Trip Routing with Configurable Geographical Constraints
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current trip routing heuristics fail to accurately model and evaluate trips under legal and physical restrictions, such as height, width, and weight limitations, and cannot handle dynamic changes, especially for trips between arbitrary locations and times.
Innovation Solution
A directed graph model representing regions and their travel restrictions is used to evaluate routes by analyzing walks through the graph, allowing for the consideration of legal, physical, and temporal constraints to determine the best route based on scores.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If current trip routing heuristics are used, then routing problems can be solved quickly, but they fail to accurately model legal and physical restrictions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the continuous geographical space into discrete regions with uniform restriction characteristics. Each region is assigned specific legal and physical restriction attributes, allowing the routing heuristic to efficiently evaluate routes by checking region sequences rather than continuously analyzing geographical data. This segmentation enables accurate restriction modeling while maintaining computational efficiency.
2Adaptability or versatility
If a directed graph model with regions is used, then routes can be evaluated under multiple constraints, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal region model that can represent multiple types of restrictions (legal, physical, temporal) within a single unified framework. The directed graph structure serves multiple functions: it represents geographical space, encodes restriction rules, enables route evaluation, and supports various optimization criteria. This multi-functionality increases adaptability to diverse constraints while avoiding the need for separate specialized systems for each constraint type.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of analyzing a path by defining a plurality of contiguous geographical regions, each to have a uniform value of a characteristic affecting travel through the region and evaluating the path from a point in an origin region through an intermediate region to a point in a destination region. Related methods and means of representing paths, and systems to implement the methods are also described and claimed.