum human intervention for its operation and provides convenience and comfort to the user.

Currently, it is known that such automatic vehicle washing system provides features such as fee payment, vehicle parking inside the vehicle washing compartment, vehicle washing by employing automatic operation of various components inside the washing compartment as controlled by the Programmable Logical Controller (PLC) unit, and once the vehicle washing is finished, the vehicle is taken out of the system. Through this, a user is able to get his vehicle washed automatically in minimum time and enjoys corresponding advantages of convenience and comfort.

Since the efficiency of the automatic vehicle washing system heavily relies on the regular performance of the components and washing processes, therefore, it is pertinent that the efficiency and functioning of the parts of the washing system are regularly monitored so as to avoid sudden breakdown of the system or compromising washing quality due to malfunctioned components.

The monitoring and controlling of one or more components configured for carrying out the washing operation in the vehicle washing system is known but there is still a gap in the ability of the traditional washing systems to suggest proper corrective measures in real time, thereby, unable to detect technical issues in real time and hence the problem is not solved immediately. Even the vehicle washing systems which are capable of monitoring the condition of its one or more components for detecting the impending failure, but they are not capable enough to the suggest appropriate measure to be taken for avoiding such failure. Even the ones suggesting the action to be taken to avoid the failure, those actions are very ordinary and hence, such automatic system still requires human assistance for solving the problem. Therefore, such vehicle washing system requires user compliance for improving its working condition. The conventional vehicle washing systems are not intelligent enough to both diagnose and solve the advanced erroneous conditions in real time. Though it is known that it is possible to collect one or more information on parameters related to operation of the vehicle washing system and accordingly determine defective parts, but still they are unable to carry out an end- to-end health monitoring of the vehicle washing system for avoiding sudden machine breakdown.

However, it is observed in the prior arts that there is no provision by which component’s individual health and overall health of the vehicle washing system can be determined. Also, using the conventional vehicle washing system, it is not possible to predict an accurate timing for maintenance corresponding to different parts of the system and suggest proper ways to improve health of the vehicle washing system. There is no vehicle washing systems existing which are configured to intelligently solve the occurred technical issues on its own in real time.

It would be desirable, therefore, to develop an improved and innovative vehicle washing system, which is capable of carrying out an end-to-end health monitoring of the vehicle washing system, diagnosing the faults and solving them in real time in an intelligent manner and obviates the challenges that exists in the prior arts as mentioned above.

Summary of the Invention

Below are the various objectives and embodiments of present invention as presented herein are understood to be illustrative and not restrictive and are non-limiting with respect to the scope of the invention.

It is one of the objectives of the present invention to provide an intelligent vehicle washing system having a vehicle washer, capable of actively monitoring and maintaining end-to-end health of the vehicle washer.

It is one of the objectives of the present invention to provide an intelligent vehicle washing system and method capable of diagnosing errors and suggesting correct measures in real time.

It is one of the objectives of the present invention to provide an intelligent vehicle washing system and method capable of diagnosing errors and suggesting correct measures in real time.

It is one of the objectives of the present invention to provide an intelligent vehicle washing system and method capable of carrying out predictive maintenance of the vehicle washer. It is one of the objectives of the present invention to provide an intelligent vehicle washing system which is user compliant and solves error locally at operator level.

In accordance with exemplary embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an intelligent vehicle washing system having a vehicle washer communicatively coupled with a controller, for monitoring end-to-end health of the vehicle washer, comprising a plurality of sensors functionally connected to the controller in the vehicle washer and configured to sense a plurality of parameters corresponding to a plurality of components of the vehicle washer, an loT driven communication unit configured to bidirectionally communicate with the controller for receiving the information related to said parameters and sending vehicle washing related instruction to the controller, a cloud server configured to receive information from the communication unit for evaluating individual health of each said component based on the parameters sensed by the corresponding sensor for diagnosing one or more erroneous conditions in them, if any, wherein said cloud server is further comprising an data analytics unit configured to determine overall health of the vehicle washer based on the individual health of the components, wherein each said component is having a specific weightage towards determining the overall health of the vehicle washer.

Further, in accordance with above embodiment of the present invention, wherein said system is further provided with an electronic device for displaying the overall and component’s individual health of the vehicle washer, statistical reports and charts regarding performance of the vehicle washer in real time.

In accordance with another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an intelligent vehicle washing system having a vehicle washer communicatively coupled with a controller, for monitoring end-to-end health of the vehicle washer, comprising a plurality of sensors functionally connected to the controller in the vehicle washer and configured to sense a plurality of parameters corresponding to a plurality of components of the vehicle washer, an loT driven communication unit configured to bidirectionally communicate with the controller for receiving the information related to said parameters and sending vehicle washing related instruction to the controller, a cloud server configured to receive information from the communication unit for evaluating individual health of each said component based on the parameters sensed by the corresponding sensor for diagnosing one or more erroneous conditions in them, if any, wherein said cloud server is further comprising an data analytics unit configured to determine overall health of the vehicle washer based on the individual health of the components, wherein each said component is having a specific weightage towards determining the overall health of the vehicle washer, wherein said analytics unit is configured to predict a precautionary time for the occurrence of failure in the future, if any, of the one or more components of the vehicle washer based on their evaluated individual health, wherein said cloud server is further configured to suggest a multi-level corrective measures over the electronic device for solving one or more erroneous conditions and avoiding failure in the future in real time based on the individual health of said one or more components of the vehicle washer, wherein said plurality of parameters are but not limited to vibrations, current and water pressure for vehicle washing.

Further, in accordance with one of the above embodiments of the present invention, wherein said cloud server is provided with a data storage communicatively coupled to said controller and cloud server for recording and storing the sensed parameters, component’s individual health and overall health of the vehicle washer, corrective measures taken corresponding to one or more erroneous conditions and failure in the future, remaining service life of the components and advanced data received after processing of the operational information related to the vehicle washer, wherein said controller is configured to locally solve one or more kind of erroneous conditions corresponding to one or more components of the vehicle washer in real time and wherein said cloud server is configured to solve one or more kind of erroneous conditions which are not locally solved by the controller in real time.

In accordance with one or more above embodiments of the present invention, wherein said controller and cloud server, intelligently employing information stored in the data storage, are configured to solve erroneous conditions and provide accurate precautionary time for the occurrence of failure in the future, above their initial intelligence over a particular period of time.

In accordance with the one of the above embodiments, wherein intelligent vehicle washing system is preprogramed to carry out a plurality of definite and customized washing modes, and said plurality of sensors includes low impedance accelerometer, current transducer, Pressure transmitter and flow sensor.

In accordance with the one of the above embodiments, wherein said plurality of components of the vehicle washer includes high pressure pump, mixing pump, water recycling input pump, water recycling output pump, freshwater pump, blower’s motor, gantry motor, oscillating DC motors and water tanks.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method of end-to-end health monitoring of a vehicle washer communicatively coupled to a controller in a vehicle washing system, comprising sensing a plurality of parameters corresponding to a plurality of components of the vehicle washer and communicating the same to the controller, communicating bidirectionally information related to sensed parameters and vehicle washing related instruction via the controller to and from a cloud server, diagnosing, using the cloud server, one or more erroneous conditions in said components by evaluating their individual health of each said component based on their corresponding sensed parameters, and displaying health status on an electronic device which is in communication with the cloud server by determining overall health of the vehicle washer based on analysing the health of the individual components having a specific weightage towards determining the overall health of the vehicle washer, in real time.

In accordance with the above embodiment, wherein said method further comprises of displaying on the electronic device the overall and component’s individual health of the vehicle washer, reports, charts, and intelligence in real time.

In accordance with another above embodiment, wherein said method further comprises of recording and storing, using a data storage, the sensed parameters, component’s individual health and overall health of the vehicle washer, corrective measures taken corresponding to one or more erroneous conditions and failure in the future, service life remaining for the individual components, future time slot for attending to the damage, if any, and provides advanced data based on the input received by the controller.

In yet another embodiment, wherein said method further comprises of predicting, using a data analytics unit and the data storage, a precautionary time for the occurrence of failure in the future, if any, of the one or more components of the vehicle washer based on their evaluated individual health.

In another embodiment, wherein said method further comprises of suggesting, using the data analytics and data storage, a multi-level corrective measures over the electronic device for solving one or more erroneous conditions and avoiding failure in the future in real time based on the individual health of said one or more components of the vehicle washer, wherein said method further comprises, using the data analytics and data storage, of instructing to solve erroneous conditions and providing accurate precautionary time for the occurrence of failure in the future, above their initial intelligence over a particular period of time.

Detailed Description of the Invention

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle washing monitoring and managing system, comprising a plurality of vehicle washing systems and a central data analytics unit communicatively coupled to the plurality of the vehicle washing systems, configured to collect and analyse health related information corresponding to each vehicle washing systems, wherein said vehicle washing system, comprises of a plurality of sensors functionally connected to the controller in the vehicle washer and configured to sense a plurality of parameters corresponding to a plurality of components of the vehicle washer, an loT driven communication unit configured to bidirectionally communicate with the controller for receiving the information related to said parameters and sending vehicle washing related instruction to the controller, a cloud server configured to receive information from the communication unit for evaluating individual health of each said component based on the parameters sensed by the corresponding sensor for diagnosing one or more erroneous conditions in them, if any, and wherein said cloud server is further comprising a data analytics unit configured to determine overall health of the vehicle washer based on the individual health of the components, wherein each said component is having a specific weightage towards determining the overall health of the vehicle washer.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method of monitoring and managing health of plurality of vehicle washing system, comprises of collecting and analysing, by means of a central data analytics unit, health related information corresponding to each vehicle washing system and diagnosing, using the central data analytics unit, one or more erroneous conditions, if any, in said vehicle washing systems based on their corresponding health-related information, predicting, using the central data analytics unit, a precautionary time for the occurrence of failure in the future, if any, of one or more of the vehicle washing systems based on their individual overall health, and suggesting, using the central data analytics unit, a multi-level corrective measures corresponding to each vehicle washing system over a web/mobile application installed in an electronic device, for solving one or more erroneous conditions and avoiding failure in the future in real time based on the individual health of one or more components of the vehicle washing system.

Referring to Figure 1 , there is shown an architecture of the Intelligent Vehicle Washing System (100), wherein a vehicle washer (101) is communicatively coupled with a controller which is a programmable logic controller (103) and motors, high pressure pump, mixing pump, water recycling input pump, water recycling output pump, freshwater pump, blower’s motor, gantry motor, oscillating DC motors, dosing pump to balance PH and water tanks are attached with sensors for indicating health of above individual components, further aggregating to monitor end-to-end health of the vehicle washer (101), wherein these sensors (102) are functionally connected to the controller (103) in the vehicle washer (101) and configured to sense a plurality of parameters corresponding to a plurality of components of the vehicle washer. The sensors used in washing areas are of 2 categories, wherein the first category is real time data output sensors, and the second category is data triggering on event sensors, the output of these two sensors is received via the controller (103) through the input of the cloud server (104) as real time data (105) and data trigger on event, wherein the input of the cloud server (104) receives health indicating parametric values corresponding to the above components for evaluating individual health of each said component based on the received parametric values for diagnosing one or more erroneous conditions in them, if any. The cloud server (104) processes the received input as health indicating parametric values with algebraic operations, permutation and combination operations for outputting the Advance data (108) and predictive data (109) which can be viewed on the desk web application (110) and mobile application (1 11), wherein the advance data includes individual health of the components and overall health of the vehicle washer.

Referring to Figure 2, the sensors (102) detecting the health of individual components by sensing the real time data (201) which are in fact the vibration and heat sensors, wherein if the difference of real time data value (201) and ideal set value (210) of health indicating parameters corresponding to various components are found 50% or more (202), then the cloud server (104) identifies those components as healthy and displays the same on the mobile and web application and in case the difference is found less than 50%, then the cloud server further move to next level analysis for identifying if the real time data is changing continuously with increasing time interval (203) and in case if it is found that the real time data does not change continuously, then the component(s) are healthy and the same is displayed on the mobile and web application otherwise the cloud server moves to another level analysis for calculating the remaining service life (204) of the unhealthy components based on the pattern in which the real time data changes continuously for outputting the predictive data (205) and health percentage (206) of the components which is obtained by comparing the ideal set value (210) of health indicating parameters with the real time data, wherein the ideal set value (210) of health indicating parameters are pre-fed in the cloud server (104) which is employed for continuously analysing and calculating the health of various components of the vehicle washer. Both categories of sensors yields output in real time in the form of 4-20 mA to the controller, wherein the 4-20 mA is calibrated to get the input feedback of sensors in HZ and °C which are in fact the indication of the vibration and heat, wherein the controller contains the set alarm level for both the abnormal vibration and heat in the components. Below is an example to assess the health of the components of the vehicle washer based on the parametric values for vibration. The range of vibration sensor for healthy pump and motors is as follows: Referring to Figure 3, illustrating real time sensed values for the overall vibration level obtained from the sensor over a period of time and how can the health of the components be predicted is important. Before component’s health goes to a critical situation, the cloud server sends the predictive action plan to the service engineer assigned for the machines via text messages or e-mail. As service engineer gets the time for planning and scheduling his visit, hence he can visit and do the service of required component before it gets critical and prevents the machine to go in breakdown. The graph in Figure 3 in accordance with one of the exemplary embodiments shows the variation of vibration in pump over time as sensed by the sensor. There is a threshold line (red) which signifies the point of alarm and any vibration at or above the alarm level is termed causes the cloud server to automatically send the predictive action plan to the service engineer assigned for the machines via communication text messages or e-mail. The graph is viewed using a weekly trend screen during which short term cavitation i.e. vibration above the threshold line (red), no vibration when pump is not running, long term trend, possible machine fault, bearing misalignment and mounting can be understood over a period of 5 weeks. This analysis made by the data analytics unit of the cloud server can immediately be communicated and displayed over the web and mobile application so that the right measure to improve the health of the vehicle washer can be taken in real time.

Referring to figure 4, the overall health of the vehicle fluctuates according to the predetermined weightage assigned to each of them, wherein such alarms are set on high priority (green), medium priority (yellow) and low priority alarm (blue) depending on their potential to impact the washing quality of the vehicle, wherein each alarm highlighted in green is of high priority and is assigned more weightage i.e. 10% of the total health % towards calculating the health of the vehicle washer, each alarm highlighted in yellow is of medium priority and contributes 4% or 1 % towards calculating the health of the vehicle washer and each alarm highlighted in blue is of low priority contributes 1 % towards calculating the health of the vehicle washer. As per the real operating state of the components while the vehicle washer is operational, the cloud server determines overall health of the vehicle washer based on the real individual health of the components in accordance with the specific weightage towards determining the overall health of the vehicle washer.

Referring to Figure 5, in accordance with one embodiment, if there occurs one or more machine error (500), the intelligent vehicle washing machine carries out multi-level corrective plan structure. The machine error can be categorized as technical errors (501) and nontechnical errors (502), wherein the technical error (501) could be the predictive error, preventive error and the instant error (503) which is further indicated by way of texts messages or email communicated through the cloud server (104) to the concerned person which is finally reduced to an operator level error solution (506), wherein said technical errors (501) are but not limited to fault in pump, motor, contractor, leakage in water line, and the non-technical error (502) is either preventive and instant (504) by nature which is displayed on the screen of a smartphone or computer through the application, wherein said non-technical errors is detected locally i.e. by the programmable logical controller (103) itself which further transmit this information to the smartphone or computer for displaying and suggesting right measure to the user, hence simplifying the solution for errorto operator level, wherein the non-technical errors (502) are but not limited to the error in the chemical tank related to its filling, blockages in nozzle and visual air checking.

The disclosed detailed description of embodiments of the disclosure are depicted in the accompanying labelled drawings. The embodiments are in such detail as to clearly communicate the disclosure. However, the amount of detail offered is not intended to limit the anticipated variations of embodiments. While the invention is amenable to various modifications and alternative forms, some embodiments have been illustrated by way of example in the drawings and are described in detail above. On the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

The embodiments in the specification are described in a progressive manner and focus of description in each embodiment is the difference from other embodiments. For same or similar parts of each embodiment, reference may be made to each other.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the above description was in respect of preferred embodiments and that various alterations and modifications are possible within the broad scope of the appended claims without departing from the spirit of the invention with the necessary modifications.

Based on the description of disclosed embodiments, persons skilled in the art can implement or apply the present disclosure. Various modifications of the embodiments are apparent to persons skilled in the art, and general principles defined in the specification can be implemented in other embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the present disclosure is not limited to the embodiments in the specification but intends to cover the most extensive scope consistent with the principle and the novel features disclosed in the specification.

Referring the accompanying drawings are provided herein illustrating the further understanding of the present disclosure and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this complete specification. The drawings illustrate exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure and, together with the description, however, the same will be further expanded within the scope of the disclosure and serve to explain the principles of the present invention.