Real-time Routing Research Articles

SMART SHOPPING ASSISTANTS: HOW GUIDE ROBOTS IMPROVE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IN LARGE MALLS

The Shopping Guide Robot System is a cutting-edge solution designed to enhance the customer experience in large shopping malls and commercial spaces. This system provides real-time route guidance to help customers quickly locate their desired stores by calculating the shortest path. It offers personalized recommendations based on customer profiles, adjusts dynamically to environmental changes, and supports multilingual communication to cater to diverse clientele. The robot not only guides users to their destinations but also answers inquiries about mall events, discounts, restaurants, and other services. Through advanced autonomous navigation technology, the system ensures a safe and efficient shopping experience, making it an invaluable tool in modern retail environments.

Graph-driven multi-vessel long-term trajectories prediction for route planning under complex waters

Current collision avoidance algorithms used in autonomous navigation vessels are hindered by limited long-term visibility of dynamic obstacles, resulting in overly cautious and frequent avoidance maneuvers that can actually increase the risk of collisions in complex waterways. Therefore, this paper proposed a novel graph-driven multi-vessel long-term trajectory prediction method (termed GMLTP), which extends the length of real-time and accurate prediction of other vessel trajectories. GMLTP can enhance collision avoidance algorithms by enabling more anticipatory trajectory prediction, ultimately supporting real-time route planning in creating safer, more efficient, and optimized routes. Specifically, GMLTP consists of a multi-graph spatial convolution (MGSC) layer and a probability sparse (ProbSparse) self-attention Transformer. MGSC is a finer spatial interactions extractor, which supports the modeling of spatial dependency evolution on longer sequences and thus improves the perception of long-term trends, while ProbSparse self-attention Transformer is used to reduce the computation of learning long-term global time dependencies and thus extending the predictable length. Extensive experimental results indicate that GMLTP exhibits better accuracy and generalization in prediction tasks beyond 48-timesteps (each time step is 10 s), which can provide better assistance to current real-time route planning tasks.

Sentiment Analysis of Google Maps User Reviews on the Play Store Using Support Vector Machine and Latent Dirichlet Allocation Topic Modeling

These days, traveling is made easier by utilizing easily accessible online directions such as Google Maps. Google Maps provides real-time routes by displaying and presenting the closest routes that users can take. However, lately, the routes provided by Google Maps services often get users lost by presenting routes such as forests, narrow roads, and even dead ends. Therefore, this study aims to determine the level of user satisfaction and sentiment into two categories, namely positive and negative, based on reviews on the Google Play Store platform using the Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm and topic modeling using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) to find out the collection of topics that are the main topics of conversation by users regarding Google Maps services. The results of this study show that the SVM algorithm is feasible to use in sentiment analysis classification with an accuracy value of 86%, precision of 93%, recall of 53%, and f1-score of 52%. In addition, topic modeling is applied to generate coherence values for each topic, which shows that the higher the coherence value, the more specific the topic is. The highest coherence value generated in this study was two topic models with a coherence value of 35.15%, but this study took five with a coherence value of 33.39%. The five topic models to be applied in this study are selected because they have a good enough coherence value to identify the main topics and hidden topics in Google Maps user reviews with the Latent Dirichlet Allocation model. The topic model shows five aspects users often discuss: Google Maps route accuracy, system and service errors, navigation application directions, lost time history, and convoluted route provision.

Long-term Traffic Flow Prediction using Stochastic Configuration Networks for Smart Cities

Accurate predictions of traffic flow are very meaningful to city managers. With such information, traffic systems can better coordinate traffic signals and reduce congestion. By understanding traffic patterns, navigation systems can provide real-time routing suggestions that avoid traffic jams, save time, and reduce fuel consumption. However, traffic flow will be interfered with by multiple factors such as collection time and place. In this paper, we propose to use stochastic configuration networks (SCNs) to predict the traffic flow. The network is trained through stepwise construction, and the network parameters are effectively optimized based on the approximation theorem and convergence analysis optimization mechanism. The proposed network automatically adjusts its structure according to the complexity of traffic flow to better adapt to the complex non-linearity of traffic flow. We observed that the proposed model achieves better prediction performance overall and greater flexibility in the length of the prediction period compared to the benchmarks using the Guangzhou urban traffic flow dataset. It's worth noting that SCNs consistently outperform other models across different prediction intervals. They yield RMSE improvements of up to 10.73% for 10-minute predictions, 5.02% for 30-minute predictions, and 11.21% for 60-minute predictions compared to the least effective models. The R-value also exhibits steady enhancement, increasing up to 0.78%, 0.65%, and 2.33% for 10-minute, 30-minute, and 60-minute predictions, respectively. These notable advancements, combined with the model's computational efficiency, especially in short-term predictions, underscore the effectiveness and practicality of SCNs in traffic flow prediction tasks.

Integrating Reinforcement Learning, Epsilon-Greedy Strategies, Ant Colony Optimization, and Particle Swarm Optimization to Real-Time Route Optimization: A Case Study of Indian Cities

Integrating Reinforcement Learning, Epsilon-Greedy Strategies, Ant Colony Optimization, and Particle Swarm Optimization to Real-Time Route Optimization: A Case Study of Indian Cities

Revolutionizing crowd safety: A breakthrough hybrid whale-bat chaotic algorithm (WOABCM) for optimized evacuation simulations

The Whale-Bat Chaotic Algorithm (WOABCM) is a revolutionary tool for optimizing pathfinding navigation in crowd evacuation scenarios. Conventional evacuation plans rely on static routes, causing traffic jams and decreased safety. WOABCM uses the erratic behavior of whales and bats to optimize escape routes in real time, making it particularly useful in large crowd evacuations. The algorithm can adapt to different scenarios, ensuring its continued efficacy across real-world conditions. Iteratively iterating through the evacuation environment, WOABCM iteratively finds the most effective ways for agents to reach exits. In this experiment, the results show notable improvements in evacuation times, with WOABCM determining and directing agents through the shortest and least crowded paths in a room setting and assigning agents to exits in more complicated scenarios. The algorithm's flexibility also allows it to swiftly recompute pathways for agents, avoiding obstructions or congestion points. This groundbreaking approach to crowd evacuation simulation demonstrates how chaos theory-inspired algorithms can be used to solve practical problems

Real-Time Bus Route and Timing Information System using IoT

This system suggests a user-friendly online interface for accessing real-time routes and schedules of the bus. The system provides the most recent information about bus locations, routes, and anticipated arrival times by utilizing the Internet of Things (IoT) and Global Positioning System (GPS) capabilities. The technology continuously collects position data by installing GPS modules on buses and linking them to an IoT network. After that, the data is sent to a central server for processing and display. The web interface serves as the main point of contact for users, it displays the positions of buses in real-time on a map along with integrated route data. By seeing the real-time position and expected arrival time of approaching buses, passengers may easily plan their journeys by accessing the webpage from any device with an internet connection. In addition to reducing wait times, enhancing customer satisfaction levels, and facilitating better travel arrangements, this gives transportation authorities useful information for optimizing bus routes and schedules.

Explaining Genetic Programming-Evolved Routing Policies for Uncertain Capacitated Arc Routing Problems

Genetic programming has been successfully used to evolve routing policies that can make real-time routing decisions for uncertain arc routing problems. Although the evolved routing policies are highly effective, they are typically very large and complex, and hard to be understood and trusted by real users. Existing studies have attempted to improve the interpretability by developing new genetic programming approaches to evolve both effective and interpretable (e.g., with smaller program size) routing policies. However, they still have limitations due to the trade-off between effectiveness and interpretability. To address this issue, we propose a new post-hoc explanation approach to explaining the effective but complex routing policies evolved by genetic programming. The new approach includes a local ranking explanation and a global explanation module. The local ranking explanation uses particle swarm optimisation to learn an interpretable linear model that accurately explains the local behaviour of the routing policy for each decision situation. Then, the global explanation module uses a clustering technique to summarise the local explanations into a global explanation. The experimental results and case studies on the benchmark datasets show that the proposed method can obtain accurate and understandable explanations of the routing policies evolved for uncertain arc routing problems. Our explanation approach is not restricted to uncertain arc routing, but has a great potential to be generalised to other optimisation and machine learning problems such as learning classifier systems and reinforcement learning.

Real-time path planning for autonomous vehicle off-road driving.

Autonomous driving is a growing research area that brings benefits in science, economy, and society. Although there are several studies in this area, currently there is no a fully autonomous vehicle, particularly, for off-road navigation. Autonomous vehicle (AV) navigation is a complex process based on application of multiple technologies and algorithms for data acquisition, management and understanding. Particularly, a self-driving assistance system supports key functionalities such as sensing and terrain perception, real time vehicle mapping and localization, path prediction and actuation, communication and safety measures, among others. In this work, an original approach for vehicle autonomous driving in off-road environments that combines semantic segmentation of video frames and subsequent real-time route planning is proposed. To check the relevance of the proposal, a modular framework for assistive driving in off-road scenarios oriented to resource-constrained devices has been designed. In the scene perception module, a deep neural network is used to segment Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images obtained from camera. The second traversability module fuses Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) point clouds with the results of segmentation to create a binary occupancy grid map to provide scene understanding during autonomous navigation. Finally, the last module, based on the Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (RRT) algorithm, predicts a path. The Freiburg Forest Dataset (FFD) and RELLIS-3D dataset were used to assess the performance of the proposed approach. The theoretical contributions of this article consist of the original approach for image semantic segmentation fitted to off-road driving scenarios, as well as adapting the shortest route searching A* and RRT algorithms to AV path planning. The reported results are very promising and show several advantages compared to previously reported solutions. The segmentation precision achieves 85.9% for FFD and 79.5% for RELLIS-3D including the most frequent semantic classes. While compared to other approaches, the proposed approach is faster regarding computational time for path planning.

Autonomous Crack Detection for Mountainous Roads Using UAV Inspection System.

Road cracks significantly affect the serviceability and safety of roadways, especially in mountainous terrain. Traditional inspection methods, such as manual detection, are excessively time-consuming, labor-intensive, and inefficient. Additionally, multi-function detection vehicles equipped with diverse sensors are costly and unsuitable for mountainous roads, primarily because of the challenging terrain conditions characterized by frequent bends in the road. To address these challenges, this study proposes a customized Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) inspection system designed for automatic crack detection. This system focuses on enhancing autonomous capabilities in mountainous terrains by incorporating embedded algorithms for route planning, autonomous navigation, and automatic crack detection. The slide window method (SWM) is proposed to enhance the autonomous navigation of UAV flights by generating path planning on mountainous roads. This method compensates for GPS/IMU positioning errors, particularly in GPS-denied or GPS-drift scenarios. Moreover, the improved MRC-YOLOv8 algorithm is presented to conduct autonomous crack detection from UAV imagery in an on/offboard module. To validate the performance of our UAV inspection system, we conducted multiple experiments to evaluate its accuracy, robustness, and efficiency. The results of the experiments on automatic navigation demonstrate that our fusion method, in conjunction with SWM, effectively enables real-time route planning in GPS-denied mountainous terrains. The proposed system displays an average localization drift of 2.75% and a per-point local scanning error of 0.33 m over a distance of 1.5 km. Moreover, the experimental results on the road crack detection reveal that the MRC-YOLOv8 algorithm achieves an F1-Score of 87.4% and a mAP of 92.3%, thus surpassing other state-of-the-art models like YOLOv5s, YOLOv8n, and YOLOv9 by 1.2%, 1.3%, and 3.0% in terms of mAP, respectively. Furthermore, the parameters of the MRC-YOLOv8 algorithm indicate a volume reduction of 0.19(×106) compared to the original YOLOv8 model, thus enhancing its lightweight nature. The UAV inspection system proposed in this study serves as a valuable tool and technological guidance for the routine inspection of mountainous roads.

THE ROUTES OF UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE PLANNING METHODS ONTOLOGY

The article analyzes modern methods of the route of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) planning. An ontology for the routes of the UAVs group planning algorithms classification has been developed, which includes two elements: global planning and local planning. The article notes that the purpose of UAV flight routes planning is the optimal (rational) solution of specific tasks under appropriate weather conditions and taking into account other factors of the external environment. According to the premise of taking into account a significant number of constraints, the objective function of planning is to reach each UAV from the group to the end point (mission point). Planning the UAVs group route is a complex task of its multi-criteria optimization and solution in the presence of constraints. With the increase in the UAVs number, the analytical space of the route planning task will grow exponentially. The existing methods of planning the of the UAVs group movement route have a number of disadvantages, therefore, the development of a comprehensive method that reduces computational requirements, saves time, allows to plan routes in real time, and is also more effective from the group's mission performance point of view. The article defines the requirements for the UAVs group routes planning promising methods: complex modeling of many factors of the external environment influence; planning in real time; integration of planning methods. Combining the characteristics of heuristic algorithms and machine learning methods also allows you to obtain complex methods that have a higher adaptability to the conditions of the external environment and expand the range of applications.

Integrated real-time signal control and routing optimization: A two-stage rolling horizon framework with decentralized solution

This paper presents an integrated framework for optimizing signal control and vehicle routing. An important feature of the proposed framework is the ability to simultaneously determine signal states and individual vehicle routes in real time. The general objective is to minimize the network travel time, which can be represented as a trade-off between the total route length of all vehicles and traffic conditions at signalized intersections. A two-stage rolling horizon framework is proposed to explicitly describe the relationship between individual vehicle routes and predicted traffic flow dynamics at signalized intersections. The first stage involves a signal optimization problem, while the second stage optimizes a joint signal control and vehicle routing problem. Both stages are formulated as mixed integer linear programming problems. The optimization procedure is decentralized, and the effects of vehicle routing on control performance is considered by incorporating the route length cost into the objective function. Simulation experiments validate the advantages of the proposed framework over advanced signal control strategies and dynamic user-optimal routing strategies in various scenarios. The effectiveness in improving network capacity, alleviating spillback, and decreasing congestion dissipation time under over-saturation conditions is discussed. The results of vehicle routing suggest that the total travel time can be reduced at a low rerouting cost. Sensitivity analyses demonstrate the network control performance under different compliance rates and model coefficients. Moreover, the computational feasibility of the framework is verified.

Impact of navigation apps on congestion and spread dynamics on a transportation network

In recent years, the widespread adoption of navigation apps by motorists has raised questions about their impact on local traffic patterns. Users increasingly rely on these apps to find better, real-time routes to minimize travel time. This study uses microscopic traffic simulations to examine the connection between navigation app use and traffic congestion. The research incorporates both static and dynamic routing to model user behavior. Dynamic routing represents motorists who actively adjust their routes based on app guidance during trips, while static routing models users who stick to known fastest paths. Key traffic metrics, including flow, density, speed, travel time, delay time, and queue lengths, are assessed to evaluate the outcomes. Additionally, we explore congestion propagation at various levels of navigation app adoption. To understand congestion dynamics, we apply a susceptible–infected–recovered (SIR) model, commonly used in disease spread studies. Our findings reveal that traffic system performance improves when 30–60% of users follow dynamic routing. The SIR model supports these findings, highlighting the most efficient congestion propagation-to-dissipation ratio when 40% of users adopt dynamic routing, as indicated by the lowest basic reproductive number. This research provides valuable insights into the intricate relationship between navigation apps and traffic congestion, with implications for transportation planning and management.

Congestion-aware Spatio-Temporal Graph Convolutional Network-based A* Search Algorithm for Fastest Route Search

The fastest route search, which is to find a path with the shortest travel time when the user initiates a query, has become one of the most important services in many map applications. To enhance the user experience of travel, it is necessary to achieve accurate and real-time route search. However, traffic conditions are changing dynamically, and the frequent occurrence of traffic congestion may greatly increase travel time. Thus, it is challenging to achieve the above goal. To deal with it, we present a congestion-aware spatio-temporal graph convolutional network-based A* search algorithm for the task of fastest route search. We first identify a sequence of consecutive congested traffic conditions as a traffic congestion event. Then, we propose a spatio-temporal graph convolutional network that jointly models the congestion events and changing travel time to capture their complex spatio-temporal correlations, which can predict the future travel-time information of each road segment as the basis of route planning. Further, we design a path-aided neural network to achieve effective origin-destination (OD) shortest travel-time estimation by encoding the complex relationships between OD pairs and their corresponding fastest paths. Finally, the cost function in the A* algorithm is set by fusing the output results of the two components, which is used to guide the route search. Our experimental results on the two real-world datasets show the superior performance of the proposed method.

Providing real-time en-route suggestions to CAVs for congestion mitigation: A two-way deep reinforcement learning approach

This research investigates the effectiveness of information provision for congestion reduction in Connected Autonomous Vehicle (CAV) systems. The inherent advantages of CAVs, such as vehicle-to-everything communication, advanced vehicle autonomy, and reduced human involvement, make them conducive to achieving Correlated Equilibrium (CE). Leveraging these advantages, this research proposes a reinforcement learning framework involving CAVs and an information provider, where CAVs conduct real-time learning to minimize their individual travel time, while the information provider offers real-time route suggestions aiming to minimize the system’s total travel time. The en-route routing problem of the CAVs is formulated as a Markov game and the information provision problem is formulated as a single-agent Markov decision process. Then, this research develops a customized two-way deep reinforcement learning approach to solve the interrelated problems, accounting for their unique characteristics. Moreover, CE has been formulated within the proposed framework. Theoretical analysis rigorously proves the realization of CE and that the proposed framework can effectively mitigate congestion without compromising individual user optimality. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach. Our research contributes to the advancement of congestion reduction strategies in CAV systems with the mitigation of the conflict between system-level and individual-level goals using CE as a theoretical foundation. The results highlight the potential of information provision in fostering coordination and correlation among CAVs, thereby enhancing traffic efficiency and achieving system-level goals in smart transportation.

A Survey on Emergency Vehicle Route Optimization and Traffic Management Application

Abstract: Ambulance delays in India result in approximately 10,000 lives lost annually, highlighting the critical need for efficient emergency response systems. To address this issue, we present the "Emergency Vehicle Priority with Route Optimization and Traffic Management Application." Leveraging advanced technology, including an Android application, Firebase, and IoT integration with traffic signals, our system dynamically calculates and optimizes ambulance routes using Google API, minimizing delays and improving overall efficiency. The application facilitates seamless coordination between ambulance drivers and traffic police officers, triggering real-time route updates and traffic signal adjustments to expedite ambulance passage. By streamlining traffic flow and enhancing emergency response coordination, our solution aims to significantly reduce ambulance delays and save lives in urban areas.

An Integrated DQN and RF Packet Routing Framework for the V2X Network

With the development of artificial intelligence technology, deep reinforcement learning (DRL) has become a major approach to the design of intelligent vehicle-to-everything (V2X) routing protocols for vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). However, if the V2X routing protocol does not consider both real-time traffic conditions and historical vehicle trajectory information, the source vehicle may not transfer its packet to the correct relay vehicles and, finally, to the destination. Thus, this kind of routing protocol fails to guarantee successful packet delivery. Using the greater network flexibility and scalability of the software-defined network (SDN) architecture, this study designs a two-phase integrated DQN and RF Packet Routing Framework (IDRF) that combines the deep Q-learning network (DQN) and random forest (RF) approaches. First, the IDRF offline phase corrects the vehicle’s historical trajectory information using the vehicle trajectory continuity algorithm and trains the DQN model. Then, the IDRF real-time phase judges whether vehicles can meet each other and makes a real-time routing decision to select the most appropriate relay vehicle after adding real-time vehicles to the VANET. In this way, the IDRF can obtain the packet transfer path with the shortest end-to-end delay. Compared to two DQN-based approaches, i.e., TDRL-RP and VRDRT, and traditional VANET routing algorithms, the IDRF exhibits significant performance improvements for both sparse and congested periods during intensive simulations of the historical GPS trajectories of 10,357 taxis within Beijing city. Performance improvements in the average packet delivery ratio, end-to-end delay, and overhead ratio of the IDRF over TDRL-RP and VRDRT under different numbers of pairs and transmission ranges are at least 3.56%, 12.73%, and 5.14% and 6.06%, 11.84%, and 7.08%, respectively.

Intelligent Ship Scheduling and Path Planning Method for Maritime Emergency Rescue

Intelligent ship navigation scheduling and planning is of great significance for ensuring the safety of maritime production and life and promoting the development of the marine economy. In this paper, an intelligent ship scheduling and path planning method is proposed for a practical application scenario wherein the emergency rescue center receives rescue messages and dispatches emergency rescue ships to the incident area for rescue. Firstly, the large-scale sailing route of the task ship is pre-planned in the voyage planning stage by using the improved A* algorithm. Secondly, the full-coverage path planning algorithm is used to plan the ship’s search route in the regional search stage by updating the ship’s navigation route in real time. In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, comparative experiments were carried out with the conventional algorithm in the two operation stages of rushing to the incident sea area and regional search and rescue. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can adapt to emergency search and rescue tasks in the complex setting of the sea area and can effectively improve the efficiency of the operation, ensure the safety of the operation process, and provide a more intelligent and efficient solution for the planning of maritime emergency rescue tasks.

Comprehensive Travel Companion: A Hybrid Recommendation and Route Planning System for Globetrotting

This paper presents a comprehensive AI-powered travel companion system designed to enhance the travel experience for globetrotters. Leveraging cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, the system combines image recognition, recommendation algorithms, and route planning functionality to provide personalized travel recommendations and seamless navigation. The integration of collaborative filtering, content-based recommendation, and real-time route optimization algorithms ensures that users receive tailored suggestions and efficient travel routes based on their preferences, interests, and current context. The architecture, implementation details, and evaluation of the proposed system are discussed, highlighting its effectiveness in facilitating immersive and enjoyable travel experiences. Keywords: Travel Companion, Recommendation Systems, Route Planning, Image Recognition, Collaborative Filtering, Content-Based Recommendation, Dijkstra's Algorithm.

Accessibility and Equity Analysis of Highway-Railway Traffic Network Based on Real-Time Route Planning Data: A Case Study of Shandong Peninsula Urban Agglomeration, China

As a bond of geospatial and socioeconomic ties, transport supports the development of regions. With the rapid development of the economy, the coordinated development of regional transport has become a concern. To narrow the gap in transport development between cities and achieve sustainable development in regional transport, this study took the Shandong Peninsula urban agglomeration as the research object and using real-time path planning data assessed accessibility of the traffic network under two travel scenarios: cars and car-connected train. Based on the results of accessibility calculations, the Gini coefficient and Theil index were used to measure the equity of regional traffic networks. The results showed that (1) overall accessibility under the two travel scenarios showed a pattern of gradual decay from the center to the periphery; (2) both the accessibility and equity of the highway network were better than those of the railway network; (3) differences in regional development were the main sources of overall regional transport inequity. The research results provide a useful reference for the planning and construction of urban agglomeration traffic networks.