JP2022174868A - Allocated vehicle selection method of demand type traffic system and allocated vehicle selection device of demand type traffic system - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a method and a device which select an allocated vehicle of a demand type traffic system in consideration of a congestion degree of the vehicles.SOLUTION: An allocated vehicle selection method includes: an extraction step which extracts a plurality of candidate vehicles in which waiting time is short which include at least a first candidate vehicle in which the waiting time at a user's getting on point derived from an operation plan in demand type traffic is the shortest and a second candidate vehicle in which the waiting time is the second shortest; a determination step which determines whether or not a congestion degree of the first candidate vehicle is higher than the congestion degree of other candidate vehicles other than the first candidate vehicle by a first threshold value among the plurality of candidate vehicles; and a selection step which when a predetermined condition is established, since it is determined that the congestion degree of the first candidate vehicle is higher than the congestion degree of the other candidate vehicle by the first threshold value, and time difference between the waiting time of the first candidate vehicle and the waiting time of the other candidate vehicle is equal to or less than a second threshold value, selects the other candidate vehicle as an allocated vehicle, and when the predetermined condition is not established, selects the first candidate vehicle as the allocated vehicle.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3A

Description

The present invention relates to a dispatched vehicle selection method for a demand-type transportation system and a dispatched vehicle selection apparatus for a demand-type transportation system.

Patent Literature 1 describes a method for setting an operation plan for an on-demand vehicle. In this method, a basic operation plan for a shared vehicle is created. The basic trip plan includes pre-booked stops along the route from the starting point to the final destination. The created operation plan will be presented on the website.

On the website, users' additional reservations for the operation plan of the shared vehicle with vacant seats are repeatedly accepted until the seats of the shared vehicle are full. If the delay time in detouring to the boarding/alighting point of the accepted reservation falls within a predetermined buffer time, the reservation is accepted and the basic operation plan is corrected.

JP 2013-186541 A

In the method of Patent Literature 1, additional reservations are repeatedly accepted until the seats are fully booked, so the degree of congestion of shared vehicles is not taken into account when accepting reservations.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to select a dispatched vehicle for a demand-type traffic system in consideration of the degree of congestion of vehicles.

In order to solve the above-described problem, in one aspect of the present invention, a plurality of candidate vehicles with short waiting times at the user's boarding point are extracted in response to a vehicle allocation request from the user. The candidate vehicles to be extracted include at least the first candidate vehicle with the shortest waiting time and the second candidate vehicle with the second shortest waiting time determined from the operation plan for demand-type traffic. For the plurality of extracted candidate vehicles, it is determined whether or not the degree of congestion of the first candidate vehicle is higher than the degree of congestion of candidate vehicles other than the first candidate vehicle by a first threshold or more. It is determined that the degree of congestion of the first candidate vehicle is higher than the degree of congestion of the other candidate vehicles by a first threshold or more, and the time difference between the waiting time of the first candidate vehicle and the waiting time of the other candidate vehicles is a second threshold. A predetermined condition is satisfied when: If the predetermined condition is satisfied, another candidate vehicle is selected as the dispatched vehicle. If the predetermined condition is not satisfied, the first candidate vehicle is selected as the dispatched vehicle.

According to the present invention, it is possible to select a dispatched vehicle for a demand-based transportation system in consideration of the congestion degree of vehicles.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a demand-based transportation system according to one embodiment of the present invention. 2A is an explanatory diagram showing an example of an operation route of an operation plan created by the server of FIG. 1. FIG. FIG. 2B is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the positional relationship between the user and the vehicle on the tour route when the boarding point of the user who wishes to be dispatched is on the tour route of FIG. 2A. 3A is a flow chart showing an example of a procedure of a vehicle allocation selection method by the vehicle allocation selection device of the server of FIG. 1. FIG. FIG. 3B is a flowchart showing an example of a detailed processing procedure of the dispatched vehicle selection processing of FIG. 3A. FIG. 3C is a flowchart showing an example of a detailed processing procedure of the dispatched vehicle determination process of FIG. 3A. FIG. 4A is an explanatory diagram showing the basic concept of the allocation vehicle selection rule based on the waiting time of the user and the degree of congestion in the allocation vehicle selection process of FIG. 3A. FIG. 4B is an explanatory diagram showing a specific example of the allocation vehicle selection rule in the allocation vehicle selection process of FIG. 3A. FIG. 4C is an explanatory diagram showing another specific example of the allocation vehicle selection rule in the allocation vehicle selection process of FIG. 3A. FIG. 4D is an explanatory diagram showing still another specific example of the allocation vehicle selection rule in the allocation vehicle selection process of FIG. 3A.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the description of the drawings, the same parts are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof is omitted.

The configuration of a demand-based transportation system 10 will be described with reference to FIG. A demand-based transportation system 10 according to this embodiment includes a server 20 , a user terminal 40 , and a vehicle 50 .

In this demand-based transportation system 10, a server 20 communicates with user terminals 40 and vehicles 50 via a communication network (not shown). The server 20 can be composed of, for example, a general-purpose computer.

The communication network may be configured in either a wireless or wired manner, or both, and the communication network may include the Internet. In this embodiment, the server 20, the user terminal 40, and the vehicle 50 are connected to a communication network using a wireless communication method. The communication network used by the user terminal 40 and the communication network used by the vehicle 50 may be the same network or different networks.

In the demand-type transportation system 10, a user 41 (see FIG. 2B) who reserves the dispatch of a vehicle 50 activates application software (hereinafter referred to as an application) installed in the user terminal 40 to make a reservation for the vehicle 50. Information can be entered. In this case, a native application is installed in the user terminal 40, and the arithmetic device in the user terminal 40 is caused to directly perform arithmetic processing.

It is also possible to use PWA (Progressive Web Apps) technology instead of native apps to enable mobile websites built on cloud servers on the Internet to be used like apps installed on the user terminal 40. is. In this case, for example, the user terminal 40 accesses the cloud server on the Internet, and on the console screen of the cloud server displayed on the user terminal 40, information necessary for reserving the vehicle 50 can be input. The function of the cloud server referred to here may be provided to the server 20 or may be provided to another server (not shown) cooperating with the server 20 .

In the following embodiments, for example, a case where a user terminal 40 such as a smartphone installed with a native application or a user terminal 40 such as a personal computer using PWA technology instead of a native application accesses the server 20 will be described. do.

The information input by the user 41 includes, for example, a user ID for identifying the user 41, a pick-up point and a get-off point of the user 41 with respect to the vehicle 50, user information, and other information related to reservation. The user information can include, for example, identification information such as a user ID and information on user attributes.

The user attribute information can be information including, for example, the user's age or age group, items requested by the user 41 for the vehicle 50 to be dispatched, and the like. The items requested by the user 41 can include, for example, whether or not a barrier-free environment is required, which of waiting time and congestion should be prioritized, and the like. The waiting time priority is a request for preferential allocation of a vehicle 50 with a short waiting time at a boarding point, and the congestion priority is a request for preferential allocation of a vehicle 50 with a low congestion degree.

The boarding point of the user 41 may be, for example, an arbitrary place that can be specified by an address or the like, or the nearest place selected by the user 41 from predetermined places.

When the user 41 uses the user terminal 40 to input the information required to reserve the vehicle 50, vehicle allocation request data including the input information is transmitted to the server 20 as a vehicle allocation request via the communication network.

The server 20 creates an operation plan for the vehicle 50 in demand-type traffic. The operation plan indicates the operation route of the vehicle 50 from the departure point to the final destination. If there is a fixed stopping point for the vehicle 50, the route includes this stopping point. A stop point can be generated, for example, by a prior reservation from the user 41 or the like.

FIG. 2A shows an example in which two vehicles 56 and 57 corresponding to vehicle 50 in FIG. The patrol route 60 has the same point 61 as the starting point and the final destination. The circuit route 60 includes a plurality of stop points 62-66 along the way. As in the example shown in FIG. 2A, the number of vehicles 50 for which one server 20 in FIG. 1 creates an operation plan may be two or three or more.

As shown in the example of FIG. 2B, when the boarding point 67 of the user 41 who wishes to be dispatched is on the patrol route 60, the server 20 determines which vehicle 56, 57 on the patrol route 60 is to be dispatched to the user 41. to decide.

If the preceding vehicle 56 on the patrol route 60 in FIG. 2A is continuously dispatched every time there is a dispatch request from a user until all seats are filled, situations (1) to (5) below occur.

(1) Vehicles 56 are crowded.

(2) In the crowded vehicle 56, the number of boarding and alighting of passengers increases and the time required for boarding and alighting increases.

(3) The operation schedule of the vehicle 56 is delayed due to the increase in boarding and alighting time.

(4) Due to the delay in the operation schedule, the interval between the vehicle 56 and the following vehicle 57 is shortened.

(5) If the train schedule of the vehicle 56 is delayed, and if there is a reservation for a boarding point at a point where the vehicle 56 should have already passed if the vehicle 56 were to run on time, and if there are vacant seats in the vehicle 56, the following vehicle 57 Even if the vehicle 56 is not crowded, the vehicle 56 is reserved.

The situations (1) to (5) are repeated until the vehicle 56 is full. This repetition eventually results in a situation in which a vehicle 57 with many empty seats is running directly behind a crowded vehicle 56 .

In this embodiment, the server 20 considers the waiting time of the user 41 at the boarding point and the degree of congestion of each vehicle 56, 57 in order to avoid uneven congestion of specific vehicles 56, 57 on the patrol route 60. Then, which of the vehicles 56 and 57 to dispatch to the user 41 is determined.

The user 41 can cause the server 20 to determine the vehicle 50 to be allocated to the user 41 by transmitting a vehicle allocation request from the user terminal 40 of FIG. 1 to the server 20 .

The server 20 receives vehicle allocation request data as a vehicle allocation request from the user terminal 40 . The server 20 determines the vehicle 50 to be allocated to the user 41 from two or more vehicles 50 based on the information of the received vehicle allocation request data.

When the vehicle 50 to be dispatched to the user 41 is determined, the server 20 edits the operation plan created for the determined vehicle 50 . In editing the operation plan, a stop point where the user 41 who dispatches the vehicle 50 gets on and off the vehicle 50 is added to the operation route of the operation plan.

The vehicle 50 can run unmanned by autonomous control according to the operation plan created by the server 20 . The vehicle 50 may be a manned vehicle driven by a driver according to an operation plan created by the server 20 . Each vehicle 50 of the present embodiment is a shared vehicle in which a plurality of users 41 can ride together, and has a plurality of seats that can be used by the users 41 . It is assumed that the number of seats available for users 41 in each vehicle 50 is the same and known.

The server 20 can dispatch the same vehicle 50 to a plurality of users 41 based on the information of the dispatch request data from the user terminal 40 of each user 41 as long as there are vacant seats in the vehicle 50 . The same vehicle 50 may be dispatched to a plurality of users 41 having at least one of the same pick-up point and drop-off point.

In addition, the vehicle 50 of the present embodiment is a shared vehicle in which a plurality of users 41 can ride together, and has a plurality of seats that can be used by the users 41 . Therefore, the server 20 can dispatch the same vehicle 50 to other users 41 based on the reservation information from the user terminal 40 of each user 41 as long as there are vacant seats in the vehicle 50 . At this time, there may be a plurality of users 41 who have the same boarding point and/or alighting point.

Next, details of the server 20 and the vehicle 50 will be described.

The server 20 has a controller and a storage device. The controller has a processor including a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and memory. The memory includes ROM (Read Only Memory) and RAM (Random Access Memory). The controller can function as multiple information processing circuits.

In this embodiment, an example of realizing a plurality of information processing circuits provided in the controller by software will be described. Of course, dedicated hardware for executing each information processing described below is prepared to configure the information processing circuit. It is also possible to Also, a plurality of information processing circuits may be configured by individual hardware.

The controller has a user attribute determination unit 21, a waiting time calculation unit 22, a congestion degree calculation unit 23, a dispatched vehicle selection unit 24, a travel route determination unit 25, and a user adjustment unit 26 as a plurality of information processing circuits. The controller further includes a vehicle allocation request information acquisition unit 27, a movement instruction unit 28, a user information reception unit 29, and a vehicle allocation information transmission unit 30 as a plurality of information processing circuits. These units 21 to 30 can be virtually constructed on the hardware of the controller by the CPU executing programs stored in the memory.

A storage device functions as an accessible storage device. The storage device can be configured to include, for example, a main storage device and an auxiliary storage device. The main memory can be configured by RAM, for example. The auxiliary storage device can be composed of, for example, an SSD (Solid State Drive) or HDD (Hard Disk Drive).

The storage device, for example, an auxiliary storage device, can constitute a user information database section 31, a vehicle information database section 32, a map database section 33, and a vehicle allocation plan database section .

The user attribute determination unit 21 , waiting time calculation unit 22 , congestion degree calculation unit 23 , and vehicle allocation selection unit 24 of the controller can constitute an allocation vehicle selection device 35 that selects a vehicle 50 to be allocated to the user 41 . The travel route determination unit 25 and the user adjustment unit 26 may be added to the configuration of the dispatched vehicle selection device 35 .

The user attribute determination unit 21 extracts user attributes from the user information acquired by the vehicle allocation request information acquisition unit 27 . The vehicle allocation request information acquisition unit 27 can acquire user information from the user information database unit 31 .

The user information database section 31 can accumulate user information input from the user information receiving section 29 . The user information receiving unit 29 can receive vehicle allocation request data as a vehicle allocation request from the user terminal 40 and extract user information from the received vehicle allocation request data.

The user attribute determination unit 21 changes one or both of threshold values 1 and 2, which will be described later, used when the vehicle allocation selection unit 24 selects the vehicle 50 to be allocated to the user 41, according to the contents of the extracted user attributes. determine whether it is necessary to The user attribute determination unit 21 can output the data of the determination result to the dispatched vehicle selection unit 24 .

The waiting time calculating unit 22 calculates the waiting time of the user 41 at the boarding point when the vehicle 50 is dispatched to the user 41 whose user information has been acquired by the vehicle allocation request information acquiring unit 27, for each vehicle for which the server 20 creates an operation plan. 50 are calculated respectively. This waiting time can be determined from the operation plan created for the corresponding vehicle 50 . The vehicle 50 for which the server 20 creates the operation plan can be the vehicle 50 whose vehicle information is accumulated in the vehicle information database unit 32, for example.

The vehicle information can include, for example, the position information of the vehicle 50 and the vacant seat information. The vacant seat information can be, for example, information representing the vacant or occupied status of each seat available to the user 41 of the vehicle 50 . The vacant seat information may be current information or may include future information. The future vacant seat information may be, for example, chronological information up to the arrival of the vehicle 50 at the final destination, which changes as the user 41 gets on and off the vehicle 50 at each stop point on the route. .

The waiting time calculation unit 22 extracts a plurality of candidate vehicles to be dispatched to the user 41 as an extraction unit. The waiting time calculation unit 22 extracts a plurality of vehicles 50 as candidate vehicles in descending order of the waiting time of the user 41 calculated by the waiting time calculation unit 22 . The plurality of candidate vehicles includes at least a first candidate vehicle with the shortest waiting time and a second candidate vehicle with the second shortest waiting time.

The congestion degree calculation unit 23 calculates the congestion degrees of the plurality of vehicles 50 extracted as candidate vehicles by the waiting time calculation unit 22 . The degree of congestion can be, for example, a value obtained by dividing the number of users 41 in the vehicle 50 by the number of seats available for the users 41 in the vehicle 50 . The number of passengers of the users 41 can be the number of seats in the vehicle 50 in which the users 41 have already taken seats.

The congestion degree calculation unit 23 can calculate the congestion degree of each vehicle 50 using, for example, vacant seat information of each vehicle 50 accumulated in the vehicle information database unit 32 . The degree of congestion calculated by the degree-of-congestion calculator 23 can be, for example, the current degree of congestion of the vehicle 50 . When the vacant seat information of the vehicle information database unit 32 includes future information, the congestion degree calculated by the congestion degree calculation unit 23 is calculated using the future information to determine whether the vehicle 50 will arrive at the stop point where the user 41 gets on. It may be the expected congestion degree at the time of boarding.

The dispatched vehicle selection unit 24 selects a vehicle 50 to be dispatched to the user 41 from among the plurality of vehicles 50 extracted as candidate vehicles by the waiting time calculation unit 22 as a selection unit.

The dispatched vehicle selection unit 24 can select the vehicle 50 to be dispatched to the user 41 according to the selection rule. The selection rule is, for example, to allocate either the first candidate vehicle or another candidate vehicle other than the first candidate vehicle among the plurality of vehicles 50 extracted as candidate vehicles by the waiting time calculation unit 22 to the user 41. A rule for selecting the vehicle 50 can be used. The dispatched vehicle selection unit 24 may select the vehicle 50 to be dispatched to the user 41 according to a selection rule whose content is changed according to the determination result input from the user attribute determination unit 21 . Details of the selection rule will be described later.

The vehicle 50 selected by the allocated vehicle selection unit 24 may be determined as the vehicle 50 to be allocated to the user 41 unconditionally, or may be determined as the vehicle 50 to be allocated to the user 41 after confirmation by the user 41 . In this embodiment, a case will be described in which the vehicle 50 selected by the dispatched vehicle selection unit 24 is determined as the vehicle 50 to be dispatched to the user 41 after confirmation by the user 41 .

The travel route determination unit 25 notifies the user adjustment unit 26 of the vehicles 50 selected by the allocated vehicle selection unit 24 and the vehicles 50 not selected.

The user adjustment unit 26 communicates with the user terminal 40, and transmits the vehicle 50 selected by the allocated vehicle selection unit 24 and the vehicle 50 not selected to the user terminal 40 as information of selection candidates for the allocated vehicle. . The user adjustment unit 26 receives information data from the user terminal 40 indicating which of the vehicle 50 selected by the vehicle selection unit 24 and the vehicle 50 not selected is to be selected as the vehicle 50 to be allocated to the user 41. receive.

The travel route determination unit 25 identifies the vehicle 50 selected by the user 41 as the vehicle 50 to be allocated from the data received by the user adjustment unit 26, and acquires the basic operation plan of the identified vehicle 50 from the vehicle allocation plan database unit 34. to edit. The travel route determining unit 25 adds, to the travel route of the vehicle 50, stop points where the user 41 who dispatches the vehicle 50 gets on and off when editing the travel plan.

The travel route determination unit 25 refers to the map data of the map database unit 33 and determines the travel route in the case of allocating the vehicle 50 selected by the dispatch vehicle selection unit 24 to the user 41 as the operation route. The travel route may include expected arrival times at each stop on the travel route. When the vehicle 50 selected by the user 41 as the vehicle 50 to be dispatched is another candidate vehicle that travels after the first candidate vehicle, the travel route of the other candidate vehicle determined by the travel route determination unit 25 precedes. The content may include a movement instruction to overtake the first candidate vehicle on the same travel route. The travel route determination unit 25 stores the determined travel route in the vehicle allocation plan database unit 34 as an edited operation plan.

The movement instruction unit 28 generates a movement instruction for causing the vehicle 50 to travel according to the driving route stored in the vehicle allocation plan database unit 34 by the driving route determination unit 25, and transmits the movement instruction to the movement instruction receiving unit 53, which will be described later, of the vehicle 50. do. When the travel route in the vehicle allocation plan database unit 34 includes a travel instruction to overtake the preceding first candidate vehicle on the same travel route, the travel instruction unit 28 issues a travel instruction including an instruction to overtake the first candidate vehicle. Generate.

The vehicle allocation information transmitting unit 30 transmits notification data including the driving route stored in the vehicle allocation plan database unit 34 by the driving route determining unit 25 to the user terminal 40 that requested the vehicle allocation as a determination notification of the vehicle 50 to be allocated.

The vehicle 50 has a vehicle position calculator 51 , a vehicle information transmitter 52 , a movement instruction receiver 53 , an automatic driving ECU (Electronic Control Unit, hereinafter the same) 54 and an information presentation device 55 .

The vehicle position calculation unit 51 and the automatic driving ECU 54 can be realized using a microcomputer having a CPU (central processing unit), memory, and input/output unit. A computer program for causing the microcomputer to function as the vehicle position calculation unit 51 and the automatic driving ECU 54 is installed in the microcomputer and executed. This allows the microcomputer to function as the vehicle position calculator 51 and the automatic driving ECU 54 .

Here, an example of realizing the vehicle position calculation unit 51 and the automatic driving ECU 54 by software is shown, but of course, dedicated hardware for executing each information processing is prepared, and the vehicle position calculation unit 51 and the automatic driving ECU 54 are prepared. It is also possible to configure Specialized hardware includes devices such as application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and conventional circuitry arranged to perform the functions described in the embodiments.

Note that the vehicle position calculation unit 51 and the automatic driving ECU 54 may be configured as different members, or of course, may be configured as one device. All or part of the vehicle position calculation unit 51 may be configured using an ECU mounted on the vehicle. This ECU may be the same ECU as the automatic driving ECU 54 or may be an ECU different from the automatic driving ECU 54 .

The vehicle position calculator 51 calculates the position of the vehicle 50 based on the position information. The position information of the vehicle 50 can be detected using, for example, the output of a GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) sensor.

The vehicle information transmission unit 52 transmits vehicle information to the server 20 . The vehicle information includes, for example, position information of the vehicle 50 calculated by the vehicle position calculation unit 51 and vacant seat information of the vehicle 50 . The vacant seat information is, for example, information representing the vacant or occupied status of each seat (not shown) that can be used by the user 41 of the vehicle 50 . The vacant seat information can be detected by a seat sensor (not shown) provided on each seat.

The movement instruction receiving unit 53 receives the travel route of the vehicle 50 transmitted by the movement instruction unit 28 of the server 20 . The automatic driving ECU 54 can automatically drive the vehicle 50 according to the travel route indicated by the movement instruction received by the movement instruction receiving unit 53 . The information presentation device 55 can display the travel route received by the movement instruction receiving unit 53 on the display for the passengers of the vehicle 50 to visually recognize. Occupants may include drivers who enter the vehicle 50 for driving assistance.

Next, an example of the procedure of the dispatched vehicle selection method executed by the server 20 will be described with reference to FIGS. 3A to 3C.

As shown in FIG. 3A, the user information receiving unit 29 of the server 20 receives vehicle allocation request data as a vehicle allocation request from the user terminal 40 (step S1). The waiting time calculator 22 of the server 20 executes an extraction step (step S3). In the extracting step, a plurality of candidate vehicles to be dispatched to the user 41 in the user information extracted from the dispatch request data received by the user information receiving unit 29 are extracted in descending order of waiting time at the boarding point of the user 41 . The congestion degree calculation unit 23 of the server 20 calculates the congestion degree of each vehicle 50 extracted as a candidate vehicle by the waiting time calculation unit 22 (step S5).

The allocated vehicle selection unit 24 performs allocation vehicle selection processing for selecting a vehicle 50 to be allocated to the user 41 from among the vehicles 50 extracted as candidate vehicles by the waiting time calculation unit 22 according to the selection rule (step S7). .

The selection rule compares the waiting time of the user 41 at the boarding point and the degree of congestion of the vehicle 50 between the first candidate vehicle and the other candidate vehicle, and selects one of the candidate vehicles from the comparison result. is selected as the vehicle 50 to be dispatched to the user 41 .

The basic idea of the selection rule can be illustrated, for example, by the graph of FIG. 4A. In this graph, the vertical axis represents the difference in waiting time calculated by the waiting time calculating unit 22, and the horizontal axis represents the difference in congestion degree calculated by the congestion degree calculating unit 23, for the two vehicles to be compared. FIG. 4A shows a case where the second candidate vehicle, which has the second shortest waiting time for the user 41 at the boarding point, is set as another vehicle candidate.

In the selection rule of FIG. 4A, the first candidate vehicle and the second candidate vehicle are selected depending on where on the graph of FIG. 4A the plot point corresponding to the comparison result of the first candidate vehicle and the second candidate vehicle exists. is selected as the vehicle 50 to be dispatched to the user 41 . The results of comparison between the first candidate vehicle and the second candidate vehicle are the difference in waiting time between the first candidate vehicle and the second candidate vehicle calculated by the waiting time calculation unit 22 and the second candidate vehicle calculated by the congestion degree calculation unit 23 . and the difference in the degree of congestion between the first candidate vehicle and the second candidate vehicle. When the points corresponding to the difference in waiting time and the difference in degree of congestion are plotted on the graph in FIG. 4A, if the plot points exist in the hatched area in FIG. 4A, the second candidate vehicle is selected and there is no hatching. If plot points exist in the region, the first candidate vehicle is selected.

The waiting time difference is the value of the time difference obtained by subtracting the waiting time of the first candidate vehicle with the shorter waiting time from the waiting time of the second candidate vehicle with the longer waiting time. The longer the waiting time of the second candidate vehicle is than the waiting time of the first candidate vehicle, the higher the position of the plot point corresponding to the difference in waiting times in the vertical axis direction.

The difference in congestion degree is ±0% when the congestion degree of the first candidate vehicle and the congestion degree of the second candidate vehicle are the same. When the congestion degree of the first candidate vehicle is 100% (full seats) and the congestion degree of the second candidate vehicle is 0% (all seats are vacant), the difference in congestion degree is +100%. If the congestion degree of the first candidate vehicle is 0% (all seats are vacant) and the congestion degree of the second candidate vehicle is 100% (full seats), the difference in congestion degree is -100%. The lower the congestion degree of the first candidate vehicle is than the congestion degree of the second candidate vehicle, the more the plot point is located on the left side (negative side) in the horizontal axis direction. As the degree of congestion of the first candidate vehicle becomes higher than the degree of congestion of the second candidate vehicle, the position of the plot point corresponding to the difference in the degree of congestion is shifted to the right side (plus side) in the horizontal axis direction.

In the selection rule of FIG. 4A, as the first threshold for the difference in congestion degree, a threshold value of 1 on the positive side of ± 0% is set. The first candidate vehicle is selected regardless of the magnitude of . In the selection rule of FIG. 4A, a threshold 2 is set on the vertical axis as the second threshold for the waiting time difference, and when the difference in congestion degree is the threshold 1 or more, the waiting time difference is the threshold 2 or less. If so, the second candidate vehicle is selected, and if the threshold value 2 is exceeded, the first candidate vehicle is selected.

Although the threshold 2 is a fixed value in the selection rule of FIG. 4A, the threshold 2 may be a variable value that changes according to the difference in congestion degree. The graph of FIG. 4B shows an example of a selection rule in which the threshold value 2 is a variable value that changes according to the difference in congestion degree. Threshold 2 in the example of FIG. 4B is a variable value that increases as the difference in the degree of congestion increases over threshold 1 . If the threshold 2 in FIG. 4B is used as the selection rule, when the difference in the degree of congestion between the first candidate vehicle and the second candidate vehicle is equal to or greater than the threshold 1, the dispatched vehicle selection unit 24 selects , the second candidate vehicle is selected even if the waiting time difference is large.

In the selection rule of the example of FIG. 4B, a limit waiting time is set in addition to the threshold value 2 with respect to the waiting time difference. If the waiting time difference is greater than or equal to the limit waiting time, the first candidate vehicle is selected even if the congestion degree difference is greater than or equal to the threshold value 1. When the waiting time limit is used as the selection rule, if the waiting time between the first candidate vehicle and the second candidate vehicle is equal to or greater than the waiting time limit, the dispatched vehicle selection unit 24 determines whether the difference in the degree of congestion is equal to or greater than the threshold value of 1. However, the first candidate vehicle is selected. Whether or not to set the limit waiting time for the difference in waiting time can be determined based on the result of determination by the user attribute determination unit 21 based on the user attribute, for example.

In the selection rule of the example of FIG. 4B, the threshold 2 regarding the waiting time difference is a variable value that increases between zero and the limit waiting time when the congestion degree difference increases to the threshold 1 or more. The range in which the value of threshold 2 changes is not limited to the example in FIG. 4B.

For example, as in the example of FIG. 4C, when the difference in congestion degree increases to threshold 1 or more, the threshold 2 for the difference in waiting time is set from time a (a>0) to the limit waiting time longer than time a. It may be a variable value that increases with Using the selection rule in the example of FIG. 4C, when the difference in the degree of congestion is equal to or greater than the threshold value 1, the dispatched vehicle selection unit 24 selects the first Two candidate vehicles will be selected.

For example, as in the example of FIG. 4D, the threshold 2 for the waiting time difference is set between zero and the limit waiting time as the congestion degree difference increases between the threshold 1 and b% (b>0). A variable value that increases in value may be used. In the example of FIG. 4D, when the difference in the congestion degree that is equal to or greater than the threshold value 1 exceeds b%, the value of the threshold value 2, which was a variable value equal to or less than the limit waiting time at the difference in the congestion degree of b% or less, becomes the limit waiting time. It becomes a fixed value that does not change with time. Using the selection rule in the example of FIG. 4D, when the difference in the degree of congestion is equal to or greater than the threshold value 1, the dispatched vehicle selection unit 24 determines that the difference in the degree of congestion is The first candidate vehicle with a high degree of congestion is selected no matter how large it is.

The contents of the threshold 1 and threshold 2 described above may be changed according to the determination result input from the user attribute determining section 21 . For example, when the judgment result of the user attribute judging unit 21 indicates that there is a tendency to place importance on time reduction rather than comfort in the vehicle 50, threshold values 1 and 2 are set so that the selection rule of the example in FIG. 4D is applied. may be set. For example, when the judgment result of the user attribute judging unit 21 indicates that there is a tendency to emphasize the degree of comfort inside the vehicle 50 rather than shortening the time, the threshold 1 and the threshold 2 are set so that the selection rule of the example in FIG. 4C is applied. may be set. The content of the threshold 2 may be set according to the content of the set threshold 1 after setting the content of the threshold 1 according to the determination result of the user attribute determination unit 21, for example.

In the selection rules according to the examples of FIGS. 4A to 4D described above, the plotted points corresponding to the difference in waiting time and the difference in degree of congestion between the first candidate vehicle and the second candidate vehicle are within the hatched area in the graph. , the predetermined condition is satisfied. When the predetermined condition is satisfied, the second candidate vehicle is selected as the vehicle 50 to be dispatched to the user 41 .

The dispatched vehicle selection process in step S7 of FIG. 3A can be performed, for example, by the procedure shown in the example of FIG. 3B. Based on the determination result of the user attribute determination unit 21, the dispatched vehicle selection unit 24 calculates a value corresponding to the content of the user attribute for the threshold value 1 regarding the difference in the degree of congestion (step S71). For example, in the case of a user such as an elderly person who is judged to have a high risk of aggravation when infected with a virus, the threshold value 1 may be set to a small value. Along with setting the threshold 1, or instead of setting the threshold 1, the limit waiting time in the selection rules of FIGS. 4B to 4D may be set to a longer time.

The dispatched vehicle selection unit 24 executes a determination step as a determination unit (step S72). In the determination step, it is determined whether or not the degree of congestion of the first candidate vehicle is higher than the degree of congestion of the second candidate vehicle by a threshold value of 1 or more.

If the difference in the degree of congestion between the first candidate vehicle and the second candidate vehicle is not equal to or greater than the threshold value 1 (NO in step S72), the process proceeds to step S75, which will be described later. If the difference in the degree of congestion is equal to or greater than threshold 1 (YES in step S72), the dispatched vehicle selection unit 24 calculates the value of threshold 2 regarding the difference in waiting time according to the difference in the degree of congestion calculated in step S71. (step S73). Calculation of threshold 2 in step S73 may include changing the calculated threshold 2 according to the determination result of user attribute determination unit 21 . When the threshold 2 includes a variable value, the dispatched vehicle selection unit 24 may set a mathematical expression or the like that defines the value of the threshold 2. Threshold 2 in the selection rules of FIGS. 4B to 4D for setting the limit waiting time is, for example, threshold 2=limit waiting time×{(congestion degree difference−threshold 1)/(100−threshold 1)}. A value of 2 can be set.

The dispatched vehicle selection unit 24 confirms whether or not the difference in waiting time between the first candidate vehicle and the second candidate vehicle is equal to or less than threshold 2 (step S74). If the wait time difference is not equal to or less than threshold 2 (NO in step S74), the process proceeds to step S75. In step S<b>75 , the dispatched vehicle selection unit 24 selects the first candidate vehicle with the shortest waiting time as the vehicle 50 to be dispatched to the user 41 as a selection step.

If the waiting time difference is equal to or less than the threshold value 2 (YES in step S74 in FIG. 3B), the dispatched vehicle selection unit 24 executes an operation control step (step S76). In the operation control step, the dispatched vehicle selection unit 24 generates a travel route including a movement instruction for a second candidate vehicle with a long waiting time to overtake a first candidate vehicle with a short waiting time.

The generated travel route is read from the vehicle allocation plan database unit 34 by the movement instruction unit 28 after the second candidate vehicle is determined as the vehicle 50 to be allocated to the user 41 . The movement instruction unit 28 generates a movement instruction according to the read travel route, and transmits the movement instruction to the movement instruction reception unit 53 of the second candidate vehicle. In the second candidate vehicle, the automatic driving ECU 54 automatically drives the second candidate vehicle so as to overtake the first candidate vehicle according to the travel route indicated by the movement instruction received by the movement instruction receiving unit 53 .

The dispatched vehicle selection unit 24 can control the operation of the second candidate vehicle so as to overtake the first candidate vehicle by generating a travel route including a movement instruction for the second candidate vehicle to overtake the first candidate vehicle. .

After the operation control step, the dispatched vehicle selection unit 24 selects the second candidate vehicle with the second shortest waiting time as the vehicle 50 to be dispatched to the user 41 as a selection step (step S77). The dispatched vehicle selection process of S7 is terminated. The operation control step (step S76) in FIG. 3B may be omitted.

In step S<b>9 , the travel route determination unit 25 and the user adjustment unit 26 perform allocation vehicle determination processing for determining the vehicle 50 to be allocated to the user 41 . The dispatched vehicle determination process can be performed, for example, by the procedure shown in the example of FIG. 3C. The user adjustment unit 26 executes a presentation step (step S91). In the presentation step, the user adjustment unit 26 executes a process of presenting to the user 41 information on the allocation candidate vehicles 50 extracted by the waiting time calculation unit 22 as selection candidates for allocation vehicles. In this process, for example, information data of the vehicle allocation candidate vehicles 50 indicating the vehicle 50 selected by the vehicle allocation selection unit 24 and the vehicle 50 not selected is transmitted to the user terminal 40, and the content of the travel route is transmitted to the user terminal 40. 40 can be executed by displaying on a display (not shown).

The travel route determination unit 25 confirms whether or not the user adjustment unit 26 has received the selection data of the vehicle 50 to be dispatched by the user 41 (step S93). If the user adjustment unit 26 has not received the selection data (NO in step S93), step S93 is repeated until the selection data is received. If received (YES in step S93), the travel route determination unit 25 executes a determination step (step S95). In the determination step, the travel route determination unit 25 determines the vehicle 50 selected by the user 41 in the selection data received by the user adjustment unit 26 as the vehicle 50 to be dispatched to the user 41 . After confirming the vehicle 50 to be dispatched to the user 41, the dispatched vehicle determination process in step S9 of FIG. 3A ends.

As described above, in this embodiment, in response to a vehicle allocation request from the user 41, the waiting time calculation unit 22 selects a plurality of candidate vehicles to be allocated to the user 41 in descending order of the waiting time of the user 41 at the boarding point. Vehicle 50 is extracted. If the degree of congestion of the first candidate vehicle with the shortest waiting time is greater than or equal to threshold 1 than the degree of congestion of other candidate vehicles with the second and subsequent waiting times, the wait between the first candidate vehicle and the other candidate vehicles is determined. One of the candidate vehicles is selected as the vehicle 50 to be dispatched to the user 41 in consideration of the time difference.

In this embodiment, by considering the difference in waiting time, for example, if the difference in waiting time is greater than threshold 2, the first candidate vehicle with short waiting time even if the degree of congestion is high is selected. is small, it is possible to select another candidate vehicle with a low degree of congestion even if the waiting time is long. The server 20 of the present embodiment can select a dispatched vehicle for the demand-based transportation system 10 in consideration of the degree of congestion of the vehicles 50 .

In the present embodiment, the threshold 2 is a variable value that increases as the difference in the degree of congestion greater than or equal to the threshold 1 increases, as in the selection rules of FIGS. 4B and 4D. By setting the threshold value 2 to such a variable value, the vehicle 50 with a low congestion degree can be more likely to be dispatched even if the waiting time becomes longer as the difference in the congestion degree becomes larger.

Threshold 1 and threshold 2 of the present embodiment may be changed to contents corresponding to the contents of the user attribute based on the determination result of the user attribute determination unit 21 . If the contents of the threshold 1 and the threshold 2 are changed according to the contents of the user attributes, for example, even if importance is placed on whether comfort or time reduction in the vehicle 50 is different depending on attributes, the vehicle 50 can be selected. Vulnerability can be changed according to attributes. Only one of the contents of the threshold 1 and the threshold 2 may be changed according to the contents of the user attribute. In the dispatched vehicle selection process of FIG. 3B, only the threshold value 1 is changed according to the content of the user attribute.

The congestion degree calculation unit 23 may calculate a difference in congestion degree between the first candidate vehicle and other candidate vehicles from the expected congestion degree when the user 41 gets on the vehicle. By calculating the difference in the degree of congestion from the expected congestion degree at the time of boarding, it is possible to select an allocated vehicle by considering the difference in the degree of congestion at the time of boarding rather than the difference in the degree of congestion at the time of calculating the difference in the degree of congestion. can be done.

In this embodiment, the candidate vehicles selected by the dispatched vehicle selection unit 24 and the candidate vehicles not selected are notified to the user terminal 40, and the candidate vehicle selected by the user 41 is determined as the vehicle 50 to be dispatched to the user 41. made it By determining the dispatch vehicle through the selection of the user 41, the first candidate vehicle with the shortest waiting time and other candidate vehicles considering the difference in the degree of congestion are proposed to the user 41 and selected. be able to.

In this embodiment, when other candidate vehicles than the first candidate vehicle are selected as the vehicle 50 to be allocated to the user 41, the allocated vehicle selection unit 24 selects the second candidate vehicle with the long waiting time as the second candidate vehicle with the short waiting time. 1 Generate a driving route including a movement instruction to overtake the candidate vehicle. After another vehicle candidate has determined the vehicle 50 to be dispatched to the user 41, the travel route including such a movement instruction is used when the other candidate vehicle travels. The operation of other candidate vehicles is controlled so as to overtake the first candidate vehicle at . With this control, it is possible to cause other candidate vehicles with a low degree of congestion to arrive at the boarding point of the user 41 earlier than the preceding first candidate vehicle.

Note that the above-described embodiment is an example of the present invention. For this reason, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and even if it is a form other than this embodiment, as long as it does not deviate from the technical idea according to the present invention, according to design etc. Of course, various modifications are possible.

10 demand-type traffic system 20 server 21 user attribute determination unit 22 waiting time calculation unit 23 congestion degree calculation unit 24 dispatched vehicle selection unit 25 travel route determination unit 26 user adjustment unit 35 dispatched vehicle selection device 40 user terminal 41 user 50, 56, 57 vehicle 60 patrol route 67 boarding point

Claims (7)

At least a first candidate vehicle with the shortest waiting time and a second candidate vehicle with the second shortest waiting time at the user's boarding point determined from an operation plan in demand-type traffic, in response to a dispatch request from the user. an extracting step of extracting a plurality of candidate vehicles with short waiting times;
a determination step of determining whether or not the degree of congestion of the first candidate vehicle is higher than the degree of congestion of candidate vehicles other than the first candidate vehicle among the plurality of candidate vehicles by a first threshold or more;
It is determined that the degree of congestion of the first candidate vehicle is higher than the degree of congestion of the other candidate vehicle by the first threshold value or more, and the waiting time of the first candidate vehicle and the waiting time of the other candidate vehicle. When the predetermined condition is satisfied by the time difference between the second candidate vehicle and A selection step for selecting as a dispatched vehicle;
A dispatch vehicle selection method for a demand-type transportation system, including The second threshold is a variable value that increases as the difference between the degree of congestion of the first candidate vehicle, which is higher than the degree of congestion of the other candidate vehicles by the first threshold or more, and the degree of congestion of the other candidate vehicles increases. The dispatch vehicle selection method for a demand-type transportation system according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The method of selecting a dispatched vehicle for a demand-based transportation system according to claim 1, wherein at least one of said first threshold and said second threshold is a variable value that is changed according to an attribute of said user who has requested said dispatch. . The dispatched vehicle selection method for a demand-based transportation system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the degree of congestion is an expected degree of congestion at the time of boarding of the user who requested the dispatch, which is calculated from the operation plan. a presentation step of presenting the other candidate vehicle and the first candidate vehicle selected in the selection step to the user as selection candidates for the dispatched vehicle; and a candidate selected by the user from the presented selection candidates. The dispatched vehicle selection method for a demand-based transportation system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising a confirmation step of confirming a vehicle as the dispatched vehicle. 2. An operation control step of controlling operation of said other candidate vehicle so as to overtake said first candidate vehicle on the operation route of said operation plan when said other candidate vehicle is selected as a dispatched vehicle. 6. The method for selecting a dispatched vehicle for a demand-type transportation system according to any one of 1 to 5. At least a first candidate vehicle with the shortest waiting time and a second candidate vehicle with the second shortest waiting time at the user's boarding point determined from an operation plan in demand-type traffic, in response to a dispatch request from the user. an extracting unit that extracts a plurality of candidate vehicles with short waiting times,
a determination unit that determines whether the degree of congestion of the first candidate vehicle is higher than the degree of congestion of candidate vehicles other than the first candidate vehicle among the plurality of candidate vehicles by a first threshold or more;
It is determined that the degree of congestion of the first candidate vehicle is higher than the degree of congestion of the other candidate vehicle by the first threshold value or more, and the waiting time of the first candidate vehicle and the waiting time of the other candidate vehicle. When the predetermined condition is satisfied by the time difference between the second candidate vehicle and A selection unit that selects as a dispatched vehicle;
A dispatch vehicle selection device for a demand-type transportation system.

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