Electronic device and method for managing delivery orders

Abstract

An electronic device according to various embodiments of the present disclosure may be configured to receive a plurality of delivery orders, select a first delivery order from the plurality of delivery orders, confirm a departure point and an arrival point of the first delivery order, determine a second delivery order from the plurality of delivery orders, the second delivery order having a departure point close to the departure point of the first delivery order and a arrival point close to the arrival point of the first delivery order, combine the first delivery order and the second delivery order into one virtual first delivery order, determine a first delivery person to assign the first virtual delivery order based on the current locations of each of a plurality of delivery persons available for delivery, and generate a delivery route for the first delivery person to process the first virtual delivery order and transmit the route to a terminal device of the first delivery person.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present disclosure relates to techniques for managing delivery orders. [Background technology]

[0002] A customer can place a delivery order requesting delivery of a specific item (e.g., food), and the corresponding specific item can be delivered to the customer. A delivery person (or delivery partner) can pick up the specific item from a retailer and deliver it to the customer's desired location. However, since resources required to make deliveries (e.g., the number of delivery people) are limited, it is required that the most suitable delivery person be assigned to the delivery order to be processed. Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0003] According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, a technical problem is to efficiently deliver delivery orders by identifying two delivery orders that can be efficiently delivered together, combining them, and assigning them to one delivery person. [Means for solving the problem]

[0004] An electronic device according to various embodiments of the present disclosure may include a communications circuit, a processor, and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations. The processor according to various embodiments may be configured to receive a plurality of delivery orders from a terminal device of each of a plurality of customers, select a first delivery order from the plurality of delivery orders, confirm an origin and an destination of the first delivery order, determine a second delivery order from the plurality of delivery orders having an origin that is proximate to the origin of the first delivery order and an destination that is proximate to the destination of the first delivery order, combine the first delivery order and the second delivery order into a first virtual delivery order, determine a first delivery person to assign the first virtual delivery order based on the current locations of each of a plurality of available delivery persons, and generate a delivery route for the first delivery person to process the first virtual delivery order and transmit the route to the terminal device of the first delivery person.

[0005] In various embodiments, the processor may be configured to divide map data into a plurality of tiles having a predetermined size, identify a first tile and a second tile corresponding to the departure location and arrival location of the first delivery order, respectively, identify whether there is a first candidate delivery order among the plurality of delivery orders whose departure location is located in the first tile and whose arrival location is located in the second tile, and in response to the existence of the first candidate delivery order, determine the first candidate delivery order as the second delivery order.

[0006] In various embodiments, the processor may be configured to, in response to the first candidate delivery order not being present among the plurality of delivery orders, determine whether a second candidate delivery order exists whose departure location is located in one of at least one first adjacent tile adjacent to the first tile and whose arrival location is located in the second tile, and, in response to the second candidate delivery order being present, determine the second candidate delivery order to be the second delivery order.

[0007] In various embodiments, the processor may be configured, in response to the absence of any delivery order among the plurality of delivery orders whose departure location is located in the first tile and whose arrival location is located in the second tile, to check whether there is a third candidate delivery order whose departure location is located in the first tile and whose arrival location is located in one of at least one second adjacent tile adjacent to the second tile, and, in response to the presence of the third candidate delivery order, to determine the third candidate delivery order as the second delivery order.

[0008] In various embodiments, the processor may be configured, in response to the absence of any delivery order among the plurality of delivery orders whose departure location is located in the first tile and whose arrival location is located in the second tile, to check whether there is a fourth candidate delivery order whose departure location is located in one of at least one first adjacent tile adjacent to the first tile and whose arrival location is located in one of at least one second adjacent tile adjacent to the second tile, and, in response to the presence of the fourth candidate delivery order, to determine the fourth candidate delivery order as the second delivery order.

[0009] The size of the tiles according to various embodiments may be determined based on the number of the plurality of staff members.

[0010] According to various embodiments, the processor may be configured to determine the second delivery order in response to the number of delivery personnel being less than the number of delivery orders.

[0011] In various embodiments, the processor may be configured to calculate an expected travel time to the origin of the first delivery order or the origin of the second delivery order for each of the plurality of delivery personnel, and determine the delivery personnel among the plurality of delivery personnel with the shortest calculated expected travel time as the first delivery personnel.

[0012] In various embodiments, the processor may be configured to calculate, for each of the plurality of delivery personnel, an expected travel time to the origin of the first delivery order or the origin of the second delivery order based on the current locations of the plurality of delivery personnel, traffic conditions, weather conditions, and an average travel speed of each of the plurality of delivery personnel.

[0013] In various embodiments, the processor may be configured to generate a plurality of candidate delivery routes for delivering the first virtual delivery order, calculate an estimated delivery time for each of the plurality of candidate delivery routes, determine the candidate delivery route with the shortest estimated delivery time as the delivery route for processing the first virtual delivery order, and transmit the determined delivery route to a terminal device of the first delivery person.

[0014] In various embodiments, the processor may be configured to determine the delivery order with the oldest order acceptance time among the plurality of delivery orders as the first delivery order.

[0015] A method for managing delivery orders of an electronic device according to various embodiments disclosed herein may include operations of receiving a plurality of delivery orders from respective terminal devices of a plurality of customers, selecting a first delivery order from the plurality of delivery orders, confirming the origin and destination of the first delivery order, determining a second delivery order from the plurality of delivery orders, the second delivery order having an origin close to the origin of the first delivery order and an destination close to the destination of the first delivery order, combining the first delivery order and the second delivery order into one virtual first delivery order, determining a first delivery person to assign the first virtual delivery order based on the current locations of each of a plurality of available delivery persons, and generating a delivery route for the first delivery person to process the first virtual delivery order and transmitting the route to the terminal device of the first delivery person. [Effects of the Invention]

[0016] According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, delivery orders can be fulfilled efficiently by identifying two delivery orders that can be efficiently delivered together, combining them together, and assigning them to a single delivery person. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0017] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 illustrates a system according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 2] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electronic device according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 3] FIG. 1 is an operational flow diagram of an electronic device according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 4] FIG. 1 is an operational flow diagram of an electronic device according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 5] FIG. 1 is an operational flow diagram of an electronic device according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0018] The examples of the present disclosure are provided for the purpose of explaining the technical concept of the present disclosure, and the scope of the rights of the present disclosure is not limited to the examples presented below or the specific descriptions of these examples.

[0019] Unless otherwise specified, all technical and scientific terms used in this disclosure have the meanings commonly understood by those of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. All terms used in this disclosure have been selected for the purpose of more clearly describing this disclosure, and are not selected to limit the scope of rights related to this disclosure.

[0020] As used in this disclosure, terms such as "including," "comprising," "having," and the like should be understood as open-ended terms that include the possibility of including other embodiments, unless otherwise specified in the phrase or sentence in which the term is included.

[0021] In this disclosure, the singular terms "a," "an," and "the" may include the plural meaning unless otherwise specified, and this also applies to the singular terms recited in the claims.

[0022] The terms "first", "second", etc. used in this disclosure are used to distinguish between multiple elements, and do not limit the order or importance of the elements.

[0023] The term "module" as used in this disclosure refers to software or hardware components such as a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). However, a "module" is not limited to hardware and software, and may be configured to reside on an addressable storage medium or to implement one or more processors. Thus, by way of example, a "module" includes components such as software components, object-oriented software components, class components, and task components, as well as processors, functions, attributes, procedures, subroutines, program code segments, drivers, firmware, microcode, circuits, data, databases, data structures, tables, arrays, and variables. Additionally, the functionality provided within components and "modules" may be combined into fewer components and "modules" or further separated into additional components and "modules."

[0024] As used in this document, the phrase "based on" is used to describe one or more factors that influence the decision, act of judgment, or action described in the phrase or sentence in which it appears, and does not exclude additional factors that influence that decision, act of judgment, or action.

[0025] In this disclosure, when a component is referred to as being "coupled" or "connected" to another component, it should be understood that the component is directly coupled or connected to the other component, or is coupled or connected through yet another component.

[0026] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the accompanying drawings, identical or corresponding components are designated by the same reference numerals. Furthermore, in the following description of the embodiments, duplicated descriptions of identical or corresponding components may be omitted. However, omission of a description of a component does not mean that the component is not included in any of the embodiments.

[0027] FIG. 1 illustrates a system 10 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. The system 10 may include an electronic device 110, multiple customer terminal devices 120, and multiple delivery personnel terminal devices 130. The electronic device 110 may be a server device that manages delivery orders using the technology disclosed herein. The electronic device 110 determines and assigns a delivery personnel appropriate for each delivery order, thereby ensuring that each delivery order is handled by the most appropriate delivery personnel. The multiple customer terminal devices 120 and the multiple delivery personnel terminal devices 130 may be devices in various forms, such as portable communication devices, tablet devices, computers, portable multimedia devices, or wearable devices. The multiple customer terminal devices 120 and the multiple delivery personnel terminal devices 120 are installed with a delivery order management application disclosed herein, and multiple customers and multiple delivery personnel may execute the application to generate or assign delivery orders. In this document, multiple customer terminal devices 120 may be described as multiple customer terminal devices 120, and multiple delivery staff terminal devices 130 may be described as multiple delivery staff terminal devices 130, respectively.

[0028] A customer can generate a delivery order for a specific item (e.g., food) using their own terminal device 120. The customer can generate a delivery order for the specific item using an application installed on the terminal device 120. The customer terminal device 120 can transmit the generated delivery order to the electronic device 110. A delivery order as disclosed herein may be a request to have the specific item delivered to a location specified by the customer. The delivery order may include information about the specific item to be delivered, information about the store (or restaurant) selling the specific item (e.g., the store's location), information about the desired delivery location (or delivery address) specified by the customer, and other information necessary for delivering the specific item. In other words, a customer can refer to a user who requests delivery of a specific item and has the specific item delivered to a desired location by generating a delivery order.

[0029] According to various embodiments, the customer terminal device 120 and the delivery person terminal device 130 are connected to the electronic device 110 via a network and can transmit and receive various data. The electronic device 110 can receive a delivery order from the customer terminal device 120 and determine a delivery person to process the received delivery order. The electronic device 110 can assign the delivery order to the determined delivery person and transmit the delivery order to the terminal device 130 of the determined delivery person. The delivery person can process the assigned delivery order. Specifically, the delivery person can visit the origin of the delivery order (e.g., a store) to pick up the delivery items and deliver the delivery items to the destination of the delivery order (e.g., a delivery address requested by the customer).

[0030] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an electronic device 110 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0031] 2 , an electronic device 110 according to various embodiments may include a processor 111, a memory 113, and a communication circuit 115. At least one of the components included in the electronic device 110 may be omitted, and other components may be added to the electronic device 110. Additionally or alternatively, some components may be integrated or embodied as one or more individual components. At least some of the components in the electronic device 110 may be connected to each other via a bus, a general purpose input / output (GPIO), a serial peripheral interface (SPI), a mobile industry processor interface (MIPI), or the like, and may exchange data and / or signals.

[0032] According to various embodiments, the processor 111 of the electronic device 110 may be configured to perform calculations or data processing related to control and / or communication with each component of the electronic device 110 (e.g., memory 113). The processor 111 may, for example, be operatively coupled to the components of the electronic device 110. The processor 111 may load instructions or data received from other components of the electronic device 110 into the memory 113, process the instructions or data stored in the memory 113, and store the resulting data. The processor 111 disclosed herein may refer to a collection of one or more processors 111. According to various embodiments, the memory 113 of the electronic device 110 may store instructions for the operation of the processor 111.

[0033] According to various embodiments, the communication circuitry 115 of the electronic device 110 can establish a wired or wireless communication channel with an external device (e.g., the terminal device 120) and transmit and receive various data to and from the external device. According to one embodiment, the communication circuitry 115 can include at least one port for connecting to an external device via a wired cable for wired communication with the external device. In this case, the communication circuitry 115 can communicate with the wired external device through the at least one port. According to one embodiment, the communication circuitry 115 can include a cellular communication module and be configured to connect to a cellular network (e.g., 3G, LTE, 5G, Wibro, or Wimax). According to various embodiments, the communication circuitry 115 can include a short-range communication module and can transmit and receive data to and from the external device using short-range communication (e.g., but not limited to, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), and UWB). According to one embodiment, the communication circuitry 115 can include a contactless communication module for contactless communication. The contactless communication may include at least one contactless proximity communication technology, such as near field communication (NFC) communication, radio frequency identification (RFID) communication, or magnetic secure transmission (MST) communication.

[0034] Figure 3 is an operational flow diagram of the electronic device 110 according to various embodiments. Specifically, Figure 3 is an operational flow diagram of how the electronic device 110 manages delivery orders.

[0035] Referring to operation flow diagram 300, the processor 111 of the electronic device 110 according to various embodiments may perform a delivery order merging process in operation 310. The processor 111 may receive multiple delivery orders from multiple customer terminal devices 120. The processor 111 may combine some of the multiple delivery orders. When the processor 111 determines that it is more efficient for a specific delivery order to be combined with other delivery orders and delivered collectively by a single delivery person than for the specific delivery order to be delivered alone, the processor 111 may merge the two delivery orders. That is, the processor 111 may determine and merge at least one pair of two delivery orders that are determined to be appropriate for combined delivery. A specific method for selecting delivery orders to be merged will be described in operations 410 to 450 of FIG. 4, which will be described later.

[0036] For example, suppose there are five delivery orders from multiple customer terminal devices 120. Generally, five delivery staff are assigned one of the five delivery orders, and each of the five delivery staff can handle one assigned delivery order. However, if the number of delivery staff is fewer than the number of delivery orders, it may be preferable for one delivery staff to handle two delivery orders in order to complete the delivery orders quickly. For example, if three delivery staff are currently available to deliver, it may be preferable for two of them to handle two delivery orders each, and for one staff to handle the remaining one delivery order. In this case, the two delivery orders can be combined into one virtual delivery order, and one virtual delivery order can be assigned to one delivery staff.

[0037] For example, suppose there are 50 delivery orders from multiple customer terminal devices 120. Of these, 30 may be determined as individual deliveries, i.e., single delivery orders in which one delivery person processes each delivery order, and the remaining 20 may be determined as bulk delivery orders in which two delivery orders are grouped together to generate 10 virtual delivery orders (or delivery order pairs), each of which is processed by one delivery person. The number of virtual delivery orders may be determined based on the total expected travel distance of the delivery people. In addition, the characteristics of the items to be delivered (e.g., hot food), traffic factors, and / or weather may also be taken into consideration when determining the number of virtual delivery orders.

[0038] The processor 111 according to various embodiments may perform a matching process in operation 320. The matching process may be a process of matching currently undelivered delivery orders and virtual delivery orders with delivery personnel who are currently available for delivery. The processor 111 may analyze which delivery personnel should be assigned to each delivery order and virtual delivery order, taking into account the starting point (e.g., the location of the store where the delivery item is to be received) and the destination (e.g., the delivery address requested by the customer) of each order, and may match the most suitable delivery personnel. The memory 113 of the electronic device 110 may store the delivery means (e.g., motorcycle, bicycle, electric bicycle, walking) used by each of the multiple delivery personnel and the average travel speed of each delivery personnel. The processor 111 may assign a relatively higher score (or weight) to delivery orders generated by newly registered customers and match the delivery orders with delivery personnel who use faster travel means. The processor 111 may assign a relatively higher score to delivery orders that have been received a long time ago and match them with a delivery person who uses a faster means of transportation.

[0039] The processor 111 according to various embodiments may perform a delivery route generation process in operation 330. The delivery route generation process may refer to a process of generating an optimal delivery route for a delivery person to process an assigned delivery order or a virtual delivery order, and transmitting the optimal delivery route to the delivery person terminal device 130. A method for generating an optimal delivery route will be described below.

[0040] FIG. 4 is an operational flow diagram of the electronic device 110 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0041] Referring to operational flow diagram 400, in operation 410, the processor 111 of the electronic device 110 according to various embodiments can receive a plurality of delivery orders from respective terminal devices 120 of a plurality of customers. Each of the plurality of customers can generate a plurality of orders using a terminal device. Each of the plurality of customers' terminal devices 120 can transmit the generated orders to the electronic device 110. The processor 111 of the electronic device 110 can receive the plurality of delivery orders generated by each of the plurality of customers' terminal devices 120. For example, the processor 111 can receive a first delivery order generated by the terminal device 120 of a first customer, a second delivery order generated by the terminal device 120 of a second customer, and a third delivery order generated by the terminal device 120 of a third customer.

[0042] In various embodiments, the processor 111 may select a first delivery order from the plurality of delivery orders at operation 420. The processor 111 may select a first delivery order from the plurality of delivery orders to combine with other delivery orders. The processor 111 may select the first delivery order randomly from the plurality of delivery orders or may select the first delivery order from a particular area with a high concentration of delivery orders.

[0043] The processor 111 can determine the delivery order with the oldest order reception time as the first delivery order among the multiple delivery orders. Therefore, the processor 111 can first assign a delivery person to the delivery order with the longest elapsed time since order reception.

[0044] In various embodiments, the processor 111 may confirm the origin and destination of the first delivery order at operation 430. The processor 111 may confirm the location of the retailer of the product associated with the first delivery order (i.e., the location of the product pickup location) and the delivery destination of the product as the origin and destination of the first delivery order.

[0045] The processor 111 may divide the map data into a plurality of tiles having a predetermined size. For example, the processor 111 may divide the map data into regular hexagonal tiles with each side having a length of 500 m. The processor 111 may identify tiles corresponding to the departure point and arrival point of the first delivery order. The processor 111 may identify the tile including the departure point of the first delivery order as the first tile and the tile including the arrival point of the first delivery order as the second tile. The above-described tile sizes are merely examples, and the tile size may be determined based on the number of delivery personnel. For example, the processor 111 may set the tile size to be larger as the number of delivery personnel decreases. According to still another embodiment, the tiles may be hexagonal or rectangular in shape in addition to regular hexagonal shapes.

[0046] In various embodiments, the processor 111 may determine, at operation 440, a second delivery order from among the plurality of delivery orders, the second delivery order having a departure location close to the departure location of the first delivery order and a destination location close to the destination location of the first delivery order. That is, two delivery orders having departure locations and destination locations close to each other are suitable for delivery by a single delivery person, so the processor 111 may determine the second delivery order having a departure location and destination location close to the departure location and destination location of the first delivery order. A specific method for determining the second delivery order will be described later.

[0047] In various embodiments, the processor 111 may combine the first delivery order and the second delivery order into a single virtual first delivery order at operation 450. In this case, a matching program that matches delivery personnel with delivery orders one-to-one may treat the virtual delivery order as the same as a delivery order, and may recognize the virtual delivery order, which is the combination of two delivery orders, as a single delivery order. Therefore, in order to use the matching program, the first delivery order and the second delivery order may be combined into a single virtual first delivery order.

[0048] For example, assume that five delivery orders have been received and three delivery personnel are available. Processor 111 may combine the first and second delivery orders, which have origins and destinations that are close to each other, as a first virtual delivery order, and combine the third and fourth delivery orders, which have origins and destinations that are close to each other, as a second virtual delivery order. The fifth delivery order may not be combined with any other delivery orders. In this case, the first virtual delivery order may be assigned to the first delivery personnel, the second virtual delivery order to the second delivery personnel, and the fifth delivery order to the third delivery personnel.

[0049] In various embodiments, the processor 111 may determine a first delivery person to assign the first virtual delivery order based on the current locations of each of a plurality of delivery persons available for delivery at operation 460. The processor 111 may confirm the origins of each of the first and second delivery orders included in the first virtual delivery order. The processor 111 may determine a first delivery person from among the plurality of delivery persons who is suitable for handling the first virtual delivery order based on the origins of each of the first and second delivery orders.

[0050] The processor 111 may determine the delivery person among the plurality of delivery persons with the shortest expected travel time to the origin of the first delivery order or the origin of the second delivery order as the first delivery person. The processor 111 may calculate the expected travel time to the origin of the first delivery order or the origin of the second delivery order for each of the plurality of delivery persons. For example, the processor 111 may check the current location of the specific delivery person and the distance from the origin of the first delivery order, and calculate the expected travel time it will take for the specific delivery person to arrive at the origin of the first delivery order based on the average travel speed of the delivery means (e.g., motorcycle, bicycle, electric bicycle, walking) used by the specific delivery person. In a similar manner, the processor 111 may calculate the expected travel time it will take for the specific delivery person to arrive at the origin of the second delivery order. The processor 111 can select the shorter of the estimated travel time it takes for the specific delivery person to reach the origin of the first delivery order or the estimated travel time it takes for the specific delivery person to reach the origin of the second delivery order. Using the method described above, the processor 111 can calculate the estimated travel time to reach the origin of the first delivery order or the origin of the second delivery order for each of the multiple delivery people, and determine the delivery person among the multiple delivery people with the shortest calculated estimated travel time as the first delivery person most suitable to process the first virtual delivery order.

[0051] The processor 111 may also calculate, for each of a plurality of delivery personnel, an expected travel time to the origin of the first delivery order or the origin of the second delivery order based on the current locations of the plurality of delivery personnel, traffic conditions, weather conditions, and the average travel speed of each of the plurality of delivery personnel.

[0052] The processor 111 may determine, as the first delivery person, a delivery person whose current location is close to the departure point of the first delivery order or the departure point of the second delivery order. For example, the processor 111 may determine, as the first delivery person, a delivery person who is located in a tile including the departure point of the first delivery order or a tile including the departure point of the second delivery order. For example, the processor 111 may determine, as the first delivery person, a delivery person who is located in a tile adjacent to the tile including the departure point of the first delivery order. For example, the processor 111 may determine, as the first delivery person, a delivery person who is located in a tile adjacent to the tile including the departure point of the second delivery order.

[0053] In operation 470, the processor 111 according to various embodiments may generate a delivery route for the first delivery person to process the first virtual delivery order and transmit the generated route to the terminal device 130 of the first delivery person. The processor 111 may generate a plurality of candidate delivery routes for the first delivery person to process the first virtual delivery order, calculate an estimated delivery time for each of the plurality of candidate delivery routes, and determine the candidate delivery route with the shortest estimated delivery time as the delivery route for processing the first virtual delivery order. The processor 111 may transmit the determined delivery route to the terminal device 130 of the first delivery person. As a result, the first delivery person may process the first virtual delivery order along the delivery route displayed on the terminal device.

[0054] The processor 111 can exclude a specific candidate delivery route from among a plurality of candidate delivery routes if it is predicted that the waiting time until the delivery person arrives at the origin of the delivery order and receives the product will exceed a preset time (e.g., 5 minutes) along the specific candidate delivery route. For example, if the delivery person is predicted to arrive at the origin of the first delivery order along the specific candidate delivery route at 1:00 PM, but the product that is the subject of the first delivery order is predicted to be received at 1:10 PM due to special circumstances (e.g., due to a time constraint), the processor 111 can exclude the specific candidate delivery route.

[0055] FIG. 5 is an operational flow diagram of the electronic device 110 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0056] Referring to operational flow diagram 500, in operation 501, the processor 111 according to various embodiments may divide map data into a plurality of tiles having a predetermined size. For example, the tiles may be regular hexagonal tiles, and each side of the regular hexagonal tile may be set to 500 m. The size of the tile may be determined based on the number of delivery personnel. For example, the fewer the number of delivery personnel, the larger the tile size. In other words, the fewer delivery personnel currently available, the wider the range for combining delivery orders can be set.

[0057] In various embodiments, the processor 111 may identify, at operation 503, a first tile and a second tile corresponding to the origin and destination locations, respectively, of the first delivery order.

[0058] In various embodiments, the processor 111 may, at operation 505, determine whether a first candidate delivery order exists among a plurality of delivery orders, the departure location of which is located in a first tile and the arrival location of which is located in a second tile.

[0059] If there is a first candidate delivery order among the multiple delivery orders whose departure point is located in the first tile and whose arrival point is located in the second tile, proceed to operation 507 (Yes in operation 505), and processor 111 can determine the first candidate delivery order as the second delivery order. That is, processor 111 can determine the first candidate delivery order whose departure point is located in the first tile and whose arrival point is located in the second tile as the second delivery order to be combined with the first delivery order.

[0060] If there is no first candidate delivery order among the multiple delivery orders whose departure location is located in the first tile and whose arrival location is located in the second tile, proceed to operation 509 (operation 505: No), where processor 111 can check whether there is a second candidate delivery order whose departure location is located in one of at least one first adjacent tile adjacent to the first tile and whose arrival location is located in the second tile. For example, if the tile is a regular hexagonal tile, processor 111 can check whether there is a second candidate delivery order whose departure location is located in one of six first adjacent tiles adjacent to the first tile and whose arrival location is located in the second tile.

[0061] If there is a second candidate delivery order whose departure location is located in one of at least one first adjacent tile adjacent to the first tile and whose arrival location is located in a second tile, proceed to operation 507 (operation 509: yes), and processor 111 can determine the second candidate delivery order as a second delivery order to be combined with the first delivery order.

[0062] If there is no second candidate delivery order whose departure location is located in one of at least one first adjacent tile adjacent to the first tile and whose arrival location is located in a second tile, proceed to operation 511 (operation 509: No), and processor 111 can check whether there is a third candidate delivery order whose departure location is located in the first tile and whose arrival location is located in one of at least one second adjacent tile adjacent to the second tile.

[0063] If there is a third candidate delivery order whose departure location is located in the first tile and whose arrival location is located in one of at least one second adjacent tile adjacent to the second tile, proceed to operation 507 (operation 513, yes), and processor 111 can determine the third candidate delivery order as a second delivery order to be combined with the first delivery order.

[0064] If there is no delivery order whose departure point is located in the first tile and whose arrival point is located in the second tile, proceed to operation 513 (operation 513: No), and processor 111 can check whether there is a fourth candidate delivery order whose departure point is located in one of at least one first adjacent tile adjacent to the first tile and whose arrival point is located in one of at least one second adjacent tile adjacent to the second tile.

[0065] If there is a fourth candidate delivery order whose departure location is located in at least one first adjacent tile adjacent to the first tile and whose arrival location is located in at least one second adjacent tile adjacent to the second tile, proceed to operation 507 (operation 513, yes), where processor 111 can determine the fourth candidate delivery order as a second delivery order to be combined with the first delivery order. If there is no fourth candidate delivery order, proceed to operation 515 (operation 513, no), where processor 111 can determine that the first delivery order should not be combined with any other delivery orders.

[0066] Although process steps, method steps, algorithms, etc., may be described in a sequential order in the flow diagrams disclosed herein, these processes, methods, and algorithms may be configured to operate in any suitable order. In other words, the steps of the processes, methods, and algorithms described in various embodiments of the present disclosure need not occur in the order described in the present disclosure. Also, although some steps may be described as occurring non-concurrently, in other embodiments, some of those steps may occur simultaneously. Furthermore, the illustration of a process by depiction in a drawing does not imply that the illustrated process is exclusive of other variations and modifications thereto, nor does it imply that the illustrated process or any of its steps is essential to one or more of the various embodiments of the present disclosure, or that the illustrated process is preferred.

[0067] Although the above method has been described with reference to a specific embodiment, the above method can also be embodied as computer-readable code on a computer-readable recording medium. The computer-readable recording medium includes any type of recording device on which data readable by the computer system 10 is stored. Examples of the computer-readable recording medium include ROM, RAM, CD-ROM, magnetic tape, floppy disk, optical data storage device, etc. The computer-readable recording medium may also be distributed among computer systems 10 connected via a network, so that the computer-readable code can be stored and executed in a distributed manner. Functional programs, codes, and code segments for implementing the above embodiment can be easily construed by a programmer skilled in the art to which this disclosure pertains.

Claims

1. 1. An electronic device comprising: A communication circuit; a processor; a memory having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by said processor, cause said processor to perform operations; The processor: receiving a plurality of delivery orders from the respective terminal devices of a plurality of customers; selecting a first delivery order from the plurality of delivery orders; confirming the origin and destination of the first delivery order; determining a second delivery order from the plurality of delivery orders, the second delivery order having a departure location close to the departure location of the first delivery order and a destination location close to the destination location of the first delivery order; combining the first delivery order and the second delivery order into a first virtual delivery order; determining a first delivery person to assign the first virtual delivery order based on the current locations of each of a plurality of delivery persons available for delivery; an electronic device configured to generate a delivery route for the first delivery person to process the first virtual delivery order and transmit the route to a terminal device of the first delivery person;

2. The processor: Dividing the map data into a plurality of tiles having a predetermined size; confirming a first tile and a second tile corresponding to the departure point and the arrival point of the first delivery order, respectively; Check whether there is a first candidate delivery order among the plurality of delivery orders, the first candidate delivery order having a departure point located in the first tile and an arrival point located in the second tile; The electronic device of claim 1 , configured to: in response to the first candidate delivery order being present, determine the first candidate delivery order to be the second delivery order.

3. The processor: In response to the first candidate delivery order not being present among the plurality of delivery orders, determining whether a second candidate delivery order exists, the second candidate delivery order having a departure point located in one of at least one first adjacent tile adjacent to the first tile and a destination point located in the second tile; The electronic device of claim 2 , configured to, in response to the second candidate delivery order being present, determine the second candidate delivery order to be the second delivery order.

4. The processor: In response to the absence of a delivery order having a departure point located in the first tile and a destination point located in the second tile among the plurality of delivery orders, confirm whether there is a third candidate delivery order having a departure point located in the first tile and a destination point located in one of at least one second adjacent tile adjacent to the second tile; The electronic device of claim 2 , configured to, in response to the third candidate delivery order being present, determine the third candidate delivery order to be the second delivery order.

5. The processor: In response to the absence of a delivery order having a departure point located in the first tile and a destination point located in the second tile among the plurality of delivery orders, confirm whether there is a fourth candidate delivery order having a departure point located in one of at least one first adjacent tile adjacent to the first tile and a destination point located in one of at least one second adjacent tile adjacent to the second tile; The electronic device of claim 2 , configured to, in response to the fourth candidate delivery order being present, determine the fourth candidate delivery order to be the second delivery order.

6. The electronic device of claim 2 , wherein the size of the tile is determined based on the number of the plurality of managers.

7. The processor: The electronic device of claim 1 , configured to determine the second delivery order in response to a number of the plurality of delivery personnel being less than a number of the plurality of delivery orders.

8. The processor: calculating an expected travel time to the origin of the first delivery order or the origin of the second delivery order for each of the plurality of delivery personnel; The electronic device according to claim 1 , further comprising: determining, as the first delivery person, a delivery person having the shortest calculated expected travel time among the plurality of delivery people.

9. The processor:

9. The electronic device of claim 8, configured to calculate, for each of the plurality of delivery personnel, an expected travel time to the origin of the first delivery order or the origin of the second delivery order based on the current locations of the plurality of delivery personnel, traffic conditions, weather conditions, and an average travel speed of each of the plurality of delivery personnel.

10. The processor: generating a plurality of candidate delivery routes for delivering the first virtual delivery order; Calculating an expected delivery time for each of the plurality of candidate delivery routes; determining the candidate delivery route with the shortest expected delivery time as the delivery route for processing the first hypothetical delivery order; The electronic device of claim 1 , configured to transmit the determined delivery route to a terminal device of the first delivery person.

11. The processor: The electronic device according to claim 1 , configured to determine the delivery order with the oldest order acceptance time among the plurality of delivery orders as the first delivery order.

12. 1. A method for managing delivery orders for electronic devices, comprising: receiving a plurality of delivery orders from respective terminal devices of a plurality of customers; selecting a first delivery order from the plurality of delivery orders; confirming the origin and destination of the first delivery order; determining a second delivery order from the plurality of delivery orders, the second delivery order having a departure location proximate to the departure location of the first delivery order and a destination location proximate to the destination location of the first delivery order; combining the first delivery order and the second delivery order into a first virtual delivery order; determining a first delivery person to assign the first virtual delivery order based on the current locations of each of a plurality of delivery persons available for delivery; generating a delivery route for the first delivery person to process the first virtual delivery order and transmitting the route to a terminal device of the first delivery person.

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