Traffic Speed Modeling

• US 20160364983A1
• Filed: 06/11/2015
• Published: 12/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HERE Global B.V. (HERE Holding Corporation)
• Original Assignee: HERE Global B.V. (HERE Holding Corporation)
• Inventors: Downs, Oliver B., Tennent, Toby, Bernhardt, Bruce
• Granted Patent: US 10,055,981 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0108 based on the source of data
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0116 from roadside infrastructure, e.g. beacons
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/012 from other sources than vehicle or roadside beacons, e.g. mobile networks
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0129 for creating historical data or processing based on historical data
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0133 for classifying traffic situation
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0141 for traffic information dissemination
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/052 with provision for determining speed or overspeed speed measuring in general G01P
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096716 where the received information does not generate an automatic action on the vehicle control
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096758 where no selection takes place on the transmitted or the received information
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station

Abstract

A method and apparatus for traffic modeling comprising: receiving by a server, traffic data generated by one or more devices configured to record data indicating speeds of vehicles traveling a road segment. The server separates, with a processor, the traffic data into zero speed data and non-zero speed data. The server determines, with the processor, a zero speed data characteristic value of the zero speed data. The server determines, with the processor, at least one non-zero speed data characteristic value of the non-zero speed data. The server generates, with the processor, a representative traffic value for the road segment as a function of the zero speed characteristic value and the non-zero speed characteristic value.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving traffic data generated by one or more devices configured to record data indicating speeds of vehicles traveling a road segment;

separating, by a processor, the traffic data into zero speed data and non-zero speed data;

determining, by the processor, a zero speed data characteristic value of the zero speed data;

determining, by the processor, at least one non-zero speed data characteristic value of the non-zero speed data; and

generating, by the processor, a representative traffic value for the road segment as a function of the zero speed characteristic value and the non-zero speed characteristic value.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving traffic data comprises of:

receiving historical traffic data generated by one or more devices configured to record data indicating speeds of vehicles traveling a road segment over a first period of time;

receiving recent traffic data generated by one or more devices configured to record data indicating speeds of vehicles traveling a road segment over a second period of time, wherein the first period of time is longer than the second period of time; and

generating the traffic data as a function of the historical traffic data and recent traffic data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more devices are one or more roadway sensors configured to record data indicating speeds of vehicles as the vehicles travel near the one or more roadway sensors.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more devices are one or more probe sensors disposed within a vehicle traveling the road segment.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the zero speed data characteristic value comprises:

determining the zero speed characteristic value as a percentage of a number of zero speed data points to a total number of traffic data points of the traffic data.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining at least one non-zero speed data characteristic value comprises:

determining the at least one non-zero speed value as at least one parameter of a Gamma distribution representation of the non-zero speed data.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the generating a gamma distribution of traffic speeds further comprises:

generating one or more gamma distribution parameters as a function of one or more historical gamma distribution parameters.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating the zero speed data characteristic value comprises:

generating one or more delta gamma distribution parameters of the zero speed data as a function of a delta gamma distribution estimation of the zero speed data.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving historical traffic values, wherein the historical traffic values are used by the function to generate the representative traffic value.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating, by the processor, a recent traffic value histogram from the one or more representative traffic values,

receiving, by the processor, a historical traffic value histogram,

generating, by the processor, a final delta histogram by combining the recent traffic value histogram and the historical traffic value histogram, and

determining, by the processor, a final traffic speed value from the final delta histogram.

11. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory coupled with the processor and including computer program code and operable to store traffic data generated by devices configured to record traffic data representing speeds of vehicles traveling a road segment; and

the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to;

separate the traffic data into zero speed data and non-zero speed data;

determine a zero speed characteristic value of the zero speed data;

determine at least one non-zero speed characteristic value of the non-zero speed data; and

generate a representative traffic value for the road segment as a function of the zero speed characteristic value and the non-zero speed characteristic value.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, the memory further operable to:

store historical traffic data generated and store recent traffic data generated by devices configured to record traffic data representing speeds of vehicles traveling a road segment; and

combine the historical traffic data and the recent traffic data to generate traffic data.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the one or more devices are one or more roadway sensors configured to record data indicating speeds of vehicles as the vehicles encounter the one or more roadway sensors or the one or more devices are one or more probe sensors disposed within a vehicle traveling the road segment.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following:

determine the at least one non-zero speed value as at least one parameter of a Gamma distribution representation of the non-zero speed data.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following:

generate at least one parameter of a Gamma distribution as a function of one or more historical gamma distribution parameters.

16. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are further configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform at least the following:

generate one or more parameters of a delta gamma distribution of the zero speed data as a function of a delta gamma distribution estimation of the zero speed data.

17. A method comprising:

determining a location data value for a mobile device;

sending the location data value to a server;

receiving a representative traffic data value from the server, wherein the representative traffic data value is generated by the server as a function of at least one zero speed data characteristic value from zero speed values and at least one non-zero speed data characteristic value of the non-zero speed data from nonzero speed values.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

updating a visual indicator of the representative traffic data value; and

displaying the visual indicator of the representative traffic data value.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

generating recent traffic data indicating a speed of one or more vehicles traveling a road segment; and

transmitting the recent traffic data to the server.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

combining the recent traffic data with previously received traffic data for the road segment.