Systems and Methods for Vehicle Resource Management

• US 20160247109A1
• Filed: 02/24/2016
• Published: 08/25/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Addison Lee Limited (Addison Lee Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Addison Lee Limited (Addison Lee Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Glaschenko, Andrey, Scicluna, Larry
• Granted Patent: US 10,217,069 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/10 Services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/30 Transportation; Communications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/202 Dispatching vehicles on the basis of a location, e.g. taxi dispatching
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/50 Systems or methods supporting the power network operation or management, involving a certain degree of interaction with the load-side end user applications

Abstract

Systems, methods, apparatus, and computer-readable media provide for allocating vehicle resources to future vehicle requirements. In some embodiments, allocating a vehicle resource to a vehicle requirement may be based on an iterative analysis of candidate vehicle resources using one or more of: a suitability of a candidate vehicle resource to fulfil the vehicle requirement, a journey time from a vehicle location to a start location, and/or a start time for the vehicle requirement.

Claims

1. A system for allocating networked vehicle resources to vehicle requirements, the system comprising:

a plurality of requester devices;

a plurality of vehicle resources, each vehicle resource being associated with a respective vehicle location; and

a vehicle resource allocation controller device comprising;

at least one processor in communication with the plurality of requester devices and with the plurality of vehicle resources, and

a computer-readable medium in communication with the at least one processor of the vehicle resource allocation controller device, the computer-readable medium storing instructions that when executed by the at least one processor direct the at least one processor to;

a) store plural vehicle requirements from the plurality of requester devices in the form of plural vehicle requests, each vehicle request including at least a respective start time and a respective start location;

b) for a first vehicle request of the plural vehicle requests, automatically determine that a current time has a predetermined relationship with respect to the start time of the first vehicle request;

c) in response to the determining at step b), form a pool of candidate vehicle resources for possible fulfillment of the first vehicle request;

d) for each candidate vehicle resource in the pool of candidate vehicle resources, calculate a respective score that is related to the suitability of the candidate vehicle resource to fulfil the first vehicle request;

e) for one or more of the candidate vehicle resources in the pool of candidate vehicle resources, calculate a respective journey time from the candidate vehicle resource'"'"'s associated vehicle location to the start location included in the first vehicle request;

f) determine whether there is a need to allocate a vehicle resource to the first vehicle request, using both;

1) the respective scores calculated for the candidate vehicle resources of the pool of candidate vehicle resources, and

2) the calculated one or more respective journey times;

g) perform steps d), e) and f) at least two times for the first vehicle request until it is determined at step f) that there is a need to allocate a vehicle resource to the first vehicle request; and

h) on determining at step f) that there is a need to allocate a vehicle resource to the first vehicle request, allocate to the first vehicle request a vehicle resource of the pool of candidate vehicle resources based on the respective scores calculated on last performance of step d).

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed by the at least one processor further direct the at least one processor to:

receive, for each candidate vehicle resource of the pool of candidate resources, an indication of the respective vehicle location associated with the candidate vehicle resource, wherein the respective vehicle location comprises a respective current location of the candidate vehicle resource.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein receiving the indication of the respective vehicle location associated with the candidate vehicle resource comprises:

receiving an indication of the respective current location from the vehicle resource.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein receiving the indication of the respective vehicle location associated with the candidate vehicle resource comprises:

receiving an indication of the respective current location from a location service in communication with the candidate vehicle resource.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the first vehicle request comprises a request for a first responder vehicle.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the first vehicle request comprises a customer booking for a private hire vehicle, and wherein the start location is a pickup location for the customer booking.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the first vehicle request comprises a request to send a vehicle to a search location.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the first vehicle request comprises a request for an autonomous vehicle.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed by the at least one processor direct the at least one processor to perform allocating to the first vehicle request a vehicle resource at step h) by:

determining a vehicle resource having the best respective score calculated on the last performance of step d); and

allocating the vehicle resource having the best respective score to the first vehicle request.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed by the at least one processor direct the at least one processor to perform step e) for fewer than all of the candidate vehicle resources in the pool of candidate vehicle resources formed at step c).

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the respective vehicle location associated with a candidate vehicle resource comprises a current location of the candidate vehicle resource.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the respective vehicle location associated with a candidate vehicle resource comprises a drop-off location of a customer booking that the candidate vehicle resource is currently fulfilling.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed by the at least one processor direct the at least one processor to:

choose, based on a status of a candidate vehicle resource, between;

1) calculating a respective journey time for the candidate vehicle resource from the candidate vehicle resource'"'"'s vehicle location by calculating a journey time from a current location of the candidate vehicle resource to the start location included in the first vehicle request, and

2) calculating a respective journey time for the candidate vehicle resource from the candidate vehicle resource'"'"'s associated vehicle location by calculating a journey time from a drop-off location of a customer booking that the candidate vehicle resource is currently fulfilling to the start location included in the first vehicle request.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed by the at least one processor direct the at least one processor to perform determining that a current time has a predetermined relationship with respect to the start time of the first vehicle request by:

determining that the current time is at least approximately a predetermined time before the start time of the first vehicle request.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed by the at least one processor direct the at least one processor to perform forming a pool of plural candidate vehicle resources for possible fulfilment of the first vehicle request by:

rejecting one or more vehicles of a fleet that have a status indicating that the vehicle of the fleet is potentially not able to fulfil the vehicle request.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed by the at least one processor direct the at least one processor to perform forming a pool of plural candidate vehicle resources for possible fulfilment of the first vehicle request by:

selecting a predetermined number of candidate vehicle resources that are geographically closest to the start location included in the first vehicle request.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the instructions when executed by the at least one processor further direct the at least one processor to calculate a respective direct distance between each vehicle of a fleet and the start location included in the first vehicle request.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein selecting a predetermined number of candidate vehicle resources that are geographically closest to the start location included in the first vehicle request comprises:

selecting a predetermined number of candidate vehicle resources that are geographically closest to the start location included in the first vehicle request based on the respective direct distances between each vehicle of the fleet and the start location included in the first vehicle request.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the predetermined number is between 10 and 100.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed by the at least one processor direct the at least one processor to perform step g) by:

performing steps c), d), e) and f) at least two times for the first vehicle request until it is determined at step f) that there is a need to allocate a vehicle resource to the first vehicle request.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed by the at least one processor direct the at least one processor to perform calculating a respective score that is related to the suitability of the candidate vehicle resource to fulfil the vehicle request by:

calculating sub scores for each of plural factors and performing a mathematical operation on the sub scores.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed by the at least one processor direct the at least one processor to perform forming a pool of plural candidate vehicle resources for possible fulfilment of the first vehicle request by:

calculating a respective direct distance between each vehicle of a fleet and the start location included in the first vehicle request and calculating a respective journey time for each vehicle of the fleet from the respective vehicle location of each vehicle of the fleet to the start location included in the first vehicle request by using a map database.

23. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed by the at least one processor direct the at least one processor to perform calculating a respective journey time from the respective candidate vehicle resource'"'"'s associated vehicle location to the start location included in the first vehicle request by:

using historical or current data about traffic delays on one or more routes between a respective current location of the candidate vehicle resource and the start location included in the first vehicle request.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed by the at least one processor direct the at least one processor to perform determining whether there is a need to allocate a vehicle resource to the first vehicle request by:

determining that a respective score calculated for a candidate vehicle resource in step d) is better than respective scores calculated for other candidate vehicle resources in the pool of candidate vehicle resources;

determining for the candidate vehicle resource a sum of an allocation buffer value and the respective calculated journey time from the candidate vehicle resource'"'"'s associated vehicle location to the start location included in the first vehicle request; and

determining whether the sum of the allocation buffer value and the respective calculated journey time meets a predetermined relationship with respect to a time remaining from the current time to the start time of the first vehicle request.

25. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions when executed by the at least one processor direct the at least one processor to perform allocating to the first vehicle request a vehicle resource of the pool of candidate vehicle resources based on the respective scores calculated on last performance of step d) by:

allocating to the first vehicle request the vehicle resource of the pool of candidate vehicle resources determined to have had the best respective score on last performance of step d).

26. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the pool of candidate vehicle resources comprises fewer than a total number of vehicle resources that are available to fulfil the booking.

27. A method for a vehicle resource allocation controller device to allocate networked vehicle resources to vehicle requirements, the method comprising:

a) storing, by a vehicle resource allocation controller device, plural vehicle requirements from a plurality of requester devices in the form of plural vehicle requests, each vehicle request including at least a respective start time and a respective start location,

wherein the vehicle resource allocation controller device is in communication with;

the plurality of requester devices, and

a plurality of vehicle resources, each vehicle resource being associated with a respective vehicle location;

b) for a first vehicle request of the plural vehicle requests, automatically determining, by the vehicle resource allocation controller device, that a current time has a predetermined relationship with respect to the start time of the first vehicle request;

c) in response to the determining at step b), forming, by the vehicle resource allocation controller device, a pool of candidate vehicle resources for possible fulfillment of the first vehicle request;

d) for each candidate vehicle resource in the pool of candidate vehicle resources, calculating, by the vehicle resource allocation controller device, a respective score that is related to the suitability of the candidate vehicle resource to fulfil the first vehicle request;

e) for one or more of the candidate vehicle resources in the pool of candidate vehicle resources, calculating, by the vehicle resource allocation controller device, a respective journey time from the candidate vehicle resource'"'"'s associated vehicle location to the start location included in the first vehicle request;

f) determining, by the vehicle resource allocation controller device, whether there is a need to allocate a vehicle resource to the first vehicle request, using both;

1) the respective scores calculated for the candidate vehicle resources of the pool of candidate vehicle resources, and

2) the calculated one or more respective journey times;

g) performing, by the vehicle resource allocation controller device, steps d), e) and f) at least two times for the first vehicle request until it is determined at step f) that there is a need to allocate a vehicle resource to the first vehicle request; and

h) on determining at step f) that there is a need to allocate a vehicle resource to the first vehicle request, allocating, by the vehicle resource allocation controller device, to the first vehicle request a vehicle resource of the pool of candidate vehicle resources based on the respective scores calculated on last performance of step d).

28. An apparatus for allocating networked vehicle resources to vehicle requirements, the apparatus comprising:

a processor in communication with;

a plurality of requester devices, and

a plurality of vehicle resources, each vehicle resource being associated with a respective vehicle location;

a computer-readable medium in communication with the processor, the computer-readable medium storing instructions that when executed by the processor direct the processor to;

a) store plural vehicle requirements from the plurality of requester devices in the form of plural vehicle requests, each vehicle request including at least a respective start time and a respective start location;

b) for a first vehicle request of the plural vehicle requests, automatically determine that a current time has a predetermined relationship with respect to the start time of the first vehicle request;

c) in response to the determining at step b), form a pool of candidate vehicle resources for possible fulfillment of the first vehicle request;

d) for each candidate vehicle resource in the pool of candidate vehicle resources, calculate a respective score that is related to the suitability of the candidate vehicle resource to fulfil the first vehicle request;

e) for one or more of the candidate vehicle resources in the pool of candidate vehicle resources, calculate a respective journey time from the candidate vehicle resource'"'"'s associated vehicle location to the start location included in the first vehicle request;

f) determine whether there is a need to allocate a vehicle resource to the first vehicle request, using both;

1) the respective scores calculated for the candidate vehicle resources of the pool of candidate vehicle resources, and

2) the calculated one or more respective journey times;

g) perform steps d), e) and f) at least two times for the first vehicle request until it is determined at step f) that there is a need to allocate a vehicle resource to the first vehicle request; and

h) on determining at step f) that there is a need to allocate a vehicle resource to the first vehicle request, allocate to the first vehicle request a vehicle resource of the pool of candidate vehicle resources based on the respective scores calculated on last performance of step d).

29. An apparatus for allocating networked vehicle resources to vehicle requirements, the apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a computer-readable medium in communication with the processor, the computer-readable medium storing instructions that when executed by the processor direct the processor to;

determine that a current time has a predetermined relationship with respect to a start time associated with a first vehicle request;

form a pool of candidate vehicle resources for possible fulfillment of the first vehicle request;

for each candidate vehicle resource in the pool of candidate vehicle resources, calculate a respective first score that is related to the suitability of the candidate vehicle resource to fulfil the first vehicle request;

for one or more of the candidate vehicle resources in the pool of candidate vehicle resources, calculate a respective first journey time from a respective first vehicle location associated with the candidate vehicle resource to a start location associated with the first vehicle request;

for each candidate vehicle resource in the pool of candidate vehicle resources, calculate a respective second score that is related to the suitability of the candidate vehicle resource to fulfil the first vehicle request;

for one or more of the candidate vehicle resources in the pool of candidate vehicle resources, calculate a respective second journey time from a respective second vehicle location associated with the candidate vehicle resource to the start location associated with the first vehicle request;

determine that there is a need to allocate a vehicle resource to the first vehicle request, using both;

1) the respective second scores calculated for the candidate vehicle resources of the pool of candidate vehicle resources, and

2) the calculated one or more respective second journey times;

after determining that there is a need to allocate a vehicle resource to the first vehicle request, allocate to the first vehicle request a vehicle resource of the pool of candidate vehicle resources based on the respective second score for the vehicle resource.

30. The apparatus of claim 29, wherein the respective second score for the allocated vehicle resource is the best respective second score calculated for the pool of candidate vehicle resources.