VEHICLE ROUTE SELECTION BASED ON ENERGY USAGE

• US 20120022904A1
• Filed: 09/26/2011
• Published: 01/26/2012
• 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: Koch, Jason, Mason, Ralph, Jelinek, Howard
• Granted Patent: US 8,290,701 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.13
• 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 for optimizing energy use of a fleet of powered vehicle assets, the method comprising:

identifying a plurality of destinations to be visited by a fleet of vehicle assets,

wherein each of said destinations is defined by three-dimensional location data having a latitude component, a longitude component, and an elevation component;

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

wherein the vehicle type is internal combustion, electric or hybrid;

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

wherein the driver profile comprises information regarding past driver behavior that is reflective of energy use; and

by using one or more computing devices, determining two or more sets of a vehicle, a driver, and transportation route comprising a subset of the plurality of destinations configured to reduce the total amount of energy required for said vehicles to visit the plurality of destinations.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising outputting the transportation routes to the drivers on a user interface display integrated within each of the vehicles.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising outputting the transportation routes to each of the drivers on a user interface display of a mobile device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising calculating real-time vehicle speed recommendations for at least some portions of the transportation routes, the real-time vehicle speed recommendations being calculated to reduce energy use along the portions of the transportation routes.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein at least one of the calculated real-time vehicle speed recommendations for a particular portion of a transportation route is a speed that is lower than a posted speed limit for the particular portion of the transportation route.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising outputting the calculated vehicle speed recommendations to the driver.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the driver profile comprises information regarding acceleration habits of the driver.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the driver profile comprises information regarding speeding habits of the driver.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the driver profile comprises information regarding work habits of the driver.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the driver profile comprises information selected from the group consisting of:

age, preferred driving times, preferred days of work, wage information, overtime information, experience level, and driver training information.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the total amount of energy required for said vehicles to visit the plurality of destinations is determined based, at least in part, on vehicle type and on past driver behavior that is reflective of energy use.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the total amount of energy required for said vehicles to visit the plurality of destinations is determined based, at least in part, on elevation changes between the destinations.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein determining said transportation routes comprises determining a plurality of candidate transportation routes based on shortest distance and/or estimated time travel;

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.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving real-time data having a potential to affect the total amount of energy required for said vehicles to visit the plurality of destinations and determining a modified transportation route for each of said vehicles based, at least in part, on said received real-time data, wherein said modified transportation routes are configured to reduce the total amount of energy required to visit the plurality of destinations.

15. A system for optimizing energy use of a fleet of powered vehicle assets, comprising:

a fleet of vehicles, each of said vehicles having a corresponding vehicle type,

wherein the vehicle type is internal combustion, electric or hybrid;

two or more drivers capable of operating at least one vehicle in said fleet,

wherein each driver has a driver profile that comprises information regarding past driver behavior that is reflective of energy use; and

a computer system comprising computer hardware configured to identify a plurality of destinations to be visited by the fleet of vehicles, wherein each of said destinations is defined by three-dimensional location data having a latitude component, a longitude component, and an elevation component and determine two or more sets of a vehicle, a driver, and transportation route comprising a subset of the plurality of destinations configured to reduce the total amount of energy required for said vehicles to visit the plurality of destinations.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising a user interface display integrated within each of the vehicles, wherein the computer system is further configured to output the transportation routes to in-vehicle devices integrated within each of the vehicles over a communications network.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the computer system is further configured to output the transportation routes to mobile devices carried by the drivers over a communications network.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the computer system is further configured to calculate real-time vehicle speed recommendations for at least some portions of the transportation routes, the real-time vehicle speed recommendations being calculated to reduce energy use along the portions of the transportation routes.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein at least one of the calculated real-time vehicle speed recommendations for a particular portion of a transportation route is a speed that is lower than a posted speed limit for the particular portion of the transportation route.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the computer system is further configured to output the calculated vehicle speed recommendations to the in-vehicle or mobile devices over the communications network.

21. The system of claim 15, wherein the driver profile comprises information regarding acceleration habits of the driver.

22. The system of claim 15, wherein the driver profile comprises information regarding speeding habits of the driver.

23. The system of claim 15, wherein the driver profile comprises information regarding work habits of the driver.

24. The system of claim 15, wherein the driver profile comprises information selected from the group consisting of:

age, preferred driving times, preferred days of work, wage information, overtime information, experience level, and driver training information.

25. The system of claim 15, wherein the total amount of energy required for said vehicles to visit the plurality of destinations is determined based, at least in part, on vehicle type and on past driver behavior that is reflective of energy use.

26. The system of claim 15, wherein the total amount of energy required for said vehicles to visit the plurality of destinations is determined based, at least in part, on elevation changes between the destinations.

27. The system of claim 15, wherein determining said transportation routes comprises determining a plurality of candidate transportation routes based on shortest distance and/or estimated time travel;

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.

28. The system of claim 15, further comprising receiving real-time data having a potential to affect the total amount of energy required for said vehicles to visit the plurality of destinations and determining a modified transportation route for each of said vehicles based, at least in part, on said received real-time data, wherein said modified transportation routes are configured to reduce the total amount of energy required to visit the plurality of destinations.