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US 11,238,399 B2Granted
Methods and systems for on-demand dynamic vehicle routing
AssigneeUnited States Postal Service
InventorsRobert E. Dixon, Ryan Luckay
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and systems for on demand logistics management are disclosed. An on-demand logistics system includes an electronic hardware processor configured to receive an on-demand request, the request indicating an on-demand location for an on-demand transaction, determine locations of a plurality of vehicles on a plurality of delivery routes, determine whether the on-demand location is within a threshold distance of at least one of the plurality of delivery routes based on the vehicle locations and assign the on-demand transaction to a vehicle based on the determination.
Claims19
An on-demand logistics system, comprising:
- a network interface circuit configured to receive a first electronic communication from a customer, the first electronic communication including an on-demand request for pick up and/or delivery of an item;
- and
- an electronic hardware processor, configured to:
- identify, in the on-demand request, a location for the requested item pick up and/or delivery;
- identify, within a geographic area, a plurality of routes, each of the plurality of routes comprising a plurality of stops and having a corresponding vehicle traveling the route when the on-demand request is received;
- determine, from the plurality of routes, a subset of stops which are within a threshold distance of the location for the requested item pick up and/or delivery and which are still pending for the current day;
- determine a stop from the subset of stops which has the minimum distance from the location for the requested item pick up and/or delivery;
- determine a route from the plurality of routes that includes the determined stop;
- assign the requested item pick up and/or delivery to the vehicle corresponding to the determined route based on a determination that (1) addition of the location as an additional stop to the determined route does not violate time constraints associated with the determined route and the on-demand request and (2) addition of the location as the additional stop to the determined route does not exceed a defined maximum deviation distance for the vehicle traveling the determined route;
- and
- generate a second electronic communication to the assigned vehicle, the second electronic communication comprising a command that designates the assigned vehicle to travel to the location,
- wherein the network interface circuit is further configured to transmit the second electronic communication to the assigned vehicle.
9 more elements
A method comprising:
- receiving a first electronic communication from a customer, the first electronic communication including an on-demand request for pick up and/or delivery of an item;
- identifying, in the on-demand request, a location for the requested item pick up and/or delivery;
- identifying, within a geographic area, a plurality of delivery routes, each of the plurality of delivery routes comprising a plurality of stops and having a corresponding vehicle traveling the delivery route when the on-demand request is received;
- determining, from the plurality of delivery routes, a subset of stops which are within a threshold distance of the location for the requested item pick up and/or delivery and which have at least one remaining stop along their respective routes;
- determining a stop from the subset of stops which has the minimum distance from the location for the requested item pick up and/or delivery;
- determining a route from the plurality of routes that includes the determined stop;
- assigning the requested item pick up and/or delivery to a vehicle corresponding to the determined route based on a determination that (1) addition of the location as an additional stop to the determined route does not violate time constraints associated with the determined route and the on-demand request and (2) addition of the location as the additional stop to the determined route does not exceed a defined maximum deviation distance for the vehicle traveling the determined route;
- generating a second electronic communication to the assigned vehicle, the second electronic communication comprising a command that designates the assigned vehicle to travel to the location and
- transmitting the second electronic communication to the assigned vehicle.
6 more elements
A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that when executed cause an electronic hardware processor to perform a method of assigning an on-demand request to a vehicle on a delivery route, the method comprising:
- receiving a first electronic communication from a customer, the first electronic communication including an on-demand request for pick up and/or delivery of an item, the request indicating a location for the requested item pick up and/or delivery;
- determining, in a geographic area, a plurality of routes, each of the plurality of routes comprising a plurality of stops and having a corresponding vehicle traveling the route when the on-demand request is received;
- determining, from the plurality of routes, a subset of stops which are within a threshold distance of the location for the requested item pick up and/or delivery and which are still pending for the current day;
- determining a stop from the subset of stops which has the minimum distance from the location for the requested item pick up and/or delivery;
- determining a route from the plurality of routes that includes the determined stop;
- assigning the requested item pick up and/or delivery to the vehicle corresponding to the determined route based on a determination that (1) addition of the location as an additional stop to the determined route does not violate time constraints associated with the determined route and the on-demand request and (2) addition of the location as the additional stop to the determined route does not exceed a defined maximum deviation distance for the vehicle traveling the determined route;
- generating a second electronic communication to the assigned vehicle, the second electronic communication comprising a command that designates the assigned vehicle to travel to the location;
- and
- transmitting the second electronic communication to the assigned vehicle.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.