Multi-heatmap

Abstract

To provide a control apparatus and a program for optimizing services of multiple companies by using integrated heat maps of the companies.SOLUTION: In a system 10, a management server 100 serving as a control apparatus includes: an information acquisition unit which collects heat maps related to vehicle management from companies; and a control execution unit which executes control related to allocation of vehicles, using heat maps of at least two companies associated with regions of delivery destinations of vehicles 200, the heat maps being acquired by the information acquisition unit. The control execution unit uses the heat maps of the at least two companies to adjust a load concentrated in a specific area in the heat maps, or prepares a vehicle in a specific area where the load is concentrated in a peak time on a heat map of one company out of the heat maps of the at least two companies, and allocates the vehicle to the specific area on a heat map of the other company.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a multi-heat map.

Background Art

[0002] Patent Document 1 describes a vehicle having an automatic driving function. [Prior Art Document] [Patent Document] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2022-035198

Summary of the Invention

Means for Solving the Problems

[0003] According to an embodiment of the present invention, a control device is provided. The control device may include an information acquisition unit that collects heat maps from each company. The control device may include a control execution unit that executes control using at least two heat maps acquired by the information acquisition unit.

[0004] In the control device, the heat map may be related to vehicle management, and the control execution unit may execute control related to vehicle allocation using the at least two heat maps. The heat map may be related to the area of the delivery destination by the vehicle, and the control execution unit may adjust the load concentrated in a specific area within the heat map using the at least two heat maps. The heat map may be related to the area of the delivery destination by the vehicle, and the control execution unit may arrange vehicles in advance in a specific area where the load concentrates at the peak time in the heat map of the first company from the at least two heat maps, and allocate the vehicles to a specific area on the heat map of another company. The heat map of each company is a heat map used by each company for vehicle allocation, and may include at least any one of the position of the delivery source of the delivery target, the position of the delivery destination, the demand prediction of the delivery source, and the demand prediction of the delivery destination. The control execution unit may execute control related to the overall optimization of the vehicle allocation of the at least two companies using the at least two heat maps.

[0005] According to one embodiment of the present invention, a program is provided for causing a computer to function as the control device.

[0006] It should be noted that the above summary of the invention does not enumerate all the necessary features of the present invention. Furthermore, subcombinations of these features may also constitute an invention. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0007] [Figure 1] An example of System 10 is shown in a schematic manner. [Figure 2] This is a conceptual diagram regarding the use of multi-heatmaps. [Figure 3] A schematic example of the functional configuration of management server 100 is shown below. [Figure 4] A schematic example of the hardware configuration of computer 1200, which functions as a management server 100, is shown below. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0008] The present invention will be described below through embodiments, but these embodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the claims. Furthermore, not all combinations of features described in the embodiments are necessarily essential to the solution of the invention.

[0009] In the market, various companies offer various services, and each company has its own heatmap for its services. However, since there is no cross-company / business-type heatmap, control was limited to individual companies. System 10 according to this embodiment optimizes the services of multiple companies by collecting the heatmaps of each company and integrating and using them.

[0010] In this embodiment, the system 10 will be described primarily using the example of a case where the system 10 is responsible for dispatching vehicles 200. Vehicle 200 is, for example, an autonomous vehicle. Vehicle 200 may also be a manually driven vehicle.

[0011] Figure 1 schematically shows an example of system 10. System 10 includes a management server 100. The management server 100 may be an example of a control device. The management server 100 performs processing to optimize dispatch management, etc., of multiple vehicles 200 under the management of multiple companies.

[0012] The market includes numerous delivery companies that deliver food and goods, as well as route delivery logistics companies that deliver packages and cargo. The management server 100 collects heatmaps from each company. By integrating the heatmaps from each company, the management server 100 can achieve overall optimization in delivery logistics (such as peak shifting for each company / business type). By integrating the heatmaps from each company, the management server 100 can understand the different peak times for each individual delivery logistics company. By allocating vehicles according to peak times, it becomes possible to share the same vehicles among companies, thereby maximizing vehicle utilization.

[0013] The management server 100 receives heatmaps from each company's server 30 via the network 20, for example. The network 20 may include the internet. The network 20 may include a LAN (Local Area Network). The network 20 may include a mobile communication network. The mobile communication network may comply with any of the following communication methods: 5G (5th Generation), LTE (Long Term Evolution), 3G (3rd Generation), and 6G (6th Generation) or later. The management server 100 may also acquire heatmaps from each company by means other than communication via the network 20, such as using a portable storage medium.

[0014] Figure 2 is a conceptual diagram of the use of multi-heatmaps. The management server 100 may integrate the heatmaps of each company and perform processing to optimize the dispatch of multiple vehicles 200 using regional information such as city information, time information, weather information, demand information, supply information, and other information.

[0015] Figure 3 schematically shows an example of the functional configuration of the management server 100. The management server 100 comprises a storage unit 102, an information acquisition unit 104, a vehicle information management unit 106, and a control execution unit 108.

[0016] The information acquisition unit 104 collects heatmaps from each company. For example, the information acquisition unit 104 receives heatmaps from each company's server 30 via the network 20. The information acquisition unit 104 may also acquire heatmaps by reading heatmaps stored on a portable storage medium.

[0017] The information acquisition unit 104 may store the collected heatmaps in the storage unit 102. The information acquisition unit 104 may generate a multi-heatmap by integrating the collected heatmaps, and may store the generated multi-heatmap in the storage unit 102.

[0018] The information acquisition unit 104 collects, for example, a heat map related to vehicle management. The heat map may relate to the delivery destination area of ​​the items delivered by the vehicle 200. The heat map may also relate to the origin area of ​​the items delivered by the vehicle. The items to be delivered can be anything. Examples of items to be delivered include, but are not limited to, substances, objects, articles, supplies, food, goods, products, people, animals, and plants.

[0019] The vehicle information management unit 106 manages vehicle information for each of the multiple vehicles 200. The vehicle information management unit 106 may acquire and manage vehicle information for vehicles 200 under the management of each of the multiple companies from each of the multiple companies. For example, the vehicle information management unit 106 receives vehicle information from each of the multiple companies' servers 30 via the network 20. The vehicle information may include at least one of the following: location, type, performance, delivery target, delivery schedule, and driving status of the vehicle 200. The vehicle information management unit 106 stores the vehicle information in the storage unit 102.

[0020] The control execution unit 108 performs control using the heatmaps of at least two companies acquired by the information acquisition unit 104. The control execution unit 108 may generate a multi-heatmap by integrating the heatmaps of at least two companies acquired by the information acquisition unit 104 and perform control using the generated multi-heatmap. The control execution unit 108 may also perform control using the multi-heatmap generated by the information acquisition unit 104.

[0021] The control execution unit 108 performs control related to the dispatch of vehicles 200, for example, using heatmaps of at least two companies related to vehicle management. The control execution unit 108 performs control related to the dispatch of multiple vehicles 200, using the heatmaps of at least two companies and vehicle information stored in the storage unit 102.

[0022] The heat map may, for example, visualize demand predictions such as where there is likely to be a need to request deliveries, where there are likely to be many stores requesting deliveries, and where delivery destinations are likely to be concentrated. Further, the demand prediction may, for example, visualize the vehicle allocation demand for vehicles performing deliveries or home deliveries. The demand prediction may be based on current data or may be a prediction of past accumulated data by AI (Artificial Intelligence). Furthermore, AI may make a prediction using the terrain of the area where the heat map is created, weather information, time zone, traffic information, population density, mobile location information, etc. Also, the heat map may represent the current situation or may represent the situation at future times such as one hour ahead or two hours ahead.

[0023] The control related to the allocation of the plurality of vehicles 200 may be to provide information related to vehicle allocation or transmit an instruction related to vehicle allocation to the server 30 of the company that is the management source of each of the plurality of vehicles 200. The server 30 may use the information received from the management server 100 to adjust the vehicle allocation of the vehicles 200 under its management or may adjust the vehicle allocation of the vehicles 200 under its management according to the instruction received from the management server 100.

[0024] The control related to the allocation of the plurality of vehicles 200 may also be to provide information related to vehicle allocation or transmit an instruction related to vehicle allocation to each of the plurality of vehicles 200. When the vehicle 200 is an autonomous vehicle, the vehicle 200 may use the information received from the management server 100 to adjust or change the control of autonomous driving and may execute the control of autonomous driving according to the instruction received from the management server 100. When the vehicle 200 is a manually driven vehicle, the vehicle 200 may present the information received from the management server 100 and the instruction received from the management server 100 to the driver of the vehicle 200.

[0025] The control execution unit 108 adjusts the load concentrated in a specific area within the heat map, for example, using at least two heat maps related to the regions of the delivery source and the delivery destination of the delivery target by the vehicle.

[0026] For example, delivery companies and route delivery logistics companies manage their dispatch using their respective heatmaps, but the information acquisition unit 104 collects the heatmaps of each company, and the information acquisition unit 104 or the control execution unit 108 aggregates the heatmaps of each company. When the load of at least two companies (for example, areas where delivery destinations of delivery companies are concentrated and areas where delivery destinations of route delivery logistics companies are concentrated) is concentrated, it is expected that a considerable load will be concentrated in one area. In such cases, the control execution unit 108 takes control measures such as changing the delivery destinations of delivery companies or route delivery logistics companies in order to shift the time period (peak time) when the load of either heatmap is concentrated, thereby optimizing the load on the entire specific area covered by the heatmap.

[0027] Furthermore, for example, the control execution unit 108, using heatmaps from at least two companies related to the delivery source and destination regions of the vehicles to be delivered, pre-arranges a vehicle for a specific region where the load is concentrated during peak times in the heatmap of the first company, and dispatches that vehicle to a specific region on the heatmap of another company.

[0028] By aggregating heatmaps from two or more companies, it becomes possible to understand, for example, that each company's peak time occurs at different times. The control execution unit 108 uses this information to pre-arrange vehicles to match the peak time of the first company, and then dispatches the same vehicles to match the peak time of the second company. As a result, the first and second companies do not need to arrange vehicles separately according to their own heatmaps, and vehicles that have completed work for the first company can be used for work for the second company, thereby increasing vehicle utilization rates.

[0029] Figure 4 schematically shows an example of the hardware configuration of a computer 1200 that functions as a management server 100. A program installed on the computer 1200 can cause the computer 1200 to function as one or more "parts" of the apparatus according to this embodiment, or to cause the computer 1200 to execute operations associated with the apparatus according to this embodiment or such one or more "parts", and / or to cause the computer 1200 to execute a process or a stage of such process according to this embodiment. Such a program may be executed by the CPU 1212 to cause the computer 1200 to execute specific operations associated with some or all of the blocks in the flowcharts and block diagrams described herein.

[0030] The computer 1200 according to this embodiment includes a CPU 1212, RAM 1214, and a graphics controller 1216, which are interconnected by a host controller 1210. The computer 1200 also includes input / output units such as a communication interface 1222, a storage device 1224, a DVD drive, and an IC card drive, which are connected to the host controller 1210 via an input / output controller 1220. The DVD drive may be a DVD-ROM drive and a DVD-RAM drive, etc. The storage device 1224 may be a hard disk drive and a solid-state drive, etc. The computer 1200 also includes legacy input / output units such as a ROM 1230 and a keyboard, which are connected to the input / output controller 1220 via an input / output chip 1240.

[0031] The CPU 1212 operates according to the programs stored in the ROM 1230 and RAM 1214, thereby controlling each unit. The graphics controller 1216 acquires the image data generated by the CPU 1212 and stores it in the frame buffer provided in RAM 1214 or within itself, so that the image data is displayed on the display device 1218.

[0032] The communication interface 1222 communicates with other electronic devices via a network. The storage device 1224 stores programs and data used by the CPU 1212 in the computer 1200. The DVD drive reads programs or data from a DVD-ROM or the like and provides them to the storage device 1224. The IC card drive reads programs and data from an IC card and / or writes programs and data to an IC card.

[0033] The ROM 1230 stores boot programs and / or hardware-dependent programs of the computer 1200, which are executed by the computer 1200 upon activation. The input / output chip 1240 may also connect various input / output units to the input / output controller 1220 via USB ports, parallel ports, serial ports, keyboard ports, mouse ports, etc.

[0034] The program is provided on a computer-readable storage medium such as a DVD-ROM or IC card. The program is read from the computer-readable storage medium and installed on a storage device 1224, RAM 1214, or ROM 1230, which are examples of computer-readable storage media, and executed by the CPU 1212. The information processing described within these programs is read by the computer 1200, resulting in coordination between the program and the various types of hardware resources described above. The apparatus or method may be configured to realize the operation or processing of information in accordance with the use of the computer 1200.

[0035] For example, when communication is performed between a computer 1200 and an external device, the CPU 1212 may execute a communication program loaded into RAM 1214 and, based on the processing described in the communication program, instruct the communication interface 1222 to perform communication processing. Under the control of the CPU 1212, the communication interface 1222 reads transmission data stored in a transmission buffer area provided in a recording medium such as RAM 1214, storage device 1224, DVD-ROM, or IC card, transmits the read transmission data to the network, or writes received data received from the network to a reception buffer area provided on the recording medium.

[0036] Furthermore, the CPU 1212 may read all or necessary parts of a file or database stored on an external recording medium such as the storage device 1224, a DVD drive (DVD-ROM), or an IC card into the RAM 1214, and perform various types of processing on the data in the RAM 1214. The CPU 1212 may then write the processed data back to the external recording medium.

[0037] Various types of information, such as various types of programs, data, tables, and databases, may be stored on the recording medium and subjected to information processing. The CPU 1212 may perform various types of processing on the data read from RAM 1214, including various types of operations, information processing, conditional judgments, conditional branching, unconditional branching, information retrieval / replacement, etc., as described throughout this disclosure and specified by the program instruction sequence, and write the results back to RAM 1214. The CPU 1212 may also retrieve information in files, databases, etc., within the recording medium. For example, if multiple entries are stored in the recording medium, each having an attribute value of a first attribute associated with an attribute value of a second attribute, the CPU 1212 may search among the multiple entries for an entry that matches the specified condition for the attribute value of the first attribute, read the attribute value of the second attribute stored in that entry, and thereby obtain the attribute value of the second attribute associated with the first attribute that satisfies the predetermined condition.

[0038] The program or software module described above may be stored on or near the computer 1200 in a computer-readable storage medium. Alternatively, a recording medium such as a hard disk or RAM provided within a server system connected to a dedicated communication network or the Internet can be used as a computer-readable storage medium, thereby providing the program to the computer 1200 via the network.

[0039] In this embodiment, blocks in the flowchart and block diagram may represent a stage in a process in which an operation is performed or a "part" of a device that has the role of performing an operation. A particular stage and "part" may be implemented by a dedicated circuit, a programmable circuit supplied with computer-readable instructions stored on a computer-readable storage medium, and / or a processor supplied with computer-readable instructions stored on a computer-readable storage medium. The dedicated circuit may include digital and / or analog hardware circuits, and may include integrated circuits (ICs) and / or discrete circuits. The programmable circuit may include reconfigurable hardware circuits, such as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and programmable logic arrays (PLAs), which include logical AND, logical OR, exclusive OR, negated AND, negated OR, and other logical operations, flip-flops, registers, and memory elements.

[0040] A computer-readable storage medium may include any tangible device capable of storing instructions to be executed by a suitable device, and as a result, a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored therein will comprise a product that includes instructions that can be executed to create means for performing operations specified in a flowchart or block diagram. Examples of computer-readable storage media may include electronic storage media, magnetic storage media, optical storage media, electromagnetic storage media, semiconductor storage media, etc. More specific examples of computer-readable storage media may include floppy disks, diskettes, hard disks, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), static random access memory (SRAM), compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), digital multipurpose disc (DVD), Blu-ray® disc, memory stick, integrated circuit card, etc.

[0041] Computer-readable instructions may include assembler instructions, instruction set architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions, machine-dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions, state setting data, or source code or object code written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including object-oriented programming languages ​​such as Smalltalk®, Java®, C++, and traditional procedural programming languages ​​such as the C programming language or similar programming languages.

[0042] Computer-readable instructions may be provided to a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, or a programmable circuit, either locally or via a wide area network (WAN) such as a local area network (LAN) or the internet, so that the computer-readable instructions may be executed by the processor or programmable circuit of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, or other programmable data processing device, in order to generate means for performing operations specified in a flowchart or block diagram. Examples of processors include computer processors, processing units, microprocessors, digital signal processors, controllers, microcontrollers, and the like.

[0043] Although the present invention has been described above using embodiments, the technical scope of the present invention is not limited to the scope described in the above embodiments. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications or improvements can be made to the above embodiments. It will be clear from the claims that such modified or improved forms may also be included in the technical scope of the present invention.

[0044] It should be noted that the execution order of operations, procedures, steps, and stages in the apparatus, systems, programs, and methods shown in the claims, specifications, and drawings is not explicitly stated as "before" or "prior to," and that these can be implemented in any order unless the output of a previous process is used in a later process. Even if the operation flow in the claims, specifications, and drawings is described using phrases such as "first," and "next," for convenience, this does not mean that it is essential to perform the operations in that order.

[0045] Although the present invention has been described above using embodiments, the technical scope of the present invention is not limited to the scope described in the above embodiments. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications or improvements can be made to the above embodiments. It will be clear from the claims that such modified or improved forms may also be included in the technical scope of the present invention.

[0046] It should be noted that the execution order of operations, procedures, steps, and stages in the apparatus, systems, programs, and methods shown in the claims, specifications, and drawings is not explicitly stated as "before" or "prior to," and that these can be implemented in any order unless the output of a previous process is used in a later process. Even if the operation flow in the claims, specifications, and drawings is described using phrases such as "first," and "next," for convenience, this does not mean that it is essential to perform the operations in that order. [Explanation of Symbols]

[0047] 10 System, 20 Network, 30 Server, 100 Management Server, 102 Storage Unit, 104 Information Acquisition Unit, 106 Vehicle Information Management Unit, 108 Control Execution Unit, 200 Vehicle, 1200 Computer, 1210 Host Controller, 1212 CPU, 1214 RAM, 1216 Graphics Controller, 1218 Display Device, 1220 Input / Output Controller, 1222 Communication Interface, 1224 Storage Device, 1230 ROM, 1240 Input / Output Chip

Claims

1. The information acquisition department collects heatmaps from each company, The control execution unit executes control using heatmaps of at least two companies with different business types, which have been acquired by the information acquisition unit. Equipped with, The aforementioned heatmap relates to vehicle management, The control execution unit uses the heatmaps of at least two companies to perform control related to vehicle dispatching. The aforementioned heatmap relates to the origin and destination regions of deliveries made by vehicles. The aforementioned two companies, each with different business models, have different peak delivery times. The control execution unit, based on the heat maps of at least two companies, pre-arranges vehicles to specific areas where the load is concentrated during peak times in the heat map of the first company, and after the completion of work during the peak time for the first company, dispatches the vehicles to specific areas on the heat map of another company. Control device.

2. The control device according to claim 1, wherein the at least two companies, each with different business operations, have different time periods during which demand for delivery occurs.

3. A program for causing a computer to function as the control device described in claim 1.

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