Real-Time Smart Navigation and the Genetic Approach to Vehicle Routing

Abstract

The ever increasing traffic requirements are boosting the evolution of Smart Navigation Systems, where innately time-variant information, such as road conditions, must be properly handled with. For instance, when the quickest route to a destination is requested, if significant traffic variations occur during the trip, the first path suggested can become no longer efficient. In this case, the user must be indicated an alternative in real-time. Three main interactive factors contribute to service quality: architectures, wireless communication methods and vehicle routing algorithms. An infrastructure and communication strategies are thus presented, for traffic monitoring, vehicle-system data exchange, and real-time transmission of path variations. Results about saved travel time are reported. A survey is then presented about the performance of Genetic Algorithms in real-time routing, with special attention to localized searches; a variant is consequently proposed of the adopted traffic control and prediction architecture.

Key Terms in this Chapter

Communication Strategy: Type of communication among vehicles or between vehicles and the system.

Real-Time Vehicle Routing: Real-time update of routes no longer efficient, due to varied traffic conditions.

Real-Time Support: A system feature enabling the user to be alerted about events in real-time.

Genetic Algorithms: Heuristic-based search algorithms that “imitate” the process of natural selection.

Virus-Evolutionary Genetic Algorithms: Variants of genetic algorithms based on localized genetic mutations.

Perceived Quality of Service: Overall quality of a service as perceived by the final user.

Smart Navigation: Innovative services for transport and traffic management, with a wide information at the user's disposal.