Method of combining trackless vehicle and device thereof

• US 9,122,279 B2
• Filed: 10/09/2013
• Issued: 09/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Lim, Dong Hyouk, Kim, Tae Ho
• Primary Examiner(s): Khatib, Rami
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ziaeianmehdizadeh, Navid
• Application Number:
  US14/049,869
• Publication Number:
  US 20140149026A1
• Time in Patent Office: 692 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0293 Convoy travelling
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/22 Platooning, i.e. convoy of communicating vehicles

Abstract

Disclosed are a method of combining a trackless vehicle and a device thereof, the method including receiving running information about automobiles from a plurality of terminals, searching for terminals each having provided running information that satisfies a predetermined standard based on a similarity in the running information, and providing combining information to the searched terminals, so that energy consumption is reduced when compared to running in the form of an independent trackless vehicle and an automobile user is able to move to a desired destination.

Claims

1. A method of combining a trackless vehicle performed at a server, the method comprising:

receiving, by a processor, running information about an automobile from each of a plurality of terminals;

searching, by the processor, for terminals each having provided running information that satisfies a predetermined standard based on a similarity determined by a difference between the running information received from the plurality of terminals;

generating, by the processor, combining information based on the similarity in the running information;

storing, in a storage unit, at least one of the combining information and the running information; and

providing, by the processor, the combining information to the searched terminals providing the running information that satisfies the predetermined standard to control automobiles corresponding to the searched terminals such that at least two automobiles corresponding to the searched terminals are combined based on the combining information.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating accounting information with respect to a plurality of automobiles combined based on the combining information; and

providing the accounting information to the plurality of automobiles combined.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein in the generating of the accounting information, the accounting information is generated based on energy consumption of the plurality of automobiles.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein in the generating of the accounting information, the accounting information is generated based on a weight according to at least one of a difference between a final starting point and starting point information about the plurality of automobiles, a difference between a final destination and destination information about the plurality of automobiles, a difference between a final starting time and starting time information about the plurality of automobiles, and a difference between a final arrival time and arrival time information about the plurality of automobiles.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein in the receiving of the running information, at least one of starting point information, destination information, starting time information, and arrival time information is received as the running information.

6. A method of combining a trackless vehicle performed at a terminal, the method comprising:

providing, by a processor, running information about an automobile to a server;

receiving, by a processor, from the server, combining information generated based on a similarity determined by a difference between running information provided by a plurality of terminals; and

controlling, by the processor, the automobile corresponding to the terminal such that the automobile is combined with at least one other automobile based on the combining information.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving accounting information with respect to a plurality of automobiles combined based on the combining information, from the server.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein in the providing of the running information to the server, at least one of starting point information, destination information, starting time information, and arrival time information is provided to the server as the running information.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein in the providing of the running information to the server, intermediate destination information generated based on the starting point information and the running information is provided to the server.

10. A server for combining a trackless vehicle, the server comprising:

a processor configured to receive running information about automobiles from a plurality of terminals, search for terminals each having provided running information that satisfies a predetermined standard based on a similarity determined by a difference between the running information received from the plurality of terminals, and provide combining information to the searched terminals that provided the running information that satisfies the predetermined standard; and

a storage configured to store at least one of the running information and the combining information, wherein the processor generates accounting information with respect to a plurality of automobiles combined based on the combining information, and provides the accounting information to the plurality of automobiles combined.

11. The server of claim 10, wherein the processor generates the accounting information based on energy consumption of the plurality of automobiles.

12. The server of claim 10, wherein the processor generates the accounting information based on a weight according to at least one of a difference between a final starting point and starting point information about the plurality of automobiles, a difference between a final destination and destination information about the plurality of automobiles, a difference between a final starting time and starting time information about the plurality of automobiles, and a difference between a final arrival time and arrival time information about the plurality of automobiles.