Challenges in the Tracking and Prediction 

of Scheduled­Vehicle Journeys

Dalia Tiešytė, Christian S. Jensen, 
{csj,dalia}@cs.aau.dk

Professional Communication Course 2006, Aalborg

Professional Communication, 25­27 October 2006, Aalborg
Scenario

GPS Historical data

Position
Position 2 18:05 AAU Busterm
Central
Position-
server related info

Maintain
Minimize
accurate
costs
state

Professional Communication, 25­27 October 2006, Aalborg 2
Roadmap
 Introduction
• Challenges
 Efficient tracking
 Accurate prediction
 Historical data analysis
• Summary
• Questions, suggestions, …

Professional Communication, 25­27 October 2006, Aalborg 3
Introduction
• Goal: state correspondence with accuracy 
guarantees at minimal costs

Vehicle state Vehicle state?

Vehicle Efficient Server

tracking
Server’s  Prediction
Prediction
Prediction 
Statistical  data
analysis

Challenging!
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Challenges – Tracking

Required 
Vehicle accuracy Server
Actual  Predicted 
position Update 
policy position
Shared 
Shared 
prediction
prediction

Server’s 
prediction

External 
data

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Challenges ­ Prediction

Historical journey
patterns Predicted
A smart
journey
algorithm
Tracking data patterns

External data

Professional Communication, 25­27 October 2006, Aalborg 6
Challenges – Statistical Analysis

Historical
GPS data Historical
Clustering journey
Similarity patterns
function

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Summary
• Efficient tracking: minimal costs, accuracy 
guarantees, dependency on prediction 
algorithms.
• Accurate prediction: external factors are 
difficult to foresee, tracking data is sparse.
• Statistical analysis: matching of sub­
journeys, incomplete tracking data, 
efficiency

Professional Communication, 25­27 October 2006, Aalborg 8
 Thank you! 

Questions?

Suggestions?

Professional Communication, 25-27 October 2006, Aalborg 9