VEHICLE ROUTE CALCULATION

• US 20120226391A1
• Filed: 03/02/2012
• Published: 09/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Telogis Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Mason, Ralph James, Fryer, Mark, Elliot, William
• Granted Patent: US 9,140,567 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3407 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/202 Dispatching vehicles on the basis of a location, e.g. taxi dispatching

Abstract

This disclosure describes vehicle route calculation methods including “fitting” route segments between locations reported by a vehicle at different times along a route to create an overall “fitted” route. In certain embodiments, a vehicle management system generates a vehicle management user interface that displays the “fitted” route overlaid on a map. The “fitted” route can provide more useful tracking information to an administrator compared to simply displaying direct routes between known route stops.

Claims

1. A system for determining a most likely actual route traveled by a fleet vehicle based on historical vehicle status data received from the fleet vehicle at a plurality of time instances, the system comprising:

a computer system comprising computer hardware programmed to implement a vehicle route calculation module configured to at least;

generate a vehicle management user interface;

output the vehicle management user interface for presentation to a user, the vehicle management user interface comprising a virtual road map;

receive a selection by a user of a vehicle in a vehicle fleet from the vehicle management user interface;

receive a selection by a user of a time period of travel of the vehicle from the vehicle management user interface for the purposes of calculating an estimated actual route traveled by the vehicle over the time period;

in response to receiving the selection of the vehicle and the time period of travel;

obtain vehicle status information corresponding to telematics data received from the vehicle at a plurality of time instances within the time period of travel, the telematics data comprising vehicle position data, and

obtain map information comprising road data corresponding to the vehicle position data;

identify estimated vehicle position locations on roads identified from the road data at the plurality of time instances by comparing characteristics of the vehicle status information with the road data;

calculate an estimated actual route traveled by the fleet vehicle between the vehicle position locations; and

output a representation of the estimated actual route traveled by the vehicle for presentation on the virtual road map.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the route calculation module is further configured to output the representation of the estimated actual route traveled by the vehicle with an indication reflecting a direction of travel of the vehicle.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the route calculation module is further configured to output the representation of the estimated actual route traveled by the vehicle with an indication reflecting a confidence level in the estimated actual route.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer system comprises a vehicle information server configured to store and output the vehicle status data and a map information server configured to store the map information and to calculate the estimated actual route traveled by the vehicle.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the route calculation module is further configured to identify benchmark points from the estimated vehicle position locations and calculate route links between the benchmark points that track actual road segments identified from the road data and then connect the calculated route links to obtain the estimated actual route.

6. Non-transitory physical computer storage comprising instructions stored thereon for implementing, in one or more processors, a method of calculating an estimated actual route traveled by a fleet vehicle based on historical vehicle status data at a plurality of time instances, the method comprising:

receiving a user selection of a fleet vehicle and a time period of travel of the fleet vehicle;

in response to receiving the user selection, obtaining vehicle status data over the time period for the fleet vehicle, the vehicle status data being based on telematics data received from the fleet vehicle;

obtaining map data based on the obtained vehicle status data, the map data comprising road information;

identifying estimated vehicle position locations at a plurality of time instances on roads identified from the road information by comparing characteristics of the vehicle status data with the road information; and

calculating an estimated actual route traveled by the fleet vehicle between the vehicle position locations, wherein the estimated actual route tracks road segments identified from the road information.

7. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 6, wherein said vehicle status data comprises location data, time data, speed data, and heading data.

8. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 7, wherein said location data comprises global positioning system (GPS) data periodically received from an in-vehicle GPS device of the fleet vehicle.

9. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 6, wherein said vehicle status data is periodically received at a time interval.

10. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 9, wherein the time interval is between thirty seconds and three minutes.

11. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 6, wherein the method further comprises presenting a fleet vehicle management user interface to a user and receiving the user selection of the fleet vehicle and the time period of travel of the fleet vehicle from the user interface.

12. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises outputting the estimated actual route for display to the user on the vehicle management user interface.

13. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 12, wherein the vehicle management user interface comprises a map portion and a vehicle history timeline portion, the map portion depicting the outputted estimated actual route on a virtual road map represented on the map portion.

14. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 6, wherein calculating an estimated actual route traveled by the fleet vehicle between the vehicle position locations comprises identifying benchmark points from the estimated vehicle position locations and calculating route links between the benchmark points that track actual road segments identified from the road information.

15. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 14, wherein calculating an estimated actual route traveled by the fleet vehicle between the vehicle position locations further comprises connecting the calculated route links to obtain the estimated actual route.

16. A vehicle route highlighting user interface for facilitating calculation and display of historical route information for one or more fleet vehicles, the user interface comprising a map portion configured to display calculated routes of the one or more fleet vehicles represented on a road map of an area traveled by the one or more fleet vehicles, wherein the calculated routes track road segments of the road map identified based upon a comparison of characteristics of vehicle status information corresponding to telematics data received from in-vehicle devices of the one or more fleet vehicles with road data obtained from road map information, and wherein the map portion is configured to be generated by a computer system comprising computer hardware.

17. The vehicle route highlighting user interface of claim 16, wherein the calculated routes are configured to be displayed with a direction of travel indication.

18. The vehicle route highlighting user interface of claim 17, wherein the direction of travel indication comprises a virtual representation of motion of the displayed calculated routes in the direction of travel.

19. The vehicle route highlighting user interface of claim 16, wherein the calculated routes are configured to be displayed with a confidence indication.

20. The vehicle route highlighting user interface of claim 19, wherein the confidence indication varies along each displayed calculated route depending on the level of confidence at various portions of the displayed route.

21. The vehicle route highlighting user interface of claim 19, wherein the confidence indication comprises a coloring indication.

22. The vehicle route highlighting user interface of claim 19, wherein the confidence indication comprises an alphanumeric indication.

23. The vehicle route highlighting user interface of claim 22, wherein the confidence indication comprises a percentage value.

24. The vehicle route highlighting user interface of claim 19, wherein the confidence indication comprises a graphical icon.