Visit order determination system

Abstract

To provide a system for a (so called cruising) pickup vehicle having no fixed vehicle departure place, which can increase the possibility that a riding time and a riding distance of a user become short.SOLUTION: A visit order determination system determines a visit order in which a pickup vehicle transports a plurality of customers to respective get-off points. The system includes an acquisition unit that acquires respective boarding points of the plurality of customers and the get-off points of the plurality of customers, and a visit order determination unit that determines the visit order of the get-off points. The visit order determination unit determines a temporal visit order for visiting the boarding points from an arbitrary point of the get-off points as a temporal departure place, and determines the visit order of the get-off points from the last boarding point of the determined temporal visit order as a departure place.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a visiting sequence determination system. [Background technology]

[0002] Patent Document 1 discloses a system that creates an operation schedule for a ride-sharing vehicle in which multiple people ride in one vehicle. The system described in Patent Document 1 specifies in advance which vehicle a user (passenger) should be assigned to based on the departure point of the vehicle, the user's (passenger's) boarding position, etc., and then determines the route that will provide the shortest boarding time for the user assigned to the specified vehicle. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] JP 2004-280734 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] In the system described in Patent Document 1, the departure point of the vehicle is predetermined, and the system cannot be used when, for example, a so-called cruising taxi or other shuttle vehicle whose departure point is not fixed is used to pick up and drop off users. Therefore, it is desirable to develop a system that can shorten the ride time and distance of users when a so-called cruising shuttle vehicle is used.

[0005] The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-mentioned problems, and aims to provide a system that increases the likelihood of shortening a user's travel time and distance in shuttle vehicles that do not have a fixed departure point (so-called mobile vehicles). [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] In order to achieve the above-mentioned objective, a visiting order determination system that determines a visiting order when a shuttle vehicle transports multiple customers to their respective drop-off points includes an acquisition unit that acquires the boarding points of the multiple customers and the drop-off points of the multiple customers, and a visiting order determination unit that determines the visiting order to the drop-off points, wherein the visiting order determination unit determines a tentative visiting order for visiting the boarding points with any one of the drop-off points as a tentative starting point, and determines the visiting order to the drop-off points with the final boarding point of the determined tentative visiting order as the starting point.

[0007] That is, in the visiting order determination system, when determining the visiting order when sending a user to a drop-off point, an arbitrary drop-off point among the drop-off points is set as a provisional departure point, and a provisional visiting order is determined for visiting the boarding point of the user. Then, the visiting order to the drop-off points is determined with the final boarding point in the determined provisional visiting order as the departure point. That is, in the visiting order determination system, an arbitrary drop-off point (for example, a final arrival point set arbitrarily) is set as a provisional departure point, and the final boarding point when the boarding points are visited is obtained, thereby determining the first visiting point of the shuttle vehicle. Then, the visiting order to the drop-off points is determined with the determined first visiting point (the final boarding point in the provisional visiting order) as the departure point. This makes it possible to optimize the riding time and riding distance of the user when, for example, a so-called moving shuttle vehicle with no fixed departure point is used as a shuttle vehicle (i.e., the possibility of the riding time and riding distance becoming long can be reduced). In other words, it is possible to increase the possibility of shortening the riding time and riding distance. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0008] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a visiting order determination system. [Diagram 2] FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of transportation request information. [Diagram 3] 13 is a flowchart showing an example of a visiting order determination process. [Figure 4] FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a route including a tentative visiting order. [Diagram 5] FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a route including a visiting order. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0009] Here, the embodiments of the present invention will be described in the following order. (1) System configuration: (1-1) Administrator terminal configuration: (1-2) Configuration of visiting order determination system: (2) Visiting order determination process: (3) Other embodiments:

[0010] (1) System configuration: FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a visiting order determination system 10 according to the present invention. The visiting order determination system 10 according to the present embodiment is a system that determines the visiting order when a user (customer, person to be picked up or dropped off) who wishes to be picked up or dropped off is picked up at a specified boarding point and taken to a specified drop-off point. The users include those who go to a facility for lessons such as a cram school, a preparatory school, or an exercise class, or to a school (kindergarten, nursery school, elementary school, junior high school, high school, university, etc.), those who go home, those who go to a station, and those who go to other facilities such as a nursing home or a workspace. The users are picked up or dropped off to their destination such as a cram school by a shuttle vehicle such as a taxi or a shuttle bus. In the following description, an example in which the user is picked up or dropped off to the cram school, which is the destination, by a shuttle vehicle will be described as an example. In the present embodiment, there are multiple users, and multiple users can ride in one shuttle vehicle. The multiple users may be picked up or dropped off to the same cram school or to different cram schools. In addition, the shuttle vehicle may be a vehicle that departs from a specified base (such as a garage or an office) or a so-called ``roaming'' vehicle that does not have a fixed departure point, but in this embodiment, a so-called ``roaming'' shuttle vehicle is used to shuttle users.

[0011] As shown in FIG. 1, the visiting order determination system 10 in this embodiment is, for example, a stationary general-purpose computer or a cloud-type server, and cooperates with the administrator terminal 200 and the route search server 100 via communication. The administrator terminal 200 is a terminal used by an administrator (for example, an administrator of a cram school, etc.) who manages the transportation plan. The administrator uses the administrator terminal 200 to make the visiting order determination system 10 create a transportation plan including the visiting order. The transportation vehicle provides guidance for transportation according to the transportation plan. In the visiting order determination system 10 shown in FIG. 1, when the administrator makes a request to the visiting order determination system 10 to create a transportation plan, the visiting order determination system 10 solves a PDP (Pickup and Delivery Problem) and creates a transportation plan including the visiting order, thereby generating the transportation plan. The PDP creates a transportation plan for delivering the user from the boarding point (pickup point) where the user is picked up to the disembarking point (delivery point) where the user is dropped off, using various known algorithms. A specific manner of determining the visiting order will be described later in the flow chart.

[0012] The route search server 100 is a server that searches for a route between two points with the minimum travel cost using a known algorithm. The route search server 100 has a communication unit (not shown) and receives instructions such as boarding points and disembarking points from the visiting order determination system 10 via the communication unit, and searches for a route to transport each user to each disembarking point. The searched route is returned to the visiting order determination system 10.

[0013] In this embodiment, the shuttle plan is a plan for shuttle service in which one or more shuttle vehicles visit multiple boarding points in a determined order, pick up users at the boarding points, and deliver them to their drop-off points. In this embodiment, the shuttle plan is created by defining, for each shuttle vehicle, the order in which the shuttle vehicles arrive at each boarding point and each drop-off point (visiting order), the visiting route to each point, and the arrival time at each point. In order to create a shuttle plan including such a visiting order, the visiting order determination system 10 acquires various information (or conditions).

[0014] (1-1) Administrator terminal configuration: The administrator terminal 200 is a terminal used by an administrator who manages the transportation plan. The administrator terminal 200 can be realized, for example, by a general-purpose computer or a mobile terminal, and includes a control unit 210 including a CPU, RAM, ROM, etc., and a communication unit 220 for communicating with other devices. The administrator terminal 200 also includes a user I / F unit 230 for providing various information to the administrator and accepting input from the administrator. The user I / F unit 230 not only accepts input from the administrator, but also includes a display unit consisting of a display such as a touch panel (not shown), an input unit such as a switch, and an audio output unit such as a speaker, for providing various information to the administrator.

[0015] In this embodiment, the control unit 210 can communicate with the visiting order determination system 10 via the communication unit 220. The control unit 210 can execute a program (not shown) recorded in the recording medium 240. The program includes a program for generating transportation request information, which is information for causing the visiting order determination system 10 to create a transportation plan. In addition, the control unit 210 acquires a transportation plan including a visiting order created by the visiting order determination system 10, and displays the acquired visiting order and visiting route on the display unit of the user I / F unit 230.

[0016] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the shuttle request information in this embodiment. The shuttle request information is an input parameter input to the PDP engine (visiting order determination system 10 in this embodiment) that creates a shuttle plan. That is, the shuttle request information is information output to make the visiting order determination system 10 create a shuttle plan including a visiting order. Therefore, the generated shuttle request information is transmitted to the visiting order determination system 10. As shown in FIG. 2, the shuttle request information includes each boarding point of the user, the number of people at each boarding point, each disembarking point, a cost table, the upper limit number of shuttle vehicles, the upper limit number of people per shuttle vehicle, the maximum boarding time which is the maximum boarding time per person, the arrival time at each cram school which is the destination of each user, and the departure time from the cram school. In the example shown in FIG. 2, the departure point of the shuttle vehicle is not specified, but the departure point may be specified. In that case, the departure point will be included in the shuttle request information.

[0017] The boarding point is the boarding point of each user, and as shown in FIG. 2, for example, the identification information of the boarding point (S A ) and coordinates ((X A ,Y A )) are matched, and S A (X A ,Y A The number of people indicates the number of people planning to board at each boarding point, as shown in Figure 2 as "2 people," "1 person," etc.

[0018] The drop-off point is the drop-off point for each user, that is, a point that can be the destination of each user. As shown in FIG. 2, the drop-off point is indicated with the name of the drop-off point (e.g., A-juku), and the coordinates associated with the identification information are defined in the same way as the boarding point (S a (X a ,Y a )).

[0019] The cost table is information that evaluates the load required for moving between points, and the larger the value of the cost required for this movement, the larger the load. The cost required for this movement may be evaluated by various indices, for example, a value corresponding to the time required for moving between points or the distance between points. In this embodiment, the points are boarding points or disembarking points, that is, for all combinations obtained by selecting any two points from a plurality of boarding points and disembarking points, costs corresponding to the time required for moving between points (i.e., travel time) and travel distance are defined. Note that in this embodiment, even if the combination of the departure point and the arrival point between two points is the same point, the travel time may differ depending on which point is the departure point, so the cost is defined for each point that is the departure point. However, if the difference between the two is small, the cost may be defined without distinguishing which point is the departure point.

[0020] In addition, the cost table in this embodiment may include the vehicle cost when the number of shuttle vehicles used in the shuttle plan is increased by one, in addition to the cost corresponding to the travel time and the travel distance. This vehicle cost is defined based on the relationship between the expenses such as vehicle expenses, labor costs, and fuel costs when the number of shuttle vehicles used is increased by one, and the travel time and travel distance shortened by increasing the number of shuttle vehicles used by one. Note that the cost in this embodiment may be evaluated by at least one of the indices of travel time, travel distance, and the vehicle cost. Of course, it may be a combination of costs expressed by multiple indices, or may be a cost expressed by other indices. In addition, the cost may be defined by time period, such as the travel cost between two points for each hour in 24 hours, or by day of the week, such as weekdays and holidays.

[0021] In the example of the cost table shown in FIG. 2, the identification information of the boarding point is S A ,S B etc., the drop-off point is S a ,S b The arrows in the cost table indicate the direction of travel at each point. A→S a is boarding point S A From Drop-off point S a In the example shown in FIG. 2, the route has a cost C Aa As shown in FIG. 2, the cost table associates costs for the round trip (respectively going there and back) time and distance required for all boarding and disembarking points between the two points. In other words, the round trip cost is defined for each point because the time and distance required for travel between two points may vary depending on the road structure, such as the slope of the road, and the attributes of the road, such as one-way traffic. These costs are the cost of the entire route (the sum of the costs for each road section). Although not shown, the cost table may also include the vehicle cost when one more shuttle vehicle is added to the shuttle plan, as described above.

[0022] In this embodiment, the cost registered in the cost table may be corrected based on traffic information. That is, the cost associated with the route is specified based on, for example, the average travel time or distance for each road section, but the time required for travel may vary depending on the degree of congestion. Therefore, the control unit 210 specifies the road sections included in the route between each point registered in the cost table, and acquires information indicating the congestion degree of the specified road section from, for example, a traffic information management server (not shown). Then, based on the acquired congestion degree, the cost of the route is corrected. That is, the more severe the congestion, the longer the time required to travel the road section. Therefore, the control unit 210 increases or decreases the cost of each road section of each route according to the congestion degree. For example, when the congestion degree is expressed in three stages such as "empty", "slightly congested", and "congested", the control unit 20 does not correct the cost of the route of the empty road section, but corrects the cost of the route of the "slightly congested" road section and the cost of the route of the "congested" road section by multiplying them by a predetermined correction coefficient. The correction coefficient is set smaller for a traffic congestion level of slightly congested than for a traffic congestion level of congested.

[0023] The upper limit number of shuttle vehicles is the maximum number of shuttle vehicles that can be used in one shuttle plan. In the example shown in FIG. 2, the upper limit number of shuttle vehicles is shown as three. Note that since the upper limit number of shuttle vehicles is the number of shuttle vehicles that can be used in one shuttle plan, the number of shuttle vehicles used may be less than the upper limit number. In addition, the upper limit number of people per shuttle vehicle is specified. In the example shown in FIG. 2, the upper limit number of people per shuttle vehicle is shown as four people per vehicle, but the upper limit number of people may be different for each shuttle vehicle. In other words, the upper limit number of people may be defined for each vehicle type.

[0024] The maximum ride time defines the maximum ride time per user, and is defined as 45 minutes in the example shown in FIG. 2. Note that this maximum ride time may be defined as the time from picking up the first user to dropping off the last user. Alternatively, this maximum ride time may be defined by distance, etc. When defined by distance, for example, a maximum ride distance that is the maximum ride distance per user is defined (for example, a maximum ride distance of 10 km).

[0025] In this embodiment, the arrival time at each cram school, which is the destination of each user, and the departure time from the cram school are defined. The arrival time and departure time are defined based on the start time and end time of each cram school, for example, so that the arrival time is a time before the start time (for example, 30 minutes before the start time) and the departure time is a time after the end time (for example, 15 minutes after the end time). The arrival time and departure time may be determined for each shuttle vehicle, or multiple arrival times and departure times may be defined for each day.

[0026] In this manner, the shuttle request information in this embodiment is generated by the manager terminal 200, and the generated shuttle request information is transmitted to the visiting order determination system 10. The shuttle request information transmitted to the visiting order determination system 10 is recorded as shuttle request information 30a in the recording medium 30 described later. Note that the shuttle request information shown in FIG. 2 is an example, and other information may be defined. For example, the time required for the user to get on and off the shuttle vehicle, the allowable time width that is the allowable time width for departure or arrival, etc. may be defined. Also, the generation of this shuttle request information is an example, and for example, at least a part of the information in FIG. 2 may be generated by the manager terminal 200, and the remaining information may be generated by the visiting order determination system 10.

[0027] (1-2) Configuration of visiting order determination system: The visiting order determination system 10 comprises a control unit 20 equipped with a CPU, RAM, ROM, etc., a recording medium 30, and a communication unit 40. The communication unit 40 comprises circuits for sending and receiving information to and from the route search server 100 and the administrator terminal 200. The control unit 20 can communicate with the route search server 100 and the administrator terminal 200 via the communication unit 40.

[0028] Transportation request information 30a, map information 30b, and transportation plan information 30c are recorded in the recording medium 30. The transportation request information 30a is transportation request information generated by the above-mentioned manager terminal 200, and is recorded in the recording medium 30 by being transmitted from the manager terminal 200 to the visiting order determination system 10.

[0029] The map information 30b is information used to determine the order of visiting each boarding point and each disembarking point, and includes node data indicating the positions of nodes set on the roads on which the shuttle vehicle travels, shape interpolation point data indicating the positions of shape interpolation points for identifying the shapes of roads between nodes, link data indicating the connections between nodes, and feature data indicating the positions and attributes of features existing on the roads and their surroundings. The link data is associated with information indicating the cost of each road section indicated by the link data. The features can be the starting point and destination of the route. In this embodiment, the data indicating the features includes the attributes of the features (such as the type of facility). In this embodiment, these features can be the boarding points and disembarking points.

[0030] The shuttle plan information 30c is created based on the shuttle request information 30a indicating conditions for creating a shuttle plan including the visiting order. Specifically, using a known algorithm by the function of the control unit 20 described later, information indicating the visiting order and visiting route to each boarding point and each disembarking point is generated for each shuttle vehicle, and is recorded in the recording medium 30 as the shuttle plan information 30c.

[0031] The control unit 20 can execute a program stored in the recording medium 30 or the ROM. In this embodiment, the control unit 20 can execute a visiting order determination program 21 as this program. In a conventionally known pick-up and drop-off plan, when the visiting order is determined, the departure point of the pick-up and drop-off vehicle is fixed in advance (for example, fixed to a base or the like). For example, when a so-called moving vehicle is used as the pick-up and drop-off vehicle, it is not clear in what visiting order the boarding points and the disembarking points should be visited in order to shorten the user's boarding time and the boarding distance. Therefore, in this embodiment, when a so-called moving pick-up and drop-off vehicle is used, the visiting order to the boarding points and the disembarking points is determined so that the user's boarding time and the boarding distance are shortened. The visiting order determination program 21 is a program for determining the visiting order. When the visiting order determination program 21 is executed, the control unit 20 functions as an acquisition unit 21a, a visiting order determination unit 21b, and a display control unit 21c. In the following, the processes described as being performed by the acquisition unit 21a, the visiting order determination unit 21b, and the display control unit 21c are processes realized by the control unit 20.

[0032] The acquisition unit 21a is a function for acquiring the boarding point for each user, the number of passengers, the drop-off point for each user, the cost table, the upper limit number of shuttle vehicles, the upper limit number of passengers for each shuttle vehicle, the maximum boarding time, the arrival time at each cram school, and the departure time from each cram school. That is, the control unit 20 acquires the shuttle request information by referring to the shuttle request information 30a through the function of the acquisition unit 21a. The shuttle request information is transmitted from the manager terminal 200 to the visiting order determination system 10 at a predetermined timing, and is recorded in the recording medium 30 as the shuttle request information 30a.

[0033] The visit order determination unit 21b is a function that determines the visit order to each drop-off point. That is, the control unit 20 determines the visit order when picking up each user at each boarding point and delivering each user to each drop-off point. In this embodiment, the control unit 20 solves the PDP and creates a pick-up plan including the visit order based on the pick-up request information acquired by the function of the acquisition unit 21a, using the function of the visit order determination unit 21b. Specifically, the control unit 20 determines a provisional visit order for visiting each boarding point, with an arbitrary point among the drop-off points included in the acquired pick-up request information as a provisional departure point, and determines a visit order to each drop-off point with the final boarding point as the departure point in the determined provisional visit order. That is, the control unit 20 temporarily determines a visit order when returning to each boarding point from an arbitrary drop-off point as a provisional visit order, and determines a visit order of each point when sending the user to the drop-off point based on the provisional visit order. The "any point among the drop-off points" set as the provisional departure point is a point set as the final arrival point of the shuttle vehicle. For example, if the destination is a cram school, the cram school with the latest start time among the cram schools to be picked up and dropped off is set as the final arrival point. The any point among the drop-off points may be determined in advance by, for example, an administrator, or may be determined by the control unit 20 with reference to the pickup request information 30a. In addition, the control unit 20 solves the PDP using a known algorithm when determining a provisional visiting order by the function of the visiting order determination unit 21b in order to determine a provisional visiting order so as to minimize at least one of the total travel time and the total travel distance when sending multiple users to the drop-off points. Then, by solving this PDP, the number of shuttle vehicles to be used when visiting in the provisional visiting order is calculated. When determining a visiting order when sending users to the drop-off point by the visiting order determination unit 21b, the control unit 20 determines the visiting order for each of the calculated number of shuttle vehicles.

[0034] Furthermore, when determining the visiting order, the control unit 20, using the function of the visiting order determination unit 21b, solves the PDP again and determines the visiting order, with the last boarding point determined in the provisional visiting order as the departure point, an arbitrary disembarking point (for example, a cram school with the latest starting time) as the destination, and other boarding points and disembarking points as intermediate points.The control unit 20 then records the transportation plan including the determined visiting order in the recording medium 30 and transmits it to the manager terminal 200.

[0035] The display control unit 21c is a function that displays the visiting order determined by the visiting order determination unit 21b on the display unit of the user I / F unit 230. That is, the control unit 20, by the function of the display control unit 21c, refers to the transportation plan information 30c created by the visiting order determination unit 21b and displays the visiting order on the display unit. In addition, the control unit 20, by the function of the display control unit 21c, refers to the transportation plan information 30c and the map information 30b, superimposes each boarding point and each disembarking point on a map, transmits information that draws a visiting route to the manager terminal 200, and displays the map including the visiting route on the display unit of the user I / F unit 230 of the manager terminal 200. When the manager terminal 200 receives the information, the control unit 210 of the manager terminal 200 displays the information on the display unit of the user I / F unit 230. Note that specific aspects of each function of the control unit 20 will be described later in a flowchart.

[0036] According to the above configuration, the possibility that a user's travel time or travel distance will be long when using a so-called shuttle vehicle can be reduced; in other words, the possibility that the travel time or travel distance can be shortened can be increased.

[0037] (2) Visiting order determination process: Next, the visiting order determination process executed by the control unit 20 will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of the visiting order determination process. This visiting order determination process is started in response to a predetermined trigger, and for example, when a visiting order determination request is made by the manager, the trigger occurs. When the visiting order determination process is started, the control unit 20 first acquires the transportation request information 30a by referring to the function of the acquisition unit 21a (step S1). As described above, the transportation request information is generated in the manager terminal 200, transmitted from the manager terminal 200 to the visiting order determination system 10, and recorded as the transportation request information 30a in the recording medium 30. After acquiring the transportation request information, the control unit 20 advances the process to step S2.

[0038] In step S2, the control unit 20 uses the function of the visiting order determination unit 21b to determine whether or not the departure point of the shuttle vehicle has not been set (step S2). That is, the control unit 20 refers to the shuttle request information 30a and determines whether or not the shuttle request information 30a includes information on the departure point of the shuttle vehicle. If the shuttle request information 30a does not include information on the departure point of the shuttle vehicle, the process proceeds to step S3. As described above, in this embodiment, a shuttle vehicle with an unfixed departure point is used, so-called a free-roaming shuttle vehicle, and therefore the determination in step S2 is affirmative.

[0039] In step S3, the control unit 20 determines a provisional visiting order by using the function of the visiting order determination unit 21b, with an arbitrary drop-off point as a provisional departure point. The process of determining this provisional visiting order is a process for determining the first visiting point of the shuttle vehicle. Specifically, the control unit 20 refers to the shuttle request information 30a and sets an arbitrary drop-off point among the drop-off points as a provisional departure point. As described above, this arbitrary point among the drop-off points is a point set as the final arrival point of the shuttle vehicle, and for example, the cram school with the latest start time among the cram schools to be picked up and dropped off (for example, Cram School A in the example of FIG. 2) is set as the final arrival point. Note that the arbitrary point among the drop-off points is determined in advance by, for example, an administrator, and the information is recorded in the shuttle request information 30a, and the control unit 20 may set the arbitrary drop-off point as a provisional departure point based on the shuttle request information 30a. In addition, when setting the provisional visiting order, the control unit 20 refers to the shuttle request information 30a to extract each boarding point and set the extracted boarding point as a stopover point. At this time, the control unit 20 does not set the drop-off point as a stopover point. This is because if a tentative visiting order that has the minimum cost is determined including the drop-off point, there is a possibility that the drop-off point will be the first visiting point of the shuttle vehicle. Then, the control unit 20 solves the PDP using other information included in the shuttle request information 30a (e.g., the maximum number of shuttle vehicles, etc.) as input parameters, and calculates the tentative visiting order. That is, in this step S3, the control unit 20 determines the visiting order (i.e., the tentative visiting order) when returning from the final arrival point "A Cram School" to each boarding point.

[0040] Here, the process of solving the PDP will be described. The control unit 20 solves the PDP and determines a tentative visiting order by the function of the visiting order determination unit 21b. At this time, the control unit 20 refers to the transportation request information 30a including the cost table and determines a tentative visiting order by a known algorithm so as to minimize at least one of the costs of the total travel time and the total travel distance. Specifically, in order to create a plan to deliver the user to the boarding point with the above-mentioned arbitrary drop-off point as a tentative starting point, the control unit 20 refers to the transportation request information 30a and acquires all points including the arbitrary drop-off point and each boarding point, and the cost required for traveling from the arbitrary drop-off point to each boarding point. The cost required for this travel is based on the cost table included in the transportation request information 30a. At this time, the control unit 20 adds the boarding points, which are the visiting destinations, one by one to the starting point, and determines a tentative visiting order so as to minimize the cost required for travel. Furthermore, when determining the provisional visiting order, the control unit 20 refers to the shuttle request information 30a to acquire constraint conditions such as the upper limit number of shuttle vehicles (i.e., the number of available shuttle vehicles), the upper limit number of passengers per shuttle vehicle, and the maximum riding time, and determines the provisional visiting order after imposing the constraint conditions. When such constraint conditions are imposed, for example, plans that exceed the upper limit number of shuttle vehicles, plans that exceed the upper limit number of passengers per shuttle vehicle, or plans that exceed the maximum riding time are excluded even if the cost required for travel is reduced. In this way, in this embodiment, the control unit 20 determines a provisional visiting order that minimizes the cost indicated by the objective function while satisfying the constraint conditions. The control unit 20 records the shuttle plan including the determined provisional visiting order in the recording medium 30.

[0041] Then, by determining the tentative visiting order, the number of shuttle vehicles to be used when going from the tentative departure point to each boarding point is calculated. Furthermore, if multiple shuttle vehicles are used, the visiting order is determined for each shuttle vehicle. Generally, it is assumed that the travel time and travel distance are minimized when the upper limit number of shuttle vehicles is larger. In other words, if the vehicle cost when the above-mentioned shuttle vehicle to be used is increased by one is not defined in the cost, it is assumed that the number of shuttle vehicles calculated when the tentative visiting order is determined will be the upper limit number. On the other hand, if the vehicle cost when the shuttle vehicle to be used is increased by one is defined in the cost, the cost including the travel time, travel distance, and number of shuttle vehicles to be used is minimized.

[0042] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a route including a tentative visiting order determined by minimizing costs including travel time, travel distance, and the number of shuttle vehicles used. "●" indicates each boarding point, the solid and dashed lines shown in thick lines indicate the route for each shuttle vehicle, and the number attached to each boarding point indicates the tentative visiting order. The arrows indicate the direction of the route. Note that A, B, and C schools indicated by "☆" indicate each drop-off point, but since the drop-off points are not parameters for determining the visiting order when determining the tentative visiting order, the drop-off points are not assigned numbers indicating the visiting order. Note that the gray objects attached to each boarding point indicated by "●" indicate the number of passengers at each boarding point. As can be seen from FIG. 4, the route in the tentative visiting order is a straight line extending from "A School", which is the tentative starting point, without returning in the direction of the tentative starting point, and the final boarding point is the point farthest from the tentative starting point on the route of each shuttle vehicle. In addition, when visiting each boarding point from the tentative departure point in this tentative visiting order, two shuttle vehicles are used. In addition, if the number of shuttle vehicles calculated by determining the tentative visiting order increases, the route in the tentative visiting order will be a route that extends radially or linearly from the tentative departure point "A Juku."

[0043] Next, the control unit 20 acquires the number of shuttle vehicles to be used and the tentative visiting order by using the function of the visiting order determination unit 21b (step S4). That is, the control unit 20 refers to the recording medium 30 and specifies the tentative visiting order and the number of shuttle vehicles to be used when visiting each boarding point from the tentative departure point in the tentative visiting order.

[0044] Then, the control unit 20, by using the function of the visiting order determination unit 21b, determines the visiting order to each drop-off point with the final boarding point in the provisional visiting order as the starting point (step S5). Specifically, the control unit 20 identifies the final boarding point (the final boarding point when returning from the provisional starting point to the boarding point) in the provisional visiting order for each shuttle vehicle to be used. Then, the control unit 20 sets the starting point to the identified final boarding point for each shuttle vehicle, and determines the visiting order with "A Cram School", which is the final arrival point, as the destination.

[0045] In addition, when determining this visiting order, the control unit 20 solves the PDP again with the final boarding point as the departure point, the final arrival point "A-juku" as the destination, and the other boarding points and disembarking points as intermediate points. That is, the control unit 20 refers to the cost table included in the transportation request information 30a and determines the visiting order when delivering the user to the disembarking point so that at least one of the costs of the total travel time and the total travel distance is minimized. In addition, when solving the PDP, the control unit 20 determines the visiting order with the number of transportation vehicles acquired in the above-mentioned step S4 as a condition. Then, the control unit 20 records the transportation plan including the visiting order thus determined in the recording medium 30 as transportation plan information 30c.

[0046] Next, when the control unit 20 records the shuttle plan information 30c in the recording medium 30, it causes the display unit in the user I / F unit 230 to display the visiting order determined in step S5 (step S6). That is, the control unit 20 transmits the shuttle plan information 30c including the visiting order to the manager terminal 200 via the communication unit 40 by using the function of the display control unit 21c. As a result, the manager can recognize the visiting order to each boarding point and disembarking point. The manager terminal 200, which has acquired the shuttle plan information 30c including the visiting order, transmits the shuttle plan information 30c to the driver of each shuttle vehicle (not shown). As a result, the driver of each shuttle vehicle can recognize the visiting order.

[0047] Furthermore, when the control unit 20 displays the visiting order on the display unit of the user I / F unit 230 by using the function of the display control unit 21c, it may simply display the visiting order (such as point A → point B → point C, etc.), but it is preferable to display the visiting route on the display unit as well. Specifically, the control unit 20 outputs information on the points (i.e., each boarding point, each disembarking point, etc.) that are the subject of the route search and information on the visiting order to the route search server 100. Upon receiving an instruction to search for a route, the route search server 100 refers to map information recorded in a recording medium (not shown) and searches for a route that visits the boarding points and disembarking points according to the acquired visiting order. Note that the route search may be performed using various algorithms, and for example, the Dijkstra algorithm, the A* algorithm, or improved algorithms thereof may be adopted. In addition, the travel cost when searching for a route may be based on the cost when the visiting order is determined, or may be the travel cost included in the map information recorded in the route search server 100. The map information in the route search server 100 includes, for example, the travel cost of each link. The travel cost may be determined in various ways, for example, the travel time obtained from probe traffic information corresponding to each link or the travel time generated from VICS information may be regarded as the travel cost.

[0048] Then, information indicating the route searched in this manner is transmitted from the route search server 100 to the visiting order determination system 10. Having acquired the information indicating the route, the visiting order determination system 10 refers to the map information 30b using the function of the display control unit 21c, superimposes the boarding point which is the departure point, the disembarking point which is the final arrival point, each of the other boarding points and disembarking points, and the visiting route on a map, and displays the map on the display unit in the user I / F unit 230.

[0049] FIG. 5 is an example of a display unit that superimposes a visiting route including a visiting order on a map, and shows a route when visiting each boarding point of a user and delivering the user to each alighting point (i.e., each destination). As in the example of FIG. 4, "●" indicates each boarding point, each solid line and each dashed line shown in thick lines indicate the route for each shuttle vehicle, and "☆" indicates alighting points for Cram School A, Cram School B, and Cram School C, and a gray object attached to each boarding point indicated by "●" indicates the number of passengers at each boarding point. The numbers attached to the boarding points and alighting points indicate the visiting order of each point. In the example shown in FIG. 5, the number of shuttle vehicles calculated when the tentative visiting order was determined is two, and a visiting route including the visiting order of the two shuttle vehicles is shown.

[0050] If the above step S2 is negative, that is, if the departure point of the shuttle vehicle is set (for example, set to the shuttle vehicle's office, etc.) in the shuttle request information 30a acquired in step S1, the control unit 20 determines the visiting order by a conventionally known means (step S7). In this case, the control unit 20 uses the function of the visiting order determination unit 21b to fix the departure point to the shuttle vehicle's office, etc., and determine the visiting order to the drop-off points by solving the PDP. The algorithm for solving the PDP is as described above, so its explanation is omitted here. Then, after the control unit 20 determines the visiting order in step S7, the process proceeds to step S6, and the determined visiting order is displayed on the display unit.

[0051] Next, the effects of this embodiment will be described. As described above, in this embodiment, when determining the visiting order when sending a user to a drop-off point, the control unit 20 determines a tentative visiting order for visiting the boarding point of the user, with an arbitrary drop-off point (in this embodiment, the final arrival point based on the start time of each cram school) as a tentative departure point. Then, the visiting order to the drop-off point is determined with the final boarding point in the determined tentative visiting order as the departure point. That is, in the visiting order determination system 10, the first visiting point of the shuttle vehicle is determined by first determining the final boarding point when the boarding point is visited with the drop-off point, which is the final arrival point, as the tentative departure point. Furthermore, the visiting order to the drop-off point is determined with the determined first visiting point (the final boarding point in the tentative visiting order) as the departure point. Then, in this embodiment, a so-called free-roaming shuttle vehicle is used as the shuttle vehicle. This makes it possible to optimize the user's boarding time and distance when, for example, a free-roaming shuttle vehicle with no fixed departure point is used as the shuttle vehicle (that is, the possibility of the boarding time and distance becoming longer can be reduced). In other words, it is possible to increase the possibility of shortening the ride time and the ride distance. Note that a vehicle that runs near the last boarding point in the tentative visiting order is assigned as the shuttle vehicle. This reduces the possibility of the user's ride time and the ride distance becoming longer than when, for example, a shuttle vehicle whose departure point is fixed at a business office or the like is used.

[0052] In addition, in this embodiment, the control unit 20 calculates the number of shuttle vehicles to be used when determining the tentative visiting order, and determines the visiting order for each of the calculated number of shuttle vehicles. That is, the number of shuttle vehicles to be used to transport users is the number calculated in the tentative visiting order. As a result, when determining the visiting order, there is no need to calculate the number of shuttle vehicles required again, that is, the number of shuttle vehicles calculated in the tentative visiting order can be used as is. As a result, the processing load of the control unit 20 can be reduced compared to the case where the number of shuttle vehicles is calculated again. In addition, if each boarding point and each disembarking point are visited with a number of shuttle vehicles different from the number calculated in the tentative visiting order, the user's boarding time and boarding distance may be longer, but by using the number of shuttle vehicles calculated in the tentative visiting order in this way, the possibility of the boarding time and boarding distance being longer can be reduced.

[0053] In addition, in the above embodiment, when determining the tentative visiting order, the control unit 20 determines the tentative visiting order so as to minimize at least one of the total travel time and the total travel distance when sending the user to the drop-off point. As a result, the visiting order is a visiting order in which at least one of the total travel time and the total travel distance in the tentative visiting order is minimized, so that when determining the visiting order, the visiting order can be determined at the minimum cost, similar to the tentative visiting order. In addition, in this embodiment, the cost required for travel may include the cost corresponding to the travel time and the cost corresponding to the travel distance, as well as the vehicle cost when adding one more shuttle vehicle to be used. In that case, in addition to the total travel time and the total travel distance, the cost of the shuttle vehicle to be used is also minimized. Therefore, compared to the case where the cost required for travel is minimized by the cost corresponding to the travel time or the travel distance, for example, the number of parameters that define the cost increases, so that the visiting order can be determined based on a more accurate cost (i.e., a more minimized cost).

[0054] In addition, in this embodiment, the control unit 20 displays the route including the visiting order on the display unit of the user I / F unit 230 in the manager terminal 200. This allows the manager to recognize the visiting route in addition to the visiting order. It is also assumed that the manager transmits information on the visiting route including the visiting order to each shuttle vehicle. Therefore, the driver of each shuttle vehicle can also recognize the visiting route in addition to the visiting order.

[0055] (3) Other embodiments: The above embodiment is an example for implementing the present invention, and various other embodiments can be adopted. For example, the decision of the visiting order may be realized by another external server (for example, a PDP server).

[0056] In addition, each system constituting the above-mentioned embodiment may be configured with fewer devices that share functions. An example of such a case is an example in which at least one system shown in FIG. 1 is configured with the same device as one or more other systems. For example, the visiting order determination system 10 and the manager terminal 200 may be configured with an integrated device, the visiting order determination system 10 and the route search server 100 may be configured with an integrated device, or the manager terminal 200 and the route search server 100 may be configured with an integrated device. In addition, the system shown in FIG. 1 may be configured with a larger number of systems. For example, at least a part of the visiting order determination system 10, the manager terminal 200, and the route search server 100 may be configured with a cloud server.

[0057] At least some of the components (acquisition unit 21a, visiting order determination unit 21b, display control unit 21c) constituting visiting order determination system 10 may be separated into multiple devices. Furthermore, configurations in which some of the components of the above-described embodiment are omitted, or configurations in which processing is changed or omitted, may be envisioned.

[0058] Furthermore, the technique of the present invention can also be applied as a program or method. The above-mentioned system, program, and method may be realized as a single device or may be realized by using parts shared with each part provided in the vehicle, and include various aspects. In addition, they can be modified as appropriate, such as being partly software and partly hardware. Furthermore, the invention can also be realized as a recording medium of a program that controls the system. Of course, the recording medium of the program may be a magnetic recording medium or a semiconductor memory, and any recording medium developed in the future can be considered in the same way. [Explanation of symbols]

[0059] 10... visiting order determination system, 20... control unit, 21... visiting order determination program, 21a... acquisition unit, 21b... visiting order determination unit, 21c... display control unit, 30... recording medium, 30a... pick-up / drop-off request information, 30b... map information, 30c... pick-up / drop-off plan information, 40... communication unit, 100... route search server, 200... administrator terminal, 210... control unit, 220... communication unit, 230... user I / F unit, 240... recording medium.

Claims

1. A visiting sequence determination system that determines a visiting sequence when a shuttle vehicle transports a plurality of customers to their respective drop-off points, An acquisition unit that acquires each of the boarding points of the plurality of customers and the alighting points of the plurality of customers; a visiting order determination unit that determines the visiting order to the drop-off points, The visiting order determination unit, determining a tentative visiting order for visiting the boarding point from an arbitrary one of the drop-off points as a tentative starting point; determining the visiting order to the disembarking points by setting the last boarding point in the determined provisional visiting order as a starting point; Visit sequence determination system.

2. The visiting order determination unit, Calculating the number of shuttle vehicles to be used when determining the tentative visiting order; The visiting order is determined based on the calculated number of shuttle vehicles. The visiting sequence determination system according to claim 1 .

3. The visiting order determination unit, determining the tentative visiting sequence so as to minimize at least one of a total travel time and a total travel distance when transporting the plurality of customers to the drop-off points; The visiting sequence determination system according to claim 1 .

4. a display control unit that causes a display unit to display the determined visiting order; The display control unit is displaying the route including the visiting order on the display unit; The visiting sequence determination system according to claim 1 .

Images