CN111161526B

CN111161526B - Vehicle formation method, device, system and medium

Info

Publication number: CN111161526B
Application number: CN202010002475.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 侯琛
Original assignee: Tencent Technology Shenzhen Co Ltd
Current assignee: Tencent Technology Shenzhen Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-01-02
Filing date: 2020-01-02
Publication date: 2023-10-20
Anticipated expiration: 2040-01-02
Also published as: CN111161526A

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, systems, and media for vehicle queuing are disclosed. The vehicle formation method comprises the following steps: determining a plurality of additional lane spaces obtained after each of a plurality of vehicles enters the predetermined area one by one based on a span of the plurality of vehicles along a lane direction in the predetermined area including a plurality of parallel lanes, a distance between adjacent vehicles organized into a queue, and a lane length available for queuing, wherein each additional lane space is determined based on a free space in which no other vehicle is placed in a lane in which the vehicle entering the predetermined area is located; determining the sequence of the vehicles in a queue and the corresponding lanes based on the obtained multiple extra lane spaces; and controlling the vehicles to sequentially enter each lane in the preset area according to the sequence.

Description

Vehicle formation method, device, system and medium

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of intelligent control, and more particularly, to a vehicle queuing method, apparatus, system, and medium.

Background

With the continuous development of intelligent control technology, the technology and application of automatic formation of vehicles in a predetermined area (e.g., automatic formation of vehicles) have also been rapidly developed.

For example, as one possible implementation, automatic formation of vehicles is accomplished by the following method. Firstly, dividing a region to be formed into a plurality of lanes parallel to each other, and determining the length of each lane. Then, the number of vehicles to be queued and the span of the vehicles in the lane direction are determined. And, a distance between adjacent vehicles in the lane is determined. Next, the number of vehicles to be placed in each lane is obtained by dividing the lane length by the sum of the span of the vehicle in the lane direction and the vehicle spacing. Finally, the vehicles are put into the queue according to the number, so long as the number of the vehicles on each lane is ensured to be equal to the calculated number.

However, this method has a problem in that both the span of the vehicle in the lane direction and the distance between adjacent vehicles are taken as fixed values. For example, taking an average of spans in the lane direction of all vehicles to be queued, or by determining an average of spans in the lane direction of vehicles based on the size data of a wider mass of vehicles, as a fixed vehicle span for calculating the number of vehicles to be placed in each lane. Also, the distance between each pair of adjacent vehicles is set to be identical.

Since this approach does not take into account the different spans of each vehicle in the lane direction and the different spacing between each pair of adjacent vehicles, the utilization of the area to be enqueued cannot be dynamically optimized.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above, it is desirable to provide a vehicle queuing method and apparatus capable of automatically performing queuing and capable of dynamically optimizing the utilization rate of an area to be queued.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a vehicle queuing method, including: determining a plurality of additional lane spaces obtained after each of a plurality of vehicles enters the predetermined area one by one based on a span of the plurality of vehicles along a lane direction in the predetermined area including a plurality of parallel lanes, a distance between adjacent vehicles organized into a queue, and a lane length available for queuing, wherein each additional lane space is determined based on a free space in which no other vehicle is placed in a lane in which the vehicle entering the predetermined area is located; determining the sequence of the vehicles in a queue and the corresponding lanes based on the obtained multiple extra lane spaces; and controlling the vehicles to sequentially enter each lane in the preset area according to the sequence.

In addition, in the method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the plurality of vehicles includes at least two vehicles, and determining an additional lane space obtained after each of the plurality of vehicles enters the predetermined area one by one includes: determining a first extra lane space obtained after a vehicle enters the preset area; and determining a second extra lane space obtained after the two vehicles enter the preset area.

In addition, in the method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, determining the first extra lane space obtained after a vehicle enters the predetermined area includes: determining, for each of the plurality of vehicles, a first additional lane space when it enters the predetermined area as a first vehicle, respectively; and selecting a minimum value in each of the first additional lane spaces, and determining a vehicle corresponding to the minimum value of the first additional lane space as the first vehicle.

In addition, in the method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, determining the second extra lane space obtained after the two vehicles enter the predetermined area includes: determining a second extra lane space when it enters the predetermined area as a second vehicle, for each of the remaining vehicles other than the first vehicle, respectively, of the plurality of vehicles based on the determined minimum first extra lane space after the first vehicle completes the formation; a minimum value in each of the second extra lane spaces is selected and a vehicle corresponding to the minimum value of the second extra lane space is determined as a second vehicle.

In addition, in the method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, determining, for each of the remaining vehicles other than the first vehicle among the plurality of vehicles, a second extra lane space when it enters the predetermined area as the second vehicle, based on the minimum first extra lane space after the formation of the first vehicle has been determined, includes: a second additional lane space is determined, respectively, when each of the remaining vehicles is programmed as a second vehicle into the various possible lanes, on the premise that the first vehicle has been programmed into the first lane.

In addition, in the method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, before determining the second additional lane space obtained when each of the remaining vehicles is programmed as the second vehicle into the various possible lanes, respectively, the method further includes the steps of: determining whether at least one of the remaining vehicles is able to enter the same lane as the first vehicle; if not, determining additional lane space that results when each of the remaining vehicles is programmed into the various possible lanes as a second vehicle, respectively, further comprises: and re-using the next lane adjacent to the lane where the first vehicle is located as the first lane, and respectively determining the extra lane space obtained when the next lane is used as the first vehicle to be coded into the first lane for each of the remaining vehicles.

In addition, in the method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, on the premise that the first vehicle has been programmed into the first lane, determining the second additional lane space obtained when programming each of the remaining vehicles as the second vehicle into the various possible lanes, respectively, includes: when a first vehicle and one of the remaining vehicles are located in the same lane, if the lane length of the lane available for formation is smaller than the sum of the distance between the two vehicles and the span of the two vehicles along the lane direction, determining the free space of the lane as infinity, otherwise, determining the free space of the lane as a value obtained by subtracting the distance between each adjacent vehicle and the span of each vehicle along the lane direction from the lane length available for formation; and taking the free space of the lane where one of the first vehicle and the rest vehicles is located as a second extra lane space.

In addition, in the method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, on the premise that the first vehicle has been programmed into the first lane, determining the second additional lane space obtained when programming each of the remaining vehicles as the second vehicle into the various possible lanes, respectively, includes: determining a free space of a lane in which one of the remaining vehicles is located as a difference between a lane length of the lane available for formation and a span of the one of the remaining vehicles in a lane direction when the one of the remaining vehicles is located in a next lane adjacent to the first vehicle; the sum of the free spaces of the lanes in which the vehicles are placed is taken as a second extra lane space.

In addition, in the method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, determining the order in which the plurality of vehicles are queued and the corresponding lanes based on the obtained plurality of additional lane spaces includes: taking the vehicle which enables the first extra lane space to obtain the minimum value as a first vehicle which is put into a queue, and determining the lane in which the first vehicle is positioned as a first lane; and taking the vehicle which takes the minimum value of the second extra lane space as the second vehicle which is put in the queue, and determining the lane in which the second vehicle corresponding to the minimum second extra lane space is positioned.

In addition, in the method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the extra lane space obtained after the plurality of vehicles all enter the predetermined area is obtained by subtracting the free space in the lane in which the other vehicle is not placed in the last vehicle from the sum of the free spaces in the lanes in which the other vehicles are not placed in the plurality of vehicles.

In addition, in the method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the vehicles are vehicles, the spans of the vehicles to be queued in the lane direction are not exactly the same, and the distances between the front and rear vehicles queued are not exactly the same.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a vehicle queuing apparatus, including: an extra lane space determining unit configured to determine a plurality of extra lane spaces obtained after each of a plurality of vehicles enters a predetermined area including a plurality of parallel lanes one by one, based on a span of the plurality of vehicles in a lane direction in the predetermined area, a distance between adjacent vehicles that are queued, and a lane length available for queuing, wherein each of the extra lane spaces is determined based on a free space in which no other vehicle is placed in a lane in which the vehicle entering the predetermined area is located; the queuing unit is used for determining the sequence of the vehicles in the queue and the corresponding lanes based on the obtained multiple extra lane spaces; and the control unit is used for controlling the vehicles to sequentially enter each lane in the preset area according to the sequence.

In addition, in the apparatus according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the plurality of vehicles includes at least two vehicles, and the additional lane space determination unit is further configured to: determining a first extra lane space obtained after a vehicle enters the preset area; and determining a second extra lane space obtained after the two vehicles enter the preset area.

In addition, in the apparatus according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the extra lane space determination unit is further configured to determine a first extra lane space obtained after a vehicle enters the predetermined area by performing: determining, for each of the plurality of vehicles, a first additional lane space when it enters the predetermined area as a first vehicle, respectively; and selecting a minimum value in each of the first additional lane spaces, and determining a vehicle corresponding to the minimum value of the first additional lane space as the first vehicle.

In addition, in the apparatus according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the extra lane space determination unit is further configured to determine a second extra lane space obtained after two vehicles enter the predetermined area by performing the following processing including: determining a second extra lane space when it enters the predetermined area as a second vehicle, for each of the remaining vehicles other than the first vehicle, respectively, of the plurality of vehicles based on the determined minimum first extra lane space after the first vehicle completes the formation; a minimum value in each of the second extra lane spaces is selected and a vehicle corresponding to the minimum value of the second extra lane space is determined as a second vehicle.

In addition, in the apparatus according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the extra lane space determination unit is further configured to determine, for each of the remaining vehicles other than the first vehicle among the plurality of vehicles, a second extra lane space when it enters the predetermined area as the second vehicle, based on the smallest first extra lane space after the formation of the first vehicle that has been determined, by performing the following processing: a second additional lane space is determined, respectively, when each of the remaining vehicles is programmed as a second vehicle into the various possible lanes, on the premise that the first vehicle has been programmed into the first lane.

In addition, in the apparatus according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the additional lane space determination unit is further configured to, before determining second additional lane spaces obtained when each of the remaining vehicles is programmed as a second vehicle into the various possible lanes, respectively, further perform the following processing: determining whether at least one of the remaining vehicles is able to enter the same lane as the first vehicle; if not, the additional lane space determination unit is further configured to determine additional lane spaces obtained when each of the remaining vehicles is programmed into the various possible lanes as a second vehicle, respectively, by performing the following processing: and re-using the next lane adjacent to the lane where the first vehicle is located as the first lane, and respectively determining the extra lane space obtained when the next lane is used as the first vehicle to be coded into the first lane for each of the remaining vehicles.

In addition, in the apparatus according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the extra lane space determination unit is further configured to determine second extra lane spaces obtained when each of the remaining vehicles is programmed as a second vehicle into various possible lanes, respectively, on the premise that the first vehicle has been programmed into the first lane by performing the following processing: when a first vehicle and one of the remaining vehicles are located in the same lane, if the lane length of the lane available for formation is smaller than the sum of the distance between the two vehicles and the span of the two vehicles along the lane direction, determining the free space of the lane as infinity, otherwise, determining the free space of the lane as a value obtained by subtracting the distance between each adjacent vehicle and the span of each vehicle along the lane direction from the lane length available for formation; and taking the free space of the lane where one of the first vehicle and the rest vehicles is located as a second extra lane space.

In addition, in the apparatus according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the extra lane space determination unit is further configured to determine second extra lane spaces obtained when each of the remaining vehicles is programmed as a second vehicle into various possible lanes, respectively, on the premise that the first vehicle has been programmed into the first lane by performing the following processing: determining a free space of a lane in which one of the remaining vehicles is located as a difference between a lane length of the lane available for formation and a span of the one of the remaining vehicles in a lane direction when the one of the remaining vehicles is located in a next lane adjacent to the first vehicle; the sum of the free spaces of the lanes in which the vehicles are placed is taken as a second extra lane space.

In addition, in the apparatus according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the enqueuing unit is further configured to: taking the vehicle which enables the first extra lane space to obtain the minimum value as a first vehicle which is put into a queue, and determining the lane in which the first vehicle is positioned as a first lane; and taking the vehicle which takes the minimum value of the second extra lane space as the second vehicle which is put in the queue, and determining the lane in which the second vehicle corresponding to the minimum second extra lane space is positioned.

In addition, in the apparatus according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the extra lane space obtained after the plurality of vehicles all enter the predetermined area is obtained by subtracting the free space in the lane in which the other vehicle is not placed in the last vehicle from the sum of the free spaces in the lanes in which the other vehicles are not placed in the plurality of vehicles.

In addition, in the device according to the embodiment of the disclosure, the vehicles are vehicles, the spans of the vehicles to be queued in the lane direction are not identical, and the distances between the front and rear vehicles queued are not identical.

According to yet another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a vehicle queuing system, comprising: a plurality of vehicles, each of which includes a first communication unit; and a vehicle queuing apparatus including: an extra lane space determining unit configured to determine a plurality of extra lane spaces obtained after each of a plurality of vehicles enters a predetermined area including a plurality of parallel lanes one by one, based on a span of the plurality of vehicles in a lane direction in the predetermined area, a distance between adjacent vehicles that are queued, and a lane length available for queuing, wherein each of the extra lane spaces is determined based on a free space in which no other vehicle is placed in a lane in which the vehicle entering the predetermined area is located; the queuing unit is used for determining the sequence of the vehicles in the queue and the corresponding lanes based on the obtained multiple extra lane spaces; the instruction generation unit is used for generating a plurality of control instructions for controlling the vehicles to sequentially enter each lane in the preset area according to the sequence of the vehicles in the queue and the corresponding lanes; and a second communication unit for sequentially transmitting the plurality of control instructions to the first communication units of the corresponding vehicles, and receiving information indicating formation conditions from the first communication units of the vehicles.

According to yet another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer-readable recording medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the method described above.

By the vehicle queuing method, the device, the system and the medium according to the embodiment of the disclosure, the span of the vehicle along the lane direction and the distance between adjacent vehicles are regarded as variable, so that the method, the device, the system and the medium are more suitable for practical situations. Also, since each vehicle is different, it is necessary to determine the order in which the different vehicles are queued. The formation completed in this order enables the minimum of extra lane space, i.e. the minimum of wasted space in the predetermined area. Thus, the vehicle queuing apparatus according to the present disclosure can dynamically optimize the utilization rate of the area to be queued, compared to the existing queuing apparatus in which each vehicle is regarded as the same and the order in which the vehicles enter the queue is not considered.

Drawings

FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a queue of vehicles completing a formation according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows a schematic top view of a vertical formation of vehicles;

FIG. 3 shows a schematic top view of a horizontal platoon of vehicles;

FIG. 4 shows a schematic top view of a platoon of vehicles;

FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating a process of a vehicle queuing method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 6 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of a vehicle queuing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 7 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of a vehicle queuing system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating a hardware platform of a vehicle queuing system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; and

fig. 9 illustrates a schematic diagram of an architecture of an exemplary computing device, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

Various preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The following description is provided with reference to the accompanying drawings to assist in the understanding of the exemplary embodiments of the invention as defined by the claims and their equivalents. It includes various specific details that aid in understanding, but they are to be considered exemplary only. Accordingly, those skilled in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications may be made to the embodiments described herein without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Moreover, a detailed description of functions and configurations well known in the art will be omitted for the sake of clarity and conciseness of the present specification.

Before describing specific embodiments of the present disclosure, application scenarios of the present disclosure will be briefly described first. The vehicle queuing method and apparatus according to the present disclosure may be applied to an automatic queuing process of vehicles having similar characteristics. However, those skilled in the art will appreciate that similar automated formation processes are applicable to any other object having similar characteristics (e.g., a drone).

For example, in the present-day city of the earth, in the formation (or parking) of vehicles, particularly in the orderly sequential formation (or parking) of vehicles, how to reduce the space waste in the formation area (or the vehicle parking area) while completing the formation (or parking) of a preset number of vehicles is one of the key problems faced by the formation (parking) of vehicles. The vehicle formation method and device can be applied to the internet of vehicles, vehicle-road coordination, safety auxiliary driving, automatic formation of vehicles, automatic parking products and the like, and particularly related products needing to optimize the utilization rate of the region to be formed according to the region to be formed and the number of vehicles to be formed.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a queue of vehicles completing a formation according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 1, there is a predetermined area for formation, the predetermined area is divided into a plurality of lanes parallel to each other, and vehicles are neatly arranged in the respective lanes of the formation area. In fig. 1, all vehicles are arranged in a vertical manner.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic top view of a vertical formation of vehicles. In FIG. 2, l ₁ The span of the 1 st vehicle in the lane direction is indicated. In this vertical formation, the span of the vehicle in the lane direction is the vehicle body width. r is (r) ₁₂ Representing the spacing between the 1 st and 2 nd vehicles.

Of course, the manner of queuing vehicles is not limited to the vertical type shown in fig. 1 and 2. Fig. 3 and 4 show a schematic plan view of a horizontal formation of vehicles and a schematic plan view of a diagonal formation of vehicles, respectively. In the horizontal queuing mode shown in fig. 3, the span of the vehicle along the lane direction is the length of the vehicle body. In the diagonal formation shown in fig. 4, the span of the vehicle in the lane direction is the projected length of the vehicle body length in the lane direction.

Here, it is noted that the application scenario of the vehicle formation according to the present disclosure needs to satisfy the following condition.

First, it is necessary to determine a predetermined area for formation and divide the predetermined area into a plurality of lanes parallel to each other. Fig. 1 to 4 show a case where the predetermined area is a rectangular area and the width and length of each lane are the same. Of course, the application scenario of the present disclosure is not limited thereto. The predetermined area may be of any shape, and the widths and lengths of the divided lanes may be the same or different.

Second, after dividing a predetermined area for formation into a plurality of lanes, the length for vehicle formation within the lanes may be measured. And, the number of vehicles to be queued and corresponding size data are available. In addition, the distance between adjacent vehicles after formation is determinable, and may be a fixed distance or a non-fixed distance. The spacing between adjacent vehicles may be the minimum of the point-to-point distances on the two vehicles. For example, the spacing between adjacent two vehicles may be predetermined, and the spacing between each pair of adjacent vehicles may be different.

Third, the length from the beginning of the first car to the end of the last car on each lane cannot exceed the total length of the lane. And, it is necessary to queue vehicles in order. That is, vehicles are driven into the respective lanes one by one starting from the first lane of the predetermined area for formation, and if the current lane space is insufficient to accommodate the next vehicle, the next vehicle is driven into the next lane adjacent to the current lane until the last lane or the last vehicle. In addition, the manner in which all vehicles are queued is the same. The same manner may include, but is not limited to, the vertical, horizontal, and diagonal types described above with reference to fig. 1-4. In addition, the selection of the formation mode may depend on the specific application scenario. For example, if the predetermined area for the formation is a narrow and long area, a parallel formation manner may be selected. If the predetermined area for the formation is a wide and short area, a vertical formation may be selected.

It is to be noted that, before starting the vehicle queuing method according to the present disclosure, each lane within a predetermined area and the manner in which vehicles are queued (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal) have been determined. And, it is assumed that each lane within the predetermined area is sufficient to accommodate all vehicles to be queued. That is, the purpose of the vehicle queuing method according to the present disclosure is to determine how to prioritize different vehicles into a queuing area to achieve as high utilization of the queuing area as possible given the queuing area and queuing manner. The utilization rate of the area to be formed can be the ratio of the total occupied area of the vehicles (including the area of the area between the adjacent vehicles on the same lane) to the total area of the area to be formed.

Next, a vehicle queuing method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to fig. 5. As shown in fig. 5, the method includes the following steps.

First, in step S501, a plurality of additional lane spaces obtained after each of a plurality of vehicles enters a predetermined area including a plurality of parallel lanes one by one are determined based on a span of the plurality of vehicles in a lane direction in the predetermined area, a distance between adjacent vehicles queued, and a lane length available for queuing. Here, the length of the lane available for formation of one lane may be equal to the total length of the one lane, or may be smaller than the total length of the one lane according to specific design requirements. For example, the lane length of a lane available for formation may be equal to 90% of the total length of the lane.

Each time a new vehicle enters the predetermined area, a new extra lane space corresponding thereto is determined. That is, the determined extra lane space corresponds to a vehicle that has entered the predetermined area. Wherein each additional lane space is determined based on a free space in which no other vehicle is placed in a lane in which a vehicle entering the predetermined area is located. The free space of a lane refers to the space from the last vehicle placed on the lane to the end of the lane.

If no vehicle has been placed on a lane, then the free space for that lane is considered to be 0. Further, after all vehicles have entered the predetermined area, namely: after formation of all vehicles is completed, even if there is a space for further placing other vehicles at the end of the lane where the last vehicle is located, the free space of the lane is considered to be 0. That is, after all vehicles are completely queued, the corresponding extra lane space is equal to the sum of the free spaces of the lanes other than the lane in which the last vehicle is located. Alternatively, it may be considered that the extra lane space obtained after all of the plurality of vehicles enter the predetermined area is obtained by subtracting the free space in the lane in which the last vehicle is located from the sum of the free spaces in which no other vehicles are located in the respective lanes in which the plurality of vehicles are located.

As described hereinabove, the vehicle queuing method according to the present disclosure needs to first satisfy the queuing requirement, that is: the area to be formed is divided into a plurality of lanes parallel to each other but of a non-exactly equal length available for forming, a limited number of vehicles may have a non-exactly equal length or width, which are orderly arranged in sequence in the same way on each lane, and on each lane the length from the beginning of the first vehicle to the end of the last vehicle does not exceed the total length of the lane.

Second, the vehicle queuing method according to the present disclosure also needs to meet the requirement of minimum extra lane space. If vehicles are arranged on a lane from one vehicle to another, there may be some free space at the end of the lane. If after the end of the vehicle formation the sum of the free spaces of all lanes is minimal, the formation is the minimum extra lane space formation, i.e.: the desired vehicles are queued.

The vehicle formation model satisfying the formation requirement and the minimum extra lane space requirement is the minimum extra lane space formation model. The conditions for the minimum extra lane space formation model are: a) Lanes are parallel to each other; b) Vehicles are arranged on the lane in the same manner; c) The length from the end of the first vehicle to the end of the last vehicle does not exceed the length of a platoonable lane of the lane where the first vehicle is located; d) The sum of the free spaces of all lanes, i.e. the extra lane space, is minimal. That is, if the formation of a certain vehicle is the minimum extra lane space formation, it necessarily satisfies the above four conditions. Conversely, if a certain vehicle's formation meets the four conditions above, then it is the minimum extra lane space formation.

The plurality of vehicles may include at least two vehicles. The concept of the present disclosure is that, in order to minimize an extra lane space at the end of formation of all vehicles, a minimum extra lane space that can be obtained after one vehicle enters a formation area may be first determined, and then, on the premise of the minimum extra lane space that can be obtained after one vehicle enters the formation area, a minimum extra lane space that can be obtained after two vehicles enter the formation area may be determined. And so on until all vehicles have entered formation. Thus, the resulting extra lane space obtained by such a method is minimal.

For ease of understanding, hereinafter, two vehicles are exemplified. In this case, determining the additional lane space obtained after each of the plurality of vehicles enters the predetermined area one by one may include: determining a first extra lane space obtained after a vehicle enters the preset area; and determining a second extra lane space obtained after the two vehicles enter the preset area.

Of course, if the number of vehicles to be queued is n (where n is a natural number greater than 2), then in addition to the first additional lane space, the second additional lane space, a third additional lane space, a fourth additional lane space, and up to the nth additional lane space are further determined. The determination process of the extra lane space is similar, and therefore, hereinafter, only the determination process of the first extra lane space and the second extra lane space will be described as an example.

In particular, determining a first extra lane space that is obtained after a vehicle enters the predetermined area may comprise the following steps.

First, for each of the plurality of vehicles, a first extra lane space when it enters the predetermined area as a first vehicle is determined, respectively. As described above, since the vehicles are placed in a sequential formation, the first vehicle is located at a first position in the first lane. The first extra lane space corresponds to a case where only one vehicle is placed in the lane. Since only the first lane in the predetermined area is placed with the vehicle at this time, the first extra lane space is equal to the free space on the first lane from the end of the placed vehicle to the end of the lane where no other vehicle is placed.

Specifically, one vehicle a of the plurality of vehicles is programmed as a first vehicle into a first lane of the predetermined area, and a first extra lane space at this time is determined, which is seen to correspond to the vehicle a. Then, another vehicle B of the plurality of vehicles is programmed as a first vehicle into a first lane of the predetermined area, and a first extra lane space at this time is determined, which is seen to correspond to the vehicle B. Such a process is repeated until each of the plurality of vehicles has been programmed as a first vehicle into a first lane of the predetermined area and a corresponding first additional lane space is obtained.

Here, it is noted that each of the plurality of vehicles is set as a first lane of the predetermined area, and only each of the plurality of vehicles is set as a candidate of the first vehicle, assuming the first lane set in the predetermined area.

If the number of vehicles to be queued is n, n first additional lane spaces can be obtained by respectively queuing each vehicle as a first lane in a predetermined area. And, the n first additional lane spaces correspond to each of the plurality of vehicles, respectively.

Then, the minimum value in each of the first extra lane spaces is selected, and the vehicle corresponding to the minimum value of the first extra lane space is determined as the first vehicle.

After determining the first vehicle in the queue, continuing to determine a second extra lane space obtained after the two vehicles enter the predetermined area. Specifically, determining a second extra lane space obtained after two vehicles enter the predetermined area further comprises the following steps.

First, a second extra lane space when it enters the predetermined area as a second vehicle is determined for each of the remaining vehicles other than the first vehicle, respectively, based on the minimum first extra lane space after the formation of the first vehicle has been determined.

The current extra lane space (assumed to be the second extra lane space) is determined by iterative calculations based on the extra lane space that has been previously determined (e.g., the first extra lane space).

As one possible implementation, the second extra lane space may be determined as follows: a second additional lane space is determined, respectively, when each of the remaining vehicles is programmed as a second vehicle into the various possible lanes, on the premise that the first vehicle has been programmed into the first lane. That is, each of the remaining vehicles is programmed as a second vehicle into the first lane of the predetermined area, but each of the remaining vehicles is only a candidate for the second vehicle, assuming various possible lanes programmed into the predetermined area.

For example, for one of the remaining vehicles, there are two placement possibilities. One placed in the same first lane as the first vehicle, and one placed in the next lane (i.e., the second lane) adjacent to the first lane. The second extra lane space in both cases is determined separately.

In the first case, namely: when the first vehicle and one of the remaining vehicles are located in the same lane, the second additional lane is determined as follows. If the lane length of the lane available for formation is smaller than the sum of the distance between the two vehicles and the span of the two vehicles in the direction of the lane, that is to say the lane is insufficient for placing the two vehicles, the free space of the lane is determined to be infinite in order to exclude this placement. Otherwise, the free space of the lane is determined as a value obtained by subtracting the distance between adjacent vehicles and the span of the vehicles along the lane direction from the lane length available for formation. Since in the first case only the first lane is placed with a vehicle, the free space of the lane where the first vehicle and one of the remaining vehicles are located is taken as the second extra lane space.

In the second case, namely: when one of the remaining vehicles is located in the next lane adjacent to the first vehicle, the second extra lane space is determined as follows. And determining the free space of the lane where the vehicle in the remaining vehicles is located as the difference between the lane length of the lane which is available for formation and the span of the vehicle in the remaining vehicles along the lane direction. Since vehicles are placed on the first lane and the second lane, respectively, in this case, the sum of free spaces of the respective lanes on which the vehicles are placed (the sum of free spaces of the first lane and free spaces of the second lane) is taken as the second extra lane space. Wherein the free space of the first lane is the smallest first extra lane space that has been determined in the previous process.

It can be seen that the second extra lane space is not only related to the vehicle selected from the remaining vehicles, but also to which lane the vehicle is programmed into.

Similar processing is repeated for each of the remaining vehicles and a corresponding second additional lane space is obtained.

Then, the minimum value in each of the second extra lane spaces is selected, and the vehicle corresponding to the minimum value of the second extra lane space is determined as the second vehicle.

In the above, the first extra lane space and the second extra lane space are described as examples. Next, a determination method of the extra lane space in a more general case will be described.

Let n vehicles to be queued be total. The minimum j-th extra lane space is determined by the following equation (1).

Where cj represents the smallest j-th extra lane space that can be obtained after j vehicles enter the predetermined area. When c [ j ] is determined, 1 st to j-1 st vehicles entering the predetermined area have been determined, and c [0] to c [ j-1] have been determined. At this time, it is necessary to determine which of the remaining vehicles the jth vehicle that enters the predetermined area is.

c [ i-1] represents the smallest i-1 th extra lane space that can be obtained after i-1 vehicles enter the predetermined area. E [ i, j ] represents free space including lanes of candidates of the ith to jth vehicles from beginning to end, wherein the lane of the candidate of the ith to jth vehicles is a lane different from the lane of the previous i-1 vehicle.

Let j=5 be taken as an example for illustration. When c 5 is determined, 1 st to 4 th vehicles entering the predetermined area have been determined, and c 0 to c 4 have been determined. At this time, it is necessary to determine which of the remaining 6 5 vehicles is the 5 th vehicle entering the predetermined area.

For each of the remaining 6 vehicles, respectively, according to the above formula (1), the value of the following expression is determined:

c[0]+E[1,5]；

c[1]+E[2,5]；

c[2]+E[3,5]；

c[3]+E[4,5]；

c[4]+E[5,5]。

c 0 + E1, 5 corresponds to the 5 th extra lane space in the case where the candidates from the 1 st to 5 th vehicles are all located in the 1 st lane, where E1, 5 is the free space of the lane in which the candidates from the 1 st to 5 th vehicles are located.

c 1 + E2, 5 corresponds to the 5 th extra lane space in the case where the candidate from the 2 nd car to the 5 th car is located in a different lane than the 1 st car, where E2, 5 is the free space of the lane in which the candidate from the 2 nd car to the 5 th car is located.

c [2] +E [3,5] corresponds to the 5 th extra lane space in the case where the candidate from the 3 rd vehicle to the 5 th vehicle is located in a lane different from the lanes in which the 1 st vehicle and the 2 nd vehicle are located, where E [3,5] is the free space of the lane in which the candidate from the 3 rd vehicle to the 5 th vehicle are located. Since c 2 has been determined in the previous process, the lanes in which the 1 st and 2 nd vehicles are located can be determined accordingly, and further, based on the sequential formation, the lane in which the candidate from the 3 rd to 5 th vehicles is located can be determined as the next lane adjacent to the lane in which the 2 nd vehicle is located.

c 3 + E4, 5 corresponds to the 5 th extra lane space in the case where the candidate from 4 th to 5 th vehicles is located in a lane different from the lane in which the 1 st to 3 rd vehicles are located, where E3, 5 is the free space of the lane in which the candidate from 4 th to 5 th vehicles are located. Since c 3 has been determined in the previous process, the lanes in which the 1 st to 3 rd vehicles are located can be determined accordingly, and further, based on the sequential formation, the lane in which the candidates from the 4 th to 5 th vehicles are located can be determined as the next lane adjacent to the lane in which the 3 rd vehicle is located.

c 4 + E5, 5 corresponds to the 5 th extra lane space in the case where the 5 th vehicle candidate is located in a lane different from the lanes in which the 1 st to 4 th vehicles are located, where E5, 5 is the free space of the lane in which the 5 th vehicle candidate is located. Since c 4 has been determined in the previous process, the lanes in which the 1 st to 4 th vehicles are located can be determined accordingly, and further, based on the sequential formation, the lane in which the 5 th vehicle candidate is located can be determined as the next lane adjacent to the lane in which the 4 th vehicle is located.

In addition, E [ i, j ] can be determined by the following equation (2):

Wherein M is _t Indicating the available convoy length of the lane in which the candidate of the ith to jth vehicles is located, r _k,k+1 Indicating the distance between two adjacent vehicles, l _k Representing the k-th vehicle or the span of the k-th vehicle candidate in the lane direction, l _j Represents the kth vehicle or the span of the kth vehicle candidate in the lane direction, and n represents the total number of vehicles to be queued.

As can be seen from the above formula (1), as the value of j increases, the number of expressions that need to be calculated increases. In view of further reducing the computational effort, as another possible implementation, c [ j ] can be solved in a dynamic programming manner]. Specifically, in determining c [ j ]]Previously, it may be first determined whether the lane in which the j-1 st vehicle is located is full, i.e.: and judging whether at least one lane which can be programmed into the vehicle with the j-1 vehicle exists in the rest vehicles or not. This can be done by Whether greater than 0, if greater than 0, the programming is deemed possible, otherwise, the programming is deemed impossible. Wherein M is _t The lane length of the lane in which the j-1 th vehicle is located, which can be used for formation. And, at this time, from the 1 st vehicle to the j-1 st vehicle has been determined. The determination is performed with each of the remaining vehicles as a candidate for the jth vehicle. If any one of the remaining vehicles is judged not to be able to enter the lane where the j-1 th vehicle is located, namely: the current lane cannot continue New vehicles are built in, and a new lane needs to be rearranged in the next formation. In this case, it is possible to consider this new lane as the first lane, consider the j-th vehicle to be determined as the 1 st vehicle (i.e., let j reset to 1), and exclude the 1 st to j-1 st vehicles that have been determined from the vehicles to be queued. Each of the remaining vehicles is programmed into the newly determined first lane as the 1 st vehicle, respectively, and the process similar to the process described above is repeated.

For example, assume that the number of vehicles to be queued n=10. When a new vehicle cannot be programmed any more after the first lane is programmed into the 1 st to 4 th vehicles, it is determined that the first lane is programmed. At this time, the number n of vehicles to be formed is reduced to 6, and the 2 nd lane is regarded as the 1 st lane, and then the similar processing as when the 1 st to 4 th vehicles are determined is repeated.

Since the value of j is reset to 1 at the time of starting formation of a new lane, the number of expressions that need to be calculated can be reduced, thereby effectively reducing the calculation amount.

In the case where the vehicle to be queued described hereinabove includes at least two vehicles, before determining the second additional lane space obtained when each of the remaining vehicles is to be programmed as a second vehicle into the various possible lanes, respectively, the steps of: it is determined whether at least one of the remaining vehicles is able to enter the same lane as the first vehicle.

If not, determining additional lane space that results when each of the remaining vehicles is programmed into the various possible lanes as a second vehicle, respectively, further comprises: and re-using the next lane adjacent to the lane where the first vehicle is located as the first lane, and respectively determining the extra lane space obtained when the next lane is used as the first vehicle to be coded into the first lane for each of the remaining vehicles.

Then, in step S502, a sequencing order of the plurality of vehicles and corresponding lanes are determined based on the obtained plurality of additional lane spaces.

In the case where the vehicle to be queued includes at least two vehicles as described above, determining, based on the obtained plurality of additional lane spaces, the order in which the plurality of vehicles are queued and the corresponding lanes includes: taking the vehicle which enables the first extra lane space to obtain the minimum value as a first vehicle which is put into a queue, and determining the lane in which the first vehicle is positioned as a first lane; and taking the vehicle which takes the minimum value of the second extra lane space as the second vehicle which is put in the queue, and determining the lane in which the second vehicle corresponding to the minimum second extra lane space is positioned.

For example, if the value of c 0+E1, 2 corresponding to the vehicle B is the smallest when c 2 is determined by the calculation of the above formula (1), the vehicle B is regarded as the 2 nd vehicle which is put in the train, and the 2 nd vehicle and the 1 st vehicle are located in the same lane. Alternatively, if the value of c 1 + E2, 2 corresponding to vehicle B is the smallest when c 2 is determined by the calculation of equation (1) above, then vehicle B is taken as the 2 nd vehicle in the queue and the 2 nd vehicle and the 1 st vehicle are located next to the adjacent lane.

As another example, assume that there are n vehicles to be queued. Based on the obtained plurality of extra lane spaces c [1], c [2], … …, c [ n ], a sequence of vehicles entering the region to be formed can be obtained. Specifically, since c 1 represents the minimum extra lane space available after the 1 st vehicle is programmed, the 1 st vehicle in the line should be a vehicle selected from n vehicles that can make the extra lane space equal to c 1, and c 1 can represent the lane in which the vehicle should be programmed. By analogy, the 2 nd vehicle in the queue should be the vehicle selected from the remaining n-1 vehicles that can make the extra lane space equal to c 2, and c 2 can represent the lane in which the vehicle should be placed. The 3 rd listed vehicle should be one selected from the remaining n-2 vehicles that would allow additional lane space equal to c 3, and c 3 could represent the lane in which the vehicle should be listed. The j-th vehicle in the queue should be a vehicle selected from the remaining n- (j-1) vehicles that can make the extra lane space equal to c j, and c j can represent the lane in which the vehicle should be placed.

Finally, in step S503, the plurality of vehicles are controlled to sequentially enter each lane in the predetermined area according to the sequence. For example, each control instruction may be sequentially generated according to the sequence in which a plurality of vehicles enter the predetermined area. For example, the control instructions may include a vehicle identification for uniquely identifying a vehicle and lane information corresponding to the vehicle. Then, by transmitting the control instruction to the corresponding vehicle, the corresponding vehicle is instructed to enter the corresponding lane.

In the vehicle queuing method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the vehicle may be a vehicle. The spans of the vehicles to be queued in the lane direction are not identical, and the distances between the front and rear vehicles queued are not identical.

The present disclosure regards both the span of the vehicle in the lane direction and the spacing between adjacent vehicles as being variable, thereby more realistic. Since each vehicle is different, it is necessary to determine the order in which the different vehicles are queued. The formation completed in this order enables the minimum of extra lane space, i.e. the minimum of wasted space in the predetermined area. Thus, the vehicle queuing method according to the present disclosure can dynamically optimize the utilization rate of the area to be queued, compared to the existing queuing method in which each vehicle is regarded as the same and the order in which the vehicles enter the queue is not considered.

The following table shows a comparison of the utilization rates of the areas to be formed obtained using the vehicle forming method according to the related art and the vehicle forming method according to the present disclosure, respectively.

List one

As can be seen from table one, ten experiments were performed, respectively. In each experiment, the vehicle queuing method according to the present disclosure can achieve a higher utilization rate of the area to be queued than the vehicle queuing method according to the related art.

The specific process of the vehicle queuing method according to the present disclosure is described in detail hereinabove with reference to fig. 5. Next, a specific configuration of the vehicle queuing apparatus according to the present disclosure will be described with reference to fig. 6.

As shown in fig. 6, the vehicle queuing apparatus 600 includes: an extra lane space determination unit 601, a formation unit 602, and a control unit 603.

The extra lane space determination unit 601 is configured to determine a plurality of extra lane spaces obtained after each of a plurality of vehicles enters a predetermined area including a plurality of parallel lanes one by one, based on a span of the plurality of vehicles in a lane direction in the predetermined area, a distance between adjacent vehicles queued, and a lane length available for queuing.

Here, the length of the lane available for formation of one lane may be equal to the total length of the one lane, or may be smaller than the total length of the one lane according to specific design requirements. For example, the lane length of a lane available for formation may be equal to 90% of the total length of the lane.

Each time a new vehicle enters the predetermined area, a new extra lane space corresponding thereto is determined. That is, the determined extra lane space corresponds to a vehicle that has entered the predetermined area. Wherein each additional lane space is determined based on free space in which no other vehicle is placed in the lane in which the vehicle entering the predetermined area is located.

Similarly, a vehicle queuing device according to the present disclosure needs to first meet queuing requirements, namely: the area to be formed is divided into a plurality of lanes parallel to each other but of a non-exactly equal length available for forming, a limited number of vehicles may have a non-exactly equal length or width, which are orderly arranged in sequence in the same way on each lane, and on each lane the length from the beginning of the first vehicle to the end of the last vehicle does not exceed the total length of the lane.

Second, the vehicle queuing apparatus according to the present disclosure also needs to meet the requirement of minimum extra lane space. If vehicles are arranged on a lane from one vehicle to another, there may be some free space at the end of the lane. If after the end of the vehicle formation the sum of the free spaces of all lanes is minimal, the formation is the minimum extra lane space formation, i.e.: the desired vehicles are queued.

For ease of understanding, hereinafter, two vehicles are exemplified. In this case, the extra lane space determination unit 601 is further configured to: determining a first extra lane space obtained after a vehicle enters the preset area; and determining a second extra lane space obtained after the two vehicles enter the preset area.

Of course, if the number of vehicles to be queued is n (where n is a natural number greater than 2), the additional lane space determining unit 601 is further configured to determine a third additional lane space, a fourth additional lane space, and up to the nth additional lane space, in addition to the first additional lane space and the second additional lane space. The determination process of the extra lane space is similar, and therefore, hereinafter, only the determination process of the first extra lane space and the second extra lane space will be described as an example.

Specifically, the extra lane space determination unit 601 is further configured to determine a first extra lane space obtained after a vehicle enters the predetermined area by performing the following processing.

Specifically, one vehicle a of the plurality of vehicles is programmed as a first vehicle into a first lane of the predetermined area, and the extra lane space determining unit 601 determines a first extra lane space at this time, which is visible to correspond to the vehicle a. Then, another vehicle B of the plurality of vehicles is programmed as a first vehicle into the first lane of the predetermined area, and the extra lane space determining unit 601 determines a first extra lane space at this time, which is visible to correspond to the vehicle B. Such a process is repeated until each of the plurality of vehicles has been programmed as a first vehicle into a first lane of the predetermined area and a corresponding first additional lane space is obtained.

If the number of vehicles to be queued is n, the extra lane space determination unit 601 can obtain n first extra lane spaces by respectively queuing each vehicle as a first lane in a predetermined area. And, the n first additional lane spaces correspond to each of the plurality of vehicles, respectively.

Then, the extra lane space determination unit 601 selects the minimum value in each of the first extra lane spaces, and determines the vehicle corresponding to the minimum value of the first extra lane space as the first vehicle.

After determining the first vehicle in the queue, the extra lane space determining unit 601 continues to determine a second extra lane space obtained after the two vehicles enter the predetermined area. Specifically, the extra lane space determination unit 601 is further configured to determine a second extra lane space obtained after two vehicles enter the predetermined area by performing the following processing.

First, the extra lane space determination unit 601 determines, for each of the remaining vehicles other than the first vehicle, a second extra lane space when it enters the predetermined area as a second vehicle, based on the minimum first extra lane space after the formation of the first vehicle has been determined.

As a possible implementation, the extra lane space determination unit 601 may determine the second extra lane space in the following manner: a second additional lane space is determined, respectively, when each of the remaining vehicles is programmed as a second vehicle into the various possible lanes, on the premise that the first vehicle has been programmed into the first lane. That is, each of the remaining vehicles is programmed as a second vehicle into the first lane of the predetermined area, but each of the remaining vehicles is only a candidate for the second vehicle, assuming various possible lanes programmed into the predetermined area.

For example, for one of the remaining vehicles, there are two placement possibilities. One placed in the same first lane as the first vehicle, and one placed in the next lane (i.e., the second lane) adjacent to the first lane. The extra lane space determination unit 601 determines the second extra lane space in both cases, respectively.

In the first case, namely: when the first vehicle and one of the remaining vehicles are located in the same lane, the extra lane space determining unit 601 determines a second extra lane as follows. If the lane length of the lane available for formation is smaller than the sum of the distance between the two vehicles and the span of the two vehicles in the direction of the lane, that is to say the lane is insufficient for placing the two vehicles, the free space of the lane is determined to be infinite in order to exclude this placement. Otherwise, the free space of the lane is determined as a value obtained by subtracting the distance between adjacent vehicles and the span of the vehicles along the lane direction from the lane length available for formation. Since in the first case only the first lane is placed with a vehicle, the free space of the lane where the first vehicle and one of the remaining vehicles are located is taken as the second extra lane space.

In the second case, namely: when one of the remaining vehicles is located in the next lane adjacent to the first vehicle, the extra lane space determining unit 601 determines a second extra lane space as follows. And determining the free space of the lane where the vehicle in the remaining vehicles is located as the difference between the lane length of the lane which is available for formation and the span of the vehicle in the remaining vehicles along the lane direction. Since vehicles are placed on the first lane and the second lane, respectively, in this case, the sum of free spaces of the respective lanes on which the vehicles are placed (the sum of free spaces of the first lane and free spaces of the second lane) is taken as the second extra lane space. Wherein the free space of the first lane is the smallest first extra lane space that has been determined in the previous process.

The extra-lane-space determining unit 601 repeats similar processing for each of the remaining vehicles, and obtains a corresponding second extra lane space.

Then, the extra lane space determination unit 601 selects the minimum value in each of the second extra lane spaces, and determines the vehicle corresponding to the minimum value of the second extra lane space as the second vehicle.

Let n vehicles to be queued be total. The extra lane space determination unit 601 may sequentially determine c [1] to c [ n ] one by one based on the formulas (1) and (2) described above.

As described above, as the value of j increases, the number of expressions that need to be calculated increases. In view of further reducing the computational effort, as another possible implementation, c [ j ] can be solved in a dynamic programming manner]. Specifically, in determining c [ j ]]Previously, the additional lane space determination unit may be further configured to first determine whether the lane in which the j-1 st vehicle is located is full, i.e.: and judging whether at least one lane which can be programmed into the vehicle with the j-1 vehicle exists in the rest vehicles or not. This can be done by Whether greater than 0, if greater than 0, the programming is deemed possible, otherwise, the programming is deemed impossible. Wherein M is _t The lane length of the lane in which the j-1 th vehicle is located, which can be used for formation. And, at this time, from the 1 st vehicle to the j-1 st vehicle has been determined. The determination is performed with each of the remaining vehicles as a candidate for the jth vehicle. If any one of the remaining vehicles is judged not to be able to enter the lane where the j-1 th vehicle is located, namely: if the current lane cannot continue to build in a new vehicle, a new lane needs to be rearranged in the next platoon. In this case, it is possible to consider this new lane as the first lane, consider the j-th vehicle to be determined as the 1 st vehicle (i.e., let j reset to 1), and exclude the 1 st to j-1 st vehicles that have been determined from the vehicles to be queued. Each of the remaining vehicles is programmed into the newly determined first lane as the 1 st vehicle, respectively, and the process similar to the process described above is repeated. />

In the case where the vehicle to be formed includes at least two vehicles as described above, the extra lane space determination unit is further configured to further perform, before determining second extra lane spaces obtained when each of the remaining vehicles is formed as a second vehicle into various possible lanes, respectively, the following processing: it is determined whether at least one of the remaining vehicles is able to enter the same lane as the first vehicle.

If not, the additional lane space determination unit is further configured to determine additional lane spaces obtained when each of the remaining vehicles is programmed into the various possible lanes as a second vehicle, respectively, by performing the following processing: and re-using the next lane adjacent to the lane where the first vehicle is located as the first lane, and respectively determining the extra lane space obtained when the next lane is used as the first vehicle to be coded into the first lane for each of the remaining vehicles.

The queuing unit 602 is configured to determine a sequence in which the plurality of vehicles are queued and a corresponding lane based on the obtained plurality of additional lane spaces.

In the case where the vehicle to be queued described hereinabove includes at least two vehicles, the queuing unit is further configured to: taking the vehicle which enables the first extra lane space to obtain the minimum value as a first vehicle which is put into a queue, and determining the lane in which the first vehicle is positioned as a first lane; and taking the vehicle which takes the minimum value of the second extra lane space as the second vehicle which is put in the queue, and determining the lane in which the second vehicle corresponding to the minimum second extra lane space is positioned.

The control unit 603 is configured to control the plurality of vehicles to sequentially enter each lane in the predetermined area according to the sequence. For example, the control unit 603 may sequentially generate the respective control instructions according to the sequence in which the plurality of vehicles enter the predetermined area. For example, the control instructions may include a vehicle identification for uniquely identifying a vehicle and lane information corresponding to the vehicle. Then, by transmitting the control instruction to the corresponding vehicle, the corresponding vehicle is instructed to enter the corresponding lane.

In the vehicle queuing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the vehicle may be a vehicle. The spans of the vehicles to be queued in the lane direction are not identical, and the distances between the front and rear vehicles queued are not identical.

The present disclosure regards both the span of the vehicle in the lane direction and the spacing between adjacent vehicles as being variable, thereby more realistic. Since each vehicle is different, it is necessary to determine the order in which the different vehicles are queued. The formation completed in this order enables the minimum of extra lane space, i.e. the minimum of wasted space in the predetermined area. Thus, the vehicle queuing apparatus according to the present disclosure can dynamically optimize the utilization rate of the area to be queued, compared to the existing queuing apparatus in which each vehicle is regarded as the same and the order in which the vehicles enter the queue is not considered.

In addition, the vehicle queuing device and the plurality of vehicles may also constitute a vehicle queuing system. Fig. 7 shows a functional block diagram of a configuration of a vehicle queuing system according to the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 7, the vehicle queuing system 700 includes: a plurality of vehicles 701, each of which includes a first communication unit 7011; vehicle queuing apparatus 702. Although a plurality of vehicles are denoted by reference numeral 701 in fig. 7, as described above, the plurality of vehicles are actually different.

The vehicle queuing apparatus 702 includes: an extra lane space determination unit 7021 for determining a plurality of extra lane spaces obtained after each of a plurality of vehicles enters a predetermined area one by one based on a span of the plurality of vehicles in a lane direction in the predetermined area including a plurality of parallel lanes, a distance between adjacent vehicles that are queued, and a lane length available for queuing, wherein each of the extra lane spaces is determined based on a free space in which no other vehicle is placed in a lane in which the vehicle entering the predetermined area is located; a queuing unit 7022, configured to determine, based on the obtained multiple additional lane spaces, a sequence in which the multiple vehicles are queued and corresponding lanes; an instruction generating unit 7023, configured to generate a plurality of control instructions for controlling the plurality of vehicles to sequentially enter each lane in the predetermined area according to the sequence of the plurality of vehicles in the queue and the corresponding lanes; and a second communication unit 7024 for sequentially transmitting the plurality of control instructions to the first communication unit of the corresponding vehicle, and receiving information indicating the formation situation from the first communication unit of the vehicle.

Fig. 8 shows a schematic diagram of a system hardware platform for vehicle queuing according to the present disclosure. As shown in fig. 8, the system 800 includes a plurality of vehicles 801, an internet of vehicles cloud platform 802, and a plurality of drive test sensing units 803. And, each vehicle includes an in-vehicle unit 8011. Although a plurality of vehicles are denoted by reference numeral 801 in fig. 8, as described above, the plurality of vehicles are actually different. In the system shown in fig. 8, a vehicle queuing apparatus according to the present disclosure is implemented in an internet of vehicles cloud platform 802. In addition, in the case where the internet of vehicles cloud platform 802 uses a private cloud, a plurality of drive test sensing units 803 are further configured to relay communication between the cloud platform and each of the on-board units. Although the drive test sensing units and the in-vehicle units are shown in fig. 8 in a one-to-one pairing case, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. For example, one drive test sensing unit may correspond to a plurality of on-board units. Of course, in the case that the internet of vehicles cloud platform uses public cloud, the drive test sensing unit may be omitted.

Various modules may be arranged on the internet of vehicles cloud platform 802 to determine the minimum additional lane space and corresponding queuing sequence according to the vehicle queuing method described above. Communication is then performed with each vehicle through a communication module in the internet of vehicles cloud platform 802. The internet of vehicles cloud platform 802 transmits a control instruction to the vehicles entering the area to be formed through the drive test sensing unit and the vehicle-mounted unit, and after the vehicles are formed, the drive test sensing unit and the vehicle-mounted unit feed back the formation condition to the internet of vehicles cloud platform 802, for example, whether the formation is completed or not.

Furthermore, a method or device according to embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented by means of the architecture of the computing device 900 shown in fig. 9. As shown in fig. 9, computing device 900 may include a bus 910, one or more CPUs 920, a Read Only Memory (ROM) 930, a Random Access Memory (RAM) 940, a communication port 950 connected to a network, an input/output component 960, a hard disk 970, and the like. A storage device in computing device 900, such as ROM 930 or hard disk 970, may store various data or files for processing and/or communication use of the object tracking method provided by the present disclosure and program instructions executed by the CPU. Of course, the architecture shown in FIG. 9 is merely exemplary, and one or more components of the computing device shown in FIG. 9 may be omitted as may be practical in implementing different devices.

Embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented as a computer-readable storage medium. Computer readable storage media according to embodiments of the present disclosure have computer readable instructions stored thereon. The method of vehicle queuing according to embodiments of the present disclosure described with reference to the above figures may be performed when the computer readable instructions are executed by a processor. The computer-readable storage medium includes, but is not limited to, for example, volatile memory and/or nonvolatile memory. The volatile memory may include, for example, random Access Memory (RAM) and/or cache memory (cache), and the like. The non-volatile memory may include, for example, read Only Memory (ROM), hard disk, flash memory, and the like.

Heretofore, a vehicle queuing method, apparatus, system, and medium according to embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in detail with reference to fig. 1 to 9. By the vehicle queuing method, the device, the system and the medium according to the embodiment of the disclosure, the span of the vehicle along the lane direction and the distance between adjacent vehicles are regarded as variable, so that the method, the device, the system and the medium are more suitable for practical situations. Also, since each vehicle is different, it is necessary to determine the order in which the different vehicles are queued. The formation completed in this order enables the minimum of extra lane space, i.e. the minimum of wasted space in the predetermined area. Thus, the vehicle queuing apparatus according to the present disclosure can dynamically optimize the utilization rate of the area to be queued, compared to the existing queuing apparatus in which each vehicle is regarded as the same and the order in which the vehicles enter the queue is not considered.

It should be noted that in this specification the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising … …" does not exclude the presence of other like elements in a process, method, article or apparatus that comprises the element.

Finally, it is also to be noted that the above-described series of processes includes not only processes performed in time series in the order described herein, but also processes performed in parallel or separately, not in time series.

From the above description of embodiments, it will be clear to a person skilled in the art that the present invention may be implemented by means of software plus the necessary hardware platform, but may of course also be implemented entirely in software. With such understanding, all or part of the technical solution of the present invention contributing to the background art may be embodied in the form of a software product, which may be stored in a storage medium, such as ROM/RAM, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, etc., including several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform the method described in the embodiments or some parts of the embodiments of the present invention.

The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the more detailed description of the invention in order that the detailed description of the principles and embodiments of the invention may be implemented in conjunction with the detailed description of the invention that follows, the examples being merely intended to facilitate an understanding of the method of the invention and its core concepts; meanwhile, as those skilled in the art will have variations in the specific embodiments and application scope in accordance with the ideas of the present invention, the present description should not be construed as limiting the present invention in view of the above.

Claims

1. A method of vehicle formation, comprising:

determining a plurality of additional lane spaces obtained after each of a plurality of vehicles enters the predetermined area one by one based on a span of the plurality of vehicles along a lane direction in the predetermined area including a plurality of parallel lanes, a distance between adjacent vehicles organized into a queue, and a lane length available for queuing, wherein each additional lane space is determined based on a free space in which no other vehicle is placed in a lane in which the vehicle entering the predetermined area is located;

determining the sequence of the vehicles in a queue and the corresponding lanes based on the obtained multiple extra lane spaces; and

controlling the vehicles to sequentially enter each lane in the preset area according to the sequence;

wherein, for each of the plurality of vehicles, a first extra lane space is determined when it enters the predetermined area as a first vehicle, respectively; and selecting a minimum value in each of the first additional lane spaces, and determining a vehicle corresponding to the minimum value of the first additional lane space as the first vehicle.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining additional lane space resulting after each of the plurality of vehicles enters the predetermined area one by one further comprises:

And determining a second extra lane space obtained after the two vehicles enter the preset area.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining a second extra lane space resulting after two vehicles enter the predetermined area comprises:

determining a second extra lane space when it enters the predetermined area as a second vehicle, for each of the remaining vehicles other than the first vehicle, respectively, of the plurality of vehicles based on the determined minimum first extra lane space after the first vehicle completes the formation;

a minimum value in each of the second extra lane spaces is selected and a vehicle corresponding to the minimum value of the second extra lane space is determined as a second vehicle.

4. A method according to claim 3, wherein determining a second extra lane space when it enters the predetermined area as a second vehicle, based on the minimum first extra lane space after the formation of the first vehicle has been determined, respectively for each of the remaining vehicles of the plurality of vehicles other than the first vehicle, comprises:

a second additional lane space is determined, respectively, when each of the remaining vehicles is programmed as a second vehicle into the various possible lanes, on the premise that the first vehicle has been programmed into the first lane.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein prior to separately determining a second additional lane space that is obtained when each of the remaining vehicles is programmed into the various possible lanes as a second vehicle, further comprising the steps of:

determining whether at least one of the remaining vehicles is able to enter the same lane as the first vehicle;

6. The method of claim 4, wherein separately determining a second additional lane space that is obtained when each of the remaining vehicles is programmed as a second vehicle into the various possible lanes on the premise that the first vehicle has been programmed into the first lane comprises:

when a first vehicle and one of the remaining vehicles are located in the same lane, if the lane length of the lane available for formation is smaller than the sum of the distance between the two vehicles and the span of the two vehicles along the lane direction, determining the free space of the lane as infinity, otherwise, determining the free space of the lane as a value obtained by subtracting the distance between each adjacent vehicle and the span of each vehicle along the lane direction from the lane length available for formation;

And taking the free space of the lane where one of the first vehicle and the rest vehicles is located as a second extra lane space.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein separately determining a second additional lane space that is obtained when each of the remaining vehicles is programmed as a second vehicle into the various possible lanes on the premise that the first vehicle has been programmed into the first lane comprises:

determining a free space of a lane in which one of the remaining vehicles is located as a difference between a lane length of the lane available for formation and a span of the one of the remaining vehicles in a lane direction when the one of the remaining vehicles is located in a next lane adjacent to the first vehicle;

the sum of the free spaces of the lanes in which the vehicles are placed is taken as a second extra lane space.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein determining a sequencing of the plurality of vehicles into a queue and corresponding lanes based on the resulting plurality of additional lane spaces comprises:

taking the vehicle which enables the first extra lane space to obtain the minimum value as a first vehicle which is put into a queue, and determining the lane in which the first vehicle is positioned as a first lane; and

And taking the vehicle with the minimum second extra lane space as the second vehicle which is put in the queue, and determining the lane in which the second vehicle corresponding to the minimum second extra lane space is located.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the additional lane space obtained after all of the plurality of vehicles enter the predetermined area is a subtraction of the free space in the lane in which no other vehicle is placed in the last vehicle from a sum of free spaces in the lanes in which no other vehicle is placed in each of the plurality of vehicles.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicles are vehicles, the spans of vehicles to be queued in a lane direction are not exactly the same, and the distances between front and rear vehicles that are queued are not exactly the same.

11. A vehicle queuing apparatus comprising:

an extra lane space determining unit configured to determine a plurality of extra lane spaces obtained after each of a plurality of vehicles enters a predetermined area including a plurality of parallel lanes one by one, based on a span of the plurality of vehicles in a lane direction in the predetermined area, a distance between adjacent vehicles that are queued, and a lane length available for queuing, wherein each of the extra lane spaces is determined based on a free space in which no other vehicle is placed in a lane in which the vehicle entering the predetermined area is located;

The queuing unit is used for determining the sequence of the vehicles in the queue and the corresponding lanes based on the obtained multiple extra lane spaces; and

the control unit is used for controlling the vehicles to sequentially enter each lane in the preset area according to the sequence;

12. A vehicle queuing system, comprising:

a plurality of vehicles, each of which includes a first communication unit; and

a vehicle queuing apparatus comprising:

The queuing unit is used for determining the sequence of the vehicles in the queue and the corresponding lanes based on the obtained multiple extra lane spaces;

the instruction generation unit is used for generating a plurality of control instructions for controlling the vehicles to sequentially enter each lane in the preset area according to the sequence of the vehicles in the queue and the corresponding lanes; and

the second communication unit is used for sequentially sending the control instructions to the first communication units of the corresponding vehicles and receiving information indicating formation conditions from the first communication units of the vehicles;

wherein the extra lane space determination unit is further configured to determine, for each of the plurality of vehicles, a first extra lane space when it enters the predetermined area as a first vehicle, respectively; and the enqueuing unit is further configured to select a minimum value in each of the first extra lane spaces, and determine a vehicle corresponding to the minimum value of the first extra lane space as the first vehicle.

13. A computer readable recording medium having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the method of any of claims 1-10.