Vehicle Dispatch Prioritization Using Margin Time and Empty-Run Energy
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle dispatch systems waste energy when vehicles with long adjustment times receive additional reservations with short usage times, reducing their likelihood of receiving further reservations and increasing operation time without a user onboard.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle dispatch support system that prioritizes vehicles with shorter margin times and available energy for dispatch to new users, considering the boarding and alighting places and times of both new and reserved users to minimize energy waste.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a vehicle with a long adjustment time receives an additional reservation with a short usage time, then the vehicle can serve the new user, but the vehicle is less likely to receive other additional reservations and operates longer without a user onboard, wasting energy
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts vehicle dispatch decisions based on real-time margin time calculations. Instead of static dispatch rules, the system continuously evaluates the time difference between vehicle arrival and next reservation, adapting dispatch priorities to current vehicle states and reservation patterns to minimize empty operation time
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the evaluation parameter from simple availability to margin time (the difference between arrival time and usage start time). By prioritizing vehicles with shorter margin times, the system transforms the dispatch criterion to directly address energy waste, changing how vehicles are selected for additional reservations
2Ease of operation
If vehicles are dispatched based on simple availability, then dispatch decisions are easy to make, but vehicles with long adjustment times continue to operate inefficiently
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces a new parameter (margin time) that transforms the dispatch evaluation from binary availability to a continuous optimization metric. This parameter change maintains operational simplicity through automated calculation while dramatically improving productivity by enabling precise matching of vehicles to reservations based on time efficiency
3Loss of energy
If the system prioritizes vehicles with shorter margin times for dispatch, then energy waste is reduced, but the dispatch logic becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements self-service through automated margin time calculation and priority assignment. The dispatch algorithm automatically computes arrival times, determines margin times, and ranks vehicles without manual intervention, reducing the perceived complexity for operators while enabling sophisticated energy-efficient dispatch decisions
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicle dispatch support device extracts one or more reserved vehicles for which a vehicle dispatch plan has been determined according to reserved vehicle dispatch request data requested by a reserved user; extracts one or more available vehicles that can arrive at a desired boarding place of the reserved user via a desired boarding place and a desired alighting place of the new user prior to a usage start time of the reserved user; calculates, as a margin time, a time difference between the usage start time and an arrival time for the available vehicles to arrive at the desired boarding place of the reserved user via the desired boarding place and the desired alighting place of the new user; and sets an available vehicle of which the margin time is short as a dispatch vehicle candidate to be dispatched to the new user.