Challenges and Objectives of Project SimpleFleet

GPS positioning devices are becoming a commodity sensor platform with the emergence and popularity of smartphones and ubiquitous networking. While the positioning capability has been exploited in location-based services, so has its spatiotemporal cousin, tracking, so far only been considered in costly and complex fleet management applications. The proposed project, SimpleFleet will make it easy for SMEs, both, from a technological and business perspective, to create (Mobile) Web-based fleet management applications. For this purpose, we build a large data pool comprising base data such as maps and traffic data from dedicated providers. A simple interface will provide a means to connect user-contributed data streams to this pool. In addition and to increase the market potential of the data pool, we also want to address the related geomarketing domain, which uses travel information in various geo-statistical analysis methods as well as visualizations of the data to be used in online and print publications. An algorithmic framework dubbed “TrafficIntelligence” that includes map-matching algorithms, vehicle routing services and a statistics package will utilize the collected data and provide value-added service. SMEs will be able to access the data and services by means of a Web-based API, a Software Development Kit (SDK) wrapping API access for specific languages and environments and Application Frameworks for rapid application development for target platforms such as Web (JavaScript), and iPhone and Android mobile platforms. GPS positioning devices are becoming a commodity sensor platform with the emergence and popularity of smartphones and ubiquitous networking. While the positioning capability has been exploited in location-based services, so has its spatiotemporal cousin, tracking, so far only been considered in costly and complex fleet management applications. The proposed project, SimpleFleet will make it easy for SMEs, both, from a technological and business perspective, to create (Mobile) Web-based fleet management applications. For this purpose, we build a large data pool comprising base data such as maps and traffic data from dedicated providers. A simple interface will provide a means to connect user-contributed data streams to this pool. In addition and to increase the market potential of the data pool, we also want to address the related geomarketing domain, which uses travel information in various geo-statistical analysis methods as well as visualizations of the data to be used in online and print publications. An algorithmic framework dubbed “TrafficIntelligence” that includes map-matching algorithms, vehicle routing services and a statistics package will utilize the collected data and provide value-added service. SMEs will be able to access the data and services by means of a Web-based API, a Software Development Kit (SDK) wrapping API access for specific languages and environments and Application Frameworks for rapid application development for target platforms such as Web (JavaScript), and iPhone and Android mobile platforms.