Method and system for providing assistance in moving motor vehicles in a logistics environment
A computer system automates the selection and movement of newly manufactured motor vehicles from a battery charging area to a parking area, addressing inefficiencies in the current process and improving productivity by optimizing vehicle movement and reducing manual intervention.
Patent Information
- Application Number
- FR2023014841
- Authority / Receiving Office
- FR · FR
- Patent Type
- Applications
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Filing Date
- 2023-12-21
- Publication Date
- 2025-06-27
- Estimated Expiration
- 2043-12-21
AI Technical Summary
The current process of moving newly manufactured motor vehicles from a battery charging area to a parking area in a logistics environment is inefficient, leading to time wastage and potential disruption to production capacity, as it relies on manual selection and tracking by supervisors and drivers.
A computer system that assists in moving motor vehicles by determining the optimal set of vehicles to be moved based on available drivers, vehicle charging status, and logistics environment layout, and providing clear instructions to drivers through mobile communication devices, thereby automating the selection and information provision process.
The system significantly reduces the time required for vehicle movement, improves resource optimization, and enhances the productivity of motor vehicle assembly plants by streamlining the logistics process and reducing manual intervention.
Smart Images

Figure 00000000_0000_ABST
Abstract
Description
Title of the invention: Method and system for providing assistance in moving motor vehicles in a logistics environment Technical field of the invention
[0001] The present invention relates to the field of logistics. The invention relates in particular to a method for providing, by a computer system, assistance in moving a set of motor vehicles between a first location and a second location in a logistics environment. The invention also relates to a computer system implementing such a method. The invention applies to logistics environments in which the movement of manufactured motor vehicles must be optimized. State of the prior art
[0002] In a motor vehicle manufacturing plant, a produced vehicle arrives every minute at the end of the assembly line. Each newly manufactured motor vehicle is moved from the assembly line to a battery charging area, where the battery of the newly manufactured vehicle is fully charged for a variable period ranging from 1 to 30 minutes. Each battery charger is connected to a control system that distinguishes three different states: the vehicle is mainly charging, i.e., the battery level is below a predefined level, indicated by a red light; the battery is already charged, i.e., the battery level is above a predefined level, indicated by a green light; and a charging cable is disconnected, indicated by a flashing green light.
[0003] Once the battery of each newly manufactured motor vehicle is fully charged, the vehicle must be moved to a parking area so that it can then be picked up by a carrier who will transport it to its final destination. Before going to the battery charging area, the vehicle has already been allocated a space in the parking area by a transport management system. The system that allocates the parking space to the newly manufactured vehicle and the system that monitors the battery status of each vehicle in the battery charging area are generally two systems independent of each other.
[0004] To move the vehicles from the battery charging area to the parking area, a team is formed by drivers (from 3 to 7 people responsible for driving the newly manufactured vehicles) and a supervisor who follows the drivers to the parking area, picks up all drivers and brings them back to the battery charging area to start the process again.
[0005] Each time the supervisor returns to the battery charging area with all drivers on board, the latter must choose a specific vehicle at that location, with the only criterion so far being to monitor the status of the chargers' indicator lights (indicating the available vehicles) and, based on the supervisor's experience, decide which vehicles to choose. This means that selected vehicles may well have to be moved to locations relatively far from each other in the parking area, which implies more time to move the vehicles, poor optimization of resources and, potentially, saturation of the assembly line if no other team (drivers and supervisor) is available.Furthermore, in the current setup, the supervisor has to wait for all drivers until they pick up their vehicles, and then track them to find out where they are going to park the vehicles they have just picked up. Again, time is lost, which impacts the flow of the process and leads to a risk of disruption to production capacity.
[0006] No solution is available to date to optimize this process in order to save time and facilitate the work of supervisors and drivers. Summary of the invention
[0007] The invention aims to satisfy these needs. The objective of the invention is in particular to provide a solution to facilitate the management of the tedious process explained above of moving newly manufactured vehicles in a logistics environment which includes a battery charging area and a parking area distant from each other. To this end, the invention aims to provide a method and a system which facilitate the work of the personnel in charge, drivers and supervisors, by fully automating it, in particular for the selection of vehicles to be moved and for the practical and clear provision of information which allows the personnel to achieve significant time savings.In this way, the invention aims to improve the fluidity of the vehicle movement process in such a specific logistics environment as mentioned above, and thus contribute to securing the productivity of a motor vehicle assembly plant.
[0008] To achieve these aims, the invention relates, according to a first aspect, to a method for providing, by a computer system, assistance in moving a set of motor vehicles forming part of a fleet of one or more manufactured motor vehicles between a first location and a second location in a logistics environment, said first location being a battery charging area in which a plurality of chargers are installed and said second location being a parking area, said system comprising a computing device connected to a first mobile communication device and to a second mobile communication device by means of a wireless communication network, the method comprising the steps of: i. receive, by said device, from said first mobile communication device, data characterizing a request, said request stipulating a number of drivers available to participate in said trip; ii. determining, using a management module of said device, data characterizing a first set of information, said first set of information stipulating, for each of said one or more manufactured motor vehicles, an identification number, a first position in said first location, a state of charge and a second position in said second location; iii. determining, using a coordinate conversion module of said device, data characterizing a second set of information based on said data characterizing a first set of information and a digital representation of said logistics environment, said second set of information stipulating said digital representation of said logistics environment related to said first position and said second position of each of said one or more manufactured motor vehicles, and a distance between said first position and said second position for each of said one or more manufactured motor vehicles; iv. determining, using a logistics optimization module of said device, data characterizing said set of motor vehicles on the basis of said data characterizing a second set of information by considering the travel time of said set of motor vehicles and the recovery time of the drivers from the corresponding second positions, a number of vehicles in said set of motor vehicles corresponding to said number of drivers available to participate in said travel; and v. causing, by said device, at least the display on said first mobile communication device, for each vehicle of said set of motor vehicles, of a corresponding identification number, a corresponding second position and a path to follow from a corresponding first position to said corresponding second position.
[0009] According to a variant, step v) may comprise a step consisting of causing the display on said second mobile communication device, for each vehicle of said set of motor vehicles, of said corresponding identification number, of said corresponding second position and of said path to follow.
[0010] According to another variant, step v) may comprise a step of causing the display on said first mobile communication device and said second mobile communication device of a digital representation of said first location indicating said first position of each vehicle of said set of motor vehicles and of a digital representation of said second location indicating said second position of each vehicle of said set of motor vehicles.
[0011] According to yet another variant, step iii) may comprise the steps of: • standardize said data characterizing a first set of information • converting said first position and said second position of each of said one or more manufactured motor vehicles into a local coordinate system based on said digital representation of said logistics environment so as to map said first position and said second position of each of said one or more manufactured motor vehicles onto said digital representation of said logistics environment; and • determining said distance between said first position and said second position of each of said one or more manufactured motor vehicles on the basis of the local coordinate system.
[0012] According to yet another variant, step ii) may comprise the steps of: • integrating, using a fusion module of said management module, data characterizing a plurality of sets of information corresponding to said one or more manufactured motor vehicles, so as to determine data characterizing a set of merged information, said data characterizing a plurality of sets of information being received from an end-of-charge detection module of said device, from a position allocation module of said device and from a module for detecting the state of movements of said device; and • establishing, using said fusion module, data characterizing, for each of said one or more manufactured motor vehicles, at least one relationship between information relating to the vehicle and position information, on the basis of said data characterizing a set of merged information, so as to determine said data characterizing a first set of information.
[0013] According to yet another variant, step ii) may comprise a filtering step, carried out using a filtering module of said management module, said data ca characterizing a plurality of sets of information, before integrating them, thus eliminating unnecessary data.
[0014] According to yet another variant, step ii) may comprise the steps of: • obtain, using a tracking module of said device, data characterizing, for each vehicle of said set of motor vehicles, at least one current location; and • determining, using said movement state detection module, for each vehicle of said set of motor vehicles, data characterizing the completion of a movement from said first position in said first location to said second position in said second location
[0015] According to yet another variant, step v) may comprise a step consisting of causing, by said logistics optimization module, the transmission of said data characterizing said set of motor vehicles to said movement state detection module.
[0016] According to yet another variant, step ii) may comprise a step of allocating, using said position allocation module (206), a second position in said second location for each newly manufactured motor vehicle.
[0017] According to yet another variant, step ii) may comprise the steps of: • determining, using said end-of-charge detection module, data characterizing said state of charge for each of said one or more motor vehicles manufactured on the basis of data characterizing a charge condition, said charge condition stipulating at least a current state of the battery and a state of connection with a charger, said data characterizing a charge condition being received from a state of charge monitoring module of said device; and • generate, using said end of charge detection module, data characterizing a report of operations in said battery charging area on the basis of said data characterizing said state of charge for each of said one or more manufactured motor vehicles.
[0018] According to yet another variant, said path to be followed from said first position to said second position, for each vehicle of said set of motor vehicles, may be the shortest path to reach said corresponding second position.
[0019] According to yet another variant, step iv) can be carried out using data characterizing said second position for each of said one or more manufactured motor vehicles, data characterizing a maximum distance to be traveled by said drivers to reach said corresponding second positions, data characterizing a time elapsed since each manufactured motor vehicle was loaded, said travel time and said recovery time.
[0020] According to yet another variant, step iv) can be carried out on the basis of at least one entry.
[0021] According to a second aspect, the invention relates to a computer system for providing assistance in moving a set of motor vehicles forming part of a fleet of one or more manufactured motor vehicles between a first location and a second location of a logistics environment, said first location being a battery charging area in which a plurality of chargers are installed and said second location being a parking area, said system comprising a computer device connected to a first mobile communication device and to a second mobile communication device by means of a wireless communication network, an information processing unit, comprising at least one processor, and a data storage medium, which are configured to implement a method as described above. Brief description of the drawings
[0022] Other characteristics and advantages of the invention will appear on examining the detailed description below and the appended drawings, in which:
[0023] [Fig-1] is a functional diagram of a system according to the invention;
[0024] [Fig.2] is a functional diagram of a device of a system according to the invention;
[0025] [Fig.3] is a functional diagram of a module of a device of a system of the invention;
[0026] [Fig.4] is a diagram illustrating the steps of a method according to the invention; and
[0027] [Fig.5] is a schematic illustration of a user interface of a device of mobile communication of a system according to the invention. Detailed description of the invention
[0028] [Fig.l] schematically illustrates a system 100 according to the invention for providing assistance in moving a set of motor vehicles forming part of a fleet of one or more manufactured motor vehicles between a first location and a second location of a logistics environment of a motor vehicle manufacturing plant, the first location being a battery charging area in which a plurality of chargers are installed and the second location being a parking area where the vehicles are stored before their transport. It is basically a computer system, which comprises a computer device 102, for example a server, which comprises an information processing unit 110, with one or more processors, and a support of data storage 112, on which is recorded in particular a program which comprises program code instructions for the execution by the information processing unit 110 of the steps of the method according to the invention described below. Conventionally, the device 102 according to the invention further comprises hardware and software means for connecting to a wireless communication network 104 in order to communicate by means of conventional communication protocols with a first mobile communication device 106 and a second mobile communication device 108. In the context of the invention, the first mobile communication device 106 is held by a supervisor, while the second mobile communication device 108 is held by a driver.
[0029] [Fig. 2] schematically illustrates in more detail the components of the device 102 of the system 100 according to the invention. This comprises in particular a charging status monitoring module 202, an end-of-charging detection module 204, a position allocation module 206, a tracking module 208, a movement status detection module 210, a management module 212, a digital representation generation module 214, a coordinate conversion module 216 and a logistics optimization module 218. According to an alternative, the position allocation module 206 can be part of an external system connected to a transport management system, and be linked to the system 100 according to the invention, in particular to its device 102, by means of a local communication network. Furthermore, as seen in [Fig.3], the management module 212 comprises a filtering module 302 and a merging module 304.
[0030] According to the invention, all the elements described above contribute to enabling the implementation of a method for providing assistance in moving a set of motor vehicles forming part of a fleet of one or more motor vehicles manufactured between a first location and a second location in a logistics environment, the first location being a battery charging area in which a plurality of chargers are installed and the second location being a parking area. This method is described below in connection with Figures 2-5.
[0031] [Fig. 4] illustrates a flowchart of the method according to the invention. According to a first step 401 of the method, the device 102 receives data characterizing a request from the first mobile communication device 106. This data advantageously includes a number of drivers available to participate in said movement of a set of vehicles from the first location to the second location. To submit the request, the first mobile communication device 106 conventionally comprises a user interface, as described below. Furthermore, as already mentioned above, the first mobile communication device 106 is held by a supervisor. This request received therefore corresponds to the initial situation in which the supervisor requests to initiate the movement of a set of vehicles present in the battery charging zone depending on the availability of drivers.
[0032] According to a second step 402, the management module 212 determines the data characterizing a first set of information. The first set of information stipulates an identification number, a first position in the first location, a state of charge and a second position in the second location. This information is determined for each of the motor vehicles manufactured, in other words all the vehicles which are in the battery charging area.
[0033] The vehicle identification number (VIN) and the second position in the second location for each vehicle are pre-established. In other words, an identification number and a parking location are already assigned to each newly manufactured motor vehicle. It is in particular the position allocation module 206 which assigns the second position, i.e. its position in the parking area, to each newly manufactured vehicle.
[0034] To determine the state of charge, the device 102 uses the state of charge monitoring module 202 and the end of charge detection module 204. The state of charge monitoring module 202 is configured to determine data characterizing a charging condition of each vehicle during its charging in the battery charging area. The data characterizing a charging condition includes at least the current state of the battery of each vehicle and the state of the connection of the battery (or the vehicle) with a charger. For example, the current state of the battery can be a charging state or a charged state. The connection state of the battery can be a connected state or a disconnected state. In the charging state, the battery is being charged and the charger is connected. In the charged state, the battery is fully charged and the load is disconnected (i.e., the battery is disconnected from the charger).A charging condition associated with each vehicle is detected by the charging state monitoring module 202 and transmitted to the end-of-charge detection module 204. The end-of-charge detection module 204 determines data characterizing the charging state, for each of the manufactured vehicles, based on the data characterizing a charging condition. The end-of-charge detection module 204 transmits the data characterizing the charging state to the management module 212.
[0035] According to one embodiment, the end-of-charge detection module 204 generates a report of operations in the battery charging area based on data characterizing the state of the charge. The report may indicate the state of each vehicle being charged in the battery charging area. The report may include the identification number of a motor vehicle being charged, the state of charge and the first position of the vehicle in the first location. Once a vehicle is disconnected from its charger and moved to the second location, the data associated with that motor vehicle is deleted from the report, and new data associated with a newly manufactured vehicle is added to the report. In one embodiment, the report may be generated in a text file and may be saved to a database at a predefined interval. The text file may be retrieved from the database for processing by the management module 212.
[0036] With regard to the tracking module 208, this is configured to obtain the current location of each vehicle in the set of motor vehicles, those which are currently moving. To do this, it organizes communications with each of the location systems on board the vehicles in real time. The movement state detection module 210 establishes whether a vehicle which has left the first position from the first location, i.e. the battery charging zone, has reached the second position in the second location, i.e. the parking zone.
[0037] To determine the data characterizing the first set of information, the management module 212 uses its filtering module 302 and its merging module 304. The filtering module 302 filters data characterizing a plurality of sets of information corresponding to each of the manufactured vehicles by deleting unnecessary data. The unnecessary data may be aberrant data, redundant data or data corresponding to vehicles already transferred to the parking area. The merging module 304 integrates the data characterizing the useful information of the plurality of sets of information and generates data characterizing a merged set of information. The data characterizing a plurality of sets of information correspond to each manufactured vehicle.They are received from the end-of-charge detection module 204, the position allocation module 206 and the travel state detection module 210. The merging module 304 further establishes a relationship between vehicle-related information and position information based on the data characterizing a merged information set. This is how the data characterizing a first information set are determined during this second step 402 of the method according to the invention. The vehicle-related information may be the identification number and the charge state. The position information may be the first position in the first location and the second position in the second location, or a current location.It should be remembered that it is the position allocation module 206 which allocates to each of the newly manufactured motor vehicles its second position in the second location, in other words its parking space before transport.
[0038] According to a third step 403 of the method according to the invention, the coordinate conversion module 216 determines data characterizing a second set of information on the basis of the data characterizing a first set of information, those determined during the previous step, and a digital representation of said logistics environment, in other words a digital map. The coordinate conversion module 216 is configured to receive the digital representation of the logistics environment from the digital representation generation module 214. The digital representation of the logistics environment comprises the first location and the second location, in other words the battery charging area and the parking area. The digital representation of the logistics environment provides detailed information on all the singular points of the logistics environment.The digital representation of the logistics environment may be created, by the digital representation generation module 214, using topographical information including details such as lane width, edge, number of lanes, direction. This digital representation is developed using a local coordinate system in which the origin position (0,0) is located in the logistics environment.
[0039] To determine the data characterizing a second set of information, the data characterizing a first set of information is normalized by the coordinate conversion module 216. The coordinate conversion module 216 further extracts the first position and the second position of each of the manufactured vehicles from the data characterizing a first set of information and generates local coordinates corresponding to the digital representation of the logistics environment for the first position and the second position of each of the manufactured vehicles.
[0040] The coordinate conversion module 216 is further configured to determine a distance between the first and second positions as a function of the local coordinates for each motor vehicle manufactured. Thus, the second set of information determined during this third step 403 of the method comprises the digital representation of the logistics environment related to the first position and the second position of each of the vehicles manufactured, as well as the distance between the first position and the second position for each of the vehicles manufactured.
[0041] According to a fourth step 404 of the method according to the invention, the logistics optimization module 218 uses the data characterizing a second set of information in order to determine data characterizing a set of motor vehicles, in other words it determines the vehicles which must be moved from the first location to the second location. To do this, the module logistics optimization module 218 takes into account a travel time for each of the vehicles present in the first location in order to move them from their first position to their second position in the second location. It is understood that the travel time of each of the vehicles from the first location to the second location corresponds to the travel time between the first location and the second location. The logistics optimization module 218 also takes into account the recovery time required by the supervisor to pick up all the drivers and bring them back to the first location. It should be noted that the number of vehicles selected for moving the vehicles from the first to the second location corresponds to the number of available drivers stipulated by the supervisor in the request received during the first step 401 of the method.
[0042] Furthermore, the logistics optimization module 218 transmits the data characterizing all of the motor vehicles to the movement state detection module 210. The movement state detection module 210 determines, in real time, the movement state of each of the vehicles and informs the data management module 212 once all of the vehicles in the set of selected vehicles have been moved to the second location.
[0043] Preferably, the logistics optimization module 218 determines a set of motor vehicles to be moved from the first location to the second location based on data characterizing the second position for each manufactured motor vehicle, data characterizing a maximum distance to be traveled by the drivers to reach the corresponding second locations, data characterizing a time elapsed since each manufactured motor vehicle was loaded, the duration of the movement and the recovery time. To do this, the logistics optimization module 218 proceeds for example by implementing the mathematical implementation explained below.
[0044] The problem of identifying a set of k vehicles from m vehicles can be defined as follows:
[0045] if p _ !n „ „ ] is a set of parking spaces, where Pq is ' {Po, P 1' ■ ■ ■ ' Pn} a position of the battery charging area,
[0046] if p' _ p \ | is a set of n parking spaces, y} is a set of arcs,
[0048] if C is a matrix of non-negative distances between the parking spaces c'i between the parking spaces P, and Pj,
[0049] if T is a vector of non-negative values ti, where is the time that has elapsed
[0047] if p^ | p? p^ ep. t since each vehicle is loaded and available to go to the parking space
[0050] if Rj is a route for vehicle i,
[0051] if m is a number of manufactured motor vehicles (all identical), with a route assigned to each manufactured motor vehicle,
[0052] then a solution according to the logistics optimization module 218 can be composed
[0053] of a partition R,, ■ R^of P
[0054] and a permutation help Ri U 0 specifying an order of the parking spaces on the road i.
[0055] The cost of a given route / »; _ J nn , ].OÙP0 = = O(the k+1 J 0 indicates the battery charging area), is given by:
[0056]
[0057] , where Y and are weighting functions that allow to grant importance to the time elapsed since the vehicle was loaded and to the distance between the first and second position. A setting of the weighting functions can be stipulated depending on the logistics environment. The logistics optimization module 218 can further be adapted depending on an input from an operator. In other words, for example, a priority of vehicles to be moved to the parking area can be specified, and such a parameter with a given weight, in the optimization process, thus makes it possible to adapt in real time to particular needs the determination of a set of vehicles to be moved. Furthermore, the logistics optimization module 218 determines, on the basis of which vehicles are moved first to the parking area, in what order the drivers of these vehicles are then picked up.
[0058] Finally, according to a fifth step 405, the device 102 causes the display, on the first mobile communication device 106, and therefore to the supervisor, of the data characterizing the set of vehicles selected for movement from the first position to the second position, with the corresponding information. The data characterizing the set of vehicles includes information on each of the vehicles, such as an identification number, a corresponding second position and a path to be followed by each driver from the first position to the second position. Thus, the supervisor can go directly to the parking area as soon as the drivers have recovered their vehicle in the battery charging area, which makes it possible to considerably reduce the recovery time.
[0059] Then, the device 102 causes the display of the data characterizing all of the motor vehicles on the second mobile communication device 108, in other words for the drivers. Thus, the drivers can see and know which vehicles they should take into the battery charging area.
[0060] When all drivers have been picked up and returned to the first location, the supervisor can end the process by submitting a new request.
[0061] [Fig. 5] illustrates an example of the user interface 500 displayed on the first mobile communication device 106. This is divided into several areas, for example, a first display area 502, a second display area 504, a first input element 508 and a second input element 510. The first display area 502 provides the digital representation of the first location 502A indicating the first position of each vehicle of the set of vehicles waiting to move and a digital representation of the second location 502B indicating the second position of each vehicle of the set of selected vehicles.
[0062] When a request is submitted by interacting with the first input element 508, the supervisor can indicate the number of available drivers and the method according to the invention is initiated. The logistics optimization module 218 then identifies a set of motor vehicles among the manufactured vehicles that are available at the first location 502A, i.e., the battery charging area. The second position of the selected vehicles in the second location 502B is also indicated. The first display area 502 can also indicate the shortest path between the first position and the second position for each of the vehicles identified for travel. The shortest path can be determined using a conventional planning algorithm (i.e., A*, fast random trees, or any other solution).The second display area 504 may display a first position and a second position as well as the identification number of each vehicle. In the illustrated example, three vehicles are selected to be moved from the first location to the second location. The first and second positions of the three identified vehicles are displayed in the second display area 504.
Claims
Claims
1. A method of providing, by a computer system (100), assistance in moving a set of motor vehicles forming part of a fleet of one or more manufactured motor vehicles between a first location and a second location in a logistics environment, said first location being a battery charging area in which a plurality of chargers are installed and said second location being a parking area, said system (100) comprising a computer device (102) connected to a first mobile communication device (106) and to a second mobile communication device (108) by means of a wireless communication network (104), characterized in that said method comprises the steps of: i. receiving, by said device (102), from said first mobile communication device (106), data characterizing a request, said request stipulating a number of drivers available to participate in said trip; ii. determining, using a management module (212) of said device (102), data characterizing a first set of information, said first set of information stipulating, for each of said one or more manufactured motor vehicles, an identification number, a first position in said first location, a state of charge and a second position in said second location; iii. determining, using a coordinate conversion module (216) of said device (102), data characterizing a second set of information based on said data characterizing a first set of information and a digital representation of said logistics environment, said second set of information stipulating said digital representation of said logistics environment related to said first position and said second position of each of said one or more manufactured motor vehicles, and a distance between said first position and said second position for each of said one or more manufactured motor vehicles; iv. determining, using a logistics optimization module (218) of said device (102), data characterizing said set of motor vehicles on the basis of said data characterizing a second set of information by considering the travel time of said set of motor vehicles and the recovery time of the drivers from the corresponding second positions, a number of vehicles in said set of motor vehicles corresponding to said number of drivers available to participate in said travel; and v. causing, by said device (102), at least the display on said first mobile communication device (106), for each vehicle of said set of motor vehicles, of a corresponding identification number, a corresponding second position and a path to follow from a corresponding first position to said corresponding second position.
2. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that step v) comprises a step of causing the display on said second mobile communication device (108), for each vehicle of said set of motor vehicles, of said corresponding identification number, of said corresponding second position and of said path to follow.
3. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that step v) comprises a step of causing the display on said first mobile communication device (106) and said second mobile communication device (108) of a digital representation of said first location indicating said first position of each vehicle of said set of motor vehicles and of a digital representation of said second location indicating said second position of each vehicle of said set of motor vehicles.
4. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that step iii) comprises the steps of: • normalizing said data characterizing a first set of information; • converting said first position and said second position of each of said one or more manufactured motor vehicles into a local coordinate system based on said digital representation of said logistics environment so as to map said first position and said second position of each of said one or more manufactured motor vehicles onto said digital representation of said logistics environment; and • determining said distance between said first position and said second position of each of said one or more manufactured motor vehicles on the basis of the local coordinate system.
5. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that step ii) comprises the steps of: • integrating, using a fusion module (304) of said management module (212), data characterizing a plurality of sets of information corresponding to said one or more manufactured motor vehicles, so as to determine data characterizing a set of merged information, said data characterizing a plurality of sets of information being received from an end-of-charge detection module (204) of said device (102), from a position allocation module (206) of said device (102) and from a movement state detection module (210) of said device (102); and • establishing, using said fusion module (304), data characterizing, for each of said one or more manufactured motor vehicles, at least one relationship between information relating to the vehicle and position information, on the basis of said data characterizing a set of merged information, so as to determine said data characterizing a first set of information.
6. Method according to claim 5, characterized in that step ii) comprises a filtering step, carried out using a filtering module (302) of said management module (212), said data characterizing a plurality of sets of information, before integrating them, thus eliminating unnecessary data.
7. Method according to one of claims 5-6, characterized in that step ii) comprises the steps of: • obtaining, using a tracking module (208) of said device (102), data characterizing, for each vehicle of said set of motor vehicles, at least one current location; and • determining, using said movement state detection module (210), for each vehicle of said set of motor vehicles, data characterizing the completion of a movement from said first position in said first location to said second position in said second location.
8. Method according to one of claims 5-7, characterized in that step v) comprises a step consisting of causing, by said logistics optimization module (218), the transmission of said data characterizing said set of motor vehicles to said movement state detection module (210).
9. Method according to one of claims 5-8, characterized in that step ii) comprises a step of allocating, using said position allocation module (206), a second position in said second location for each newly manufactured motor vehicle.
10. Method according to one of claims 5-9, characterized in that step ii) comprises the steps of: • determining, using said end-of-charge detection module (204), data characterizing said state of charge for each of said one or more motor vehicles manufactured on the basis of data characterizing a charge condition, said charge condition stipulating at least a current state of the battery and a state of connection with a charger, said data characterizing a charge condition being received from a state of charge monitoring module (202) of said device (102); and • generating, using said end of charge detection module (204), data characterizing a report of operations in said battery charging area on the basis of said data characterizing said state of charge for each of said one or more manufactured motor vehicles.
11. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said path to be followed from said first position to said second position, for each vehicle of said set of motor vehicles, is the shortest path to reach said corresponding second position.
12. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that step iv) is carried out using data characterizing said second position for each of said one or more manufactured motor vehicles, data characterizing a maximum distance to be traveled by said drivers to reach said corresponding second positions, data characterizing a time elapsed since each manufactured motor vehicle was loaded, said travel time and said recovery time.
13. Method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that step iv) is carried out on the basis of at least one input.
14. A computer system (100) for providing assistance in moving a set of motor vehicles forming part of a fleet of one or more manufactured motor vehicles between a first location and a second location of a logistics environment, said first location being a battery charging area in which a plurality of chargers are installed and said second location being a parking area, said system (100) comprising a computer device (102) connected to a first mobile communication device (106) and to a second mobile communication device (108) by means of a wireless communication network (104), characterized in that said device (102) comprises an information processing unit (110), comprising at least one processor, and a data storage medium (112), which are configured to implement a method according to one of the claims previous instructions.
Citation Information
Patent Citations
Modified passenger, suitable or newly manufactured railroad cars provide electrical charging for battery-powered electric automobiles while in transit
US10940873B1