FIELD

The invention relates to a method of transporting a plurality of objects with a plurality of transport vehicles, a starting point and a destination as well as at least one of a starting time and an arrival time being noted for each object of the plurality of objects.

Further, the invention relates to a data server for carrying out such a method and to the use of the data server.

BACKGROUND

On average, each inhabitant of Germany makes two trips a day with means of transport. In total, these are 160 million trips a day for which mostly private passenger cars are used which are only occupied by very few persons each. Only those people who are willing to walk to the next stop, to spend some time in a normally scheduled public transportation means, and to also walk after disembarking from the nearest stop to their actual destination, use the local public transport. Those people who have no private passenger car or who do not want to use their private passenger cars and who want to be continuously driven from their starting point to their destination will call a taxi. This, however, incurs considerably higher transport cost than incurred by using local public transport.

Already for some time the idea is known to provide a taxi-like service by means of flexible small buses which are not bound to fixed routes but which collect each person promptly at its starting point and carry it to its destination, and whose fares, due to dividing the total cost between several persons transported at one time, are clearly below those of a taxi and in the range of the additional operating cost of a private passenger car for the respective trip. These concepts are also designated as call-a-bus or bus-on-demand. Up to now, however, it has not yet been managed to standardize the driving routes of buses-on-demand or to even determine them automatically so that the buses-on-demand are well utilized to keep the fare per person transported low, on the one hand, and to keep the transport times for all persons transported similarly short as when using private passenger cars, on the other hand. Thus, at present, the demand of buses-on-demand is only low and they cannot break even.

S. Herminghaus, Mean-field theory of demand-driven public transportation, Complex Fluids Internal notes, Issue 45 (February 2015) discusses the conditions under which a bus-on-demand concept may break even. Further, general concepts for an optimization of the driving routes of the transport vehicles involved are described. The implementation of the optimization of the driving routes according to the concepts described nevertheless proves to be extremely complex.

On the website www.bridl.com, a bus transport system is described in which the offer of bus lines between starting points and destinations is adapted to the demand of the passengers. This demand is determined using GPS data from mobile phones, posts in social media and so on.

EP 1 076 326 A2 describes a method and a communication system for steering a plurality of mobile stations to destinations. For this purpose, the actual position of each mobile station is determined by means of a position determination unit, and position data are generated. The position data from the mobile stations are forwarded to at least one coordination station. The forwarded position data of the mobile stations are evaluated, and command data for optimization of the movements of the mobile stations to their respective destinations are generated in the coordination station. The command data are transmitted from the coordination station to the mobile stations.

In a transport service system known from EP 1 156 462 A2, at least one taxi detects its present location by means of a GPS and transmits the present location plus information related to a destination indicated by a customer to a central unit. The central unit determines an optimum route and a prize for the route according to the information related to the present location and the destination. Then, the central unit transmits the determined optimum route and prize to the taxi.

There still is a need of a method of transporting a plurality of objects by means of a plurality of transport vehicles between object-specific locations which optimizes the driving routes of the transport vehicles at a manageable effort in such a way that the transport vehicles are well utilized, on the one hand, and at least one of predetermined starting times and arrival times of the objects transported are kept well, on the other hand.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method of transporting a plurality of objects with a plurality of transport vehicles. The method comprises, for each object of the plurality of objects, noting a starting point and a destination as well as at least one of a starting time and an arrival time as object coordinates in a space-time, and, for each transport vehicle of the plurality of transport vehicles, noting a transport capacity and an actual location. The method also comprises, defining a transport path network of possible transport paths of the transport vehicles of the plurality of transport vehicles together with average speeds of the transport vehicle of the plurality of transport vehicles on the possible transport ways, and, for each object of the plurality of objects, determining suitable transport paths of the possible transport paths between the object coordinates of the respective object based on the transport path network, and noting the suitable transport paths in the space-time. Further, the method comprises, in the space-time, bundling one of the suitable transport paths per object of the plurality of objects into driving routes of individual transport vehicles of the plurality of transport vehicles, wherein the transport capacities and the actual locations of the transport vehicles of the plurality of transport vehicles are considered, and transmitting the driving routes together with the starting points, the starting times, the destinations and the arrival times of the associated objects of the plurality of objects to those transport vehicles of the plurality of transport vehicles which are involved in the respective driving route. Finally, the method comprises transporting the plurality of objects with the plurality of transport vehicles in that the involved transport vehicles of the plurality of transport vehicles are driven along the transmitted driving routes.

The steps of noting particularly include storing the respective data.

Further, the present invention relates to a data server comprising an interface configured for receiving a starting point and a destination as well as at least one of a starting time and an arrival time of each object of a plurality of objects and for receiving actual location of each transport vehicle of a plurality of transport vehicles, a databank configured for storing a transport capacity of each transport vehicle of the plurality of transport vehicles and a transport path network of possible paths of each transport vehicle of the plurality of transport vehicles together with average speeds of the transport vehicles of the plurality of transport vehicles on the transport paths, and a controller configured for controlling the data server. The at least one interface or a further interface is configured for transmitting driving routes to those transport vehicles of the plurality of transport vehicles which are involved in the respective driving route, and the data server is programmed for executing the method according to the invention.

Further, the present invention relates to a method of using the data server according to the invention in the method according to the invention. In this method of use, the starting point and the destination as well as at least one of the starting time and the arrival times of each object of the plurality of objects are received at the interface of the data server. Further, the actual location of each transport vehicle of a plurality of transport vehicles is received at the interface of the data server. The transport capacity of each transport vehicle of the plurality of transport vehicles and the transport path network of the possible transport paths of each transport vehicle of the plurality of transport vehicles together with average speeds of the transport vehicles of the plurality of transport vehicles on the transport paths are stored in the databank of the data server. For each object of the plurality of objects, the starting point and the destination as well as the at least one of the starting time and the arrival time are noted by the controller of the data server as the object coordinates in the space-time. For each object of the plurality of objects, the suitable transport paths of the possible transport paths between the object coordinates of the respective object are determined by the controller of the data server based on the transport path network, and the suitable transport paths are noted by the controller of the data server in the space-time. In the space-time, the one of the suitable transport paths per object of the plurality of objects is bundled by the controller of the data server into driving routes of the individual transport vehicles of the plurality of transport vehicles, wherein the transport capacities and the actual locations of the transport vehicles of the plurality of transport vehicles are considered by the controller of the data server. The driving routes together with the starting points, the starting times, the destinations and the arrival times of the associated objects of the plurality of objects are transmitted by the controller of the data server via the interface or the further interface of the data server to those transport vehicles of the plurality of transport vehicles which are involved in the respective driving route.

Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following drawings and the detailed description. It is intended that all such additional features and advantages be included herein within the scope of the present invention, as defined by the claims.

