Operator management device, operator management system, and operator management method

• US 10,339,621 B2
• Filed: 03/19/2014
• Issued: 07/02/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Hirose, Satoru, Chinomi, Satoshi, Nagai, Yukiko, Kuno, Masaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Kassim, Hafiz A
• Application Number:
  US15/126,888
• Publication Number:
  US 20170091890A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,931 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/305 Communication interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/12 responding to state of charge [SoC]
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/14 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063118 Staff planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/10 Services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/7072 Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/12 Electric charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/16 Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles

Abstract

An operator management device for managing work of an operator in a car sharing system that allows users to use shared vehicles allocated to stations includes a vehicle state acquisition unit configured to acquire state information of the shared vehicle, a transportation object vehicle specifying unit configured to specify a transportation object vehicle to be transported to a facility for restoring the shared vehicle so that the state information changes to a predetermined target value, on a basis of the state information of the shared vehicle and a utilization rate of the shared vehicle for rent at each station, and an operator management unit configured to generate an instruction of a task for the operator who transports the specified transportation object vehicle to the facility and manage execution of the task.

Claims

1. An electronic car sharing determination method for a plurality of shared vehicles allocated to stations using a shared vehicle management device in communication with an onboard device of a first shared vehicle and an operator terminal device, the method comprising:

determining, by the onboard device, a state information of the first shared vehicle including an energy amount sensed by an energy amount sensor of the first shared vehicle;

acquiring, by the shared vehicle management device, the state information of the first shared vehicle of the plurality of shared vehicles from the onboard device;

calculating, by the shared vehicle management device, a utilization rate of the first shared vehicle;

determining, by the shared vehicle management device, that a transportation object vehicle to be transported to an energy supply facility for restoring is the first shared vehicle so that the state information changes to a predetermined target value, the determination being made on a basis of the energy amount of the first shared vehicle being less than a predetermined remaining amount threshold and the utilization rate is less than a predetermined rate, among the plurality of shared vehicles of which the remaining amount of energy is more than the predetermined remaining amount threshold;

calculating, by the onboard device, the state information further including a remaining amount of energy used to drive the first shared vehicle to the energy supply facility;

acquiring, from the onboard device of the first shared vehicle that further includes a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, a first current position of the shared vehicle;

acquiring, from a second GPS receiver in the operator terminal device, a second current position of the operator terminal device;

determining, by the shared vehicle management device and using the first current position and the second current position, the operator terminal device based on the device being within a short distance from the transportation object vehicle as the operator device to receive an electronic task instruction to transport the transportation object vehicle;

transmitting, by the shared vehicle management device, the electronic task instruction to the operator terminal device to transport the transportation object vehicle to the energy supply facility; and

receiving, by the shared vehicle management device, execution progress information of the electronic task instruction from the operator terminal device until the transportation object vehicle arrives to the energy supply facility.

2. The method according to claim 1,

wherein, when a rental request is received by the shared vehicle management device for the shared vehicle at the station after determining the first shared vehicle of which the utilization rate at the station is less than the predetermined rate, a further determination corrects the predetermined rate, which is a threshold for evaluating the utilization rate, to be high.

3. The method according to claim 1,

wherein the utilization rate of the first shared vehicle is calculated on a basis of one or more information items among an operation history of the first shared vehicle allocated to the station, calendar, weather, and an event that is performed at a point near the station.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

generating, by the shared vehicle management device, a schedule for the operator terminal device in which the electronic task instruction for the operator terminal device is planned over time.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by the shared vehicle management device, an operation state of the energy supply facility and generating, by the shared vehicle management device, the electronic task instruction of the task of transporting the shared vehicle to the energy supply facility;

when an available time for using the energy supply facility is before a planned time to start execution of the task,

when the available time for using the energy supply facility is before an estimated arrival time at which the first shared vehicle is estimated to arrive at the energy supply facility, or

when a time difference between the available time for using the energy supply facility and the estimated arrival time at which the first shared vehicle is estimated to arrive at the energy supply facility is within a predetermined time period.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring, by the shared vehicle management device, the execution of the task of transporting the first shared vehicle for which the work at the energy supply facility is completed to the station;

selecting, by the shared vehicle management device, the station to which the first shared vehicle can be allocated at a time when the work is completed and at which the utilization rate of the first shared vehicle is relatively high; and

generating, by the shared vehicle management device, the electronic task instruction of the task of allocation to transport the shared vehicle from the energy supply facility to the station.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

comparing, by the shared vehicle management device, locations and relevant times of operator terminal devices when performing the task;

extracting, by the shared vehicle management device, tasks of which differences between the locations and between the relevant times specified in the task are less than predetermined values;

selecting, by the shared vehicle management device, one operator terminal device from among a plurality of operator terminal devices instructed to perform the extracted tasks;

generating, by the shared vehicle management device, another electronic task instruction of making a second operator terminal device ride with the operator terminal device on the first shared vehicle; and

transmitting, by the shared vehicle management device, the another electronic task instruction to the second operator terminal device.