JP2012194687A - Vehicle operation system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vehicle operation system which enables easy grasping a delay situation of a vehicle in a management center.SOLUTION: The vehicle operation system comprising the management center, base stations connected to the management center via a network and a plurality of mobile stations connected to the base stations by radio is configured as follows. The management center transmits a dispatch instruction to a mobile station when receiving a dispatch request from a customer, the mobile station calculates first estimated arrival time to transmit it to the management center when receiving the dispatch instruction, the management center informs the customer of the first estimated arrival time from the mobile station, the mobile station calculates second estimated arrival time to transmit it to the management center during traveling, and the management center informs the customer of the second estimated arrival time as dispatch time if a difference between the first estimated arrival time and the second estimated arrival time is equal to or greater than a predetermined value.

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicle operation system, and, for example, in an AVM (Automatic Vehicle Monitoring) system for taxi dispatch by commercial radio, when a vehicle is requested to dispatch a vehicle, a more accurate estimated arrival time of a taxi is notified to the customer. The present invention relates to a vehicle operation system that can be

In a conventional mobile radio communication system such as a taxi dispatch AVM system, the mobile station itself detects and stores the current position of a vehicle (taxi) as a mobile station by GPS (Global Positioning System). Such an AVM system for taxi dispatch using GPS includes a GPS satellite, a mobile station (taxi), a base station that performs wireless communication with the mobile station, and a management center connected to the base station through a dedicated line. It is configured.
Each mobile station can obtain position information (latitude, longitude) of the own vehicle by receiving position information from a GPS satellite. In response to an instruction from the management center, each base station transmits a polling signal to each mobile station, and each mobile station transmits a polling response signal to the base station in response to this polling signal. At this time, the polling response signal includes position dynamic information including position information of each mobile station and dynamic information such as actual / empty vehicles. Thus, the management center can collect the position dynamic information from each mobile station via each base station and grasp the position of each mobile station.

  The management center selects a mobile station at the optimal position (closest, etc.) based on the location dynamic information of each mobile station when a customer requests a vehicle to be dispatched. Tell the estimated arrival time of the station. Therefore, it is necessary to manage whether the mobile station arrives without delay. Conventionally, the delay status is judged by self-reporting from the mobile station crew or displayed on the map of the management center. Based on the position of the mobile station, the operator of the management center visually determines the delay state.

  In Patent Document 1 below, in a vehicle operation system used in a vehicle allocation AVM system, when a vehicle allocation request is made by a passenger, the estimated arrival time when the vehicle reaches a destination designated by the management center is calculated and managed. A technique for wirelessly transmitting to a center and notifying a passenger of an expected arrival time from a management center is disclosed.

JP 2010-286908 A

In the conventional vehicle operation system, in order to grasp the delay situation, it is necessary to thoroughly report self-reports from the vehicle crew or monitor the positions of all mobile stations that have given instructions to dispatch vehicles. It is virtually impossible to complete the process without human error, which may cause troubles with customers.
An object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle operation system capable of easily grasping a delay state of a vehicle in a management center.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, in the present invention, when the vehicle is delayed for a predetermined time or more from the initial expected arrival time, a delay state such as the latest expected arrival time is transmitted from the delayed vehicle to the management center. It is.
A typical first configuration of the present invention is as follows.
A vehicle operation system comprising a management center, a base station connected to the management center via a network, and a plurality of mobile stations connected to the base station by radio,
When the management center receives a request from the client to dispatch to a specific destination, the management center transmits a dispatch instruction to the mobile station to move to the destination,
When the mobile station receives a dispatch instruction from the management center, the mobile station calculates a first expected arrival time arriving at the destination, and transmits it to the management center.
When the management center receives the first estimated arrival time from the mobile station, the management center notifies the requester of the first estimated arrival time as a dispatch time to be dispatched to the destination.
The mobile station calculates a second predicted arrival time arriving at the destination while moving to the destination, and transmits the second estimated arrival time to the management center.
When the difference between the first estimated arrival time and the second estimated arrival time is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, the management center notifies the requester of the second estimated arrival time as a dispatch time. A characteristic vehicle operation system.

  In the first configuration, the mobile station determines whether or not a difference between the first estimated arrival time and the second estimated arrival time is a predetermined value or more, and the difference is a predetermined value or more. In this case, the second configuration may be adopted in which the second estimated arrival time is transmitted to the management center.

  In the first configuration, the management center determines whether a difference between the first estimated arrival time and the second estimated arrival time is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, and the difference is equal to or greater than a predetermined value. In this case, the second configuration may be configured to notify the requester of the second estimated arrival time as the dispatch time.

  In the first to third configurations, the mobile station transmits the second expected arrival time to the management center because the first expected arrival time and the second expected arrival time. And sending the difference time.

  According to the first configuration, the management center can easily recognize that the difference between the first estimated arrival time and the second estimated arrival time is equal to or greater than a predetermined value. The dispatcher can be notified of the dispatch time, and troubles with the requester due to arrival delay can be suppressed.

It is a figure which shows the structural example of the vehicle operation system in embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of the management center in embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of the base station in embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of the mobile station in embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the dispatch time table in embodiment of this invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. First, the system configuration of the vehicle operation system according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a system configuration example of a vehicle operation system according to the present invention. The vehicle operation system in FIG. 1 includes base stations 10-1, 10-2, 10-3,..., Mobile stations 20-1, 20-2, 20-3,.

  The mobile stations 20-1, 20-2, 20-3... (Simply also referred to as the mobile station 20) are, for example, vehicles such as taxis and the like that are subject to dispatch and operation management. Base stations 10-1, 10-2, 10-3 (also simply referred to as base station 10) are wireless stations that wirelessly communicate with mobile stations, and have a predetermined coverage area that can be wirelessly communicated with mobile stations. Have. In this embodiment, the digital SCPC (Single Channel Per Carrier) method (ARIB STD-T61 narrowband digital communication method (SCPC / FDMA) compliant) is used as a business radio method between the base station and the mobile station. ing.

  The management center 5 is a device that manages the entire vehicle operation system, and is connected to one or more base stations 10 via a network so that various controls and information can be exchanged. The management area of the management center 5 is a union area of the base station cover areas of the connected base stations 10-1, 10-2, 10-3,. The management center 5 can also be configured integrally with the base station 10.

  The GPS satellite 6 is an artificial satellite for transmitting position information to the mobile station 20. The mobile station 20 receives a radio signal D6 including time data from a plurality of GPS satellites 6 by a GPS receiver, and receives the received radio wave. By calculating the relative distance difference from each GPS satellite 6 based on the time difference, the position information (longitude and latitude) of the own vehicle can be obtained.

  The base station 10 transmits a polling signal to the mobile station 20 according to an instruction from the management center 5, and the mobile station 20 transmits position dynamic information including the position information of the own vehicle as a response signal to the polling signal. . In this manner, all the vehicle position dynamic information in the management area is transmitted to the management center 5. In FIG. 1, the base station 10 is described as being independent from the management center 5, but it is needless to say that the base station 10 can be configured integrally according to the scale of the system.

In the management center 5, the location dynamic information is stored as a database in the storage unit 110 of the management center 5, and when there is a vehicle allocation request from a requester such as a customer, the optimum mobile station 20 is selected based on the location dynamic information, A dispatch instruction is transmitted to the mobile station 20 via the base station 10.
The mobile station 20 that has received the dispatch instruction starts moving to the destination that is the dispatch destination and transmits the estimated arrival time to the destination via the base station 10 to the management center 5. When it deviates beyond a predetermined value, the latest estimated arrival time is transmitted to the management center 5.

  Next, the configuration of each part of the vehicle operation system according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of the management center 5. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of the base station 10. FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a vehicle as the mobile station 20.

First, a configuration example of the management center 5 will be described with reference to FIG.
As shown in FIG. 2, the management center 5 has a configuration in which a control unit 100, a storage unit 110, and an operation display unit 106 are connected. In this example, an external storage device is used for the storage unit 110.
The control unit 100 includes a central processing unit 101, a communication interface 102, an input / output interface 103, a memory 104, and a storage device interface 105 as hardware configurations, and each unit is connected by a bus.
The communication interface 102 is an interface for performing communication via a transmission path connected to each of the base stations 10-1, 10-2, 10-3,. An operation display unit 106 including an input / output device such as a mouse and a keyboard and a display device such as an LCD monitor or a CRT display is connected by an input / output interface 103 so that data input / output and various displays can be performed. . The memory 104 is a main storage device, and is usually composed of a semiconductor device.

  The storage unit 110 is connected by the storage device interface 105 and is a large-capacity storage device such as a hard disk drive. The storage unit 110 stores an operation management program 111 for managing the operation of the vehicle. The operation management program 111 is loaded into the memory 104 and executed by the central processing unit 101.

Next, a configuration example of the base station 10 will be described using FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3, the base station 10 has a configuration in which a base station processing device 200 and a radio unit 204 are connected. The base station processing apparatus 200 includes a storage unit 201, a communication interface 203, a reception unit 202, and a transmission unit 205.
The wireless unit 204 wirelessly transmits and receives radio frequency band signals to and from the mobile station 20 and the like, and performs frequency conversion between radio frequency band signals and baseband band signals. The communication interface 203 is an interface that performs communication through a network connected to the management center 5. The receiving unit 202 receives and processes a polling response signal from the mobile station 20. In the transmission unit 205, a polling signal or the like for the mobile station 20 is generated and transmitted from the wireless unit 204 to the mobile station 20 via the antenna 206. The storage unit 201 is a buffer that temporarily stores data.

Next, a configuration example of the mobile station 20 will be described with reference to FIG.
As shown in FIG. 4, the mobile station 20 includes a radio unit 301, an antenna 302 for base station communication, a receiving unit 303, a transmitting unit 304, a control unit 305, a storage unit 306, a car navigation unit 308, an operation display unit 309, A charge meter 310 and a GPS antenna 311 are provided.
The wireless unit 301 wirelessly transmits / receives a radio frequency band signal to / from the base station 10 and performs frequency conversion between the radio frequency band signal and the baseband signal.

  The car navigation unit 308 receives information sent from the GPS satellite 6 via the GPS antenna 311, detects its own vehicle position (for example, longitude and latitude), and when a dispatch instruction is given from the management center 5, The route from the vehicle position to the destination is searched. When a plurality of routes are searched, for example, the car navigation unit 308 selects a route that requires the shortest travel time, and calculates the time to reach the destination as the expected arrival time. At that time, the car navigation unit 308 includes a radio wave beacon receiving device that can acquire traffic jam information and the like related to a planned travel route, and selects a route based on the traffic jam information and the route distance. Alternatively, route information including route point information may be transmitted from the management center 5, and the route may be selected by inputting the information to the car navigation unit 308.

  The first estimated arrival time calculated by the car navigation unit 308 at the time of receiving the dispatch instruction from the management center 5 is stored as the dispatch time 306b in the dispatch time table 306a of the storage unit 306, which will be described later, by the control unit 305. The data is transmitted from the transmission unit 304 to the management center 5 through the radio unit 301 and the antenna 302 via the base station 10. The operator of the management center 5 notifies the estimated arrival time by telephone or the like to the customer who requested the vehicle allocation.

  In addition, the car navigation unit 308 periodically detects the vehicle position many times during traveling to the destination, and calculates the traveling time from the vehicle position to the destination and the second estimated arrival time. The second predicted arrival time calculated during the travel is stored in the dispatch time table 306a as the latest predicted time 306c by the control unit 305.

The storage unit 306 functions as a buffer for temporarily storing data, stores position data of each route, a map database, and the like, and stores a dispatch time table 306a.
In the dispatch time table 306a, the first expected arrival time of the vehicle notified to the customer when the request for dispatch is received from the requester such as the customer, that is, the dispatch time 306b, and the second arrival acquired during the subsequent travel. A latest latest predicted time 306c that is an expected time and a tolerance 306d that is an allowable value of a difference between the dispatch time 306b and the latest predicted time 306c are stored. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of the dispatch time table 306a in the present embodiment. In the example of FIG. 5, the dispatch time 306b, which is the first expected arrival time notified to the customer, is 10:30, and the latest expected time 306c, which is the second expected arrival time, is 10:45. The difference 306d is 3 minutes.

The charge meter 310 is a meter for charging when a customer is put on the vehicle, and transmits a signal indicating the state of an empty vehicle, an incoming vehicle, or an actual vehicle to the control unit 305.
The receiving unit 303 detects a polling signal or the like from the base station 10 or vehicle allocation instruction information. The transmission unit 304 generates a polling response signal, estimated arrival time information, and the like, and transmits them to the base station 10 via the wireless unit 301 and the antenna 302.

The control unit 305 controls each component of the mobile station 20 and sets the polling response signal transmitted from the own station, the timing of the transmission slot of transmission data, and the like, and the dispatch instruction information received from the management center 5 Is also received from the car navigation unit 308 and stored in the storage unit 306, and the first expected arrival time information received from the car navigation unit 308 at the time of dispatching is transmitted as the dispatch time 306b. The data is transmitted from 304 to the management center 5 via the wireless unit 301 or the like.
Further, the control unit 305 compares the dispatch time 306b of the dispatch time table 306a with the latest predicted time 306c, and when the tolerance 306d, which is the difference, is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, it is the second predicted arrival time. The latest predicted time 306c is transmitted from the transmission unit 304 to the management center 5 via the wireless unit 301 and the like, and then the dispatch time 306b is updated to the latest predicted time 306c. FIG. 5 shows a state before update.

  The operation display unit 309 includes a display unit that displays vehicle dispatch instruction information from the management center 5 and an operation unit such as a touch panel on which the driver performs various inputs. Using the operation display unit 309, the driver selects a route when the vehicle is empty or when the vehicle is actual, and reports the selected route number to the management center 5 as operation information. Note that the operation display unit 309 may also serve as the operation display unit of the car navigation unit 308.

Next, operation of the system shown in FIG. 1 will be described.
The mobile station 20 collects and stores the current position information by the GPS system. In this state, the management center 5 transmits a polling signal PO1 simultaneously to each mobile station 20 in order to collect the current position dynamic information of the plurality of mobile stations 20 by the polling method via the base station 10. . Specifically, the base station 10 generates a polling signal PO1 including the designation information of the mobile station number to be transmitted in response, based on the instruction signal from the management center 5 that designates the mobile station number to be communicated, by the transmission unit 205. Then, the data is transmitted from the wireless unit 204 to each mobile station 20 via the antenna 206.

Each mobile station 20 receives the polling signal PO1 via the antenna 302 by the wireless unit 301, receives it by the receiving unit 303, and returns a polling response signal by the control unit 305. Detect numbers. The mobile station 20 that has detected the vehicle number of the local station transmits the current position dynamic information to the base station 10 using the polling response signal SR.
The current position dynamic information collected from the plurality of mobile stations 20 is transmitted from the base station 10 to the management center 5 and stored in the management center storage unit 110.

  In such a state, when the management center 5 receives a vehicle allocation request from a client or other client, the management center 5 selects the mobile station 20 at the optimum position, for example, the position closest to the customer, based on the position dynamic information stored in the storage unit 110. It selects the vehicle dispatch instruction information for the mobile station 20 and transmits it to the mobile station 20 via the base station 10. The dispatch instruction information includes information on the destination (allocation destination) designated by the customer.

  The mobile station 20 that has received the dispatch instruction information starts to move to the destination specified by the dispatch instruction information transmitted from the management center 5 and calculates the first expected arrival time at the destination by the car navigation unit 308. The dispatch time 306b is transmitted from the transmission unit 304 to the management center 5 through the radio unit 301 and the antenna 302 via the base station 10, and stored in the dispatch time table 306a as the dispatch time 306b.

  When the management center 5 receives the first estimated arrival time (the dispatch time 306b), the operator of the management center 5 notifies the customer who requested the dispatch by telephone or the like.

Thereafter, the mobile station 20 appropriately calculates the second predicted arrival time, which is the latest predicted arrival time, by the car navigation unit 308 while moving to the destination, and the second predicted arrival time is calculated by the control unit 305. Is stored as the latest estimated time 306c of the dispatch time table 306a.
In the control unit 305, the difference between the dispatch time 306b that is the first predicted arrival time transmitted to the management center 5 and the latest predicted time 306c that is the second predicted arrival time is equal to or greater than a predetermined value (tolerance 306d). In this case, the latest predicted time 306c that is the second expected arrival time is transmitted to the management center 5, and the transmitted latest predicted time 306c is stored in the dispatch time table 306a as a new dispatch time 306b. Update.

  For example, if the tolerance 306d between the dispatch time 306b and the latest expected time 306c is 3 minutes, as shown in FIG. 5, the latest expected time 306c is 10:45 when the dispatch time 306b is 10:30. When the mobile station 20 detects that the minutes have been reached, the mobile station 20 transmits the predicted arrival time information of 10:45, which is the latest predicted time 306c, to the management center 5, and then updates the dispatch time 306b to 10:45. To do.

  When the management center 5 receives the latest expected time 306c, which is the second expected arrival time, from the mobile station 20, the operator of the management center 5 notifies the customer who requested the dispatch by telephone or the like. To do.

  According to the above embodiment, the mobile station 20 determines whether or not the difference between the first estimated arrival time (allocation time) and the second estimated arrival time (latest expected time) is a predetermined value or more, Since the second estimated arrival time is transmitted to the management center 5 via the base station 10 when the predetermined value or more is reached, it is compared with the case where the management center 5 determines whether or not the predetermined arrival time is exceeded. Thus, the processing load on the management center 5 can be reduced, and the communication amount between the mobile station 20 and the management center 5 can be reduced.

In addition, this invention is not limited to the said embodiment, It cannot be overemphasized that it can change variously in the range which does not deviate from the summary.
For example, in the above-described embodiment, the dispatch time table is provided in the mobile station storage unit, but is provided in the management center storage unit so that the difference between the dispatch time received from the mobile station and the estimated arrival time is equal to or greater than a predetermined value. It can also be determined at the management center whether or not.
Further, the present invention is not only a system for executing the processing according to the present invention, but also as an apparatus and method for executing the processing according to the present invention, or a program for realizing such a method and system, and the program Can be grasped as a recording medium or the like.

  5: management center, 6: GPS satellite, 10: base station, 20: mobile station, 100: management center control unit, 106: management center operation display unit, 110: management center storage unit, 201: base station storage unit, 202 : Base station receiver, 203: communication interface, 204: base station radio unit, 205: base station transmitter, 206: antenna, 301: mobile station radio unit, 302: antenna, 303: mobile station receiver, 304: mobile Station transmission unit, 305: mobile station control unit, 306: mobile station storage unit, 306a: dispatch time table, 306b: dispatch time, 306c: latest predicted time, 306d: tolerance, 308: car navigation unit, 309: mobile station operation Display unit, 310: charge meter, 311: GPS antenna.

Claims (1)

A vehicle operation system comprising a management center, a base station connected to the management center via a network, and a plurality of mobile stations connected to the base station by radio,
When the management center receives a request from the client to dispatch to a specific destination, the management center transmits a dispatch instruction to the mobile station to move to the destination,
When the mobile station receives a dispatch instruction from the management center, the mobile station calculates a first expected arrival time arriving at the destination, and transmits it to the management center.
When the management center receives the first estimated arrival time from the mobile station, the management center notifies the requester of the first estimated arrival time as a dispatch time to be dispatched to the destination.
The mobile station calculates a second predicted arrival time arriving at the destination while moving to the destination, and transmits the second estimated arrival time to the management center.
When the difference between the first estimated arrival time and the second estimated arrival time is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, the management center notifies the requester of the second estimated arrival time as a dispatch time. A characteristic vehicle operation system.

Images