System and method of determining freight/load distribution for multiple vehicles

A system adapted to determine freight distribution amongst multiple vehicles, comprising:

• an operator input module containing data indicative of at least one operator input, said at least one operator input including at least one of fuel cost, trip time, route beginning and ending points to define a route, and maximum vehicle speed;
• a vehicle parameter module containing data indicative of at least one predetermined vehicle parameter, said at least one predetermined vehicle parameter including at least one of vehicle mass, vehicle drag, vehicle rolling resistance, tire circumference, front area of vehicle, powertrain torque loss, vehicle tank capacity, and engine efficiency;
• a road terrain element module containing data indicative of at least one road terrain element, said at least one road terrain element including at least one of speed limit changes, road grade, air density, position, elevation, and traffic patterns;
• and
• a vehicle load distribution module adapted to:
• determine a first and second plurality of freight distribution solutions based on said maximum vehicle freight weight for each of said vehicles and said total freight weight, each solution from said first plurality comprising a random distribution of freight amongst the plurality of vehicles, the first plurality of freight distribution solutions comprising an initial generation, each solution from said second plurality comprising a distribution of freight amongst the plurality of vehicles according to a genetic algorithm, the second plurality of freight distribution solutions comprising a next generation;
• evaluate each of said first and second freight distribution solutions for fitness based on fuel economy and ranking each solution based on the evaluation, said fitness module being further adapted to assess solution convergence based on said ranking and determine an optimal freight distribution based on said convergence assessment;
• and
• generate an electronic recommendation signal corresponding to said determined optimal freight distribution and communicate said recommendation signal to a receiver.

A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having stored thereon computer-readable program code for determining freight distribution amongst multiple vehicles, the computer-readable program code comprising:

• computer-readable program code for accessing data indicative of at least one operator input, said at least one operator input including at least one of route beginning and ending points to define a route, number of vehicles, maximum vehicle freight weight for each of a plurality of vehicles, and total freight weight;
• computer-readable program code for accessing data indicative of at least one predetermined vehicle parameter, said at least one predetermined vehicle parameter including at least one of vehicle mass, vehicle drag, vehicle rolling resistance, tire circumference, front area of vehicle, powertrain torque loss, vehicle tank capacity, and engine efficiency;
• computer-readable program code for accessing data indicative of at least one road terrain element, said at least one road terrain element including at least one of speed limit changes, road grade, air density, position, elevation, and traffic patterns;
• computer-readable program code for determining a first plurality of freight distribution solutions based on said maximum vehicle freight weight for each of said vehicles and said total freight weight, each solution comprising a random distribution of freight amongst the plurality of vehicles, the first plurality of freight distribution solutions comprising an initial generation;
• computer-readable code for evaluating each of said first plurality of freight distribution solutions of the initial generation for fitness based on fuel economy and ranking each solution based on the evaluation;
• computer-readable program code for determining a second plurality of freight distribution solutions based on said maximum vehicle freight weight for each of said vehicles and said total freight weight, each solution comprising a distribution of freight amongst the plurality of vehicles according to a genetic algorithm, the second plurality of freight distribution solutions comprising a next generation;
• computer-readable program code for evaluating each of said freight distribution solutions of the next generation for fitness based on fuel economy, ranking each solution based on the evaluation, and assessing solution convergence based on the ranking;
• computer-readable program code for determining an optimal freight distribution based on said convergence assessment;
• and
• computer-readable program code for communicating said optimal freight distribution to a display.