VEHICLE FLEET ROUTING SYSTEM

• US 20130339266A1
• Filed: 06/14/2013
• Published: 12/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Telogis Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: LOOMAN, William George, HIDAYAT, Jefferson Ray Tan, KOK, Katherine Winnie, DUNLOP, Mark Robert
• Application Number:
  US13/918,821
• Publication Number:
  US 20130339266A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/338
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3407 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0088 characterized by the autonomous decision making process, e.g. artificial intelligence, predefined behaviours using knowledge based models G06N5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0291 Fleet control monitoring fleets in traffic control systems for road vehicles G08G1/127, G08G1/127
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08355 Routing methods
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096816 where the complete route is transmitted to the vehicle at once
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096866 where the complete route is shown to the driver
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/202 Dispatching vehicles on the basis of a location, e.g. taxi dispatching

Abstract

In one embodiment, a system for routing vehicles in a vehicle fleet includes a location assignment module comprising computer hardware and a routing module. The location assignment module can be configured to iteratively: determine whether quotas are met for a plurality of territories based at least on locations assigned to individual territories of the plurality of territories, and in response to determining that the quota is unmet for one or more individual territories, assign one or more additional locations to the one or more individual territories having unmet quotas based at least on a proximity of the one or more additional locations to a different reference location associated with each of the one or more individual territories having unmet quotas. The routing module can be configured to generate routes including the locations assigned to the individual territories for vehicles in a vehicle fleet.

Claims

1. A system for determining routes for vehicles in a vehicle fleet, the system comprising:

a computer system comprising computer hardware programmed to;

access a plurality of constraints associated with a plurality of vehicles in a vehicle fleet;

based at least in on the plurality of constraints, calculate routes on a network of streets in the geographic region between waypoint locations for the plurality of vehicles, at least some of the calculated routes not satisfying one or more of the plurality of constraints associated with the plurality of vehicles; and

in response to determining that the calculated route for a first vehicle of the plurality of vehicles satisfies both optimization conditions and the plurality of constraints for the vehicle, output the calculated route for the first vehicle for presentation to a user.

2. A method of determining routes for vehicles in a vehicle fleet, the method comprising:

accessing stop data representing a plurality of stops for one or more vehicles in a fleet of vehicles;

accessing constraints associated with one or more of the following;

the one or more vehicles, one or more vehicle drivers, policies of an organization associated with the fleet of vehicles, and one or more customers associated with the plurality of stops;

calculating proposed routes between the plurality of stops on a network of streets in a geographic region, said calculating comprising evaluating the proposed routes based on a degree to which the proposed routes satisfy the constraints, said evaluating comprising penalizing the proposed routes based on the degree to which the proposed routes do not satisfy the constraints without excluding a first subset of the proposed routes that violate one or more of the constraints; and

selecting a second subset of the proposed routes to be selected routes based at least in part on said evaluating;

wherein at least said calculating is performed by a computer system comprising computer hardware.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said evaluating comprises penalizing first and second proposed routes of the proposed routes at different rates based on the type of constraints being violated by the first and second proposed routes.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein a first constraint of the constraints is associated with a weightier first penalty for exceeding the first constraint than a second penalty associated with exceeding a second constraint of the constraints.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein said penalizing comprises applying a higher penalty to a first one of the proposed routes that exceeds a first one of the constraints by a first amount than a second one of the proposed routes that exceeds the first one of the constraints by a second amount less than the first amount.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein penalties applied by said penalizing increase linearly with the degree of deviation.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein penalties applied by said penalizing increase exponentially with the degree of deviation.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein said calculating comprises allowing constraints to be violated other than legal constraints.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said calculating comprises allowing company policy constraints and customer constraints to be violated.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising prioritizing customer constraints over company policy constraints and adjusting penalties for violating customer and company policy constraints based on said prioritizing.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising prioritizing a first customer constraint over a second customer constraint from the same customer based on a degree of importance of the first and second customer constraints as specified by the customer.