EP2786324A1

EP2786324A1 - Method and system for assigning a task to be carried out to an operator from among a plurality of operators, and installation for automated renting of vehicles deploying such a method and system

Info

Publication number: EP2786324A1
Application number: EP12808433.2A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Clément LAMBRINOS; Bruno DE MONTIS; Yousra CHEBBI; Simon CRUANES
Original assignee: Bluecarsharing SAS
Current assignee: Bluecarsharing SAS
Priority date: 2011-12-02
Filing date: 2012-11-28
Publication date: 2014-10-08
Also published as: FR2983611A1; WO2013079869A1; HK1200576A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a method (200) for assigning a task to be carried out on a vehicle to an operator from among a plurality of operators, in particular within the context of automated rental of vehicles, • - with each task there being associated: • - at least one datum, termed a duration of implementation, relating to the duration for implementing the task, and • - at least one datum, termed location, relating to the location of said task; • - with each operator there being associated at least one list, termed the standby list, storing the tasks assigned to said operator with a view to their implementation; said method (200) comprising, for a task to be allocated, a phase (208), termed allocation, comprising the following steps for at least one operator from among said plurality of operators: • ‑ determination (210) of the place in the standby list associated with said operator of a task to be allocated, and • - determination (212) of the duration of execution of said task by said operator as a function of the duration of implementation, of the location of said task to be allocated and of the tasks present in said standby list and placed ahead of said task to be allocated; the allocating of said task to be allocated to an operator being implemented as a function of said duration of execution. The invention also relates to a system deploying such a method and an application of such a method and of such a system to the automated rental of vehicles.

Description

The present invention relates to a method for allocating a task to be performed to an operator among a plurality of operators, and to an automated vehicle rental installation implementing such a method and system. a task to be performed on one of a plurality of operators. It also relates to a system implementing such a method and an installation implementing such a method or such a system. The field of the invention is the field of management and distribution of tasks to be performed among a plurality of operators, and more specifically in the field of automated rental of vehicles on one or more rental sites, in particular in Intervention term for vehicle maintenance, user assistance throughout a rental, and rebalancing of rental sites on which vehicles are offered for rent. It relates even more particularly to the automated rental of electric vehicles.

State of the art

Automated vehicle leasing is a growing field. Agglomerations wishing to reduce the number of vehicles on their territory set up automated vehicle rental systems.

The vehicles offered for hire require interventions to carry out vehicle maintenance operations, but also rebalancing operations of rental sites on which these vehicles are taken at the beginning of a rental or returned at the end of the rental . It is also necessary to intervene with vehicles for other types of operations such as, for example, user assistance operations or operations against vandalism or attempted theft of vehicles.

This requires the presence on the ground of people to perform these operations. However, the management of all interventions may require a very high cost depending on the area of rental to be covered, the number of vehicles offered for rental and the number of rental sites. Moreover, to ensure an effective intervention, it is necessary that this intervention be carried out as quickly as possible.

However, the current methods and systems of intervention on the vehicles offered for rental are very expensive, relatively inefficient, and very time consuming.

An object of the present invention is to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks.

Another object of the invention is to propose a method and a system for assigning a task to be performed to an operator among a plurality of operators, particularly in the context of automated vehicle leasing, which is more efficient than existing processes and systems.

Another object of the invention is to propose a method and a system for assigning a task to be performed to an operator among a plurality of operators, particularly in the context of an automated rental of vehicles, which is less expensive than the existing processes and systems.

Finally, another object of the invention is to propose a method and a system for assigning a task to be performed to an operator among a plurality of operators, particularly in the context of an automated rental of vehicles, less consumers in time than existing processes and systems. Presentation of the invention

The invention proposes to achieve at least one of the abovementioned goals by a method of assigning a task to an operator among a plurality of operators, in particular a task to be performed on a vehicle within the framework of automated vehicle rental, in which:

- with each task being associated:

at least one datum, termed duration, relating to the duration of the task, and

at least one datum, called localization, relative to the location of said task; each operator being associated with at least one so-called waiting list, storing in an orderly manner the tasks already assigned to said operator with a view to their realization;

said method comprising, for a task to be assigned, a so-called allocation phase, comprising the following steps for at least one of said plurality of operators:

determination of the place in the waiting list associated with said operator of said task to be assigned, and

determination of the duration of execution of said task to be assigned by said operator as a function of the duration of realization and the location of said task to be assigned and the tasks present in said waiting list and placed before said task to be allocated;

the assignment of said task to be assigned to an operator being performed according to said execution time.

Assigning the task to be assigned to an operator includes storing the task to be assigned in the waiting list of this operator in the place determined for this operator. According to a preferred embodiment, the task to be assigned can be attributed to the operator for whom the calculated execution time is the shortest.

Alternatively, the execution time can be communicated to a supervisor who can assign the task to one of the operators manually by taking into account additional criteria.

Thus, the method according to the invention makes it possible to know and control the execution time of the task to be assigned and to assign it to an operator knowingly.

Such a method makes it possible to achieve more efficient and less costly management of the tasks to be performed by a plurality of operators. Indeed, such a method gives the possibility of distributing the tasks to be performed to a plurality of operators in terms of execution time and not in terms of the number of tasks. By dividing the tasks to be done in terms of time execution, the method according to the invention makes it possible on the one hand to ensure that all the tasks can be performed as quickly as possible and on the other hand to balance the distribution of tasks and thus optimize resources operators by avoiding that some operators are overloaded and others underloaded.

Furthermore, by exploiting operators' resources in a more balanced manner, the method according to the invention makes it possible to carry out as many or even more tasks with fewer operators compared to the methods and systems of the state of the art and is therefore less expensive. .

Advantageously, the allocation phase may further comprise a determination of the current location of the operator, the duration of execution of a task to be assigned for this operator being further calculated according to said current location of the operator. .

Note that the same task can be associated with several location data, including a departure location and an arrival location. This makes it possible to correctly handle any type of task, even if they require the operator to move.

In a particular embodiment, for at least one operator, the determination of the execution time may comprise the following steps:

optionally, determining the duration of movement of the operator from his current location to the location associated with the first task in the waiting list associated with said operator,

determining the duration of each of the tasks stored in the waiting list associated with said operator before the task to be assigned, according to the duration of completion of each of these tasks,

determination of the travel times between a location, in particular the arrival location, associated with a waiting list task associated with said operator and a location, including a start location, of the next task in the list, for each of the tasks in the list before the task to be assigned,

determination of the travel time between a location, in particular an arrival location, associated with the task preceding the task to be assigned and a location, in particular the departure location, associated with the task to be assigned, and

summation of all the determined durations with the duration of completion of the task to be attributed.

According to a first variant, the duration of implementation associated with the task may comprise the duration of the operator's movement between the departure location and the arrival location.

In a second variant, the duration of realization may not include this duration of displacement. In this case, the traveling time during the task is also calculated during the step of determining the execution time and added to the other durations to determine the duration of execution of the task to be assigned.

It will also be noted that, at the initialization of the method, it is particularly determined whether the operator's travel time must be calculated from the current location to the first task or not according to the state of the first task. from the queue.

When the first task is started, the duration of the task can be calculated by considering that this duration is equal to the duration of realization memorized for this task or by subtracting from this duration the duration from which the task is started. In a particular embodiment, the place of the task to be assigned in the waiting list may be the last task by default.

In another embodiment, each task may be associated with at least one item, called the priority coefficient, the determination of the place of the task to be assigned in the waiting list associated with an operator taking into account said priority coefficient. In this case, during the step of determining the position associated with a task to be assigned, the priority coefficient of the task to be allocated is compared with the priority coefficient of each task already stored in the waiting list of the task to be assigned. operator. The place of the task to be assigned is determined so that the order of the tasks corresponds to a descending order of priority.

Advantageously, in a particular embodiment, the priority coefficient associated with a task may be variable in time. Indeed, each task can be associated with an incrementation speed data of the priority, so that the priority coefficient of each task varies over time. This helps to best meet the needs of the service.

During the step of determining the duration of execution of the task to be assigned, it is also possible to determine the place of the task to be allocated in the list according to the priority coefficient at a time different from that of the step of determination, especially at a time corresponding to the end of the calculated execution time for a task before the task to be assigned in the waiting list associated with the operator.

In this embodiment, one proceeds in particular as follows: each time the execution time of a task of the queue is determined, the priority coefficient of the remaining tasks of a list of wait and possibly the task to be assigned is recalculated and the order of the remaining tasks in the waiting list is changed according to the new priority coefficients, always in descending order of priority coefficients.

For example, the execution time of the first task present in the queue is calculated.

An update of the theoretical values of the priority coefficients of the remaining tasks in the queue is then performed by taking into account the execution time of the first task.

Based on the calculated theoretical priority levels, the remaining tasks are reordered into the queue. Then, the duration of the task that is in second position in the queue after rescheduling is calculated.

A new update of the theoretical values of priority coefficients is performed taking into account the duration of execution of the second task and so on until the consideration of the task to be assigned.

According to the invention, the tasks can be classified according to at least two different categories. In this case, at least one piece of data relating to a task can be directly or indirectly dependent on the category in which said task is classified.

Such data may notably be at least one of the following data:

a data item relating to the duration of completion of the task, or data relating to the priority of the task, for example the priority coefficient of the task or the priority incrementation speed associated with the task.

Advantageously, certain data, such as task completion data, may also be at least partially operator dependent. The duration of completion of the task can be calculated on statistical data related to the average execution speed of the task considered by this or that operator and can be different for this or that operator.

According to an advantageous version, certain data, such as priority data, may also be dependent on other factors, such as, for example, the type of user who requests the execution of the task in order to offer a benefit to a particular user. particular category of users, such as businesses or VIP customers for example. In this case, the users are previously categorized according to a plurality of categories.

In addition, each operator may be associated with one or more categories of tasks that he is authorized to perform. In this case, for a task to be assigned, the method according to the invention may further comprise, prior to the allocation phase, a step of selecting the operators authorized to perform said task to be assigned, said allocation phase being performed only for the operators thus selected.

Preferably, each operator is associated with a profile, the tasks or categories of tasks that the operator is authorized to perform being defined in association with / in the profile of the operator. This simplifies and speeds up the allocation phase by limiting the number of operators for which this phase is performed.

Moreover, each operator can be associated with at least one piece of data, called state data. Such status data makes it possible to determine the availability of the operator for the support of a new task.

In this case, for a task to be assigned, the method according to the invention may comprise, prior to the allocation phase, a step of selecting the operators available to perform the task to be assigned according to the state data or data. , said allocation phase being performed only for the available operators.

This simplifies and speeds up the allocation phase by limiting the number of operators for which this phase is performed.

The state data may be data relating to the queue or the operator that is compared to a predetermined datum to determine the state available or not the operator or a data indicating its state and determined upstream from the data relating to the queue or the operator.

The state data associated with an operator may be a function of one or more criteria selected from the following criteria:

a number of tasks already in the waiting list of this operator: it can not in particular exceed a predetermined number which may for example be 5; a total estimated duration of the tasks already allocated to this operator: it can not, in particular, exceed a predetermined duration, such as 2 hours,

- an end of service time for this operator: for example, a task can no longer be assigned in the last half-hour of the operator's service, or when the time between the end time of the tasks assigned to this operator and the end of service time of this operator is less than a predetermined execution time or a duration relative to the task to be assigned.

Note that the estimate of the total execution time of the waiting list of an operator, as well as, where appropriate, the scheduling of the tasks in the waiting list, can preferably be carried out dynamically, for example regularly and without necessarily being triggered by an allocation phase, which makes available a method and system more efficient in response time.

The method according to the invention can be triggered:

- by creating a new task, this new task then being the task to assign,

by a specific request from a supervisor on a predetermined task, the predetermined task then being the task to be assigned, or

when an operator reaches an end of service time and / or terminates his service without having completed all the tasks present in his waiting list, each of said tasks then constituting a task to be assigned.

The method according to the invention may advantageously comprise, following the assignment of a new task to an operator, a transmission of a message to said operator indicating the assignment of a new task.

Such a message can be sent through a wireless communication network to a mobile terminal carried by the operator. Such a message may be for example an SMS or MMS message or a email sent to the mobile terminal of the operator through a mobile network.

The operator may also be able to consult at any time, for example by means of a mobile terminal the status of the queue assigned to him, or because his queue is recorded on his computer. mobile terminal, either by connection to a remote server at which waiting list is stored, such a connection can be made through its mobile terminal.

The method according to the invention can advantageously be used for the management of a fleet of vehicles, more particularly electric vehicles, offered for automated rental on one or more rental sites. Tasks include tasks to be performed on park vehicles.

In this context, different types of tasks can be assigned to the operator:

- return of a vehicle by a user to the operator,

- taking charge of an abandoned or infringing vehicle,

- taking charge of a vehicle under repair,

- rebalancing or removal of a vehicle at a repair station,

- customer assistance procedure when picking up the vehicle,

- maintenance or cleaning of the vehicle,

- Maintenance or cleaning of a charging station, subscription or rental, and

- replenishment (terminal, vehicle or operator).

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a system for assigning tasks to an operator among a plurality of operators, each task comprising at least one duration datum, called the duration of realization, and a location datum, said system comprising:

a management server realizing the assignment of tasks to be assigned, and

a mobile terminal for each of said operators; said management server comprising:

means for storing a list, called a waiting list, for each operator, said waiting list comprising the tasks to be performed by said operator; and

determining means capable of or arranged to determine:

a place of a task to be assigned in the waiting list of at least one operator, and

a duration of execution of the task to be assigned by said at least one operator, according to the duration and location data of each task and that of the task to be assigned.

The mobile terminal may advantageously be in connection with the management server for example through a wireless communication network, such as a mobile telephone network.

The mobile terminal of each operator may include locating means, and more particularly geolocation means, of said operator.

The mobile terminal of each operator may further comprise:

storage means for memorizing the waiting list of the carrier operator of the mobile terminal, and / or

communication means for communicating with the management server, in particular for communicating to it the completion of a task or updating the queue stored in its internal memory.

The system according to the invention may further comprise a terminal connected to the management server and allowing a supervisor or manager to consult the results of the allocation phase for one or more operators and the queues of the operators, to order assigning a task to an operator or creating a task to assign. According to yet another aspect of the invention there is provided an automated rental facility for vehicles, more particularly electric vehicles, on several rental sites, each of said rental sites being connected to a so-called central site, said installation comprising outraged :

a system according to the invention, or

means for implementing the steps of the method according to the invention.

Other advantages and characteristics will appear on examining the detailed description of non-limiting embodiments, and the appended drawings in which:

- FIGURE 1 is a schematic representation of a vehicle rental installation implementing the method according to the invention; and

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic representation in the form of a diagram of one embodiment of a method according to the invention. It is understood that the embodiments that will be described in the following are in no way limiting. In particular, it will be possible to imagine variants of the invention comprising only a selection of characteristics described subsequently isolated from the other characteristics described, if this selection of characteristics is sufficient to confer a technical advantage or to differentiate the invention from the state of the prior art. This selection comprises at least one feature preferably functional without structural details, or with only a part of the structural details if it is this part that is only sufficient to confer a technical advantage or to differentiate the invention from the state of the prior art.

In particular, all the variants and embodiments described in the present application are combinable with each other if nothing prevents this combination from the technical point of view. In the figures and in the following description, the elements common to several figures retain the same reference.

The examples described below relate to an automated rental of electric cars on several rental sites.

FIGURE 1 is a schematic representation of an automated rental facility for electric vehicles implementing the task assignment method according to the invention.

The installation 100 shown in FIG. 1 comprises a central site

102 connected to several sites - or stations - 104i-104 _n , said rental through a wireless communication network 106, for example GPRS, or a wired network, for example of the DSL or LAN type. Preferably, each site 104 is connected to the central site via the two separate networks, which allows a continuous connection even if one of the networks is faulty.

Each rental site 104 includes a rental terminal 110 for the rental of a vehicle and a plurality of charging terminals 112-116, each charging terminal being provided for charging a vehicle equipped with an electric battery to a parking space, to know the parking spaces 118-122.

Some sites 104 also include a subscription terminal 108 for registering a new subscriber.

Each parking location of a rental site 104 comprises a presence detector module 124-128, namely weighing means, a camera and / or an electrical connection detector with a vehicle, connected to the rental terminal 110 of the vehicle. rental site 104.

The central site 102 can be connected directly to each of the terminals of a rental site 104 through the network 106 or only to the subscription terminal and / or to the rental terminal and / or charging terminals 112-116. .

At least two terminals of a rental site are connected to each other through a wired connection (not shown). The central site 102 includes a central management server 132, a calculation and analysis module 134, said central, and a communication module 136, said central. Central site 102 further includes a database.

The central site 102 is in communication with electric vehicles 140i-140 _m being leased, through the central communication module 136 and a communication box 142i-142 _m , said vehicle, arranged in each of the vehicles, through a wireless communication network 144, for example GPRS, which may be the same as the communication network 106. Thanks to the central communication module 136 and the vehicle communication modules 142, the central site exchanges data with each of the vehicles 140. Each vehicle 140i-140 _m is also provided with a module of calculation and analysis 144i-144 _m to determine the real status of the vehicle and a module 146i-146 _m geolocation GPS type to determine the position of the vehicle.

Each vehicle communication module 142 is in connection with the vehicle calculation and analysis module 144 and the GPS module 146. Each vehicle communication module is furthermore in contact with a user interface (not shown), for example an interface of the GPS module 146, which may include a touch screen, for displaying the data on a map and for taking into account data entries made by the user of the vehicle 140 and calculating distances and / or times between the position current vehicle and a destination. The installation 100 further comprises _k 148i-148 geolocation and communication modules carried by 150i-150 _k operators located in the area covered by the rental facility. The central communication module 136 is in communication with the GPS modules 148 of the operators 150 through the wireless communication network 144. Each module 148 may be a communication apparatus, such as a PDA equipped with a GPS beacon. The database 138 of the central site stores in association with an operator identifier:

- an operator profile including, in particular, the tasks or categories of tasks that the operator is authorized to perform;

a waiting list of the tasks that the operator is in charge of carrying out;

a state of availability of the operator, for example "available" or "unavailable", this availability state being determined from data relating to the operator and his associated queue (number of tasks in the queue, the total duration of the tasks in the queue, end of service time, etc.); and

- the real-time location of the operator. The installation 100 makes it possible to manage a plurality of electric vehicles offered for rental. Users are able to interact with the various terminals as well as with the various elements of the vehicles and operators are provided to intervene on the vehicles offered for rental in order to perform predetermined tasks or not.

According to the invention, each operator 150 is made to move in the area covered by the rental facility and to intervene on the vehicles for the execution of the tasks entrusted to him by the central server 132 or by a supervisor at the level of the operator. central site 102. Each operator is associated therefore a list of tasks to perform also called waiting list. This list is recorded in the memory means 138 of the central site. These storage means 138 also store the tasks to be performed with different data associated with the task.

For example, according to the invention, a task is associated with various data, such as a type, a description, a duration of realization, a departure location, an optional arrival location, a vehicle identifier and a name of optional client as well as a priority level (the priority level of the task allowing its ranking in a queue) and a speed of incrementing the priority level of the task. In addition, a handling time corresponding to the movement of the operator can be indicated for the task.

The task queue of an operator can contain a maximum of 5 tasks for a total completion time of 2 hours. A task can be assigned to an operator while he is performing another task.

Each task or category of tasks is also associated with a theoretical start status corresponding to the status that the vehicle must have at the beginning of the performance of this task and a theoretical end status corresponding to the status that the vehicle must have at the end of the task. accomplishment of this task.

Each task is also associated with a status, corresponding to the state of the task, namely "pending completion", "in progress", "realized" etc. In the installation 100 shown in FIG. 1, the system according to the invention comprises the elements of the central site, namely the central server 132, the central calculation and analysis module 134, the communication module 136 and the base The system according to the invention further comprises the modules 142-146 at the level of each vehicle and the GPS modules 148 of the operators 150.

FIGURE 2 is a schematic representation in the form of a diagram of an embodiment of a method according to the invention.

The method 200 shown in Figure 2 starts with the creation of a new task 202 to assign. Such a new task can be created by a supervisor, by an operator following observation in the field, at the request of a user of a vehicle, at the request of the management server 132 or at the end of service of a operator without having completed all the tasks previously assigned to him.

As mentioned above, for each task are associated:

at least one location data item, in particular a task start location data item and possibly an end of task location data item when, for example, the task includes moving a vehicle from point A to point B;

at least one datum of duration of realization, corresponding to the duration of realization of the task, this duration optionally including the time of movement of the operator during the execution of the task, in particular when the task comprises a datum of end of task location different from the task start location data, and

possibly the following data: a datum of type / category of task, a datum of priority, a datum of variation of the datum of priority, called speed.

Remember that each operator has a mobile terminal allowing him to communicate with the central server and in particular at least one supervisor located remotely and also a geolocation tag that allows to know its position in real time. An identifier is also associated with it, preferably with an identification means such as an RFID card (able to be read by the various elements of the system).

A profile is also associated with each user, the tasks that can be assigned to him depending on his profile.

The function of the supervisor or manager is to process alerts from the management server. The task of the supervisor is to create different tasks according to the different problems that arise on the vehicles (usually reported to the supervisor and the management server through a system alert or a request for help from a user). The system can also automatically create certain tasks. Others can be created by operators.

It is also recalled that a task is associated with different data, such as a type, a description, a departure location, an optional arrival location, a vehicle identifier and an optional customer name as well as a level of data. priority and a speed of incrementing the priority level. In addition, a total realization time can be indicated for the task, this realization time including the time for return from the departure location to the arrival location.

A task queue is associated with each operator and is stored on both a management server (for all operators) and in the mobile terminal of the operator for the queue concerned.

The queue can contain a maximum of 5 tasks for a total completion time of 2 hours.

Following a new task to be assigned 202, an optional step 204 makes it possible to select the operators authorized to perform this task. For this, the management server consults the type of the task to assign 202, then consults the profile of all operators to select all the operators authorized to perform this type of task.

During a step 206, the method 200 makes it possible to select the available operators. For this, the management server consults the profile of all the operators to select all the operators available among the operators selected in step 204 according to the state data.

At the end of step 206, the method according to the invention has selected all the operators who are both available and authorized to perform the task to be assigned.

Of course, steps 204 and 206 can be performed in any order.

For each of the selected operators, an allocation phase 208 is performed in order to calculate the execution time of the task to be assigned 202 if this task was assigned to this operator.

This allocation phase 208 comprises, for each selected operator, a step 210 of determining the place of the task to be assigned 202 in the waiting list of this operator. The place of the task to be assigned is either by default the last place in the waiting list is determined according to the priority level of the task: in this case, the priority level of the task to be assigned 202 is compared to the level priority of each of the tasks already present in the waiting list and the place of the task to be assigned is determined so as to have a descending order of the priority levels. The allocation phase further comprises a step 212, also performed for each operator previously selected, and calculating the execution time of the task to be allocated according to the place determined in step 210.

The calculation of the execution time is carried out as follows.

If the operator is performing a task, for example, the execution time of the complete task is applied, depending on the data associated with the task, or if it is known when the task was started by the operator, the duration remaining estimated (estimated duration associated with the task from which we subtract the elapsed time). For example, it is possible to determine whether the task is running according to a task status data item.

If the operator is between two tasks, one starts by calculating his travel time until the first task of the queue, according to his position and the starting location as indicated for the first task of the waiting line. The calculation of the traveling time is done using a known GPS system. This travel time is then added to the duration of the first task, corresponding to the duration of realization memorized in association with this task.

Then, once the duration to the completion of the first task obtained (execution time of the first task of the queue), it determines the priority levels estimated at the completion time of the first task for the other tasks remaining in the queue as well as the task to be assigned as they will be at the estimated time of completion of the first task, according to the priority speed data of each task. To calculate the variation of the coefficient of priority, it suffices to multiply the speed by the duration. The jobs are then reordered in the queue in descending order of priority. The task considered as the second task for the continuation of the calculation is then the second task at the time of completion of the first task and not that considered as the second task at the time the calculation is performed.

The travel duration calculation operation is then carried out until the second task in the queue (movement between the arrival location of the first task and the departure location of the second task) and this duration is added to the duration of realization of the second task. Once the end time of the second task has been estimated, the reordering step is performed again.

These steps of calculating duration and reordering are carried out alternately until the execution time of the queue takes into account the duration of completion of the task to be allocated. We then obtain the estimated execution time of the task to be assigned by each operator.

Thus, once the execution time is determined for each selected operator, the allocation phase 208 includes a step 214 determining the shortest execution time among all the calculated execution times. The corresponding operator is identified to assign the task to him.

Alternatively, step 214 may be replaced by a step communicating the set of calculated execution times to a supervisor so that the supervisor manually chooses to assign the task to be assigned to one of the operators according to the results of the step of calculation and other criteria (task assigned in priority to a less specialized operator for example or to an operator for whom the end of service is less distant).

The method 200 then comprises a step 216 of assigning the task to be assigned 202 to the selected operator by storing this task in the queue of the operator and associating this task with an identifier of the operator.

During service, a supervisor can also rebalance the tasks of the various operators if he finds the distribution of these unsuitable. When assigning a new task to an operator or deleting a task to an operator, the queue stored on the operator's PDA is modified, for example by real-time synchronization with the management server. A warning message may also be notified. It should also be noted that the calculation of the duration of the queue of the operators is carried out in real time. The duration of movement between the different tasks of the queue is stored at the management server as soon as a new task is added to the queue, in particular to perform the task as quickly as possible. allocation.

At the end of the service of an operator, if he has not been able to perform all the tasks assigned to him, the identifier of the operator in association with the remaining task (s) is deleted, the The operator's queue is cleared and the allocation process 200 is performed for each of the remaining tasks. In this case, the tasks retain their priority. We will now give some examples of tasks in the context of automated rental of electric cars.

Examples of tasks

No. Task Type Description Creation by Operator Profile

associate

1 Customer Support Assistance When Subscribing a Call Center Home

customer to take subscription in a station Subscription balancing

2 Support Customer Support Using the Call Center Home

customer rental rental terminal Balancing a vehicle

3 Assistance Customer Assistance with Disconnection Call Center Balancing

customer to take and unlock a vehicle

vehicle

4 Assistance Customer assistance with the return of a Balancing Call Center

customer to the vehicle at the parking terminal:

restitution of choice of loading terminal,

vehicle parking, connection,

locking

5 Vehicle Support Service If a Balancing Call Center Customer

valet can not find parking space

in the predetermined area (in the 8

stations at

surroundings) of its station

destination

6 Customer Support Assistance through a Balancing Call Center

client, ambassador vehicle for the support of an Ambassador

broken down vehicle broken down Customer Support Assistance through a Call Center Customer Balancing, Ambassador Vehicle to Support an Ambassador

accidented vehicle accident.

Balancing Moving a vehicle from one station to Central server Balancing another. Regulator of

Park

Moving Moving a parked vehicle in Call Center Balancing a Vehicle Offense

in infraction

Recovery Moving an abandoned vehicle Call center Balancing a vehicle (parked away from a station, not in

abandoned rental course, not at the expense of a

other ambassador) to a station

Recovery of a vehicle at Trappes Regulator Balancing circulation of one to put it into circulation in a

new station

vehicle

Deposit of a deposit of a vehicle to a workshop for Service Balancing vehicle to repair or maintenance Assistance / depot

the annage workshop

Returning a vehicle from a Vehicle Balancing Service workshop to a service / depot station

the annage workshop

State of play State of the exterior and interior of a call center Vehicle balancing / Small vehicle with small maintenance (cleaning Regulator Home quick maintenance) Ambassador

Management of the state of the premises following a complaint Call center Home complaint of a customer who does not wish to use a balancing customer vehicle which has been attributed to him because of

its degraded state (not clean,

damage / failure)

State of the premises State of a station: terminal Call center Balancing station / small subscription and shelter, rental terminal, Regulator Home maintenance? charging / parking terminals

Cleaning Cleaning the windows, the interior and the call center Vehicle care vehicle trunk

Cleaning Cleaning Stations and Vehicles by Regulator Cleaning Station The Night Cleaning Team Park

Maintenance Maintenance Level 1 of a Terminal by Call Center Maintenance of Terminals an Ambassador Home

Transport Transportation of an ambassador by a Super Regulator Super ambassador

Replenishment Replenishment of an Ambassador in Regulator Greatly accessories

ambassador

Replenishment Replenishment of a vehicle: Call center Super evidence, security kit, etc. Central server

expendable

vehicle

Bri efing The task assigned simultaneously to any Balancing Regulator a team of Ambassadors in order to Home join their team leader for a

bri efing Naturally, the invention is not limited to the examples which have just been described. It will be appreciated that the method can include many variations.

For example, the determination step may be simpler than that described and not include the reordering steps during calculation described.

Tasks can also be tasks other than those described. They may not include a departure location and an arrival location. They may also not include a priority coefficient.

Similarly, the assignment step can be performed for all operators and not only for a portion of them.

Claims

A method (200) for assigning a task to be performed to an operator (150) among a plurality of operators (150), in particular a task to be performed on a vehicle (140) as part of a automated rental of vehicles,

- with each task being associated:

at least one datum, termed duration, relating to the duration of the task, and

at least one datum, called localization, relative to the location of said task;

each operator (150) being associated with at least one so-called waiting list, storing in an orderly manner the tasks already assigned to said operator (150) in order to carry them out;

said method (200) comprising, for a task to be assigned, a so-called allocation phase (208) comprising the following steps for at least one operator (150) among said plurality of operators (150):

determining (210) the place in the waiting list associated with said operator (150) of said task to be allocated, and

determination (212) of the duration of execution of said task by said operator (150) as a function of the duration and location of said task to be assigned and the tasks present in said waiting list and placed before said task task to be assigned;

assigning said task to be assigned to an operator (150) being performed according to said execution time.

2. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the allocation phase further comprises a determination of the current location of the operator (150), the execution time, for this operator, being further determined according to of said current location of the operator.

3. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the task to be assigned is assigned to the operator (150) in association with which the calculated execution time is the shortest.

4. Method (200) according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that at least one task is associated with at least two location data, namely a departure location and an arrival location.

5. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that, for at least one operator (150), the determination of the execution time comprises the following steps:

optionally, determining the duration of movement of the operator (150) from his location to the location associated with the first task in the waiting list associated with said operator (150),

determining the duration of each of the tasks stored in the waiting list associated with said operator (150) before the task to be assigned, according to the duration of completion of each of these tasks,

determination of the times of movement between a location, in particular the arrival location, associated with a task of the waiting list associated with said operator (150) and a location, in particular a departure location, of the next task in the list , for each task in the list before the task to assign,

summation of all the determined durations with the duration of completion of the task to be assigned.

6. Method (200) according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that each task is associated with at least one data, called priority coefficient, the determination of the place of the task to be assigned in the list of wait associated with an operator (150) taking into account said priority coefficient.

7. Method (200) according to claim 6, characterized in that the priority coefficient associated with a task is variable in time, in particular according to a speed of incrementation data of the priority coefficient also associated with the task. .

8. Method (200) according to claim 7, wherein, during the step of determining the execution time of the task to be assigned, it determines the place of the task to be assigned in the list according to the coefficient of priority at a time different from that of the determining step, especially at a time corresponding to the end of the calculated execution time of a task before the task to be assigned in the waiting list associated with the operator .

9. Method (200) according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the tasks are classified according to at least two different categories, at least one item of data relating to a task being directly or indirectly dependent on the category in which said task is ranked.

10. Method (200) according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that each operator (150) is associated with one or more categories of tasks that he is authorized to perform and, for a task to be assigned, the method further comprises, prior to the allocation step (208), a step (204) of selecting the operators (150) authorized to perform the category of tasks associated with said task to be assigned, said allocation phase (208) being performed only for the operators (150) thus selected.

11. Method (200) according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that each operator (150) is associated with at least one data, called state, said method comprising, prior to the phase (208) assigning, a step (206) of selecting the available operators to perform the task to be assigned according to the one or more state data, said assigning phase (208) being performed only for the available operators (150).

12. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it is triggered:

- by creating a new task, this new task then being the task to assign,

when an operator (150) reaches an end of service time and / or terminates his service without having performed all the tasks present in his waiting list, each of said unrealized tasks then constituting a task to be assigned.

13. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises, following the assignment of a new task to an operator, a step (218) for sending a message to said operator ( 150) indicating the assignment of a new task.

14. Use of the method according to any one of the preceding claims for the management of a fleet of vehicles (140) proposed for automated rental on one or more sites (104), the tasks to be assigned being in particular tasks to be carried out. relationship with park vehicles.

15. System for assigning tasks to an operator (150) among a plurality of operators (150), each task comprising at least one data item duration, said duration of realization, and a location data, said system comprising:

a management server (132) realizing the assignment of tasks to be assigned, and

a mobile terminal (148) for each of said operators (150); said management server (132) comprising:

- means (138) for storing a list, called waiting, for each operator (150), said waiting list comprising the tasks to be performed by said operator (150); and

determination means (134) able to determine:

a place of a task to be assigned in the waiting list of at least one operator (150), and

a duration of execution of the task to be assigned by said at least one operator (150), as a function of the duration and location data of each task present in said waiting list and placed before said assign task and the task to assign.

16. System according to claim 15, characterized in that the mobile terminal (148) of each operator (150) comprises means for locating said operator.

17. An automated vehicle rental facility (100) at a plurality of rental locations (104), each of said rental sites (104) being connected to a central site (102), said facility (100) further comprising:

a system according to any one of claims 15 or 16, or

means for implementing the steps of the method according to any one of claims 1 to 14.