VIRTUAL TOWING

• US 20170122757A1
• Filed: 11/04/2015
• Published: 05/04/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Bai, Sue, Rajab, Samer
• Granted Patent: US 10,309,791 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/343 Calculating itineraries, i.e. routes leading from a starting point to a series of categorical destinations using a global route restraint, round trips, touristic trips travelling salesman problem G06Q10/04; optimisation of routes G06Q10/047
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3438 Rendez-vous, i.e. searching a destination where several users can meet, and the routes to this destination for these users; Ride sharing, i.e. searching a route such that at least two users can share a vehicle for at least part of the route

Abstract

A system and method of multipoint virtual towing of a trailer vehicle by a plurality of different tractor vehicles is provided. A multi-point virtual tow route schedule is determined which segments a requested trailer tow path into tow segments and distributes the segments among different tractor vehicles optimally achieve the purpose of towing the trailer vehicle from an origin to a destination. A best multi-point virtual tow route schedule is selected from candidate multi-point virtual tow route schedules generated from proposed virtual tow parameters corresponding to prospective tractor vehicles offering tow services. The selected multi-point virtual tow route schedule includes a route origin, a route destination, and a plurality of tow segments each corresponding to an accepted tractor vehicle, a link up location, link up location distance range, a link up timeframe, a drop off location, a drop off location distance range, and a drop off timeframe.

Claims

1. A method of multi-point virtual towing comprising:

receiving a request for a multi-point virtual tow of at least one trailer vehicle from a user, the request including a requested tow path having a requested departure location, a requested departure time, a requested destination location, and a requested destination arrival time;

receiving at least one response to the request corresponding to at least one prospective tractor vehicle, the at least one response includes proposed virtual tow parameters; and

determining a multi-point virtual tow route schedule for the multi-point virtual tow from the proposed virtual tow parameters, wherein the multi-point virtual tow route schedule includes a route origin, a route destination, and a plurality of tow segments, wherein each tow segment corresponds to at least one accepted tractor vehicle, a link up location, a link up location distance range, a link up timeframe, a drop off location, a drop off location distance range, and a drop off timeframe, wherein the link up location distance range includes a predefined radius around the link up location in which the at least one prospective tractor vehicle will travel to link with the at least one trailer vehicle and the drop off location distance range includes a predefined radius around the drop off location in which the at least one prospective tractor vehicle will travel to drop off the at least one trailer vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the proposed virtual tow parameters comprise:

the link up location;

the link up timeframe associated with the link up location;

the link up location distance range;

the drop off location;

the drop off timeframe associated with the drop off location; and

the drop off location distance range.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the proposed virtual tow parameters further comprise:

prospective tractor vehicle routes; and

timeframes associated with locations along the prospective tractor vehicle routes.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the proposed virtual tow parameters further comprise stopping requirements for the prospective tractor vehicle defining at least one of a minimum uninterrupted tractor vehicle tow range travel distance and a maximum uninterrupted tractor vehicle tow range travel distance.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising confirming the stopping requirements with the user, wherein the determining the multi-point virtual tow route schedule uses the stopping requirements.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining a user untowed driving range distance for the at least one trailer vehicle, wherein the determining the multi-point virtual tow route schedule uses the user untowed driving range distance.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the request for the multi-point virtual tow further comprises trailer vehicle stopping requirements defining at least one of a minimum uninterrupted trailer vehicle tow range travel distance and a maximum uninterrupted trailer vehicle tow range travel distance, and wherein the determining the multi-point virtual tow route schedule uses the trailer vehicle stopping requirements.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

confirming acceptance of the multi-point virtual tow route schedule with the user;

sending acceptance notices having respective accepted tow route segment schedules to recipients associated with the at least one accepted tractor vehicle, wherein each accepted tow route segment includes a link up location, a link up timeframe, a drop off location and a drop off time frame; and

receiving acceptance notice acknowledgements corresponding to the at least one accepted tractor vehicle confirming respective accepted tow routes.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the determining the multi-point virtual tow route schedule further comprises:

determining candidate multi-point virtual tow route schedules using the proposed virtual tow parameters;

selecting best multi-point virtual tow route schedules;

sending the best multi-point virtual tow route schedules to the user; and

receiving a user-selected multi-point virtual tow route schedule selected from the best multi-point virtual tow route schedules.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the determining the multi-point virtual tow route schedule further comprises:

determining candidate multi-point virtual tow route schedules using the proposed virtual tow parameters; and

selecting the multi-point virtual tow route schedule from the candidate multi-point virtual tow route schedules using a route selection algorithm.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the determining the multi-point virtual tow route schedule uses at least one of a savings method algorithm, a sweeps algorithm and a tabu heuristic.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the multi-point virtual tow route schedule further comprises minimizing time constraints including the link up timeframes and drop off timeframes and minimizing distance constraints including the link up location distance ranges and the drop off location distance ranges to find a best multi-point virtual tow route schedule.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining an occupancy status of the at least one trailer vehicle intended during the multi-point virtual tow, wherein the occupancy status includes an occupied condition wherein the at least one trailer vehicle contains one or more persons during the tow and an unoccupied condition wherein the at least one trailer vehicle does not contain a person during the multi-point virtual tow, wherein determining the multi-point virtual tow route schedule accommodates for the occupancy status of the at least one trailer vehicle intended during the multi-point virtual tow.

14. A method of virtual towing of a trailer vehicle by a plurality of tractor vehicles comprising:

submitting a user request for a multi-point virtual tow of a trailer vehicle, the request including a requested tow path having a requested departure location, a requested departure time, a requested destination location, and a requested destination arrival time; and

receiving a multi-point virtual tow route schedule including a route origin, a route destination, and a plurality of tow segments, wherein each tow segment has an accepted tractor vehicle, a link up location, a link up location distance range, a link up timeframe, a drop off location, a drop off location distance range, and a drop off timeframe, wherein the link up location distance range includes a predefined radius around the link up location in which at least one prospective tractor vehicle will travel to link with the trailer vehicle and the drop off location distance range includes a predefined radius around the drop off location in which the at least one prospective tractor vehicle will travel to drop off the trailer vehicle.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising receiving acceptance notice acknowledgements corresponding to the accepted tractor vehicle confirming respective accepted tow routes.

16. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

receiving a virtual tow from a first tractor vehicle over a first one of the virtual tow route segments; and

receiving a virtual tow from a second tractor vehicle over a second one of the virtual tow route segments, wherein the first tractor vehicle is different than the second tractor vehicle, wherein the first tractor vehicle is not involved in the virtual tow over the second one of the virtual tow route segments.

17. A system for multi-point virtual towing of a trailer vehicle associated with a user by a plurality of tractor vehicles over respective virtual tow route segments, the system comprising:

at least one server having a route generation module, wherein the route generation module generates one or more candidate multi-point virtual tow route schedules using information received from the trailer vehicle and the plurality of tractor vehicles, a route selection module which uses a route selection algorithm to score and rank the one or more candidate multi-point virtual tow route schedules received from the route generation module to determine one or more best multi-point virtual tow route schedules, and an arbitration module which confirms selection with a user of a best multi-point virtual tow route schedule having a plurality of virtual tow route segments and communicates acceptance notices having respective accepted tow route segment schedules to recipients associated with accepted tractor vehicles selected for the best multipoint virtual tow route schedule, wherein each virtual tow route segment of the plurality of virtual tow route segments corresponds to an accepted tractor vehicle, a link up location, a link up location distance range, a link up timeframe, a drop off location, a drop off location distance range, and a drop off timeframe, wherein the link up location distance range includes a predefined radius around the link up location in which at least one tractor vehicle will travel to link with the trailer vehicle and the drop off location distance range includes a predefined radius around the drop off location in which the at least one tractor vehicle will travel to drop off the trailer vehicle.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the route generation module generates the one or more candidate multi-point virtual tow route schedules using a user requested tow path having a requested departure location, a requested departure time, a requested destination location, and a requested destination arrival time.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the route generation module generates the one or more candidate multi-point virtual tow route schedules using proposed virtual tow parameters from prospective tractor vehicles, the proposed virtual tow parameters comprising:

the link up location;

the link up timeframes associated with the link up location;

the link up location distance range;

the drop off location;

the drop off timeframe associated with the drop off location; and

the drop off location distance range.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the route generation module generates the one or more candidate multi-point virtual tow route schedules using stopping requirements for the prospective tractor vehicles defining at least one of a minimum uninterrupted tractor vehicle tow range travel distance and a maximum uninterrupted tractor vehicle tow range travel distance and trailer vehicle stopping requirements defining at least one of a minimum uninterrupted trailer vehicle tow range travel distance and a maximum uninterrupted trailer vehicle tow range travel distance.