Most people also don't think about the complex system of electronic controls that are enabling that truck to move down the road. Just like the car you drive to work everyday, the electronic controls on these trucks represent some of the most advanced electronics on the road.

Although most people don't ponder these two scenarios very often, we at Caterpillar's Electrical and Electronic Systems Division think about it every day. Our division at Caterpillar (at http://www.caterpillar.com) is charged with creating both the electronics that run the engines and the off-board and on-board systems that interface with the electronics and provide information to the customer. Whether used in that truck on the highway or the largest mining truck in the world, the Caterpillar 797 Mining Truck, pictured in Figure A, there's a wealth of information available in these systems.

FIGURE A

The Caterpillar 797 Mining Truck, photo courtesy of Caterpillar Inc. Click picture for a larger image.

This is where our Palm OS application, Pocket Technician, comes in. The Pocket Technician system is a non-traditional Palm OS application that takes advantage of the Palm device's ease of use, portability, and small form factor to interface with Caterpillar Electronic Engines and provide valuable information to the customer.

Caterpillar Electronic Engines
Introduced in 1987, Caterpillar Electronic Engines (at http://www.cattruckengines.com) have been evolving ever since. An example is pictured in Figure B.

FIGURE B

The Caterpillar C-12 engine, photo courtesy of Caterpillar Inc. Click picture for a larger image.

Although the electronics are used primarily to control the operation of the engine, the result of this control is a wealth of information available for extraction that can be passed on to the customer. The electronics provide operating information (temperatures, pressures, fuel consumption), diagnostic information, customer programmable parameters (idle speed, cruise control mode), and much more.

In addition to the Pocket Technician system, Caterpillar already provides a number of off- and on-board systems used to extract data from the electronic engine controls. Caterpillar provides a PC-based service tool called Electronic Technician, available to Caterpillar dealers and customers. Caterpillar also provides a dash-mounted display that provides information to the truck driver.