Multi-vehicle load delivery management systems and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11396300-B2
Application number	US-201916432254-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 5, 2019
Priority date	Dec 5, 2016
Publication date	Jul 26, 2022
Grant date	Jul 26, 2022

Abstract

Disclosed are various techniques to optimize load delivery management of multiple vehicles along route. The optimization can involve evaluating vehicle-in-front information along with look ahead data to determine a recommended speed target and/or idle stop times and durations. The optimization can also involve determining bottleneck conditions from one or more vehicles and/or one or more infrastructure conditions and providing one or more recommended actions in response thereto.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
operating at least two vehicles along a route;
determining a route segment speed target, a stop time and a stop location for at least one vehicle of the at least two vehicles on the route in response to look ahead conditions along the route and further in response to one or more operating parameters associated with a vehicle-in-front of the at least one vehicle, wherein the look ahead conditions include a look ahead stop location and the one or more operating parameters include a distance to the look ahead stop location for the at least one vehicle and for the vehicle-in-front; and
adjusting a speed of the at least one vehicle in response to the route segment speed target, the stop time and the stop location.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more operating parameters associated with the vehicle-in-front further include: a speed of the vehicle-in-front; a distance from the at least one vehicle to the vehicle-in-front; and a position of the at least one vehicle and of the vehicle-in-front along the route.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the look ahead conditions further include at least one of: a look ahead power requirement, a look ahead distance window, a look ahead route grade, a look ahead rolling resistance, a look ahead drop and load locations, a look ahead stop time, and look ahead speed limits.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining a bottleneck or weakest link condition associated with the at least two vehicles and outputting a recommendation to at least one of: change a vehicle speed reference of one or more of the vehicles, rearrange the order of the vehicles in the route, change an allowed payload of one or more of the vehicles, remove one or more vehicles from the route, and assign an additional stop time or location for one or more vehicles in the route.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining one or more infrastructure conditions and adjusting the segment speed target, the stop time and the stop location in response to the one or more infrastructure conditions.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
determining the one or more infrastructure conditions from one or more infrastructure operating parameters of one or more infrastructure vehicles operating along the route in addition to the at least two vehicles; and
adjusting an output of the one or more infrastructure vehicles in response to the one or more infrastructure conditions and the adjusted speed of the at least one vehicle.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the one or more infrastructure conditions are obtained via communication between the one or more infrastructure vehicles and the at least one vehicle of the at least two vehicles along the route.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein the one or more operating parameters are obtained from at least one of: the vehicle-in-front, vehicle to vehicle communications, forward looking sensors, horizon information, vehicle to infrastructure communications, vehicle to server communications, and vehicle to central control station communications.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more infrastructure conditions are obtained from at least one of: the vehicle-in-front, vehicle to vehicle communications, forward looking sensors, horizon information, vehicle to infrastructure communications, vehicle to server communications, and vehicle to central control station communications.

10. An apparatus, comprising:
an electronic controller associated with a vehicle operable along a route, wherein the controller is operable to receive one or more operating parameters associated with a vehicle-in-front of the vehicle, the electronic controller further being operable to receive look ahead conditions of the route, wherein the electronic controller is configured to determine a segment speed target, a stop time, and a stop location for the vehicle on the route in response to the one or more operating parameters and the look ahead conditions, wherein the look ahead conditions include a look ahead stop location and the one or more operating parameters include a distance to the look ahead stop location for the at least one vehicle and for the vehicle-in-front, electronic controller further configured to control the vehicle in response to the of the segment speed target, the stop time, and the stop location.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the one or more operating parameters associated with the vehicle-in-front further include one or more of: a speed of the vehicle-in-front; a distance from the vehicle to the vehicle-in-front; and a position of the vehicle and of the vehicle-in-front along the route.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the look ahead conditions further include at least one of: a look ahead power requirement, a look ahead distance window, a look ahead route grade, a look ahead rolling resistance, a look ahead drop and load locations, a look ahead stop time, and look ahead speed limits.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the controller is further configured to determine at least one of a bottleneck and a weakest link condition associated with the vehicle and at least one other vehicle on the route.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein, in response to the at least one of the bottleneck and the weakest link condition, the controller is configured to determine at least one of:
a change in a speed for the vehicle, a rearranged order of vehicles on the route, a change in an allowed payload of one or more vehicles on the route, a removal of one or more vehicles from the route, an additional stop time, and an additional stop location for one or more vehicles on the route.

15. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the controller is operable to receive one or more infrastructure conditions associated with the route and adjust one or more of the segment speed target, the stop time and the stop location in response to the one or more infrastructure conditions.

16. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the electronic controller is operably connected to receive the one or more operating parameters from at least one of: the vehicle-in-front, a vehicle-to-vehicle communication system, one or more forward looking sensors, and a central control station.

17. A system, comprising:
a vehicle including one or more prime movers for moving the vehicle along a route; and
an electronic controller associated with the vehicle operable to control a speed of the vehicle along the route, wherein the electronic controller includes:
a look ahead determination module that is configured to receive one or more look ahead condition inputs associated with the route and one or more vehicle parameter inputs associated with the vehicle, and determine one or more target speed parameters for the vehicle in response to the one or more look ahead condition inputs and the one or more vehicle parameter inputs, wherein the one or more look ahead condition inputs include one or more loading/dropping locations along the route;
a vehicle speed target determination module configured to determine a segment speed target in response to the target speed parameters and the one or more vehicle parameter inputs;
a proximity module configured to determine one or more proximity based outputs in response to one or more proximity based inputs associated with the vehicle; and
a vehicle optimum idle module configured to determine one or more load delivery management outputs for the vehicle in response to the segment speed target and the one or more proximity based outputs, wherein the speed of the vehicle is

Assignees

• Cummins Inc

Inventors

• Koti Archit N
• Leon Jairo Andres Sandoval
• Sujan Vivek Anand
• Shook Patrick J
• Chunodkar Apurva Arvind
• Follen Kenneth M

Classifications

• B60W30/16

  Control of distance between vehicles, e.g. keeping a distance to preceding vehicle · CPC title

• B60K6/46

  Series type · CPC title

• B60W2720/103

  Speed profile · CPC title

• Y02T10/40

  Engine management systems · CPC title

• B60W2556/65

  Data transmitted between vehicles · CPC title