VEHICLE IDENTIFICATION METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THE GAS STATIONS

Technical Field

The invention relates to the vehicle identification apparatus, which enables automatic identification in the gas stations.

The invention relates in particular to the vehicle identification systems, wherein the fuel purchase information is prepared and recorded in a safe manner according to the vehicle information, by transferring the information found in the electronic label and/or electronic vehicle identification card, which is situated on the vehicles, to the automation system or other devices using such information, via a reader located on the fuel pump or on a cash register-like device issuing receipts in a gas station.

Background of the Invention

Today, the passive vehicle identification units are known to be RFID (radio frequency identification) transponders (electromagnetic carrier) operating without the presence of a power supply.

Said passive vehicle units comprise the main components of an antenna and RFID microchip. The unique ID information on the microchips may be read as well as it being possible to write desired information onto the chip.

Vehicle identification units (VIU) are installed on the vehicles, in order to control and record the fuel consumption of the vehicles in the fleets, with the help of said units along with the automation systems at the points of purchasing the fuel.

Said devices may be used in any kind of land, marine and railway vehicle or in the other heavy machinery running on liquid fuel.

The common practice involves a method in which the antenna and the microchip are separate from each other, and the compartment where the microchip is located is assembled on the vehicle by means of a screw or rivet and/or is secured to the vehicle with the help of a strong adhesive.

In order to carry out fuel purchase and to record said filling information by means of automation in the gas stations, with the aim of monitoring the liquid fuel consumption and issuing the filling receipt based on such information, the vehicle identification systems (VIS) are generally used.

When the pump gun is placed at the fuel tank inlet of the vehicle to carry out filling, the vehicle identification systems, by means of the antenna of the RFID reader attached to the tip of the pump gun and via the antenna mounted at the fuel tank inlet of the vehicle, read the vehicle information in the vehicle's RFID tag (active or passive tag) connected with the antenna, and transmits said information via cable connection to the automation computer where such information is evaluated. The antenna of the vehicle identification unit may be located at the fuel tank inlets of the vehicles as well as at a location close to the fuel tank lid. The system is able to read this information to automatically assess the vehicle information. In this way, the information including the amount of fuel the vehicle purchases via the pump and the date and time of purchase is recorded in the system.

In the stations where the vehicle identification system is available, but there is no vehicle identification unit on the vehicle to purchase the fuel, the vehicle information may not be automatically transmitted to the system by means of the reader. In cases where the provided fuel is desired to be associated with the vehicle identity information (such as the monitoring of the consumption of the liquid fuel for the fleets, or writing the vehicle's license tag on the receipt issued

by the cash registers approved by financial authorities), the vehicle information is manually entered to the vehicle identification system. This leads to time losses, as well as a condition subject to undesirable errors and misuse.

Placement of said reader system on the pump gun and transmission of the information via the cables bring together extra investment costs. This system, being mounted on each pump gun, increases the costs, as well as leads to the necessity of frequent maintenance service. This is the reason why the pumps on which the vehicle identification systems run are few in number in the gas stations. Accordingly, the time for completion of the procedures is extended. It is a very costly and difficult process to provide the implementation of this system, which has a high cost both for the vehicle and the station, in all the vehicles and the stations.

Moreover, in order for the vehicle tags located under the fuel tank lid of the vehicle and containing the identity information of the vehicle to be able to be read, it is necessary to open the fuel tank lid of the vehicle. This situation makes it hard or even impossible to implement this costly system in the applications other than the gas stations (such as the car park entries, private and military security points of passage, police check points, charged motorways and bridge passes, parking areas, etc.).

Since no intervention is carried out at the fuel tank inlet of the vehicle running on gas such as LPG and CNG or at the pump gun for such fuels, said system may not be used in such vehicles in a safe manner. Taking into account the worldwide increase in the number of vehicles using gas such as LG and CNG during the recent years, it is of great importance for the owners of the vehicles or fleets running on gases like CNG or LPG to safely record and control the fuel consumption of their vehicles.

In the patent application no. US6648032 titled "Apparatus and method facilitating the filling of the vehicle fuel", related to the state of the art, a nozzle

placed on the fuel pump and a RF receiver connected with the nozzle are fed with a power generator and carry out the information exchange by means of the transmitter on the vehicle's fuel tank.

In the European patent application no. EP0868393, the vehicle identification procedure is carried out via similar methods, by means of distributor member located on the pump and a radio transmitter located on the vehicle.

The practices in said applications are not able to eliminate the aforesaid disadvantages.

An effort has been made in the vehicle identification units, with the aim of eliminating the aforesaid disadvantages.

Object of the Invention

Based on the state of the art, the object of the invention is to provide a structure, which enables the identity information in the electronic label on the vehicle to be transmitted to the relevant pump reader (RFID), without the need being left to assemble an extra system on the pump guns.

Another object of the invention is to provide a structure, which does not necessitate high investment cost and is able to amortize its cost within a short time.

Another object of the invention is to enable the transfer of the vehicle identity information in a safe manner.

Another object of the invention is to provide a structure, which enables the vehicle identity information to be transferred without the pump staff needing to enter the vehicle's license tag.

Another object of the invention is to provide a structure, which shortens the procedure times for the pump staff and in this way, enables the fuel purchase transaction to be carried out in a shorter time.

Another object of the invention is to provide a structure, which prevents the unsafe use, because of the automatic deletion of the information at a certain time after the receipt of the vehicle information.

Another object of the invention is to provide a structure, which enables to carry out the transactions at lower costs, using 1-2 hand terminals, without the need being present to use a separate hand terminal for each pump in the gas station.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a structure, which prevents the use in another station, because the ID number for the reader mounted on each pump is encoded with the ID number of the hand terminal.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a structure, which may be used also in the applications other than the gas stations (such as the car park entries, private and military security points of passage, police check points, charged motorways and bridge passes, parking areas, etc.).

Still another object of the invention is to provide a structure, which avoids the formation of security gaps, since the fuel filling procedure is carried out for one time for each vehicle information.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a structure, which enables said vehicle identification apparatus to be used also in the vehicles running on gases such as LPG and CNG.

Description of the Figures

Figure-1 is a view illustrating the operation of the vehicle identification apparatus according to the invention. Figure-2 is a view of the electronic label placed on the vehicle. Figure-3 is a view of the electronic label placed on the pump. Figure-4 is a front view of the hand terminal.

Reference Numbers

1. Fuel Pump 2. Pump Reader

2.1 Reader Information Display

3. Pump Gun 3.1 Hose

4. Automation System Room 5. Cash Register Reader

6. Cash Register Payment Terminal

6.1 Receipt

7. Underground Cable

8. Hand Terminal 8.1 Information Read and Delete Buttons

8.2 Battery Warning LED

8.3 Information Warning LED

8.4 Reader Antenna Surface

8.5 Microchip 8.6 Reader Antenna

9. Vehicle

9.1 Vehicle Fuel Tank

10. Vehicle Glass 10.1 Electronic Label 11. Radio Frequency

12. Pump Staff

Detailed Description of the Invention

In Figure-1 , there is provided a view wherein the components involved in the operation of the vehicle identification apparatus according to the invention are illustrated.

Said vehicle identification apparatus comprises the main components of the electronic label (10.1) located on the vehicle (9) where the vehicle-specific information such as the license tag and liquid fuel consumption is stored, the hand terminal (8) that receives via radio frequency (11) the information from said electronic label (10.1) and transmits the same to the pump reader (2) located on the liquid fuel pump (1) and/or to the cash register reader (5) and the automation system room (4) where said information is stored.

According to said method, the pump staff (12) draws the hand terminal (8) near the electronic label (10.1) located on the vehicle (9), to obtain the vehicle- specific information including the vehicle's license tag and liquid fuel consumption. Said information is transmitted again by the pump staff (12), by drawing said hand terminal (8) near the pump reader (2) located on the fuel pump (1) and/or the cash register reader (5). At a certain time after the information is transferred, the vehicle information is automatically deleted from the hand terminal and the hand terminal becomes ready for use in another filling procedure. Said vehicle information may also be monitored via the reader information display (2.1) located on the pump reader (2) and/or the cash register reader (5).

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, said electronic label (10.1) is located on the vehicle glass (10).

According to different embodiments of the invention, said electronic label (10.1) may also be located on the vehicle fuel tank (9.1), as well as any location of the vehicle (9).

The amount of purchased fuel is recorded and is submitted to the user on a receipt (6.1) printed out and being located on the cash register payment terminal (6). Because the ID number and the cash register payment terminal (6) of each station recognize certain hand terminals (8) (SOM SLOT application), it does not allow the possibility for use in another station. Said hand terminal (8) generally comprises the main components of the microchip (8.5), the reader antenna (8.6) and the reader antenna surface (8.4) on which said microchip (8.5) and the reader antenna (8.6) are located. Since the hand terminal (8) must have a strong structure and it will always be carried in the hand, no display screen is formed on the same.

Said hand terminal (8) is controlled by means of the information read and delete buttons (8.1), with the deletion process being also possible to be manually carried out using said button (8.1), when necessary. Said hand terminal (8) also bears the battery warning LED (8.2) indicating the battery status and the information warning LED (8.3) indicating the non-presence of data.

When said hand terminal (8) is brought onto the electronic label (10.1), the reader antenna surface (8.4) is drawn near the surface of the electronic label

(10.1) by a certain distance and receives the information from the reader antenna (8.6) located on said reader antenna surface (8.4), via radio frequency

(11) and said information is recorded in the microchip (8.5). When it is desired to manually delete the information, the information in the microchip (8.5) is deleted by pressing said information read and delete buttons (8.1) and the same is made ready for use in another liquid fuel pump (1).

Said microchip (8.5) information is transferred to the pump reader (2) and/or cash register reader (5), and the procedure of filling the fuel into the vehicle (9) is carried by means of the pump gun (3) connected with the hose (3.1).

The information received by the pump reader (2) and/or the cash register reader (5) is transmitted to the automation system room (4) for storage. Said transmission process is carried out by means of an underground cable (7), in a preferred embodiment of the invention.

After said hand terminal (8) receives the information from the electronic label (10.1), the process of transferring the same to the pump reader (2) and/or the cash register reader (5) may also be carried out by means of RFID method, in another embodiment of the invention. In said method, the hand terminal (2) is also capable of transmitting the information to the automation system room (4), without being drawn near the fuel pump (1).

By adding the radio frequency (RF) (11) receivers/transmitters (e.g. Bluetooth, zigbee, etc.) to the hand terminal (8) and to the reader or terminal to which the information is to be transferred (pump reader (2) and/or cash register reader (5)), the read vehicle information may be instantly and automatically transferred to the system via RF (11) method.

By way of adding the radio frequency receivers and transmitters to said hand terminal (8) and to the automation system room (4) to which the information is desired to be transferred, the vehicle (9) information read by the hand terminal

(8) is enabled to be automatically transferred to the associated system or terminal via the radio frequency (11), and thus the vehicle (9) information may be automatically transferred to the system and said information is associated with the fuel amount purchased by the vehicle (9), in order to record the fuel consumption of the vehicle (9).

The protective scope of this application is determined in the section of claims and the scope may by no means be limited to the description above provided only for exemplary purposes. It is obvious that a person skilled in the art may provide the innovation put forward by the invention also by using the similar embodiments and/or apply this embodiment to other fields with similar purpose

used in the relevant art. Consequently, such embodiments would obviously lack the criterion of innovative step.