Construction Road Route Design Minimizing Soil Costs

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Solution Overview

Problem

Manual planning of construction road routes is time-consuming and inefficient, requiring a week to a month of planning time and making it difficult for even experienced supervisors to design optimal routes.

Innovation Solution

A construction road route design device that acquires current and design topography data, identifies road ends, and uses a route searcher to calculate costs based on construction soil amounts, selecting a route that minimizes costs.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If manual planning is used for construction road routes, then experienced supervisors can design routes considering multiple factors, but the planning time required is very long (week to month)

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveroute design qualityVSAvoidplanning time
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent replaces the manual mechanical planning process with an automated computer-based system. The route searcher automatically calculates multiple candidate routes and evaluates them based on cost functions considering soil amounts, cutting/filling operations, and construction expenses, eliminating the need for manual supervisor analysis while maintaining or improving route design quality

Inventive Principle:
Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs self-evaluation of route candidates by automatically calculating costs and selecting optimal routes without human intervention. The route searcher independently evaluates multiple routes based on predefined cost criteria and selects the optimal route, enabling the system to serve itself in the route optimization process

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

2Adaptability or versatility

If manual planning is used for construction road routes, then supervisors can consider multiple design factors, but it is difficult to determine whether the designed route is optimal

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedesign consideration comprehensivenessVSAvoidoptimality verification capability
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The system provides feedback by calculating and comparing costs of multiple candidate routes. The route searcher evaluates each route based on comprehensive cost functions including soil amounts, cutting/filling operations, and construction expenses, then selects the optimal route with the lowest cost, providing clear verification of route optimality

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

Solution Approach 2:

The system changes the evaluation parameter from subjective supervisor judgment to objective quantitative cost calculation. By defining cost functions that incorporate soil amounts, cutting/filling volumes, and construction expenses, the system transforms the route evaluation into a measurable parameter-based selection process

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

3Productivity

If automated route search is implemented, then planning time is reduced, but the system must accurately calculate construction soil amounts from topography data

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveroute design efficiencyVSAvoidsoil amount calculation accuracy
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSManufacturing precision

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary processing of topography data to create a searchable structure before route calculation. By pre-processing the current and design topography data into a format suitable for automated analysis, the system enables efficient route searching while maintaining accurate soil amount calculations through structured data representation

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP4571628A1Construction road route design device, construction road route design method, and program
Publication Date: 2025.06.18 EARTHBRAIN LTD
  • EP4571628A1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP4571628A1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP4571628A1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

The construction road route design device (1) includes: a current topography data acquirer (21) to acquire topography data indicating a current topography of a construction site; a design topography data acquirer (22) to acquire topography data indicating a design topography of a construction site; a road end acquirer (23) to acquire a plurality of two or more road ends that serves as a start point and an end point of a construction road; and a route searcher to search for a route between the plurality of road ends. The route searcher (25) selects nodes existing between the plurality of road ends, calculates, for a plurality of routes going through the selected nodes and leading to the plurality of road ends, costs based on construction soil amounts of the construction road from topography data of the current topography and the design topography, and selects a route that minimizes a calculated cost.