Patent ID: 8849571

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving an initial location of one or more vehicles of a fleet of vehicles; receiving a sequence of coverage requirements for a region and an associated period of time, wherein the region is divided into a plurality of landmarks and the period of time is divided into a plurality of phases, and wherein an individual coverage requirement is indicative of a desired number of vehicles of the fleet of vehicles for one or more of the plurality of landmarks at an end of a given phase; determining, by a processor, for each of one or more phases and at least one respective landmark of the plurality of landmarks, single-phase landmarks of the plurality of landmarks that can be reached by a vehicle of the fleet of vehicles starting from the respective landmark and following a single-phase path, wherein a single-phase path includes a path that the vehicle can travel for a duration of a single phase; determining, by the processor, for at least one respective phase of the one or more phases, phase-skipping landmarks of the plurality of landmarks that can be reached by the vehicle starting from a landmark of a set of landmarks associated with the respective phase and following a phase-skipping path, wherein a phase-skipping path includes a path that the vehicle can travel for a duration of two or more phases; and based on the sequence of coverage requirements and the initial locations of the one or more vehicles, determining, by the processor, which landmarks of the single-phase landmarks and phase-skipping landmarks for the vehicle to travel to during the one or more phases.