VEHICLE ROUTE SELECTION BASED ON ENERGY USAGE

• US 20110238457A1
• Filed: 11/24/2010
• Published: 09/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Telogis Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Mason, Ralph, Koch, Jason, Jelinek, Howard
• Granted Patent: US 8,706,409 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.14
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/043 Identity of occupants
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3469 Fuel consumption; Energy use; Emission aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3484 Personalized, e.g. from learned user behaviour or user-defined profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3617 using user history, behaviour, conditions or preferences, e.g. predicted or inferred from previous use or current movement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/047 Optimisation of routes or paths, e.g. travelling salesman problem
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063112 Skill-based matching of a person or a group to a task
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/083 Shipping
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/202 Dispatching vehicles on the basis of a location, e.g. taxi dispatching

Abstract

Vehicle management systems and associated processes can consider energy consumption when selecting routes for fleet vehicles. Vehicle management systems and associated processes are described that, in certain embodiments, evaluate vehicle energy usage based on factors such as terrain or elevation, vehicle characteristics, driver characteristics, road conditions, traffic, speed limits, stop time, turn information, traffic information, and weather information, and the like. The features described herein may also be implemented for non-fleet vehicles, such as in personal vehicle navigation systems.

Claims

1. A method of optimizing energy use of a powered vehicle, the method comprising:

by a computer system comprising computer hardware;

identifying a starting waypoint and a destination waypoint, wherein the starting waypoint and the destination waypoint comprise three-dimensional location data having a latitude component, a longitude component, and an elevation component;

determining a plurality of candidate transportation routes from the starting waypoint location to the destination waypoint location based, at least in part, on shortest distance or shortest transit time;

calculating an energy use estimate for each of the candidate transportation routes;

ranking the candidate transportation routes based, at least in part, on the calculated energy use estimate of each of the candidate transportation routes; and

identifying a preferred transportation route from the candidate transportation routes based, at least in part, on the calculated energy use estimates of the candidate transportation routes.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising calculating real-time vehicle speed recommendations for corresponding portions of the preferred transportation route, the real-time vehicle speed recommendations being calculated to reduce energy use along the corresponding portions of the preferred transportation route.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein at least one of the calculated vehicle speed recommendations is a speed that is lower than a posted speed limit for the corresponding portion of the identified transportation route.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising outputting the preferred route to a driver of the powered vehicle;

and outputting the calculated vehicle speed recommendations to the driver for the corresponding portions of the identified transportation route.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of outputting the preferred route to a driver comprises displaying the identified route on a user interface integrated within the powered vehicle.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of outputting the preferred route to a driver comprises displaying the identified route on a user interface display of a mobile device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the energy use estimate is calculated based, at least in part, on an identified vehicle type.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the energy use estimate is calculated based, at least in part, on one or more driver characteristics of an identified driver.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the energy use estimate is calculated based, at least in part, on one or more energy use criteria associated with the candidate transportation routes.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the energy use criteria comprises average slope.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the energy use criteria comprises an estimated amount of stop time.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the energy use criteria comprises an estimated amount of idling time.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the energy use criteria comprises a distance.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the energy use criteria comprises an estimated transit time.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the energy use criteria comprises changes in momentum.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying elevation data for a plurality of waypoints along each of the candidate transportation routes, and selecting a preferred transportation route that has fewer elevation changes than other candidate transportation routes based, at least in part, on the elevation data.

17. A system for optimizing energy use of a powered vehicle, comprising:

a computer system comprising computer hardware configured to;

identify a starting waypoint and a destination waypoint, wherein the starting waypoint and the destination waypoint comprise three-dimensional location data having a latitude component, a longitude component, and an elevation component;

determine a plurality of candidate transportation routes from the starting waypoint location to the destination waypoint location;

calculate an energy use estimate for each of the candidate transportation routes;

rank the candidate transportation routes based, at least in part, on the calculated energy use estimate of each of the candidate transportation routes; and

identify a preferred transportation route from the candidate transportation routes based, at least in part, on the calculated energy use estimates of the candidate transportation routes.

18. A method for optimizing energy use of a powered vehicle, comprising:

by a computer system comprising computer hardware, determining a vehicle speed recommendation for at least a portion of an identified transportation route, the vehicle speed recommendation being calculated to reduce energy use along the portion of the identified transportation route, wherein the determined vehicle speed recommendation is lower than a posted speed limit for the portion of the identified transportation route.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising outputting the determined vehicle speed recommendation to a driver of the powered vehicle.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the determined vehicle speed recommendation is calculated based, at least in part, on one or more vehicle characteristics.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the vehicle characteristics comprise an identification of the vehicle type of the powered vehicle.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein the portion of the identified transportation route comprises an uphill portion.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein the determined vehicle speed recommendation is calculated based, at least in part, on route elevation information determined from elevation components of waypoints along the portion of the identified transportation route, the waypoints comprising three-dimensional location data.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein outputting the determined vehicle speed recommendation comprises providing a real-time audible output of the calculated vehicle speed recommendation to the driver.

25. The method of claim 19, further comprising outputting a real-time alarm when an actual speed of the vehicle exceeds the determined vehicle speed recommendation.

26. A method for dynamically optimizing energy usage of a powered vehicle, the method comprising:

by a computer system comprising computer hardware;

selecting a preferred transportation route for a driver of a powered vehicle from a plurality of candidate transportation routes based, at least in part, on an energy use estimate associated with the preferred transportation route;

receiving real-time data having a potential to affect the energy use estimate of the preferred transportation route;

determining a plurality of candidate transportation routes from the current location of the powered vehicle to a destination waypoint location;

calculating an energy use estimate for each of the candidate transportation routes based, at least in part, on the received real-time data;

ranking the candidate transportation routes based, at least in part, on the calculated energy use estimate of each of the candidate transportation routes; and

selecting a new preferred transportation route from the candidate transportation routes based, at least in part, on the calculated energy use estimates of the candidate transportation routes.

27. A method for optimizing energy use of a powered vehicle, the method comprising:

identifying a plurality of destinations to be visited;

identifying two or more vehicles to potentially assign to a transportation route, each vehicle having a corresponding vehicle type;

identifying two or more drivers capable of operating the vehicles, each driver having a corresponding driver profile; and

by using one or more computing devices, determining one or more sets of a vehicle, a driver, and a subset of the plurality of destinations configured to reduce a total amount of energy use by the vehicles to visit the plurality of destinations.

28. The computer-implemented method of claim 27, wherein the vehicles are selected from the group consisting of:

internal combustion vehicles, electric vehicles, and hybrid vehicles.

29. The computer-implemented method of claim 27, wherein the driver profile comprises information regarding past driver behavior that is reflective of energy use.

30. The computer-implemented method of claim 27, wherein determining the plurality of routes configured to reduce overall energy use is based, at least in part, on elevation change information.

31. A method of optimizing energy use, the method comprising:

by a computer system comprising computer hardware;

identifying a starting waypoint and a destination waypoint;

identifying two or more vehicles, each vehicle having a corresponding vehicle type;

identifying two or more drivers, each driver having a corresponding driver profile;

determining a plurality of candidate transportation routes from the starting waypoint location to the destination waypoint location;

identifying a preferred transportation route for at least some of the driver and vehicle combinations, wherein the preferred transportation routes are identified based, at least in part, on a calculated energy use estimate of the preferred transportation routes; and

selecting from the preferred transportation routes for the driver and vehicle combinations a final transportation route having a lowest energy use estimate.

32. A method of route optimization for a powered vehicle, comprising:

by a computer system comprising computer hardware;

identifying a plurality of alternative feasible routes based, at least in part, on shortest distance or shortest transit time;

determining an energy use cost for the identified feasible routes; and

selecting a preferred route from the feasible routes based, at least in part, on the energy use costs.

33. A method of route optimization for a powered vehicle, comprising:

by a computer system comprising computer hardware;

identifying a starting waypoint and a destination waypoint;

identifying terrain characteristics information for a region surrounding the starting waypoint and the destination waypoint, the terrain characteristics information comprising elevation information;

determining feasible alternative routes from the starting waypoint to the destination waypoint based, at least in part, on the elevation information;

identifying an energy use cost for the feasible routes based, at least in part, on the elevation information; and

selecting a preferred route from the feasible routes having the lowest energy use cost.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the feasible alternative routes are determined based on shortest distance.

35. The method of claim 33, wherein the feasible alternative routes are determined based on shortest transit time.

36. The method of claim 33, wherein the energy use cost is based, at least in part, on one or more vehicle characteristics of an identified vehicle.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the one or more vehicle characteristics comprises a vehicle type.