Fleet operation management system

• US 9,418,557 B2
• Filed: 02/19/2013
• Issued: 08/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Construction Machinery Company Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Construction Machinery Company Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Kawamata, Yukihiro, Bando, Mikio, Ogura, Hiroshi, Tanaka, Katsuaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Alharbi, Adam
• Application Number:
  US14/377,378
• Publication Number:
  US 20160019792A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,274 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0236 for economical driving
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/06 including control of combustion engines
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/11 Stepped gearings
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/184 with wheel brakes
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/10 Longitudinal speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/15 Road slope, i.e. the inclination of a road segment in the longitudinal direction
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/20 Road profile, i.e. the change in elevation or curvature of a plurality of continuous road segments
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2720/10 Longitudinal speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2720/103 Speed profile
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2720/106 Longitudinal acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/18072 Coasting
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 50/0097 Predicting future conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/02 Registering or indicating driving, working, idle, or waiting time only apparatus forming part of taximeters G07B13/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0816 Indicating performance data, e.g. occurrence of a malfunction
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/60 Other road transportation technologies with climate change mitigation effect
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/84 Data processing systems or methods, management, administration

Abstract

A fleet operation management system for a vehicle traveling on a predetermined travel route comprises: a storage unit (128, 142) which stores travel route information including the position, height and surface resistance of the vehicle'"'"'s travel route; a speed prediction unit (102) which predicts future change in the speed of the vehicle coasting on the travel route based on the current position, the current speed, and the travel route information; and an operation timing calculation unit (104) which judges which of acceleration, deceleration and coasting should be performed at the current position based on the change in the coasting speed so that the vehicle speed after the lapse of a predetermined time will be within a predetermined range. This configuration makes it possible to properly judge which of the acceleration, the deceleration and the coasting should be performed on the vehicle'"'"'s travel route from the viewpoint of fuel-efficient operation.

Claims

1. A fleet operation management system for a vehicle traveling on a predetermined travel route, comprising:

a storage unit which stores travel route information including a position, height and surface resistance of the travel route; and

a calculation unit which predicts future change in a speed of the vehicle coasting on the travel route based on a current position and current speed of the vehicle and the travel route information and judges which of acceleration, deceleration and coasting of the vehicle should be performed at the current position based on the change in the coasting speed so that a predicted speed of the vehicle after the lapse of a predetermined time will be within a predetermined range;

a display device for notifying the vehicle'"'"'s driver which of depressing of the accelerator pedal, depressing of the brake pedal and releasing of the accelerator and brake pedals should be performed at the current position or at a predetermined position on the travel route based on the result of the judgment by the calculation unit;

a vehicle weight measurement unit configured to measure weight of the vehicle continuously, wherein;

the calculation unit further predicts the change in the coasting speed by further considering weight of the vehicle measured by the vehicle weight measurement unit, and change in an acceleration of the vehicle based on the change in the coasting speed, and

acceleration sections and deceleration sections calculated based on the change in the acceleration are displayed on a map that is displayed on the display device to indicate the travel route.

2. The fleet operation management system according to claim 1, wherein:

the calculation unit estimates surface resistance at the current position based on the current speed and current drive force of the vehicle, and

the surface resistance is stored in the storage unit as surface resistance at the current position.

3. The fleet operation management system according to claim 1, wherein the calculation unit predicts the change in the coasting speed by further considering weight of the vehicle.

4. The fleet operation management system according to claim 1, wherein:

the calculation unit further predicts coastable distance from the current position based on the change in the coasting speed, and

the coastable distance is displayed on the display device.

5. The fleet operation management system according to claim 1, wherein:

speed of the vehicle at each boundary between acceleration and deceleration sections is predicted, and

the predicted speed is displayed on the display device.

6. The fleet operation management system according to claim 1, wherein:

the calculation unit executes a process of extracting points at which excessive acceleration or excessive deceleration occurs in the acceleration/deceleration section, and

the display device displays a brake pedal depressing instruction at the points of excessive acceleration and an accelerator pedal depressing instruction at the points of excessive deceleration.

7. The fleet operation management system according to claim 1, wherein the calculation unit judges that the acceleration should be performed at the current position if the predicted speed of the vehicle after the lapse of the predetermined time is lower than or equal to a first threshold value, the deceleration should be performed at the current position if the predicted speed of the vehicle after the lapse of the predetermined time is higher than or equal to a second threshold value that is greater than the first threshold value, and the coasting should be performed at the current position if the predicted speed of the vehicle after the lapse of the predetermined time is higher than the first threshold value and lower than the second threshold value.

8. The fleet operation management system according to claim 1, wherein the calculation unit judges that the acceleration should be performed if a change rate of the predicted speed of the vehicle over time after the lapse of the predetermined time is lower than or equal to a third threshold value, the deceleration should be performed if the change rate is higher than or equal to a fourth threshold value, and the coasting should be performed if the change rate is higher than the third threshold value and lower than the fourth threshold value.

9. The fleet operation management system according to claim 1, further comprising an input unit for inputting the travel route.

10. The fleet operation management system according to claim 1, wherein

the travel route displayed on the display device is an optimized travel route, and

the vehicle'"'"'s fuel efficiency is higher on the optimized travel route than on a non-optimized travel route.

11. A fleet operation management system for a vehicle traveling on a predetermined travel route, comprising:

a storage unit which stores travel route information including a position, height and surface resistance of the travel route; and

a calculation unit which predicts future change in a speed of the vehicle coasting on the travel route based on a current position and current speed of the vehicle and the travel route information and judges which of acceleration, deceleration and coasting of the vehicle should be performed at the current position based on the change in the coasting speed so that a predicted speed of the vehicle after the lapse of a predetermined time will be within a predetermined range;

a display device that notifies the vehicle'"'"'s driver which of depressing of the accelerator pedal, depressing of the brake pedal and releasing of the accelerator and brake pedals should be performed at the current position or at a predetermined position on the travel route based on the result of the judgment by the calculation unit, wherein

the calculation unit predicts change in an acceleration of the vehicle based on the change in the coasting speed,

acceleration sections and deceleration sections calculated based on the change in the acceleration are displayed on a map that is displayed on the display device to indicate an optimized travel route, and

the vehicle'"'"'s fuel efficiency is higher on the optimized travel route than on a non-optimized travel route.