Tiling Overlay for Optimum Route Determination
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing navigation systems face challenges in determining optimum routes in large road networks due to memory and runtime constraints, especially in regions with numerous road segments and vertices, and rely on human-assigned road hierarchies that may not yield truly optimal results.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a tiling overlay on road segments allows for a reduction in the number of segments considered for optimum route calculation by evaluating road segments based on their relevance to tile boundaries, using a rank value system to determine the importance of road segments for long-distance travel, and employing computational methods that can be adapted for finite resources and distributed computing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If standard shortest path algorithms are applied directly to the entire road network, then the route computation would be exact, but the memory and runtime requirements become prohibitive due to the large number of road segments and vertices
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the road network into multiple tiles or grid cells, processing each tile independently to compute rank values. This segmentation allows the algorithm to handle large road networks by breaking them into manageable chunks, reducing memory requirements while maintaining computational accuracy through systematic aggregation of results across tiles.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary processing by computing rank values for road segments in advance, before the actual shortest path calculation. This preliminary action pre-computes importance metrics that are then used during route determination, reducing the computational burden during the actual path-finding operation and enabling efficient querying on large networks.
2Device complexity
If human-assigned road hierarchies are used to reduce complexity, then the computation becomes more feasible, but the routes may not be truly optimum because human assignments may not reflect actual optimal paths
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces human expert assignment of road hierarchies with an automated algorithm that computes rank values based on the actual road network geometry and connectivity. The system serves itself by objectively calculating which road segments are truly important for long-distance travel, eliminating subjective human bias and producing routes that are genuinely optimal rather than merely following predefined hierarchical classifications.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameter used for road segment evaluation from human-assigned hierarchical classes to algorithmically computed rank values. This parameter change transforms the basis of route determination from subjective classification to objective measurement of actual road segment importance, enabling the system to identify truly optimal paths while maintaining computational feasibility through the rank-based filtering approach.
3Measurement precision
If all road segments are considered for optimum route search, then the most accurate route can be found, but the computation becomes too resource-intensive for navigation systems with finite resources
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and removes road segments that are not important for long-distance travel by using rank values to filter the road network. This extraction process eliminates irrelevant road segments from consideration, allowing the algorithm to focus computational resources on only those segments that could potentially be part of an optimal route, thereby improving both speed and resource efficiency without sacrificing accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary filtering of road segments by computing rank values before the actual shortest path calculation. This preliminary action identifies and retains only the road segments with sufficient rank values that could be part of optimal routes, discarding segments that are clearly irrelevant. This pre-filtering dramatically reduces the number of segments considered during path-finding, improving computational productivity while maintaining route determination accuracy.
Data Source
AI summary
An optimum route search may be conducted through the use of a tiling overlay on the network of road segments. Overlaying the tiling (grid) over the road segments allows for a reduction of the number of road segments considered for an optimum path as road segments can be evaluated on whether the road segment is part of an optimal path to the borders of a first tile and then successively larger frames of tiles around the initial tile. By reducing the number of road segments considered for the optimum route search to road segments that are part of optimal routes to various tile boundary edges, the computation of the optimum route for the route of interest may be quicker and less resource intensive than efforts to determine optimum routes through other methods.