Autonomous Vehicle Operation Management for Interval Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing autonomous vehicle transportation systems face challenges in efficiently managing the number of vehicles along a dedicated path, leading to delays and reduced convenience due to inadequate rules for adding new vehicles, resulting in uneven operation intervals and passenger overflow.
Innovation Solution
An operation management apparatus that generates travel plans for autonomous vehicles, determining the necessity of adding or removing vehicles based on travel and passenger information to adjust operation intervals, with the ability to calculate optimal positions for new vehicle additions and adjust velocities to maintain equal intervals.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If the number of vehicles is increased to handle transportation demand, then the transportation capacity is improved, but the operation interval becomes uneven and delays occur
Solution Approach 1:
The operation management apparatus determines the optimal position for adding a new vehicle in advance by calculating operation intervals between existing vehicles. When transportation demand increases, the system proactively adds a vehicle at the predetermined position (immediately before the vehicle with the largest operation interval) rather than reactively, ensuring smooth integration and maintaining uniform operation intervals from the start, thus preventing delays.
2Quantity of substance
If vehicles are added without specific rules for positioning, then the transportation demand increase is handled, but the new vehicle cannot be added at an appropriate position
Solution Approach 1:
The operation management apparatus continuously monitors operation intervals between vehicles and uses this feedback to determine the optimal position for adding a new vehicle. The system calculates the operation interval (time difference between departures) of each vehicle with the preceding vehicle and identifies the position immediately before the vehicle with the largest interval. This feedback mechanism ensures vehicles are added at scientifically determined optimal positions, simplifying the addition process while maintaining operational efficiency.
3Productivity
If the operation interval is not adjusted quickly, then passenger overflow occurs, but adjusting velocities of vehicles increases system complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The operation management apparatus dynamically adjusts the scheduled velocity of vehicles based on real-time operation intervals. When a new vehicle is added or existing vehicles are repositioned, the system calculates required velocity adjustments for each vehicle to achieve uniform operation intervals. The plan generator creates updated travel plans with adjusted velocities, enabling quick adaptation to changing conditions while using a relatively simple control mechanism based on time-distance calculations rather than complex real-time control systems.
Data Source
AI summary
An operation management apparatus includes: a plan generator that generates a travel plane for each of a plurality of vehicles which form a vehicle line and which travel autonomously along a prescribed travel path; a communication device that transmits the travel plan to a corresponding vehicle; and a judging unit that judges necessity of an addition of a vehicle to the vehicle line and an elimination of a vehicle from the vehicle line. When it is judged that the addition of the vehicle is necessary, the plan generator determines a position of addition of a new vehicle in the vehicle line based on at least one of travel information and passenger information transmitted from each of the plurality of vehicles, and generates a travel plan for adding the new vehicle at the position of addition.