System Architecture

 

  

Figure 1: Architecture for the Adaptive Route Advisor. Elements with solid lines are already implemented, whereas elements with dashed lines are under development.

The Adaptive Route Advisor requires heavy memory resources to store the digital map, and processing resources to compute an optimal route. However, we assume computational resources in vehicles will be limited in the near future. The client/server architecture shown in Figure 1 resolves this difficulty by offloading resource-intensive processes onto a remote server. This architecture also lets the routing system use dynamic information about the current traffic conditions, which would be available as a centralized service, as in the ITGS service in Tokyo [2].

In the figure, portions in the current implementation are drawn in solid lines, and planned extensions in dashed lines. The interface client is a resource-light process suitable for a vehicle's limited computational power. It connects to the servers via a wireless TCP/IP connection. The route server receives route requests from the client, and uses the digital map to compute an optimal route according to preferences in the user model. Later route requests may include short-term changes in the preference model to reflect unusual situations or corrections in the model.

The system initializes the agent with a default user model, and refines the user model with feedback from interaction with the interface. Future versions will also allow feedback from direct sensing of the driver's preferred routes using the Global Positioning System. The future work section discusses these extensions in more detail.