Hand-held marking apparatus with location tracking system and methods for logging geographic location of same

摘要

Marking apparatus and methods to mark ground, pavement or other surfaces to provide a visual indication of a presence or an absence of an underground utility in a dig area. An example marking tool has a hand-held housing, a marking dispenser coupled to the housing to dispense one or more markers in the dig area, and a triggering system to trigger the marking dispenser so as to dispense the marker(s). An example marking tool also may include a logging system to receive data associated with a marking event initiated by the triggering system, time tag the data, and store the time-tagged data in data storage in the marking tool.

主权项

1. An apparatus to facilitate collection of information regarding underground utilities while walking or standing erect on ground, pavement or other surface above the underground facilities, the apparatus comprising:
an elongated hand-held housing; a paint canister holder coupled to the elongated hand-held housing to hold a marker dispenser configured to dispense at least one marker; a location tracking system, disposed within or coupled to the elongated hand-held housing, including a receiver to determine a geographic location of the location tracking system; a memory disposed within or coupled to the elongated hand-held housing; and a processor, disposed within or coupled to the elongated hand-held housing and communicatively coupled to the location tracking system and the memory, to receive from the location tracking system location data relating to the geographic location of the location tracking system and to store in the memory the received location data, and to further receive information relating to at least one characteristic of the at least one marker and store in the memory at least some of the information relating to the at least one characteristic of the at least one marker when the marker dispenser is disposed in the paint canister holder.