JP7336110B2 - Optimal route determination device and optimal route determination program - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an optimum route determination device and an optimum route determination program for appropriately recalculating an optimum route when a change occurs in the operation based on route information once determined and adopted.

Conventionally, in the field of "combinatorial optimization," research has mainly focused on "modeling real-world problems into combinatorial optimization problems" and "devising solutions to certain combinatorial optimization problems." Among combinatorial optimization problems, there is a problem called "vehicle routing problem (VRP)". This is the length of the route in the vehicle's route (order of orders) such that every order is visited exactly once by any vehicle when multiple vehicles and multiple orders are entered. The problem is to find the one that minimizes the sum of Over the decades, many problems have been proposed that incorporate constraints that appear in reality for VRP, and approximate solution methods for them have also been studied at the same time.
In addition, there is a problem called "PDP: pickup and delivery problem" as a generalized problem of VRP. When multiple sets of visiting destinations for loading and unloading of cargo are entered, the same vehicle visits each destination for each pair, and after loading and unloading, the order is followed. The problem is to find the vehicle route that minimizes the sum of route lengths such that every destination is visited exactly once by any vehicle. Similar to VRP, a number of PDP problems that incorporate constraints that appear in reality have been proposed, and approximate solution methods for them have been studied at the same time.

For example, Patent Literature 1 describes a delivery plan determined by a grouping process that assigns delivery destinations to each vehicle and a route optimization process that determines the order in which vehicles travel through the delivery destination groups determined by the grouping. A technique is disclosed in which a plurality of delivery plans are generated using the grouping strategy of (1) and the optimum delivery plan is selected from among them.

JP-A-2001-188984

By the way, after determining the optimal route for the delivery plan by solving the VRP and PDP, the situation may change from the initial plan while the service is being executed based on the determined route information. When the situation changes, it is preferable to be able to flexibly recalculate according to the changed situation. The process of solving the order and the optimum route by VRP and PDP requires considerably complicated calculations, so it is assumed that the calculation time will not be short. On the other hand, the worker who is executing the service continues to proceed with the service even if the situation changes. was obtained, there was a problem that the situation may have changed further.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and is an optimum route determination apparatus capable of appropriately recalculating an optimum route when a change occurs in the operation based on the route information once decided and adopted. and to provide an optimum route determination program.

An optimal route determination device according to the present invention is an optimal route determination device for recalculating the optimal route for movement of at least one or more vehicles continuously processing a plurality of services each performed at a different point. , a service specifying information acquisition unit for acquiring service specifying information including information on execution points of each of the plurality of incomplete services; and a hired route information acquiring unit for acquiring hired route information currently employed by each of the vehicles. a vehicle position information acquisition unit for acquiring position information of each of the vehicles; and a destination arrival time estimation unit for estimating a destination arrival time, which is a predicted arrival time to the next destination, for each of the vehicles. a predicted stay time acquisition unit that acquires a predicted stay time at the next destination of each of the vehicles; and a recalculation start point time for each of the vehicles based on the destination arrival time and the predicted stay time. and a recalculation start time calculation unit that calculates the location of the next destination of each of the vehicles and the recalculation start time at that destination as a starting point, and after using the adopted route information as an initial solution, and an optimum route recalculation unit that determines the execution order of the plurality of services to be executed by at least one or more of the vehicles and recalculates the optimum route when executing the execution order.

Further, the optimum route determination apparatus according to the present invention is characterized in that the recalculation start point time is set to a time after a predetermined time or more from the time at which recalculation is started in the optimum route recalculation unit. .

Further, in the optimum route determination device according to the present invention, the optimum route recalculation unit calculates an improved optimum route using the adopted route information as an initial solution by a local search method, a greedy method, or a combination thereof. characterized by

An optimum route determination program according to the present invention is an optimum route determination program for causing a computer to realize a process of recalculating an optimum route for movement of at least one or more vehicles that continuously process a plurality of services each of which is performed at a different point. A route determination program, wherein the computer has a service-specific information acquisition function for acquiring service-specific information including information on execution points of each of the plurality of services that have not been completed, and a currently employed service in each of the vehicles. Adopted route information acquisition function for acquiring route information; Vehicle position information acquisition function for acquiring position information of each of said vehicles; a destination arrival time estimation function for estimating time; a predicted stay time acquisition function for obtaining a predicted stay time at a next destination for each of said vehicles; a recalculation start time calculation function for calculating a recalculation start time based on the length of stay, and a location of the next destination of each of the vehicles and the recalculation start time at that destination as a starting point, and Optimal route recalculation for determining the order of execution of the plurality of services to be executed by at least one vehicle based on route information as an initial solution, and recalculating the optimum route when executing the order of execution. It is characterized by realizing the function.

According to the present invention, the time at which each vehicle is predicted to reach the next destination and end the stay at the destination is set as the recalculation start time, and the position of the destination and the recalculation start time are used as starting points. Since recalculation is performed, it is possible to set the estimated work completion time at the destination where it is expected to stay at that location with a high probability as the starting point of recalculation, and the optimal route after recalculation can be set. When applied to a vehicle, it is possible to smoothly apply the optimal route after recalculation with little possibility of divergence between the calculated content and the actual vehicle situation.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an entire system for realizing an optimum route determination device according to the present invention; FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a configuration of an optimum route determination device (server device) 10 according to the present invention; FIG. FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the flow of optimum route recalculation processing in the optimum route determination device 10 according to the present invention;

[First embodiment]
An example of the optimum route determination device according to the first embodiment will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the entire system for realizing the optimum route determination device according to the present invention. Although the optimum route determination device 10 may be a device designed as a dedicated machine, it can be realized by a general computer or server device. In this case, the optimum route determination device 10 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), a memory , a hard disk drive, etc. (not shown). Needless to say, various processes are executed by a program in order to make these general computers and server devices function as the optimum route determination device 10 of this example.

As shown in FIG. 1, the configuration of the entire system for realizing the optimum route determination device includes a server device 10 and service executor terminals 201 to 20n (hereinafter collectively referred to as service executor terminal 20). ) and headquarters terminal 30 are configured to be mutually connectable via communication network 40 . Among them, the case where the server device 10 functions as the optimum route determination device 10 of this example will be described as an example. Each of the service executor terminals 201 to 20n may function as the optimum route determination device.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the configuration of the optimum route determination device (server device) 10 according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the optimum route determination device 10 includes a service identification information acquisition unit 11, a adopted route information acquisition unit 12, a vehicle position information acquisition unit 13, a destination arrival time estimation unit 14, a predicted stay At least a time acquisition unit 15 , a recalculation start point time calculation unit 16 , an optimum route recalculation unit 17 , and a storage unit 18 are provided.

The service identification information acquisition unit 11 has a function of acquiring service identification information including information on execution points of each of a plurality of incomplete services. Here, in this example, the term "service" refers to a segmented unit of work that needs to be performed while a moving body such as a vehicle is stopped (stopped). Further, the service specifying information means information necessary for specifying the contents of the service to be executed. Also, the execution point is the position where the service is executed. At least one or more services that constitute a job each have an execution point, and information on the execution point can be said to be one piece of service specifying information. Further, as the service specifying information, various information such as the client's personal information and the specific content information of the service can be considered. The service-specific information acquired by the service-specific information acquisition unit 11 is acquired not only for incomplete services, but also for completed services in order to grasp the overall progress. Do not interfere.

For the services managed based on the optimum route determination device 10 of this example, a status management table for managing the status of a job, which is composed of at least one or more related services, is created according to changes in the status of the job. You may make it manage by the method of updating. Here, a job refers to a task composed of at least one or more related services. As an example, if a job is to pick up a package at a certain point and deliver it to another point, the job consists of a pickup service and a delivery service. The state management table is a table for managing job states. Taking the case of considering a delivery operation as a job, the job statuses are (A) before loading on a vehicle (scheduled to be loaded in this plan), (B) before loading on a vehicle (not scheduled to be loaded in this plan), ( C) Before unloading from the vehicle (planned to be unloaded in this plan), (D) Before unloading from the vehicle (not planned to be unloaded in this plan), (E) After unloading from the vehicle. The job status may be managed by a combination of two plans, (F) with assigned vehicle and (G) with no assigned vehicle. Here, the main plan means an initial plan planned in advance before the vehicle departs. On the other hand, the plan may be changed on the way, and the plan after the change shall be expressed as the current plan. The status management table may be updated by any means as long as the job status can be managed. A configuration is conceivable in which the status management table is updated by transmitting job status information input to the user terminal 20 to the optimum route determination device (server device) 10 via the communication network 40 . Such a configuration facilitates identification of incomplete services.

The employed route information acquisition unit 12 has a function of acquiring employed route information currently employed by each of at least one or more vehicles. Here, the adopted route information means optimum route information currently being adopted by each vehicle. Each vehicle executes each service based on the execution order and route information indicated by the adopted route information. The adopted route information may be an optimum route obtained by enabling the optimum route determination device 10 of this example to determine an optimum route as an initial solution, or an optimum route determined by another device. It may be a route. Further, the adopted route information may be determined by the same algorithm as the algorithm for recalculating the optimal route in the optimal route determination device 10 of this example, or may be determined by a different algorithm. There may be. The adopted route information may be anything as long as it includes the details of service allocation to each vehicle in a predetermined time frame, the order of service execution in each vehicle, and information on the optimum route.

The vehicle position information acquisition unit 13 has a function of acquiring vehicle position information indicating the current position of the vehicle used by the service executor. Any means may be used as long as the vehicle position information can be obtained. For example, the GPS information of the vehicle may be obtained.

The destination arrival time estimating unit 14 has a function of estimating the destination arrival time, which is the predicted arrival time to the next destination, for each vehicle. Any means may be used as long as the arrival time to the next destination for each vehicle can be estimated. For example, an estimation algorithm employed in a car navigation system can be employed. A destination arrival time is estimated using road traffic information such as the average moving speed of roads and VICS (Vehicle Information and Communication System: registered trademark). When presenting information indicating how many minutes it will take to arrive at the destination, it can be expressed as "destination arrival time", and when presenting information indicating what time and minute it will arrive at the destination, "arrival at destination Time", and these are information representing substantially the same contents only with a difference in expression format.

The predicted stay time acquisition unit 15 has a function of acquiring the predicted stay time of each vehicle at the next destination. Here, the predicted staying time means the predicted staying time from arrival at the destination to departure of the vehicle. It may be based on any means as long as it predicts the predicted stay time. Based on the input history of the start and end of work for each destination, it is a means to predict based on the history information of the past stay time for each destination. Various predictions of staying time are assumed, such as predicting from the conditions of the building at the destination, such as predicting for a long time.

The recalculation start time calculation unit 16 has a function of calculating the recalculation start time based on the destination arrival time and the predicted stay time for each vehicle. Here, the recalculation start point time is the time set as the starting point of the vehicle when executing the recalculation, and means the time when the prediction error of the vehicle position is sufficiently small. Specifically, the addition of the destination arrival time and the estimated stay time to the current time can be said to be the time at which the vehicle can depart for the next destination. It is preferably calculated based on the time, arrival time at the destination, and predicted stay time. The recalculation start time does not necessarily have to match the current time plus the arrival time at the destination and the predicted stay time. may For example, it is possible to set the recalculation start time with a little leeway in consideration of the burden on the driver due to a change in the plan, or conversely, in anticipation that the work will end earlier than the estimated stay time, You may make it set so that recalculation start point time may be advanced.

Further, it is preferable that the recalculation start point time is set to a time after a predetermined time or more from the time when the optimum route recalculation unit 17 starts recalculation. If it takes about 10 minutes on average for recalculation in the optimum route recalculation unit 17, it is preferable that the recalculation start time is 10 minutes or more after the recalculation start time. In other words, compare the recalculation start time with the current time plus the recalculation required time, and if the recalculation start time arrives earlier than the current time, set the recalculation start time again. good too. At this time, if the difference between the current time plus the recalculation required time and the recalculation start time is within a predetermined range (for example, within 3 minutes), even if the recalculation start time is earlier The recalculation start point time may be adopted. In that case, it is conceivable to issue an instruction to the relevant vehicle to wait until it receives the changed route information after completing the work at the next destination. Note that the required recalculation time varies depending on the environment and is appropriately set, but it is conceivable that it is set to a value of, for example, 1 second to 30 minutes.

The recalculation start time calculated in this way is said to be a different recalculation start time for each vehicle because the destination arrival time differs for each vehicle. That is, the time at which application of the finally recalculated optimum route is started will also be different for each vehicle.

The optimum route recalculation unit 17 uses the location of each next destination of each vehicle and the recalculation start time at the destination as a starting point, and uses the adopted route information as an initial solution, and calculates at least one or more vehicles. It has a function of determining the order of execution of a plurality of services to be executed and recalculating the optimum route when executing the order of execution. In this optimum route recalculation unit 17, first, the position information of the destination of the service currently being executed by each vehicle, the service identification information of the incomplete service that each vehicle has not yet completed, the recalculation start time information, Acquire recruitment path information. At that time, if the situation changes, such as when a service is suddenly added, or when it is expected that it will be difficult to complete the assigned service due to the poor progress of a particular vehicle, etc. perform calculations. The recalculation is performed based on known algorithms for solving the delivery planning problem, such as the local search method, the greedy method, and metaheuristics combining them, after using the adopted route information as an initial solution. By using the adopted path information as an initial solution and using an algorithm such as a local search method that sequentially improves the solution, it is expected that the calculation speed will be increased compared to the case where the calculation is performed from scratch. The optimal route information obtained by recalculation includes information on the combination of services assigned to each vehicle, the order of execution, and the optimal route. Execute the service based on the recalculated optimal route with the next destination as the starting point.

In addition, in the optimum route recalculation unit 17, in order to calculate the total cost value required for movement on each candidate route, cost information about each element of the road such as road width, signal length, and number of lanes is obtained. may be used to determine the optimum route. Also, the calculation of the movement distance and the calculation of the cost value are performed for all the routes. A route with a short travel distance and a small cost value is determined as the optimum route. It is possible to appropriately set how the travel distance evaluation and the cost value evaluation are adopted to determine the optimum route. The recalculated optimal route is transmitted to the service executor terminal 20 and/or the headquarters terminal 30 via the communication network 40 .

The storage unit 18 has a function of storing data necessary for various processes performed in the optimum route determination device 10 and data obtained as a result of the processes.

Next, the flow of optimum route recalculation processing in the optimum route determination device 10 according to the present invention will be described. FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the flow of optimum route recalculation processing in the optimum route determination device 10 according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3, the optimum route recalculation process in the optimum route determination device 10 is started by acquiring service identification information in the optimum route determination device 10 (step S101). Next, the optimum route determination device 10 acquires adopted route information (step S102). Next, the optimum route determination device 10 acquires vehicle position information (step S103). Next, the optimum route determination device 10 estimates the destination arrival time for each vehicle (step S104). Next, the optimum route determination device 10 acquires the estimated staying time of each vehicle at the destination (step S105). Next, the optimum route determination device 10 estimates the recalculation start time for each vehicle (step S106). Then, the optimum route determination device 10 uses the location of each destination of the vehicle and the recalculation start time as the starting point, and after using the adopted route information as the initial solution, recalculates and outputs the optimum route (step S107 ), ending the optimum route recalculation process.

As described above, according to the optimum route determination device according to the present example, the service identification information acquiring unit for acquiring the service identification information including information on the execution points of each of a plurality of incomplete services, and the currently employed in each vehicle. a hired route information acquisition unit that acquires hired route information, a vehicle position information acquisition unit that acquires position information of each vehicle, and a destination that is the predicted arrival time to the next destination for each vehicle A destination arrival time estimating unit for estimating the arrival time, a predicted stay time acquisition unit for acquiring the predicted stay time at the next destination of each vehicle, and the destination arrival time and the predicted stay time for each vehicle. and a recalculation start time calculation unit that calculates the recalculation start time based on the location of each next destination of the vehicle and the recalculation start time at that destination as the starting point, and the adopted route information as the initial solution and an optimum route recalculation unit that determines the execution order of a plurality of services to be executed by at least one or more vehicles and recalculates the optimum route when executing the execution order. , the time at which each vehicle is expected to reach the next destination and end its stay at the destination is set as the recalculation start time, and the recalculation is performed using the position of that destination and the recalculation start time as the starting point. Therefore, it is possible to set the estimated work completion time at the destination where it is expected to stay at that location with a high probability as the starting point for recalculation. In addition, it is possible to smoothly apply the optimum route after recalculation with little possibility of divergence between the calculation content and the actual vehicle condition.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. This applies not only to home delivery services, but also to wholesale business to stores, maintenance of vending machines, home-visit medical care/home-visit nursing care, shared taxis, etc. applicable to In addition, it can be applied to autonomous driving robots as well as vehicles driven by humans. For example, a wide range of applications are possible, such as route optimization for AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicles) in factories and automatic cleaning robots at home.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and various configurations or embodiments can be adopted without departing from the gist of the present invention.

10 server device (optimal route determination device)
REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 11 service identification information acquisition unit 12 adoption route information acquisition unit 13 vehicle position information acquisition unit 14 destination arrival time estimation unit 15 predicted stay time acquisition unit 16 recalculation start point time calculation unit 17 optimum route recalculation unit 18 storage unit 20 , 201 ~20n Service executor terminal 30 headquarters terminal 40 communication network

Claims (4)

1. An optimal route determination apparatus for recalculating optimal routes for travel of a plurality of vehicles sequentially processing a plurality of services each performed at a different point, comprising:
a service-specific information acquisition unit that acquires service-specific information including information on execution points of each of the plurality of incomplete services;
a hired route information acquisition unit that acquires hired route information currently employed by each of the vehicles;
a vehicle position information acquisition unit that acquires position information of each of the vehicles;
a destination arrival time estimating unit for estimating a destination arrival time, which is a predicted arrival time to the next destination, for each of the vehicles;
a predicted stay time obtaining unit for obtaining a predicted stay time at the next destination of each of the vehicles;
a recalculation start time calculation unit that calculates a recalculation start time based on the destination arrival time and the predicted stay time for each of the vehicles;
obtaining information about a change of circumstances that has occurred for said plurality of services, including the addition or cancellation of services, and/or information about a change of circumstances that has occurred for said vehicle, and the location of the next destination of each of said vehicles and its destination; starting from the recalculation start time and using the adopted route information as an initial solution, the combination of the plurality of services allocated to each of the plurality of vehicles under changed circumstances and the above-mentioned for each vehicle An optimum route determination device, comprising: an optimum route recalculation unit that decides the execution order of a plurality of services and recalculates the optimum route when executing the execution order. 2. The optimum route determination device according to claim 1, wherein the recalculation start time is set to a time after a predetermined time or more from the time when the optimum route recalculation unit starts recalculation. 3. The optimum route determination device according to claim 1, wherein the optimum route recalculation unit calculates an improved optimum route by using the adopted route information as an initial solution and using a local search method, a greedy method, or a combination thereof. An optimum route determination program for causing a computer to realize a process of recalculating an optimum route for movement of a plurality of vehicles continuously processing a plurality of services each performed at a different point,
to the computer;
a service-specific information acquisition function for acquiring service-specific information including execution point information for each of the plurality of incomplete services;
a adopted route information acquisition function for acquiring adopted route information currently adopted by each of the vehicles;
A vehicle position information acquisition function for acquiring position information of each of the vehicles;
A destination arrival time estimation function for estimating a destination arrival time, which is a predicted arrival time to the next destination, for each of the vehicles;
a predicted stay time acquisition function for obtaining a predicted stay time at each next destination of the vehicle;
a recalculation start time calculation function for calculating a recalculation start time based on the destination arrival time and the predicted stay time for each of the vehicles;
obtaining information about a change of circumstances that has occurred for said plurality of services, including the addition or cancellation of services, and/or information about a change of circumstances that has occurred for said vehicle, and the location of the next destination of each of said vehicles and its destination; starting from the recalculation start time and using the adopted route information as an initial solution, the combination of the plurality of services allocated to each of the plurality of vehicles under changed circumstances and the above-mentioned for each vehicle An optimum route determination program for realizing an optimum route recalculation function that determines the execution order of a plurality of services and recalculates the optimum route when executing the execution order.

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