Researchers Submit Patent Application, “Method And System For Dynamically Preparing An Image-Based Repair Plan”, for Approval (USPTO 20220092557): Patent Application
2022 APR 13 (NewsRx) -- By a
No assignee for this patent application has been made.
News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Accidents and other events involving damage to a motor vehicle, absent a total loss, require repair subject to approval by the owner of the motor vehicle, while the insurer (if present) determines how much of the cost of repairs is covered under the owner’s/insured’s insurance policy and compensates the repairer for the work. Typically, after the accident or other cause of damage, the owner (or other interested party) initiates a first notice of loss by calling or otherwise contacting her insurance carrier (the “insurer”) to report the incident. The insurer, in turn, may provide the owner/insured with a list containing one or more suggested repair facilities to which the owner/insured may have the vehicle delivered for repairs. Often, the repair facilities listed have been selected by the insurer because the facilities participate in an insurer-sponsored program, e.g., a Direct Repair Program (“DRP”).
“Conventionally, insurers pre-screen and actively monitor DRP repair facilities to assess each facility’s ability to satisfy several industry metrics, chief of which include: the cycle time (i.e., how quickly the facility historically effects repairs), performance against the insurer’s cost estimate of repairs (the “insurance estimate”), and so forth. Each DRP repair facility is required to generate its insurance estimate using a software application (“Estimating App”), which is then sent to the insurer and approved/denied. Repairers and insurers may spend many hours and days negotiating initial repair costs (and re-negotiating through supplements as the repair is completed), which impacts customer satisfaction. In some cases, if the insurer refuses to pay for the required repairs, the repairer is forced to choose between losing profitability and deviating from the desired/required repairs. In short, DRP programs and Estimating Apps create a dynamic whereby the cost of repairs and related economic/performance pressures drive not only which repair facility repairs the vehicle, but decision making within the shop; this economic incentive may, at times, supersede the proper and complete repair of the vehicle.
“At the repair facility, after the insurance estimate is generated, members of the repair team (e.g., those responsible for repair research, who are sometimes called repair planners, blueprinters, technicians and/or shop managers) may research repair procedures (“RPs”) created by the vehicle manufacturers/Original Equipment Manufacturer (“OEMs”) to better understand how to perform specific repairs. As the designer and manufacturer of the vehicle, OEMs remain the singular “source of truth” for how to properly and safely repair and return the damaged vehicle to its pre-loss condition and operation, to the extent possible.
“Typically, RPs are generated by OEMs for the purpose of providing in-depth instructions and reference material for how to properly repair their vehicles. Conventionally, RPs are generated at the time the vehicle is designed and manufactured and may be updated as required thereafter (e.g., in the event of a recall, when an error is discovered in the RPs, or the like). As a result, most repair facilities, on occasion and as/when they deem necessary, research RPs to understand how to repair damaged vehicles properly and safely. These RPs are typically available online via difficult to navigate websites (e.g., the OEM’s website, the websites of third-party aggregators, and so forth), are highly non-standard (e.g., OEMs handle different things within the content differently, and things are often inconsistent within the same OEM’s content) and lack a modern user interface, making them difficult to access, consume, and share. Disadvantageously, most repair facilities focus initially on the insurance estimate and research RPs as a second step (if at all), which frequently results in overlooking an activity, a step, or a part. Notably, while the Estimating Apps and others have provided limited tools for accessing RPs via their interface, including via “estimate appending”, or the identification of RPs after the generation of the insurance estimate itself (although this will only include items on the insurance estimate; i.e., if it was missed on the insurance estimate then the RPs will by definition not be available), they generally do not contain comprehensive OEM repair information or have direct communication with the OEMs. This “insurance estimate first” approach, combined with the economic incentive to keep costs down given the insurer-focused objectives overall, limits the utility of RPs within the repair process. As vehicles become increasingly complex and technicians increasingly leave the industry, the importance of RPs to the repair process (and the frustration that repair facilities have with current access tools) is increasing.
“Conventionally, any number of RPs necessary for the complete repair of a damaged vehicle may be aggregated to create a plan, methodology, compilation, or sequence of steps and/or procedures to be undertaken to effect the necessary repair of the damaged vehicle (a “repair plan”). Heretofore, aggregating RPs into a repair plan-if it is done at all-has been a manual process, involving printed documents passed between shop employees. An employee tasked with this responsibility typically appends the insurance estimate or accesses an OEM directory/third party aggregation Website to search through RPs for what he or she believes are the most relevant. He or she may then choose which RPs, if any, to print and pass on to others on the repair team, including repair technicians. By its manual nature and dependency on dated repositories filled with hundreds of thousands of files and requiring the physical printing of paper, the process is highly prone to human error. Furthermore, in the infrequent cases when paper documents are not in use, electronic or digital RPs may only be available in a static format (e.g., HTML, PDF, and so forth), which can require similarly manual research and aggregation efforts and similarly contribute to human error. Moreover, the process of accessing electronic or digital RPs online differs from OEM to OEM, adding to the cognitive burden of researching RPs. Importantly, insurers do not typically reimburse repair facilities for the associated expense (e.g., subscription fees, human labor) which, combined with the fact that researching RPs may become confusing, burdensome, costly and time-consuming, may discourage repair planning and the use of RPs in general. The process is also ad hoc and lacks robust tools for governance and standardization, introducing the potential for significant variability in repair quality and resulting safety risk. Indeed, fewer than 20 percent of collision repair facilities report accessing one or more RPs on a regular basis. Considering that the typical repair may require the use of dozens of different RPs with instructions, diagrams, precautions, and references to sub-procedures, low utilization rates of RPs impact the quality of repair and the resulting safety of vehicle passengers post repair. While many technicians are highly skilled in the trade and have “done it before”, rapidly changing vehicle designs and models and turnover in the industry make these challenges increasingly acute.
“Notwithstanding the relatively low percentage of repair facilities performing RP research, several state governments have proposed and/or enacted legislation that purports to require vehicles to be repaired using RPs while courts have held repair facilities liable for not properly repairing vehicles (in accordance with RPs).”
As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a comprehensive system, method, and application suite which provide enabling technologies to improve how RPs may be accessed, researched, utilized, aggregated (e.g., into repair plans), shared, analyzed, and archived to repair a vehicle that has been damaged (e.g., in a collision). In some implementations, such a method and platform may include the intelligent identification of useful information, including RPs, parts, cross-references between RPs, and the like, from a number of entities, including the OEM, and a feedback loop to accumulate comments and feedback on the RPs from the repair team and stakeholders who have an interest in the repair, such as third-party appraisers, insurer staff, the vehicle owner, etc. Accordingly, the platform and method may facilitate the proper and safe repair of a vehicle. This may also support (through more accurate repair) the value of the repaired vehicle by mitigating the extent of any diminution in value that vehicles typically experience after sustaining damage. At the same time, the platform and method may also create process efficiencies, improve governance and management controls, enhance the consumer experience, and (potentially) drive incremental value for the OEMs/repair facilities.
“In a first aspect, embodiments of the present invention relate to an interactive image-based repair plan (a “Repair Plan”) for use on a user interface by at least one repair technician (or other repair professional) to repair a damaged motor vehicle. In some embodiments, the Repair Plan includes an (e.g., a three-dimensional) image of a motor vehicle that includes repair procedures from an original equipment manufacturer and metadata tagging that overlays the OEM repair procedures.
“Advantageously, the Repair Plan is workflow enabling and the motor vehicle comprises a specific motor vehicle that is identified by a unique identifier such as its vehicle identification number (“VIN”).
“In a second aspect, embodiments of the present invention relate to a method of dynamically preparing a Repair Plan for repairing a damaged vehicle In some embodiments, the method includes: generating, by a mapping engine, an interactive (e.g., 3D) image of a motor vehicle that includes OEM repair procedures; rendering, by the mapping engine, the image on a user interface; and overlaying, by a tagging engine, the image with metadata to enhance the OEM repair procedures.
“In a third aspect, embodiments of the present invention relate to a system for dynamically preparing an image-based Repair Plan for repairing a damaged vehicle. In some embodiments, the system includes: a mapping engine structured and arranged to render OEM repair procedures on an (e.g., three-dimensional) image of a motor vehicle on a user interface; a tagging engine configured to overlay the OEM repair procedures with repair enhancing metadata; an analytics engine adapted to perform calculations and analyses on all data collected by the system; a decision support engine adapted to perform at least one of augmented or predictive repair planning; an experience and configuration engine adapted to provide data on at least one of: a level of technical experience of at least one repair technician or established parameters for the repair of the damaged vehicle; and a procedure content engine adapted to ingest and update repair procedures.
“In some implementations, the decision support engine includes an interactive decision support engine that is structured and arranged to prompt at least one of a repair planner or a repair technician to add discrete procedures to and/or delete discrete procedures from the repair plan; and/or to automatically add discrete procedures to or delete discrete procedures from the repair plan as other discrete procedures are added or deleted. In some variations, the decision support engine includes an interactive decision support engine that is structured and arranged to provide a text-based, visual, video, and/or audio-enabled virtual assistant to interact with a repair planner and/or a repair technician.”
The claims supplied by the inventors are:
“1. An interactive image-based repair plan for use on a user interface by at least one repair technician to repair a damaged motor vehicle, the repair plan comprising: an image of a motor vehicle that includes repair procedures from an original equipment manufacturer (OEM); and metadata tagging that overlays the OEM repair procedures.
“2. The repair plan of claim 1, wherein the damaged motor vehicle comprises a specific damaged motor vehicle that is identified by a unique identifier,
“3. The repair plan of claim 2, wherein the unique identifier comprises a vehicle identification number.
“4. The repair plan of claim 1, wherein the repair plan is annotatable on a user interface to provide a virtual record of the repair plan.
“5. The repair plan of claim 1, wherein the repair plan is workflow enabling.
“6. The repair plan of claim 1, wherein the image comprises a three-dimensional image,
“7. A method of dynamically preparing an image-based repair plan for repairing a damaged vehicle, the method comprising: generating, by a mapping engine, an interactive image of a motor vehicle that includes OEM repair procedures; rendering, by the mapping engine, the image on a user interface; and overlaying, by a tagging engine, the image with metadata to enhance the OEM repair procedures.
“8. The method of claim 7, wherein the image comprises a three-dimensional image.
“9. A system for dynamically preparing an image-based repair plan for repairing a damaged vehicle, the system comprising: a mapping engine structured and arranged to render OEM repair procedures on an image of a motor vehicle on a user interface; a tagging engine configured to overlay the OEM repair procedures with repair enhancing metadata; an analytics engine adapted to perform calculations and analyses on all data collected by the system; a decision support engine adapted to perform at least one of augmented or predictive repair planning; an experience and configuration engine adapted to provide data on at least one of: a level of technical experience of at least one repair technician or established parameters for the repair of the damaged vehicle; and a procedure content engine adapted to ingest and update repair procedures.
“10. The system of claim 9, wherein the image comprises a three-dimensional image.
“11. The system of claim 9, wherein the decision support engine comprises an interactive decision support engine that is structured and arranged to perform at least one of: prompt at least one of a repair planner or a repair technician to at least one of add discrete procedures to or delete discrete procedures from the repair plan; and automatically at least one of add discrete procedures to or delete discrete procedures from the repair plan as other discrete procedures are at least one of added or deleted.
“12. The system of claim 9, wherein the decision support engine comprises an interactive decision support engine that is structured and arranged to provide at least one of a text-based, visual, video, or audio-enabled virtual assistant to interact with at least one of a repair planner or a repair technician.”
For additional information on this patent application, see:
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