Smart Taxi
Smart Taxi - multiagent system of taxi management
By contract with one of large taxi companies there was developed a low budget system of taxi management, which is able to use most popular budget models of mobile phones (Nokia for insatnce) to communicate with drivers through special Java applet. Previously in the company the whole taxi fleet was split into groups, managed by separate dispatchers. As a result there were many situations when the taxi, assigned to one dispatcher, had to go from northern part of Moscow to the southern part, while taxi assigned to another dispatcher goes in opposite direction, what reduced effectiveness of company operation.
Another important problem was frequent taxi delays without customer notification. It was especially essential for airport transfers. Moreover taxi company used portable radio set which was not convenient for fleet of 500 taxis, making drivers nervous. Drivers, in their turn, always suspect dispatchers in giving most profitable orders to “favourites”. Finally, it was necessary to provide individual approach to every customer, including corporate customers. At the present time there was created the first system version which received practical approval on 50 cars within 3 months. Currently possibility of basic system version further functionality development and its implementation for the whole fleet of cars is being considered.
The most interesting directions for further development relate to taxi splitting by passengers, usage of drivers as road conditions sensors and other very innovative andcreative new possibilities for taxi business which become available because of multi-agent technology.