Patent Application
20230128788
The automotive industry is undergoing a radical change unlike anything seen before. Disruption is happening across the whole of the mobility ecosystem. The result is vehicles that are more automated, connected, electrified and shared. This gives rise to an explosion of car generated data. This rich new data asset remains largely untapped.
Vehicle location event data, such as GPS data, is extremely voluminous and can involve 200,000-400,000 records per second. The processing of location event data presents a challenge for conventional systems to provide substantially real-time analysis of the data, especially for individual vehicles. In particular, end user technology can require data packages. What is needed are system platforms and data processing algorithms and processes configured to process and store high-volume data with low latency while still making the high-volume data available for analysis and re-processing.
While there are systems for tracking vehicles, what is needed is virtually real-time and accurate trip and road information from high-volume vehicle data. What is needed are systems and algorithms configured to accurately identify journeys and journey destinations from vehicle movement and route analysis. What is also needed are systems and algorithms configured for more accurate point snapping of vehicle event data points to road segments.
The following briefly describes embodiments to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the innovations described herein. This brief description is not intended as an extensive overview. It is not intended to identify key or critical elements, or to delineate or otherwise narrow the scope. Its purpose is merely to present some concepts in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later. An exemplary advantage of the systems and methods described herein is optimized low latency. For example, the systems and methods described in the present disclosure are capable of ingesting and processing vehicle event data for up to at least 600,000 records per second for up to 12 million vehicles.
An embodiment is a system comprising a memory including program instructions and a processor configured to execute instructions for a method, the method comprising:
The system can be configured to calculate a penalty for a plurality of the location event data points and the road segment point snapping candidates; select the ordered list of the road segment candidates including the penalty; calculate a trellis penalty for each of the road segment candidates in the Viterbi trellis; and identify the road segment candidate in the Viterbi trellis that has the smallest trellis penalty when the Viterbi trellis is completed.
The system can be configured to calculate a penalized squared distance (SDPEN) between the vehicle event data point and the road segment and a transition penalty (TRPEN) for a plurality of the vehicle event data points for the vehicle traveling between consecutive road segments of a sequence of the road segments. The system can be configured to select an ordered list of the plurality of road segments which minimizes a sum of all the penalized square distances of each of the selected road segments along with a sum of all the transition penalties between consecutive segments.
The server performing the processing can be an ingress server, an egress server, an analytics server, or a combination thereof.
In an embodiment, the system can be configured to:
In various embodiments, as the historical time taken is calculated for both the grid cell of the journey start and the hour, this means that the journey traces will be substantially equally distributed across workers, as the data is structured for both cell and time. Advantageously, data for periodic journey patterns—for example reflecting people commuting from rural areas to work in the morning and returning in the evening—are optimally distributed across the workers. The distribution also advantageously and efficiently processes for velocity of data impacted by long term trends in driving behavior
At least one embodiment is a method implemented by a computer including a processor, and a memory including program memory including instructions for executing the methods described above and herein.
At least one embodiment is a computer program product including program memory including instructions which, when executed by processor, executes the methods described above and herein.
Non-limiting and non-exhaustive embodiments are described with reference to the various figures unless otherwise specified.
For a better understanding, reference will be made to the following Detailed Description, which is to be read in association with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Various embodiments now will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and which show, by way of illustration, specific embodiments by which the innovations described herein can be practiced. The embodiments can, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the embodiments to those skilled in the art. Among other things, the various embodiments can be methods, systems, media, or devices. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense.
Throughout the specification and claims, the following terms take the meanings explicitly associated herein, unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. The term “herein” refers to the specification, claims, and drawings associated with the current application. The phrase “in one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” as used herein does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment or a single embodiment, though it can. Furthermore, the phrase “in another embodiment” as used herein does not necessarily refer to a different embodiment, although it can. Thus, as described below, various embodiments can be readily combined, without departing from the scope or spirit of the present disclosure.
In addition, as used herein, the term “or” is an inclusive “or” operator, and is equivalent to the term “and/or” unless the context dearly dictates otherwise. The term “based on” is not exclusive and allows for being based on additional factors not described, unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. In addition, throughout the specification, the meaning of “a” “an” and “the” include plural references. The meaning of “in” includes “in” and “on.”
As used herein, the term “Host” can refer to an individual person, partnership, organization, or corporate entity that can own or operate one or more digital media properties (e.g., web sites, mobile applications, or the like). Hosts can arrange digital media properties to use hyper-local targeting by arranging the property to integrate with widget controllers or servers.
The following briefly describes various embodiments of a system, method, and computer program product for processing vehicle event data.
As used herein, a journey can include any trip, run, or travel to a destination.
The Egress Server system 400 can be configured to be in communication with and provide data output to data consumers. The Egress Server system 400 can also be configured to be in communication with the Stream Processing Server 200.
The Analytics Server system 500 is configured to be in communication with and accept data from the Ingress Server system 100, the Stream Processing Server system 200, and the Egress Server system 400. The Analytics Server system 500 is configured to be in communication with and output data to a Portal Server system 600.
In at least one embodiment, Ingress Server system 100, Stream Processing Server system 200, Egress Server system 400, Analytics Server system 500, and Portal Server system 600 can each be one or more computers or servers. In at least one embodiment, one or more of Ingress Server system 100, Stream Processing Server system 200, Egress Server system 400, Analytics Server system 500, and Portal Server system 600 can be configured to operate on a single computer, for example a network server computer, or across multiple computers. For example, in at least one embodiment, the system 10 can be configured to run on a web services platform host such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure. In an exemplary embodiment, the system 10 is configured on an AWS platform employing a Spark Streaming server, which can be configured to perform the data processing as described herein. In an embodiment, the system 10 can be configured to employ a high throughput messaging server, for example, Apache Kafka.
In at least one embodiment, Ingress Server system 100, Stream Processing Server system 200, Egress Server system 400, Analytics Server system 500, and Portal Server system 600 can be arranged to integrate and/or communicate using API's or other communication interfaces provided by the services.
In at least one embodiment, Ingress Server system 100, Stream Processing Server system 200, Egress Server system 400, Analytics Server system 500, and Portal Server system 600 can be hosted on Hosting Servers.
In at least one embodiment, Ingress Server system 100, Stream Processing Server system 200, Egress Server system 400, Analytics Server system 500, and Portal Server system 600 can be arranged to communicate directly or indirectly over a network to the client computers using one or more direct network paths including Wide Access Networks (WAN) or Local Access Networks (LAN).
As described herein, embodiments of the system 10, processes and algorithms can be configured to run on a web services platform host such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) @ or Microsoft Azure @. A cloud computing architecture is configured for convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g. networks, network bandwidth, servers, processing, memory, storage, applications, virtual machines, and services). A cloud computer platform can be configured to allow a platform provider to unilaterally provision computing capabilities, such as server time and network storage, as needed automatically without requiring human interaction with the service's provider. Further, cloud computing is available over a network and accessed through standard mechanisms that promote use by heterogeneous thin or thick client platforms (e.g., mobile phones, laptops, and PDAs). In a cloud computing architecture, a platform's computing resources can be pooled to serve multiple consumers, partners or other third party users using a multi-tenant model, with different physical and virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according to demand. A cloud computing architecture is also configured such that platform resources can be rapidly and elastically provisioned, in some cases automatically, to quickly scale out and rapidly released to quickly scale in.
Cloud computing systems can be configured with systems automatically control and optimize resource use by leveraging a metering capability at some level of abstraction appropriate to the type of service (e.g., storage, processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts). Resource usage can be monitored, controlled, and reported. As described herein, in embodiments, the system 10 is advantageously configured by the platform provider with innovative algorithms and database structures configured for low-latency.
A cloud computing architecture includes a number of service and platform configurations.
A Software as a Service (SaaS) is configured to allow a platform provider to use the provider's applications running on a cloud infrastructure. The applications are accessible from various client devices through a thin client interface such as a web browser (e.g., web-based e-mail). The consumer typically does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exception of limited user-specific application configuration settings.
A Platform as a Service (PaaS) is configured to allow a platform provider to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created or acquired applications created using programming languages and tools supported by the provider. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including networks, servers, operating systems, or storage, but can a have control over the deployed applications and possibly application hosting environment configurations.
An Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is configured to allow a platform provider to provision processing, storage, networks, and other fundamental computing resources where the consumer is able to deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems and applications. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure but has control over operating systems, storage, deployed applications, and possibly limited control of select networking components (e.g., host firewalls).
A cloud computing architecture can be provided as a private cloud computing architecture, a community cloud computing architecture, or a public cloud computing architecture. A cloud computing architecture can also be configured as a hybrid cloud computing architecture comprising two or more clouds platforms (private, community, or public) that remain unique entities but are bound together by standardized or proprietary technology that enables data and application portability (e.g., cloud bursting for load-balancing between clouds).
A cloud computing environment is service oriented with a focus on statelessness, low coupling, modularity, and semantic interoperability. At the heart of cloud computing is an infrastructure comprising a network of interconnected nodes.
Referring now to
Referring now to
A hardware and software layer 60 can comprise hardware and software components. Examples of hardware components include, for example: mainframes 61; servers 62; servers 63; blade servers 64; storage devices 65; and networks and networking components 66. In some embodiments, software components include network application server software 67 and database software 68.
Virtualization layer 70 provides an abstraction layer from which the following examples of virtual entities can be provided: virtual servers 71; virtual storage 72; virtual networks 73, including virtual private networks; virtual applications and operating systems 74; and virtual clients 75.
In one example, management layer 80 can provide the functions described below. Resource provisioning 81 provides dynamic procurement of computing resources and other resources that are utilized to perform tasks within the cloud computing environment. Metering and Pricing 82 provide cost tracking as resources are utilized within the cloud computing environment, and billing or invoicing for consumption of these resources. In one example, these resources can comprise application software licenses. Security provides identity verification for cloud consumers and tasks, as well as protection for data and other resources. User portal 83 provides access to the cloud computing environment for consumers and system administrators. Service level management 84 provides cloud computing resource allocation and management so that required service levels are met. Service Level Agreement (SLA) planning and fulfillment 85 provides pre-arrangement for, and procurement of, cloud computing resources for which a future requirement is anticipated in accordance with an SLA.
Workloads layer 90 provides examples of functionality for which the cloud computing environment can be utilized. Examples of workloads and functions that can be provided from this layer include mapping and navigation 91; ingress processing 92, stream processing 93; portal dashboard delivery 94—same number; data analytics processing 95; and egress and data delivery 96.
Although this disclosure describes embodiments on a cloud computing platform, implementation of embodiments as described herein are not limited to a cloud computing environment.
One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the architecture of system 10 is a non-limiting example that is illustrative of at least a portion of an embodiment. As such, more or less components can be employed and/or arranged differently without departing from the scope of the innovations described herein. However, system 10 is sufficient for disclosing at least the innovations claimed herein.
Referring to
In at least one embodiment, events that can be received and/or determined from one or more event sources includes vehicle event data from one or more data sources, for example GPS devices, or location data tables provided by third party data source 15, such as OEM vehicle sensor data source 14. Vehicle event data can be ingested in database formats, for example, JSON, CSV, and XML. The vehicle event data can be ingested via APIs or other communication interfaces provided by the services and/or the Ingress Server system 100. For example, Ingress Server system 100 can offer an API Gateway 102 interface that integrates with an Ingress Server API 106 that enables Ingress Server system 100 to determine various events that can be associated with databases provided by the vehicle event source 14. An exemplary API gateway can include, for example AWS API Gateway. An exemplary hosting platform for an Ingress Server system 100 system can include Kubernetes and Docker, although other platforms and network computer configurations can be employed as well.
In at least one embodiment, the Ingress Server system 100 includes a Server 104 configured to accept raw data, for example, a Secure File Transfer Protocol Server (SFTP), an API, or other data inputs can be configured accept vehicle event data. The Ingress Server system 100 can be configured to store the raw data in data store 107 for further analysis, for example, by an Analytics Server system 500. Event data can include Ignition on, time stamp (T1 . . . TN), Ignition off, interesting event data, latitude and longitude, and Vehicle Information Number (VIN) information. Exemplary event data can include Vehicle Movement data from sources as known in the art, for example either from vehicles themselves (e.g. via GPS, API) or tables of location data provided from third party data sources 15.
In at least one embodiment, the Ingress Server system 100 is configured to clean and validate data. For example, the Ingress Server 100 can be configured include Ingress API 106 that can validate the ingested event and location data and pass the validated location data to a server queue 108, for example, an Apache Kafka queue, which is then outputted to the Stream Processing Server 200. The server 108 can be configured to output the validated ingressed location data to the data store 107 as well. The Ingress Server can also be configured pass invalid data to a data store 107. For example, invalid payloads can be stored in data store 107. Exemplary invalid data can include, for example, data with bad fields or unrecognized fields, or identical events.
In an embodiment, the system 10 is configured to detect and map vehicle locations with enhanced accuracy. In order to gather useful aggregates about the road network, for example expected traffic volumes and speeds across the daily/weekly cycle, the system 10 can be configured to determine how vehicles are moving through a given road network. As noted herein, a naïve approach of associating or “snapping” each data point with a nearest section of a road can fail because vehicle GPS data has an inherent degree of error due to various known physical effects. Further, a road network often approaches and crosses itself in complicated geometries leading to locations with multiple road snapping candidates.
In an embodiment, the system 10 can be configured to include a base map given as a collection of line segments for road segments. The system 10 includes, for each line segment, geometrical information regarding the line segment's relation to its nearest neighbors. For each line segment, statistical information regarding expected traffic volumes and speeds is generated from an initial iteration of the process. As shown above, vehicle movement event data comprises longitude, latitude, heading, speed and time-of-day.
In an embodiment, the system 10 is configured to take a collection of line segments, which corresponds to road segments, and create an R-Tree index over the collection of line segments. R-trees are tree data structures used for spatial access methods, i.e., for indexing multi-dimensional information such as geographical coordinates, rectangles or polygons. The R-tree is configured to store spatial objects as bounding box polygons to represent, inter alia, road segments. The R-Tree is first used to find road segment candidates within a prescribed distance of a coordinate in order to snap a data point. The candidates are then further examined using a refined metric that considers event data such as the heading select a road segment, which is most likely based on all known information. Event data such as speed and/or time-of-day can also be employed to select a road segment.
In an embodiment, the system 10 can also be configured to penalize road segments that are not aligned in the direction of travel of the given data point by adding a fixed penalty to the actual distance between the point and the road segment. This makes line segments that do not align with the direction of travel to appear further away and therefore less likely to be selected as the correct one. In cases where there is still some question over which segment is the best fit, the system 10 can be configured to weigh additional information regarding the expected speed of the given point and additional geometrical considerations before selection takes place.
The system 10 is configured to predefine distances between bounding box road segments, for example using an R-tree as described above. For precalculated distances for the road segments, the system 10 can be configured to select a nearest neighbor for a closest distance. In an embodiment, the system 10 can also be configured to add a penalty to determine if the road segment with the closest distance is the correct road segment for the vehicle.
The system 10 is configured to identify a distance between a point (lat/long) and a road segment (line segment). An Item Distance artery implementation allows any two points in distance to be identified to a road segment. In an embodiment, the system can also be configured to implement a penalty for a heading in order to override choosing a road segment based on a naïve or default selection of a closest point from the lat/long data point. As noted above, a road segment can be defined as a bounding box or line segment.
For example, the system 10 can be configured to allow an angular range of deviation between a car heading and road heading to determine whether to apply a penalty in selecting the road segment. For example, where the deviation is small, no penalty is applied, as the car heading and the road heading are highly likely to be accurate when the angle of deviation is small. Thus, the system 10 can be configured to choose a smallest angle to identify a segment heading. However, if the smallest angle is less than a predetermined angle, for example in the range of 10-40 degrees out of 360 degrees, the system 10 can be configured to select that road segment or preferentially weight that road segment for selection.
In an embodiment, other event data can be employed to weight the selection of the penalty, for example the speed of vehicle (mph). For instance, when a vehicle speed indicates a high speed a high angle of deviation, the penalty can be applied. If the road heading is more than 30 degrees from the car heading, and the speed is higher than the a given speed threshold, it is highly likely that the road segment is not accurate, and so the penalty should be applied. On the other hand, if the angle of deviation between the car heading and the road heading is small and the speed is high, it is highly likely that the vehicle is indeed moving in the proper direction at that speed.
Accordingly, in an embodiment, an angle differential, for example over 30 degrees and under 180 degrees for a heading, can be employed to determine a “one way” or “wrong way” penalty using directional information from associated map data for a road segment. For example, if a closest point between the two points for selecting a road segment results in angle differential between 30 degrees to 150 degrees, and that angle would place the vehicle on the wrong direction for the segment, the system can be configured to apply a wrong way penalty.
An exemplary penalty algorithm is as follows:
The output from the algorithm comprises: a road segment chosen as the best match; a new (longitude, latitude) pair that represents the original point snapped to the chosen line segment, and the error or distance between the original point and the snapped point. As noted above, the system 10 is configured to apply a penalty to obtain the most likely road segment.
In an embodiment, the algorithm can also include a measure of confidence in the chosen road segment based on the number of other potential matches that closely match the criteria for selection. For example, a weight could comprise a road knowledge weight, for example, time-of-day, miles-per-hour and/or road type weight. For instance, a road knowledge weight might include a highway or residential road weight. Thus, if a road segment is known to be a residential segment, a selection could be weighted to penalize choosing a nearest highway segment when a vehicle is identified as going 30 miles per hour.
The Ingress Server 100 can be configured to output the stored invalid data or allow stored data to be pulled to the Analysis Server 500 from the data store 107 for analysis, for example, to improve system performance. For example, the Analysis Server 500 can be configured with diagnostic machine learning configured to perform analysis on databases of invalid data with unrecognized fields to newly identify and label fields for validated processing. The Ingress Server 100 can also be configured to pass stored ingressed location data for processing by the Analytics server 500, for example, for Journey analysis as described herein.
In an embodiment, the Ingress Server 100 is configured to process event data to derive vehicle movement data, for example speed, duration, and acceleration. For example, in an embodiment, a snapshot is taken on the event database every x number of seconds (e.g. 3 seconds). Lat/long data and time data can then be processed to derive vehicle tracking data, such as speed and acceleration, using vehicle position and time.
In an embodiment, the Ingress Server system 100 is configured to accept data from devices and third party platforms. The Ingress Server API 106 can be configured to authenticate devices and partner or third-party platforms and platform hosts to the system 10.
Accordingly, in an embodiment, the Ingress Server system 100 is configured to receive raw data and perform data quality checks for raw data and schema evaluation. Ingesting and validating raw data is the start of a data quality pipeline of quality checks for the system as shown in
In another embodiment, vehicle event data from an ingress source can include less information. For example, as shown in Table 2, the raw vehicle event data can comprise a limited number of attributes, for example, location data (longitude and latitude) and time data (timestamps).
An exemplary advantage of embodiments of the present disclosure is that information that is absent can be derived from innovative algorithms as described herein. For example, vehicle event data may not include a journey identification, or may have a journey identification that is inaccurate. Accordingly, the system 10 can be configured to derive additional vehicle event attribute data when the initially ingressed data has limited attributes. For example, the system 10 can be configured to identify a specific vehicle for ingressed vehicle event data and append a Vehicle ID or Device ID. The system 10 can thereby trace vehicle movement—including starts and stops, speed, heading, acceleration, and other attributes using, for example, only location and timestamp data associated with a Vehicle ID or Device ID.
In an embodiment, at block 702, data received can conform to externally defined schema, for example, Avro or JSON. The data can be transformed into internal schema and validated. In an embodiment, event data can be validated against an agreed schema definition before being passed on to the messaging system for downstream processing by the data quality pipeline. For example, an Apache Avro schema definition can be employed before passing the validated data on to an Apache Kafka messaging system. In another embodiment, the raw movement and event data can also be processed by a client node cluster configuration, where each client is a consumer or producer, and dusters within an instance can replicate data amongst themselves.
For example, the Ingress server system 100 can be configured with a Pulsar Client connected to an Apache Pulsar end point for a Pulsar duster. In an embodiment, the Apache Pulsar end point keeps track of the last data read, allowing an Apache Pulsar Client to connect at any time to pick up from the last data read. In Pulsar, a “standard” consumer interface involves using “consumer” clients to listen on topics, process incoming messages, and finally acknowledge those messages when the messages have been processed. Whenever a client connects to a topic, the client automatically begins reading from the earliest unacknowledged message onward because the topic's cursor is automatically managed by a Pulsar Broker module. However, a client reader interface for the client enables the client application to manage topic cursors in a bespoke manner. For example, a Pulsar client reader can be configured to connect to a topic to specify which message the reader begins reading from when it connects to a topic. When connecting to a topic, the reader interface enables the client to begin with the earliest available message in the topic or the latest available message in the topic. The client reader can also be configured to begin at some other message between the earliest message and the latest message, for example by using a message ID to fetch messages from a persistent data store or cache.
As noted above, in at least one embodiment, the Ingress Server system 100 is configured to clean and validate data. For example, the Ingress Server system 100 can be configured include an Ingress Server API 106 that can validate the ingested vehicle event and location data and pass the validated location data to a server queue 108, for example, an Apache Kafka queue, which is then outputted to the Stream Processing Server system 200. Server 104 can be configured to output the validated ingressed location data to the data store 107 as well. The Ingress Server system 100 can also be configured to pass invalid data to a data store 107.
The map database can be, for example, a point of interest database or other map database, including public or proprietary map databases. Exemplary map databases can include extant street map data such as Geofabric for local street maps, or World Map Database. The system can be further configured to egress the data to external mapping interfaces, navigation interfaces, traffic interfaces, and connected car interfaces as described herein.
The Ingress Server system 100 can be configured to output the stored invalid data or allow stored data to be pulled to the Analysis Server system 500 from the data store 107 for analysis, for example, to improve system performance. For example, the Analysis Server system 500 can be configured with diagnostic machine learning configured to perform analysis on databases of invalid data with unrecognized fields to newly identify and label fields for validated processing. The Ingress Server system 100 can also be configured to pass stored ingressed location data for processing by the Analytics Server system 500.
As described herein, the system 10 is configured to process data in both a streaming and a batch context. In the streaming context, low latency is more important than completeness, i.e. old data need not be processed, and in fact, processing old data can have a detrimental effect as it may hold up the processing of other, more recent data. In the batch context, completeness of data is more important than low latency. Accordingly, to facilitate the processing of data in these two contexts, in an embodiment, the system 10 can default to a streaming connection that ingresses all data as soon as it is available but can also be configured to skip old data. A batch processor 501 can be configured to fill in any gaps left by the streaming processor due to old data.
In at least one embodiment, event information can be stored in one or more data stores 107, for later processing and/or analysis. Likewise, in at least one embodiment, event data and information can be processed as it is determined or received. Also, event payload and process information can be stored in data stores, such as data store 107, for use as historical information and/or comparison information and for further processing.
In at least one embodiment, the Stream Processing Server system 200 is configured to perform vehicle event data processing.
In an embodiment, as shown at block 703 of
In an embodiment, at block 704 the system 10 is configured to perform Attribute Value Filtering. Attribute Value Filtering checks to ensure attribute values are internally set or bespoke defined ranges. For example, while a date of 1970 can pass an Attribute Bounds Filter check for a date Attribute of the event, the date is not a sensible value for vehicle tracking data. Accordingly, Attribute Value Filtering is configured to filter data older than a predefined time, for example 6 weeks or older, which can be checked and filtered. An example Attribute Bounds Filtering is given in Table 4.
At block 705, the system 10 can perform further validation on Attributes in a record to confirm that relationships between attributes of record data points are coherent. For example, a non-zero trip start event does not make logical sense for a journey determination as described herein. Accordingly, as shown in Table 5, the system 10 can be configured to filter non-zero speed events recorded for the same Attributes for a captured timestamp and a received timestamp for a location as “TripStart” or journey ignition on start event.
Returning to
The geohashing algorithm encodes latitude and longitude (lat/long) data from event data to a short string of n characters. In an embodiment, the geohashed lat/long data is geohashed to a shape. For example, in an embodiment, the lat/long data can be geohashed to a rectangle whose edges are proportional to the characters in the string. In an embodiment, the geohash can be encoded from to 4 to 9 characters.
A number of advantages flow from employing geohashed event data as described herein. For example, in a database, data indexed by geohash will have all points for a given rectangular area in contiguous slices, where the number of slices is determined by the geohash precision of encoding. This improves the database by allowing queries on a single index, which is much easier or faster than multiple-index queries. The geohash index structure is also useful for streamlined proximity searching, as the closest points are often among the closest geohashes.
At block 206, in at least one embodiment, the Stream Processing Server system 200 performs a location lookup. As noted above, in an embodiment, the system 10 can be configured to encode the geohash to identify a defined geographical area, for example, a country, a state, or a zip code. The system 10 can geohash the lat/long to a rectangle whose edges are proportional to the characters in the string.
For example, in an embodiment, the geohashing can be configured to encode the geohash to 5 characters, and the system 10 can be configured to identify a state to the 5-character geohashed location. For example, the geohash encoded to 5 slices or characters of precision is accurate to +/−2.5 kilometers, which is sufficient to identify a state. A geohash to 6 characters can be used to identify the geohashed location to a zip code, as it is accurate to +/−0.61 kilometers. A geohash to 4 characters can be used to identify a country. In an embodiment, the system 10 can be configured to encode the geohash to uniquely identify a vehicle with the geohashed location. In an embodiment, the system 10 can be configured to encode the geohash to 9 characters to uniquely identify a vehicle.
In an embodiment, the system 10 can be further configured to map the geohashed event data to a map database. The map database can be, for example, a point of interest database or other map database, including public or proprietary map databases as described herein. The system 10 can be further configured to produce mapping interfaces. An exemplary advantage of employing geohashing as described herein is that it allows for much faster, low latency enrichment of the vehicle event data when processed downstream. For example, geographical definitions, map data, and other enrichments are easily mapped to geohashed locations and Vehicle IDs. Feed data can be also be combined into an aggregated data set and visualized using an interface, for example a GIS visualization tool (e.g.: Mapbox, CARTO, ArcGIS, or Google Maps API) as shown in
In at least one embodiment, at block 208, the Stream Processor Server system 200 can be configured to anonymize the data to remove identifying information, for example, by removing or obscuring personally identifying information from a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) for vehicle data in the event data. In various embodiments, event data or other data can include VIN numbers, which include numbers representing product information for the vehicle, such as make, model, and year, and also includes characters that uniquely identify the vehicle, and can be used to personally identify it to an owner. The system 10 can include, for example, an algorithm that removes the characters in the VIN that uniquely identify a vehicle from vehicle data but leaves other identifying serial numbers (e.g. for make, model and year), for example, a Squish Vin algorithm. In an embodiment, the system 10 can be configured to add a unique vehicle tag to the anonymized data. For example, the system 10 can be configured to add unique numbers, characters, or other identifying information to anonymized data so the event data for a unique vehicle can be tracked, processed and analyzed after the personally identifying information associated with the VIN has been removed. An exemplary advantage of anonymized data is that the anonymized data allows processed event data to be provided externally while still protecting personally identifying information from the data, for example as may be legally required or as may be desired by users.
In at least one embodiment, as described herein, a geohash to 9 characters can also provide unique identification of a vehicle without obtaining or needing personally identifying information such as VIN data. Vehicles can be identified via processing a database event data and geohashed to a sufficient precision to identify unique vehicles, for example to 9 characters, and the vehicle can then be identified, tracked, and their data processed as described herein.
In an embodiment, data can be processed as described herein. For example, un-aggregated data can be stored in a database (e.g. Parquet) and partitioned by time. Data can be validated in-stream and then reverse geocoded in-stream. Data enrichment, for example by vehicle type, can be performed in-stream. The vehicle event data can aggregated, for example, by region, by journey, and by date. The data can be stored in Parquet, and can also be stored in Postgres. Reference data can be applied in Parquet for in-stream merges. Other reference data can be applied in Postgres for spatial attributes.
As noted above, for real-time streaming, at block 202, the data validation filters out data that has excess latency, for example a latency over 7 seconds. However, batch data processing can run with a full set of data without gaps, and thus can include data that is not filtered for latency. For example, a batch data process for analytics as described with respect to
In an embodiment, at block 212, both the transformed location data filtered for latency and the rejected latency data are input to a server queue, for example, an Apache Kafka queue. At block 214, the Stream Processing server system 200 can split the data into a data set including full data 216—the transformed location data filtered for latency and the rejected latency data—and another data set of the transformed location data 222. The full data 216 is stored in data store 107 for access or delivery to the Analytics Server system 500, while the filtered transformed location data is delivered to the Egress Server system 400. In another embodiment, the full data set or portions thereof including the rejected data can also be delivered to the Egress Server system 400 for third party platforms for their own use and analysis. In such an embodiment, at block 213 transformed location data filtered for latency and the rejected latency data can be provided directly to the Egress Server system 400.
For example, in an embodiment, the Egress Server system 400 can provide pattern data based on filters provided by the system 10. For example, the system 10 can be configured to provide a geofence filter 412 to filter event data for a given location or locations. As will be appreciated, geofencing can be configured to bound and process journey and event data as described herein for numerous patterns and configurations. For example, in an embodiment, the Egress Server system 400 can be configured to provide a “Parking” filter configured restrict the data to the start and end of journey (Ignition—key on/off events) within the longitude/latitudes provided or selected by a user. Further filters or exceptions for this data can be configured, for example by state (state code or lat/long). The system 10 can also be configured with a “Traffic” filter to provide traffic pattern data, for example, with given states and lat/long bounding boxes excluded from the filters.
In an embodiment, the Egress Server 400 can be configured to process data with low-latency algorithms configured to maintain and improve low latency real-time throughput. The algorithms can be configured to process the data for low-latency file output that can populate downstream interfaces requiring targeted, real-time data that does not clog computational resources or render them inoperable. In an embodiment, the system 10 is configured to provide low latency average road speed data for road segments for output in virtually real time from a live vehicle movement data stream from the Stream Processing Server 200. The Egress Server 400 can also be configured to delete raw data in order and provide lightweight data packages to partners 20 and configured for downstream interfaces, for example via the Push Server.
As shown in
In an embodiment, at block 412 the system is configured to track data points for a vehicle as described herein with respect to
In an example shown and described with reference to
The system is configured to calculate at segment traversal for a vehicle by monitoring a plurality of data points from the vehicle event data. A segment traversal is when a vehicle passes all the way through a road segment from one end to the other.
In an embodiment, as shown in
As shown in
At calculation triggering data point F, the system then calculates data for a segment event record for segment 2. The segment event record includes a traversal time and average speed for segment 2. A traversal time is the amount of time taken for a segment traversal. Traversal time is the captured time stamp of the first data point exiting outside the road segment minus the captured time stamp of the first data point inside the road segment in milliseconds. For example, in
Average speed is the segment distance divided by the traversal time. The average speed can be multiplied to obtain a desired order of magnitude. For a given capture rate for vehicle movement data points (e.g., 3 seconds), the exact distance driven will vary by record, and a fixed distance can be used when calculating average speed through the segment. For example, at 50 MPH a vehicle will have travelled approximately 73.3 yards in 3 seconds. In the example shown in
A worked example for a segment event record as shown in
Returning to
As shown in
As shown in
As explained herein, improved latency is not incidental to the design and implementation of the algorithm and segment event record container employed to egress segment events, as low latency is an important technical feature of the system. Further, light segment event record containers allow downstream consoles, for example traffic management consoles, to operate. For example, at block 416 of
In an embodiment, the Analytics Server system 500 can be configured to accept vehicle event payload and processed information, which can be stored in data stores, such as data stores 107. As shown in
Accordingly, at block 502 of
Referring to block 504 of
At block 510, in at least one embodiment, the Analytics Server 500 can perform a Journey Segmentation analysis of the event data. At block 512, the Analytics Sever 500 is configured to perform calculations to qualify a Journey from event information.
Returning to
In at least one embodiment, a Journey can comprise one or more Journey Segments from a starting point to a final destination. A Journey Segment comprises a distance and a duration of travel between engine on/start movement and engine off/stop movement events for a vehicle.
However, a real driver may have one or more stops when travelling to a destination. A Journey can have two or more Journey Segments, such as when there is a trip with multiple stops. For example, a driver may need to stop for fuel when travelling from home to work or stop at a traffic light. As such, a problem and challenge in vehicle event analysis includes developing accurate vehicle tracking for embodiments as described herein. While other Journey algorithms or processes have been employed in the art, for example reverse engineering a journey from a known destination of an identified vehicle, the present disclosure includes embodiments and algorithms that have been developed and advantageously implemented for agnostic vehicle tracking using the technology described herein, including the data analysis, databases, interfaces, data processing, and other technological products.
At block 512, the Analytics Server 500 is configured to perform calculations to qualify a Journey from event information. In an embodiment, the system 10 is configured with Journey detection criteria, including a duration criterion, a distance criterion, and a dwell time criterion. In at least one embodiment, the duration criterion includes a minimum duration criterion, where a minimum duration of travel is required for the system to include a Journey Segment in a Journey. A minimum duration of travel after engine on or a start movement can comprise a duration of time for travel, for example, from about 60 to about 90 seconds. In an exemplary embodiment, the system 10 can be configured require a vehicle travel more than 60 seconds for it to be included as a Journey Segment. For example, if an (1) engine on/ignition event or (2) an identified vehicle's first movement after a known last movement (e.g. from a previous trip or journey) or (3) a newly identified vehicle's first movement is identified for a vehicle, and the event is followed by a short duration of travel of less than 60 seconds, the system 10 is configured to exclude this Journey Segment from a Journey determination. The system 10 is configured to determine that the vehicle's short duration of movement is not a Journey start or destination.
In an embodiment, the Journey detection criterion includes a distance of travel criterion, for example 200 meters. The system 10 can be configured to exclude distances of 200 meters or less from a Journey segment. A minimum distance of travel criterion can comprise a predetermined duration of distance for travel, for example, from about 100 meters to about 300 meters. The minimum distance x (e.g. 200 meters) can be defined to an index including about 50% tolerance of the minimum distance x.
In an embodiment, a dwell time criterion can include a stop time for a vehicle. For example, a dwell time criterion can be from about 30 to about 90 seconds. A maximum dwell time can comprise a duration of stopping between an engine off/stop movement and engine on/start movement for the same vehicle, for example, from about 20 to about 120 seconds. For example, if the system 10 determines a vehicle is stopped or its engine is off for less than 30 seconds, the system can be configured not to include that stop period as the end of a Journey or in a Journey object.
As described above, in an embodiment, the system 10 is configured to process vehicle event data to determine if one or more Journey Segments comprise a Journey for a vehicle. For example, an engine on or start movement event can be followed by a distance exceeding a distance criterion (e.g. over 200 meters). Thus, the system's duration criterion does identify this segment for a Journey. However, if the car stops thereafter and continues to stay stationary for over 30 seconds, the system 10 is configured not to count that as a segment for a Journey. If the vehicle subsequently stops for less than 30 seconds and then moves again, the Dwell time criterion is met, and the system 10 is configured to include that Journey Segment in the Journey for that vehicle's travel to its final destination. Thus, the algorithm can join a plurality of Journey Segments for a Journey or a Journey object for an everyday real time drive a destination, for example, when a driver turns a car on (engine on/start movement) at home, drives for 10 miles (Distance criterion), stops at a stop light for 29 seconds, travels on to a final destination at work (engine off/stop movement). However, the system 10 is configured to ignore events that are unlikely to represent an interruption in a Journey, for example stopping at a stop light for 29 seconds (Dwell criterion) or movement less than 200 meters (Distance criterion) or less than 60 seconds (Duration criterion).
In an embodiment, the system 10 can include a plurality of criteria for each of the dwell criterion, the distance criterion, or the time criterion, for example, based on variable data. Thus, the algorithm can join a plurality of Journey Segments for a Journey for a common real time drive to a destination where additional data is known about the vehicle and the location. For example, if a vehicle is identified as a road legal electric vehicle such as an electric car, the dwell criteria can include a dwell time maximum criterion of 20 minutes at a location identified as an electric charging station. Thus, the dwell time can be extended up to between 2-20 minutes, based on, for example, other data about the location (e.g., data indicating the stop is a point of interest such as a gas station, rest area, or restaurant). The system 10 can be configured to identify a Journey when a driver of an electric car turns the car on (engine on or first movement) at home, drives for 100 miles (Distance criterion) to a charging station for charging (engine off/stop movement, 12 minutes, Dwell criterion, variable, charging station), then starts again (engine on/start movement) and travels on to a final destination at a sales meeting (engine off/stop movement). Accordingly, as will be appreciated, each of the criteria above can be configured to be variable depending on, inter alia, knowledge derived or obtained about an event vehicle data point.
In an embodiment, the system 10 is configured to identify candidate chains of Journey segments for a given device according to the criteria described above. Also, a compound Journey object can be instantiated with its start being the beginning of the chain and its end being the end of the final segment in the chain. A separate table of Journey objects can be extracted from event data and derived compound Journeys can be generated into a further table. In an embodiment, a data set including all engine on/engine off or start movement/stop movement events are identified to a unique vehicle ID. For example, each of the engine on/engine off or start movement/stop movement events for a vehicle can be placed on a single row including the candidate Journey segments. Then, row of engine on/engine off or start movement/stop movement events can be processed by each of the distance criterion, duration criterion, and dwell criterion to determine which Journey segments can be included or excluded from a Journey determination for a Journey object. In an embodiment, the system 10 can generate a further Journey Table, which is populated with Journey objects as determined from the events for the vehicle that meet the Journey criteria above.
In at least one embodiment, at block 514, the system 10 is configured to provide active vehicle detection by analyzing a database of vehicle event data and the summarizing of a journey of points into a Journey object with attributes, such as start time, end time, start location, end location, data point count, average interval and the like. In an embodiment, Journey objects can be put into a separate data table for processing.
In an exemplary embodiment, the system 10 can be configured to perform vehicle tracking without the need for pre-identification of the vehicle (e.g. by a VIN number). As described above, geohashing can be employed on a database of event data to geohash data to a precision of 9 characters, which corresponds to a shape sufficient to uniquely correlate the event to a vehicle. In an embodiment, the active vehicle detection comprises identifying a vehicle path from a plurality of the events over a period of time. In an embodiment, the active vehicle detection can comprise identifying the vehicle path from the plurality of events over the period of a day (24 hours). The identification comprises using, for example, a connected components algorithm. In an embodiment, the connected components algorithm is employed to identify a vehicle path in a directed graph including the day of vehicle events, in which in the graph, a node is a vehicle and a connection between nodes is the identified vehicle path. For example, a graph of journey starts and journey ends is created, where nodes represent starts and ends, and edges are journeys undertaken by a vehicle. At each edge, starts and ends are sorted temporally. Edges are created to connect ends to the next start at that node, ordered by time. Nodes are 9 digit geohashes of GPS coordinates. A connected components algorithm finds the set of nodes and edges that are connected and, a generated device ID at the start of a day is passed along the determined subgraph to uniquely identify the journeys (edges) as being undertaken by the same vehicle.
An exemplary advantage of this approach is it obviates the need for pre-identification of vehicles to event data. Journey Segments from vehicle paths meeting Journey criteria as described herein can be employed to detect Journeys and exclude non-qualifying Journey events as described above. For example, a geohash encoded to 9 digits (highest resolution) for event data showing a vehicle had a stop movement/engine off to start movement/engine on event within x seconds of each other (30 seconds) can be deemed the same vehicle for a Journey. For a sequence of arrives and leaves, a Journey can be calculated as the shortest path of Journey Segments through the graph.
In at least one embodiment, at block 515, the system 10 can be configured to store the event data and Journey determination data in a data warehouse 517. Data can be stored in a database format 518. In an embodiment, a time column can be added to the processed data. In an embodiment, the database can also comprise Point of Interest (POI) data.
The Analytics Server system 500 can include an analytics server component 516 to perform data analysis on data stored in the data warehouse 517, for example a Spark analytics cluster. The Analytics Server system 500 can be configured to perform evaluation 530, clustering 531, demographic analysis 532, and bespoke analysis 533. For example, a date column and hour column can be added to data to processed Journey data and location data stored in the warehouse 517. This can be employed for bespoke analysis 533, for example, determining how many vehicles at intersection x by date and time. The system 10 can also be configured to provide bespoke analysis 533 at the Egress Server system 400, as described with respect to
In an embodiment, a geospatial index row can be added to stored database 518 in warehouse 517 data, for example, to perform hyper local targeting or speeding up ad hoc queries on geohashed data. For example, location data resolved to 4 decimals or characters can correspond to a resolution of 20 meters or under.
The Analytics Server 500 can be configured with diagnostic machine learning configured to perform analysis on databases of invalid data with unrecognized fields to newly identify and label fields for validated processing.
In an embodiment, the system 10 can be configured to process vehicle event data to provide enhanced insights and efficient processing. Exemplary processes and systems for processing event data comprise:
The Analytics Server system 500 can be configured to perform road snapping as described with respect to the Ingress Server system 100 hereinabove. The algorithm as described above advantageously can use individual points for snapping, and extracts as much information as possible from each data point by comparing each data point to road geometry. The data point can also be compared to statistics formed from aggregated data. In an embodiment, the snapping algorithm is implemented at an ingress server to provide, inter alia, advantages in substantially real-time, low latency feeds. In an embodiment, the snapping algorithm can also be provided at the Stream Processing server system 200, Egress Server system 400, or Analytics Server system 500. In an embodiment, the system 10 can be further configured to map the event data to a map database as described herein.
In an embodiment, a base map is given as a collection of line segments. The system 10 can be configured to include a base map given as a collection of line segments for road segment, for example employing an R-Tree index as described herein. As disclosed herein, the system 10 includes, for each line segment, geometrical information regarding the line segment's relation to its nearest neighbors. For each line segment, statistical information regarding expected traffic volumes and speeds is generated from an initial iteration of the process. Vehicle movement event data comprises longitude, latitude, heading, speed, and time-of-day. As described herein, vehicle movement event data is geohashed, for example to a 6 character geohash. Vehicle movement event data enriched with the geohash can be map-matched to the base map.
One exemplary advantage of the system 10 is that among large data set of vehicle movement data, the system can be configured to be highly selective and yet correct map interfaces at a high degree of resolution. For example, the system 10 can identify and correct map data and interfaces from at least and as many as 10 million geohashes in the United States.
Another exemplary advantage is map interfaces and navigation systems can be improved to accurately navigate vehicles.
In another embodiment, proceeding from the map matching enrichment described above, the Analytics Server 500 or Egress Server 400 can be configured to analyze movement data from vehicle event movement data points. The system 10 is configured to generate road segments with unique segment IDs as described herein with respect to
In an embodiment, the system is configured to perform enhanced road snapping for journey traces.
At block 542, the map data is filtered using the tags to identify ways that are road ways. The map data is filtered and uses the tags to filter the list of ways to all those which describe roads. At block 544 the map data is filtered by the nodes of the identified road ways to identify the road nodes. For example, in an embodiment, the list of nodes is filtered to include only those nodes on road ways. At block 546, the system 10 then is configured to convert the road nodes and the road ways into the multigraph. In an embodiment the conversion comprises, at block 547, identifying as the tower nodes the nodes that are either a terminal node of a road way or a node included in a plurality of road ways (a tower node included in a plurality of road ways being either a dead end or an intersection).
At block 548, the system 10 is configured to generate a road segment for any two tower nodes that lie along a common road way. In an embodiment, a condition for generating the segment is that the tag for the road way is a directional tag indicating the direction of the road way is permitted. For example, a road segment can be created for any two consecutive tower nodes that lie on the same way such that the ordering of the tower nodes is permissible based on the one-way tag of the way. A reverse tag can be defined for the road segment by reversing the terminal tower nodes along the common road way, wherein a condition of generating the reverse is a directional tag indicating the direction of the reverse is permitted. Thus, for example, a reverse would not be permitted for a road segment tagged or determined to be a one-way road way.
As shown in
Returning to
s
i.end=si+1.start for i=1,2, . . . n−1 and writes1→s2→ . . . . →sn.
In an embodiment, for the conversion of the road tower nodes and the road segments into the multigraph, the system can be configured to determine whether the chain includes a u-turn. For example, a chain s1→s2→ . . . →sn includes a u-turn if si=si+1{circumflex over ( )} for some i=1, 2, . . . n−1.
At block at block 550, the system is configured to identify a segment meeting a neighbor distance criterion as neighbor segments.
In an embodiment, the neighbor distance criterion is defined as:
The system is configured to identify those neighbors of a segment that a vehicle travels to in a 3 second period. For example, in an embodiment, the neighbor distance criterion can be configured with an upper limit distance of 200 meters, which allows for vehicles travelling at 150 mph. However, the neighbor distance criterion can be configured with a different minimum distance. For example, where mapping data or vehicle tracking data indicates or predicts speed limit for a road, the upper distance limit could be lowered to, for example, 100 meters for a vehicle travelling at 75 mph or even lower.
Using the neighbor distance criterion, which can vary from segment to segment, a>>b signifies that b is a neighbor of a. Given a>>b, there can be more than one chain of intermediate segments a →s1→s2→ . . . →sn→b that meet the neighbor distance criterion. In order to select a single chain, the list can first be ordered by whether or not the chain contains a uturn, and next by Σni=1 length(si). In some cases, this process is sufficient to define a unique chain for any pair of neighbors a>>b. This unique chain forms the intermediate segments. As will be appreciated, the chain can be empty when the nearest neighbor segment is a terminal node (i.e.: when a→b).
In an embodiment, the system is configured to process location event data at the server to identify a journey trace for a road segment. At block 552, the system 10 is configured to ingest and track vehicle event data of a vehicle as described herein to locate a plurality of vehicle event data points (also referred to as o: observation) for the road segment, each data point comprising a longitude, a latitude, a heading, a speed, and a captured timestamp.
At block 554, the system 10 is configured to identify a plurality of point snapping road segment candidates for the each of the vehicle event data points. As described above the system 10 is configured to take a collection of line segments, which corresponds to road segments, and create an R-Tree index over the collection of line segments. R-trees are tree data structures used for spatial access methods, i.e., for indexing multi-dimensional information such as geographical coordinates, rectangles or polygons. The R-tree is configured to store spatial objects as bounding box polygons to represent, inter alia, road segments. The R-Tree is first used to find road segment candidates within a prescribed distance of a coordinate in order to snap a data point. In an embodiment, the system 10 can be configured to obtain a set of snapping candidates with the algorithm:
In an embodiment, the system can be configured to perform point snapping or road snapping as described with respect to the Ingress Server system 100 and Egress Server System 200 hereinabove. For example, at block 556, the system is configured to identify a journey trace comprising an ordered set of the plurality of the road segments defining a most likely path taken by a vehicle, where each road segment in the ordered set is obtained from the plurality of point snapping candidates for a plurality of corresponding location event data points. The system 10 can be configured to also apply a penalty for point snapping between the vehicle event data point and a road segment. For example, the system could apply penalty as described above with respect to the Ingress Server system 100. In an embodiment, the system can be configured to apply a penalized squared distance between the vehicle event data point and a road segment. For example, the system 10 can be configured to identify the vehicle event data point to a road segment with a point snapping algorithm:
In an embodiment, the parameter radius can be chosen to be a distance beyond which a vehicle event data point or observation is not reasonably deflected from the vehicle's true position, for example a 100 m.
The system can then calculate the penalized square distance as:
SDPEN(o:observation,s:segment):=Distance((o.longitude,o.latitude),s)2+PenaltyFunction(o,s)
While in some cases, point snapping with a penalty as described above is sufficient to accurately snap a vehicle event point to a segment, in a number of cases accuracy can be further improved by employing processes described below. A simplified example of a misapplied point snapping is shown in
In an embodiment, a journey trace comprises an ordered collection of vehicle movement event points (observations). For a given a journey trace, the system is configured to find a corresponding ordered list of segments such that each segment in the list is taken from a set of road snapping candidates for the corresponding vehicle event point from the journey trace such that the segments represent the “most likely” path taken by the vehicle. In an embodiment, the system finds the most likely path by identifying the ordered list of segments which minimizes a sum of all the penalized distances of each of the selected segments along with the sum of all the transition penalties between consecutive segments. As will be appreciated, there can be a vehicle event data point or observation within the journey trace for which the set of road snapping candidates is empty. In order to handle this situation, the system can be configured to split the journey trace into two sections for this observation. This operation can be repeated more than once if needed.
In an embodiment the system 10 is configured to calculate a transition penalty for a plurality of the location event data points for a vehicle traveling between consecutive road segments of the sequence of road segments. As noted above, the system 10 is configured to select the ordered list of road segment candidates which minimizes a sum of all the penalized distances of each of the selected road selected along with a sum of all the transition penalties between consecutive road segments. A transition penalty is a penalty for travel between two segments that is deemed to be unlikely given the relative position of the two segments within the directed graph. This will be zero for segments which are neighbors, apart from those neighbors that involve a u-turn, which will incur a fixed penalty. Segments which are not neighbors also incur a higher fixed transition penalty. In an embodiment, the transition penalty algorithm comprises:
wherein the identifying of the chain of intermediate segments for a sequence of segments is si.end=si+1.start for i=1, 2, . . . n−1 and s1→s2→ . . . . →sn, and the chain includes a u-turn if a segment includes a reverse.
At block 560, the system 10 is configured to identify the ordered list of the plurality of road segments which minimizes a sum of all the penalized distances of each of the selected road segments along with a sum of all the transition penalties between consecutive segments comprising the algorithm:
where si in RTREE_QUERY(oi.longitude, oi.latitude, radius). As will be appreciated, the returned sequence of segments may not form a chain.
As will be also be appreciated, a computational brute force search of a list of all possible paths through the list of road snapping candidates at each block would take an exponential amount of computation. As a solution to this technical problem, in an embodiment, the system is configured to run a Viterbi algorithm to improve the search and search computational efficiency.
At block 561, for the road segment candidates for each location event data point, the system is configured to generate a Viterbi trellis. For example, referring to the graph of
As shown
At block 562, the system is configured to calculate a trellis penalty for each of the road segment candidates in the Viterbi trellis. In an embodiment, the trellis penalty comprises a running total of the penalized squared distance penalties from a first of the location event data point observations. The system is configured to work in the order represented in the trellis of
For each road segment element S11, S12, S13, S14 in the first column 563a is a dummy element for the TRELLIS_BACKLINK, and a penalized squared distance from the first observation in the TRELLIS_PENALTY.
s
11.TRELLIS_BACKLINK=DUMMYs13.TRELLIS_BACKLINK=DUMMY
s
11.TRELLIS_PENALTY=SDPEN(o1,s13.TRELLIS_PENALTY=SDPEN(o1,s11)s13)
s
12.TRELLIS_BACKLINK=DUMMYs14.TRELLIS_BACKLINK=DUMMY
s
12.TRELLIS_PENALTY=SDPEN(o1,s14.TRELLIS_PENALTY=SDPEN(o1,s12)S14)
As shown in
For each of the previous elements s1i (i=1, 2, 3, 4), the system calculates the sum:
s
1i.TRELLIS_PENALTY+TRPEN(s1i,s21)
When the value finds a minimum, for example with the segment s1k, the system updates the trellis:
s
21.TRELLIS_PENALTY=s1k.TRELLIS_PENALTY+TRPEN(s1k,s21)+SDPEN(o2,s21)
s
21.TRELLIS_BACK_LINK=s1k
The system then continues the calculation for each of the segments S21, S22, S23 in the second column 563b, then repeats the process on the third column 563c and then again on subsequent columns 563n in the same fashion.
At block 564, the system 10 is configured to identify the road segment candidate in the Viterbi trellis that has the smallest trellis penalty when the Viterbi trellis is completed upon reaching the final column 563n in the trellis. Once the system completes the trellis, the system identifies road segment element in the final column 563n which minimizes the trellis penalty TRELLIS_PENALTY. The system can then trace back through the trellis via the trellis backlinks TRELLIS_BACKLINK one column 563n, 563c, 563b, 563a at a time and retrieve a full list of segments. At block 566, the system 10 retrieves, via the Viterbi trellis, a list of the road segment candidates that have the smallest trellis penalty. Journey traces and journey segments can be saved a historical Journey database 518 as described above, for example in warehouse storage 517.
Though a simple example is given, in practice, in an embodiment, large volumes of batch vehicle event data—for an entire country for example—are being processed for road snapping and journey tracing as described above. In an embodiment, the system can be configured to process large volumes of batch data at scale.
As shown in
As the historical time taken is calculated for both the grid cell of the journey start and the hour, this means that the journey traces will be substantially equally distributed across workers 575a . . . n as described below, as the data is structured for both cell and time. Advantageously, data for periodic journey patterns—for example reflecting people commuting from rural areas to work in the morning and returning in the evening—are optimally distributed across the workers 575a . . . n. The distribution also advantageously and efficiently processes for velocity of data impacted by long term trends in driving behavior.
At block 572, the system is configured to calculate a geohash of a center of the journey start grid cell. At block 573, the system is configured to order the rows of journey hashes of the batch database 518 by the calculated geohashes. Ordering the journeys by geohashes of the start cell ensures that journeys in the same geographical area are likely to be processed on the same worker 575n module, as described below. The geographical co-location of processed journeys on the same worker takes advantage of the insight that journeys starting at the same time in the same geographical area tend to have similar drive times. In an embodiment, the road segments for each grid cell loaded on demand. As road segments for each grid cell are only loaded to the worker 575n on demand, this reduces the memory requirement for each worker 575n.
As will be appreciated, partitioning the databases to co-locate journeys from the same geographical area provides significant improvements in computational speed and efficiency by, inter alia, optimally distributing journey trace computation across the workers 575a . . . n such that the total processing time of each partitioned database is substantially equal. Accordingly, in an embodiment the system is configured to allocate the journeys from the database to worker modules 575a . . . n so that the expected processing time for those journeys on each worker is substantially equal. At block 574, the system is configured to partition and allocate the rows of journey traces having substantially the same historical average processing time to a worker module 575n. Accordingly, the system is configured to allocate the partitioned databases 518a, 518b, 518n of journey traces having substantially the same historical average processing time to a plurality of respective worker modules 575a, 575b, 575n. This allocation to the respective worker modules 575a . . . n results in a computation processing time for each worker module 575n that is substantially equal.
For example, because the rows of journey hashes of the batch database 518 are ordered by the calculated geohashes and start cell. Each worker gets a database partitioned by the cell references and the list of rows processed by cell references, where one worker has multiple cells and journeys. As noted above, the processing time for each worker is based on the insight that journeys starting at the same time in the same geographical area tend to have similar drive times. Because the cells are ordered by geohash, the system can then determine how long it takes for the worker to process the entire database, and then partition the database by the number of workers. As noted above, the historical time taken is calculated for both the grid cell of the journey start and the hour. The result is that each worker gets a partition of geographically co-located journeys such that the total processing time of each partitioned database is substantially equal. This means that the journeys will be substantially equally distributed across workers based on periodic journey patterns (e.g: as people commuting from rural areas to work in the morning and returning in the evening will be optimally distributed) and long term trends in driving behavior.
As will be appreciated, the system does not make subjective determinations. Rather, it is the algorithmic organization of the database as described above that produces technological advance in computational efficiency. Ordering the journeys by geohash ensures that journeys in the same geographical area are likely to be processed on the same worker. Thus, for example on one worker a partition may have a smaller number of geographically co-located journeys from a geographical area that are slower to process, whereas a partition on another worker may have a larger number of geographically co-located journeys from another geographical area that are faster to process. Of course, some journey traces may be outliers, where the processing time is significantly longer than the average for the grid cell, but it was found that the outliers tend to average out.
At block 576, on each worker module 575n, system snaps the journey traces from the respective database assigned to it to roads using the Viterbi trellis algorithm described above with respect to
At block 578, the system then stores a time taken to process each of the journey start grid cells in the historical journey database 518 in warehouse 517 for later lookup of the processing time as described at block 571.
In an embodiment, the system is configured to run the process described above at predetermined time intervals At block 580, the system is configured to cache road segments in cache memory 581a . . . n on each of a plurality of worker modules 575a . . . n between the time intervals. For example, road segments for grid cells are cached on each worker module 575n between each hourly run of the process. As each worker module 575n is generally assigned the same geographical area, on subsequent runs of the process, most of the road segments will already be loaded into cache memory 581n.
The system can be configured to geospatially partition both the data to be snapped and the road segments data for efficient horizontal scaling using the following algorithm.
wherein R is earth's equatorial radius and e is an eccentricity of a WGS84 ellipsoid.
As will be appreciated, the constants Kx and Ky depend only on the latitude of the center of the grid. These constants capture the difference in scale in degrees of longitude and latitude at this point.
At the scale of the typical distances being computing (<200 m), the difference in distance calculations compared to the Vincenty formulas for an World Geodetic System WGS84 ellipsoid model of the earth are negligible across an entire grid cell, and similarly for calculations involving angles. It was determined that the distance calculations are generally more accurate than using a spherical haversine approximation even though they are trivial to compute in comparison.
Accordingly, it was determined that by using these grid cell projections and working in general with squared distances, the system 10 is able to compute and complete the majority of its computations with just basic arithmetical operators. This results in highly advantageous efficiency in computational power and memory of the more computationally extensive algorithms, such as the spherical haversine approximation.
In an embodiment, the system can be configured to employ the point-snapping and a journey segmentation analysis as described above to advantageously perform automated identification of turn counts at intersections. In an embodiment, a map-matched journey segment can include a short section of road, where at either end there is either an intersection or a dead end.
The raw point data is first passed through the journey segmentation and aggregation process, for example as described with respect to
This journey trace is then input into the journey snapping algorithm. Various embodiments of journey segments for journeys as described with respect, inter alia, to
As noted above, a consecutive pair of journey segments in a journey trace can describe a transition through an intersection. For a consecutive pair of journey segments describing such a transition, the first segment describes the path into the intersection and the second segment describes the path out of the intersection. Each journey trace can then be divided into consecutive pairs of segments. The system can be configured to count how many times each pairing occurs in a given time frame. The system thereby provides a count of how many of each type of transition is made through a given intersection on a per vehicle basis. The system can then group the transition types by intersection to get the turn ratios for each different transition through an intersection.
For example, as shown on the mapping interfaces of
As shown in
An intersection can have many types of turns. For example, at a 4 way intersection of two streets, a vehicle can, for each of the 4 incoming roads, go straight through or turn left or right. As will be appreciated, types of turns are identified and counted by journey analysis of the data itself. As shown in
As will be appreciated, the system can be configured to count turns and turn ratios using mass vehicle event data, including historical data going back years, with no implementation of hardware or personnel on road networks as is conventionally done. For example, the system as described includes vehicle event data going back at least two years covering 95% of US road networks.
The low latency provides a super-fast connection delivering information from vehicle source to end-user customer. Further data capture has a high capture rate of 3 seconds per data point, capturing up to, for example, 330 billion data points per month. As described herein, data is precise to lane-level with location data and 95% accurate to within a 3-meter radius, the size of a typical car.
In at least one embodiment, a dashboard display can render a display of the information produced by the other components of the system 10. In at least one embodiment, dashboard display can be presented on a client computer accessed over network. In at least one embodiment, user interfaces can be employed without departing from the spirit and/or scope of the claimed subject matter. Such user interfaces can have any number of user interface elements, which can be arranged in various ways. In some embodiments, user interfaces can be generated using web pages, mobile applications, GIS visualization tools, mapping interfaces, emails, file servers, PDF documents, text messages, or the like. In at least one embodiment, Ingress Server system 100, Stream Processing Server system 200, Egress Server system 400, Analytics Server system 500, or Portal Server system 600 can include processes and/or API's for generating user interfaces.
For example, as shown in the flow chart 800 of
Embodiments described with respect to systems 10, 50, 100, 200, 400, 500, 600, 700, and 800 are described in conjunction with
It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustration, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These program instructions can be provided to a processor to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute on the processor, create means for implementing the actions specified in the flowchart block or blocks. The computer program instructions can be executed by a processor to cause a series of operational steps to be performed by the processor to produce a computer-implemented process such that the instructions, which execute on the processor to provide steps for implementing the actions specified in the flowchart block or blocks. The computer program instructions can also cause at least some of the operational steps shown in the blocks of the flowchart to be performed in parallel. Moreover, some of the steps can also be performed across more than one processor, such as might arise in a multi-processor computer system or even a group of multiple computer systems. In addition, one or more blocks or combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustration can also be performed concurrently with other blocks or combinations of blocks, or even in a different sequence than illustrated without departing from the scope or spirit of the disclosure.
Accordingly, blocks of the flowchart illustration support combinations for performing the specified actions, combinations of steps for performing the specified actions and program instruction means for performing the specified actions. It will also be understood that each block of the flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems, which perform the specified actions or steps, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions. The foregoing example should not be construed as limiting and/or exhaustive, but rather, an illustrative use case to show an implementation of at least one of the various embodiments.
