Dynamic ETA and STA transportation system

• US 9,530,314 B2
• Filed: 09/20/2013
• Issued: 12/27/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Maitra, Anutosh, Paul, Sanjoy, Bhadkaria, Saurabh, Ghosh, Chiranjeeb
• Primary Examiner(s): Jabr, Fadey
• Assistant Examiner(s): SOOFI, YAZAN A
• Application Number:
  US14/032,861
• Publication Number:
  US 20150046083A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,194 Days
• Field of Search: 701/465
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3407 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/123 indicating the position of vehicles, e.g. scheduled vehicles; Managing passenger vehicles circulating according to a fixed timetable, e.g. buses, trains, tramstransmission of navigation instructions to vehicles G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks

Abstract

A transportation system may store a standard time of arrival table including standard time of arrivals for fixed stops and waypoints or geo-sections. Delay of a vehicle reaching a fixed stop is determined and may be used to determine an estimated time of arrival to a destination on the route. Delay may be determined in response to traversing the waypoints or geo-sections on the route, and the estimated time of arrival may be updated according to the delay at each waypoint or geo-section.

Claims

1. A transportation system to determine estimated time of arrival (ETA), the system comprising:

a data storage to store a standard time of arrival (STA) table, wherein the STA table includes an STA for a fixed stop along a fixed route and an STA for each waypoint or geo-section along the fixed route, wherein each waypoint represents a point along the fixed route and each geo-section represents a portion of a geographic area related to the fixed route; and

at least one hardware processor to;

determine, for a vehicle traveling on the fixed route and travelling towards the fixed stop from an origin, an actual time of arrival (ATA) of the vehicle at the waypoints or geo-sections along the fixed route between the origin and the fixed stop, wherein the ATA of the vehicle is determined based on a current location of the vehicle, and wherein the current location of the vehicle is determined by using a location sensor, wherein the location sensor is to further detect when the vehicle is adjacent to one of the waypoints, and transmit the ATA associated with the detection of when the vehicle is adjacent to the one of the waypoints;

determine a delay at each of the waypoints or geo-sections, wherein the delay for each waypoint or geo-section is determined as a difference between the STA from the STA table for the waypoint or geo-section and the ATA of the vehicle at the waypoint or the geo-section;

determine an ETA of the vehicle at the fixed stop, wherein the ETA is determined as a sum of the delay at each waypoint or geo-section added to the STA of the fixed stop;

determine an ETA for each fixed stop of a plurality of fixed stops of the fixed route based on ATAs for previous fixed stops and intervening waypoints or geo-sections; and

transmit the ETA for each fixed stop of the plurality of fixed stops of the fixed route to display a map including the fixed route and the ETA for each fixed stop of the plurality of fixed stops of the fixed route.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one hardware processor is to:

determine whether for a period of M number of days, if delays for at least one of the waypoints or geo-sections or the fixed stop are greater than a threshold for N consecutive days within the M number of days, wherein M and N are greater than 1,

in response to the delays for the at least one waypoint or geo-section or the fixed stop being greater than the threshold for N consecutive days within the M number of days, determine a new STA for the at least one waypoint or geo-section or the fixed stop based on the delays, and

store the new STA for the at least one waypoint or geo-section or the fixed stop in the STA table.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the new STA for the at least one waypoint or geo-section or the fixed stop is based on an old STA for the at least one waypoint or geo-section or the fixed stop and at least one delay determined for the at least one waypoint or geo-section or the fixed stop.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least one hardware processor is to calculate the threshold by multiplying a standard deviation of the delay with a user-defined value, n, wherein n is greater than 0.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least one hardware processor is to calculate N, wherein N is a mean of consecutive days the delays exceeded the threshold within the M days.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the geographic area including the fixed route is divided into the geo-sections, each having a length equal to one another.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one hardware processor is to:

determine whether the delay associated with the ETA of the vehicle at the fixed stop is negative; and

in response to a determination that the delay associated with the ETA of the vehicle at the fixed stop is negative, set the ETA of the vehicle at the fixed stop to the STA of the fixed stop.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one hardware processor is to:

determine whether for a period of M number of days, if delays for at least one of the waypoints or geo-sections or the fixed stop is greater than a threshold for N consecutive days within the M number of days, wherein M and N are greater than 1,

in response to the delays for the at least one waypoint or geo-section or the fixed stop being greater than the threshold for N consecutive days within the M number of days, determine a new STA for the at least one waypoint or geo-section or the fixed stop based on an average of the delays, and

store the new STA for the at least one waypoint or geo-section or the fixed stop in the STA table.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein a geo-section along the fixed route is divided into horizontal and vertical sections specified by distances to form a grid.

10. A method to estimate ETAs for stops on a vehicle'"'"'s route, the method comprising:

determining an origin and a destination for the vehicle travelling from the origin to the destination on the route, wherein the route includes a plurality of fixed stops and waypoints between the fixed stops, wherein each of the waypoints represents a point along the route;

downloading, via a computer network, locations of the plurality of fixed stops and the waypoints between the fixed stops from a remote system and standard time of arrivals (STAs) for the plurality of fixed stops and the waypoints between the fixed stops;

determining a current location of the vehicle on the route by using a location sensor, wherein the location sensor is to further transmit a signal associated with the current location of the vehicle;

determining, from the locations and the current location, a closest waypoint and a closest fixed stop on the route to the current location of the vehicle;

determining an estimated time of arrival (ETA) to the closest waypoint and the closest fixed stop based on a distance from the current location to the closest waypoint and the closest fixed stop;

determining a delay for the closest waypoint and the closest fixed stop from the ETA and an STA of the closest waypoint and the closest fixed stop;

determining, by a hardware processor, an ETA to the destination based on the delay and an STA for the destination; and

transmitting the ETA to the destination to display a map including the route and the ETA to the destination.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein determining the closest fixed stop comprises:

querying a distance application program interface or a direction application program interface to determine the closest fixed stop to the current location.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the closest fixed stop is a next fixed stop on the route to be traversed by the vehicle travelling from the current location.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein determining the ETA to the closest waypoint and the closest fixed stop comprises:

identifying a predetermined average speed for a segment of the route between the current location and the closest waypoint and the closest fixed stop; and

determining the ETA to the closest waypoint and the closest fixed stop from the average speed and the distance between the current location and the closest waypoint and the closest fixed stop along a direction of movement.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the ETA for the destination is updated according to a delay determined for each waypoint and each fixed stop between the closest waypoint, the closest fixed stop and the destination on the route.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium including machine readable instructions executed by at least one hardware processor to:

determine a destination of a vehicle traveling on a non-fixed route to the destination, wherein the non-fixed route represents a route traversed by the vehicle between a plurality of routes that are also available for traversal by the vehicle;

identify a plurality of stored routes between a current location of the vehicle determined by using a location sensor and the destination, wherein each route of the stored routes includes a plurality of waypoints, wherein the waypoints represent points along the associated route, and wherein the location sensor is to further transmit a signal associated with the current location of the vehicle;

determine, from waypoints traversed by the vehicle, a current route of the stored routes on which the vehicle is travelling;

determine a closest waypoint to the current location on the current route;

determine a delay for the closest waypoint;

estimate an estimated time of arrival (ETA) for the destination based on the delay and a standard time of arrival (STA) for the destination for the current route;

determine whether the vehicle remains on the current route or changes from the current route to another route of the stored routes based on whether the vehicle traverses a next waypoint for the current route or the another route;

in response to a determination that the vehicle remains on the current route, continue to estimate the ETA for the destination based on a delay determined for each subsequent way point traversed on the current route, and

transmit the ETA for the destination to display a map including the current route and the ETA for the destination; and

in response to a determination that the vehicle changes from the current route to the another route of the stored routes,

determine the closest waypoint to the current location on the another route, determine the delay for the closest waypoint, and estimate the ETA for the destination based on the delay and the STA for the destination for the another route as the current route, and

transmit the ETA for the destination to display a map including the another route and the ETA for the destination.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein to determine whether the vehicle remains on the current route comprises instructions to:

determine an ETA for the next waypoint on the current route; and

determine whether the vehicle traverses the next waypoint within a predetermined time of the ETA.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein if the vehicle traverses the next waypoint within the predetermined time of the ETA, determining the vehicle remains on the current route;

and

if the vehicle does not traverse the next waypoint within the predetermined time of the ETA, setting a trigger indicating the vehicle has potentially changed routes to the destination.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein in response to the trigger being set, the instructions are to:

identify a next waypoint traversed by the vehicle towards the destination; and

determine the another route from the stored routes based on the identified next waypoint.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the delay for the closest waypoint is determined from an ETA for the closest waypoint and a predetermined STA of the closest waypoint.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein determining the delay for the closest waypoint comprises instructions to:

determine whether for a period of M number of days, if delays for the closest waypoint are greater than a threshold for N consecutive days within the M number of days, wherein M and N are greater than 1,

in response to the delays for the closest waypoint being greater than the threshold for N consecutive days within the M number of days, determine a new STA for the closest waypoint based on the delays, and

store the new STA for the closest waypoint in a STA table.