Roaming transport distribution management system

• US 10,055,804 B2
• Filed: 09/19/2014
• Issued: 08/21/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Metrobee, LLC
• Original Assignee: Metrobee, LLC
• Inventors: Juckett, Daniel, Juckett, Timothy Lee, Zeile, Eric A., Edelberg, Benjamin J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jeanty, Romain
• Application Number:
  US14/491,565
• Publication Number:
  US 20150012320A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,432 Days
• Field of Search: 705 716
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/047 Optimisation of routes or paths, e.g. travelling salesman problem
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063116 Schedule adjustment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083

Abstract

A roaming transport distribution management apparatus and method are provided. A controller selects transports within a defined service zone in response to customer transit requests from customer locations or a central hub which are capable of meeting maximum transit time to the end destination in either an inbound or outbound direction from the hub. A hub manager varies the position and/or the size of an exclusive coverage area of each transport within the overall service zone to insure a dense accumulation of transports over the entire service zone and alters the position of other transports in response to the movement of a transport inbound or outbound from the hub with a passenger. The hub manager can vary the size of the exclusive coverage area of each transport to account for population and request call densities and the number of available transports.

Claims

1. A method of operating a roaming transport distribution system to service customer requests for transportation comprising:

operating a fleet of transports in a first service zone having a first hub for transporting customers within the first service zone to and from the first hub, each transport having global positioning system coordinate capability and wireless communication capability;

receiving a service request from a first customer at a first location in the first service zone for transportation of the first customer to the first hub;

locating a first transport of a plurality of transports in the first service zone to answer the service request based on one or more of the first location of the first customer, a second location of the first transport, a distance between the first and second locations, a travel time of the first transport from the second location to the first location, and a travel time of the first transport with the first customer from the first location to the first hub;

sending, using a controller executing program instructions, a communication to the first transport to travel to the first location to pick up the first customer for transport to the first hub;

coordinating, using the controller executing program instructions, coordinate positions of each of the plurality of transports in the first service zone to create an exclusive coverage area about each transport in the first service zone, the coverage areas disposed in a dynamic arrangement with adjacent transport coverage areas and the coverage areas having an uneven distribution within the first service zone to insure less than a maximum transit time for transporting a customer from a pick-up location to a drop off destination, by, in response to removal of the first transport from the plurality of transports in the first service zone when the first transport is answering a service request, issuing new coordinate information to at least one other transport in the first service zone by wireless communication to balance distribution of the remaining plurality of transports in the first service zone.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

unequally distributing all transports in the first service zone based on one of population density, historic request density, and traffic conditions.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

after the first transport picks up the first customer at the first location, removing the first transport from roaming in the first service zone; and

relocating a position of at least one other transport in the first service zone after removing the first transport so that the coverage areas of the plurality of transports are disposed in a dynamic arrangement to insure the maximum transit time is met.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

after the first transport picks up the first customer at the first location, removing the first transport from automatic roaming in the first service zone; and

varying a size and/or location of the coverage areas of at least one of the plurality of transports in the service zone to meet the maximum transit time at all locations within the first service zone.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

choosing a second transport of the plurality of transports to answer a service request where a location of the second transport relative to a customer issuing the service request satisfies one of a minimum wait time for customer pick-up and a maximum transit time of the customer to a customer drop off destination.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

reasserting a new transport into the first service zone and redistributing of the coverage areas of the plurality of transports in the first service zone to insure distribution of the coverage areas in the first service zone without overlap.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing a plurality of additional service zones adjacent to the first service zone;

providing each additional service zone with additional transports;

controlling a location of each transport in at least two of the first service zone and the additional service zones as a single service zone.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

arranging the first service zone and the additional service zones such that at least two of the first service zone and the additional service zones overlap each other.

9. A roaming transport distribution apparatus to service customer requests for transportation comprising:

providing a plurality of transports in a first service zone having a first hub for transporting customers within the first service zone to and from the first hub, each transport having global positioning system coordinate capability and wireless communication capability;

a controller executing program instructions for coordinating coordinate positions of each transport within the first service zone and selecting transports for transporting customers in response to customer requests, and in response to a location of a coverage area associated with each transport within the first service zone, for distributing the coverage areas of each transport in an uneven distribution within the first service zone to insure less than a maximum transit time for transporting a customer from a pick-up location to a drop off destination; and

the controller, in response to removal of a first transport from the plurality of transports in the first service zone when the first transport is answering a service request, issuing new coordinate information to at least one other transport in the first service zone by wireless communication to balance distribution of the remaining plurality of transports in the first service zone.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising:

the controller wirelessly communicating direction information to each transport to optimize travel of a transport from a current location of the transport to a customer or from a customer pick-up location to a customer destination.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising:

the controller executing program instructions, based on current coordinate locations of the plurality of transports remaining in roaming in the first service zone, to vary a size of the coverage area of at least one of the remaining transports to meet transport transit times associated with responses to customer requests.

12. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein coordinating the coordinate positions of each transport comprises unequally distributing all transports in the first service zone based on one of population density, historic request density, and traffic conditions.

13. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising:

the controller removing a first transport from roaming in the first service zone after the first transport picks up a first customer at a first location.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 further comprising:

the controller relocating a position of at least one other transport in the first service zone to update the uneven distribution of the coverage areas to meet the maximum transit time after removing the first transport.

15. The apparatus of claim 13 further comprising:

the controller varying at least one of a size or a location of a coverage area to meet the maximum transit time after removing the first transport.

16. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising:

the controller selecting a first transport of the plurality of transports to answer a service request where a location of the first transport relative to a customer issuing a service request satisfies a minimum wait time for customer pick-up.

17. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising:

responsive to addition of a new transport to the first service zone, the controller redistributing of the coverage areas in the first service zone to insure distribution of the coverage areas in the first service zone without overlap.

18. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising:

a plurality of additional service zones adjacent to the first service zone, each additional service zone having additional transports; and

the controller controlling a location of each transport in at least two of the first service zone and the additional service zones as a single service zone.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 further comprising:

the controller arranging the first service zone and the additional service zones such that at least two of the first service zone and the additional service zones overlap each other.