JP2000310542A - Method for calculating one's vehicle position - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To decide whether or not one's vehicle is running in an indoor parking lot by starting the judgment on the travelling in the indoor parking lot in accordance with GPS unmeasurable positioning information detected by a GPS receiving part. SOLUTION: A characteristic when a vehicle turns in a parking lot possibly appears also when the vehicle turns at a normal narrow outdoor road, and therefore it is impossible to decide the parking lot simply by a shape of the turning or the number of turnings. A condition that GPS satellites cannot be received is added by limiting the parking lot to indoor parking lots. When one's vehicle enters a parking lot from an entrance 206 and runs in the parking lot, naturally, GPS satellites cannot be received until the vehicle goes out of an exit 207. A time while the GPS satellites cannot be received is counted. When the count while the GPS satellites cannot be received reaches a fixed value or larger, it is decided that an area where the vehicle is running at present is possibly the indoor parking lot and, whether or not the vehicle is running in the indoor parking lot is started to be decided. Two conditions, i.e., that the GPS satellites cannot be received and that a sudden turn is detected are utilized, so that whether the vehicle is running in the indoor parking lot can be correctly decided.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for calculating the position of a vehicle, and more particularly to a method for calculating the position of a vehicle without adding new devices and parts to a navigation device and without adding new parking lot existence information to a map database. It is configured such that it can be determined whether or not a car is traveling in an indoor parking lot.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a method of calculating the position of a vehicle such as a car navigation system includes a GPS receiver, an azimuth sensor for detecting the azimuth of a vehicle, a vehicle speed sensor for detecting a moving distance of the vehicle, and a CD-ROM or the like. It consisted of a map database stored in a storage medium.

[0003] The conventional method of calculating the position of the vehicle is based on GPS.
The own vehicle position is calculated by a composite judgment using the own vehicle position information received by the receiving unit, the own vehicle direction calculated by the direction sensor, and the traveling distance calculated by the vehicle speed sensor. The system has been configured so that the own vehicle position can be correctly calculated on the road from the consistency between the history of the vehicle position and the road data in the map database.

[0004] Further, the conventional method of calculating the position of the own vehicle is based on the GP
For the position information calculated by the S receiving unit, the vehicle speed sensor, and the direction sensor, if there is no particularly consistent road in the road data around the own vehicle position in the map database, It was configured to stop calculating the position of the vehicle on the road.

[0005]

However, when the vehicle travels in an area such as a parking lot where road information does not exist in the map database, a road having a direction close to the vehicle direction is located near the vehicle position. If it exists, there is a problem that the position of the own vehicle is calculated on the road even when the vehicle is traveling on the outside of the road.

According to the present invention, new devices and parts are added to the navigation system and the map is stored in the map database in order to solve the problem of positional accuracy, particularly when the vehicle travels in the indoor parking lot. A first object is to determine whether or not the own vehicle is traveling in an indoor parking lot by using the GPS reception state and the turning shape of the own vehicle without adding the parking lot presence information or the like. .

In addition, when it is recognized that the vehicle is traveling in the indoor parking lot, it is assumed that the position of the own vehicle has already been calculated on the surrounding road from the start of the determination to the recognition. Then, while correcting the own vehicle position to the current position when the position was not calculated on the road from a certain point in the past,
After that, by setting the position of the own vehicle calculated by autonomous navigation using the azimuth information of the own vehicle and the mileage information as the position for display, it is possible to indicate the correct position while driving inside the indoor parking lot that is driving outside the road It is a second object to provide an excellent method for calculating the position of the own vehicle that can be performed.

[0008]

In order to achieve the first object, a vehicle position calculating method according to the present invention has the following arrangement. That is, the indoor parking lot determination is started based on the GPS positioning impossible information detected by the GPS receiving unit. Next, the number of sharp turns of the own vehicle is counted based on the direction sensor information. The number of sudden turns of the vehicle, the travel distance obtained from the vehicle speed sensor, and the GPS
It is determined whether or not the own vehicle is traveling in the indoor parking lot based on the positioning availability information.

In order to achieve the second object, a position calculating method according to the present invention has the following configuration. That is, the own vehicle stores the history of the azimuth sensor information, the traveling distance information, and the position information of a certain distance in the past. As described above, when it is determined that the vehicle is traveling in the indoor parking lot by the determination as to whether or not the vehicle is traveling in the indoor parking lot, the vehicle goes back a certain distance from the point where the indoor parking lot determination is started. The position at the time of calculating the current position using only the direction sensor information and the traveling distance information from the position information history and the starting point is set as the current position. further,
Until it is determined that the vehicle is not traveling in the indoor parking lot,
The own vehicle position calculated by the autonomous navigation using the traveling direction information and the traveling distance information of the own vehicle is set as the position for display.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS According to the first aspect of the present invention, when a GPS satellite cannot be received for a certain period of time, it is determined that the own vehicle may be traveling in an indoor parking lot, and the determination is started. It is a method of calculating the position of the own vehicle characterized by the fact that the own vehicle moves inside the indoor parking lot without adding new devices and parts to the navigation device and without adding parking lot existence information etc. to the map database. This has the effect that it can be determined whether or not the vehicle is running.

[0011] The invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that when the own vehicle makes a sharp turn more than a certain number of times in the same direction while determining whether or not the own vehicle is traveling in the indoor parking lot, Is a self-vehicle position calculation method characterized by recognizing that the vehicle is traveling inside an indoor parking lot, adding new devices and parts to the navigation device, and adding parking lot existence information to the map database. It is possible to determine whether or not the own vehicle is traveling in the indoor parking lot without adding.

Further, according to the third aspect of the present invention, a sudden turn of the vehicle cannot be detected more than a predetermined number of times even if the vehicle travels a predetermined distance or more while determining whether the vehicle is traveling in the indoor parking lot. In the case, or when the own vehicle travels straight ahead for a certain distance, or when the own vehicle runs at a certain speed or more, it is recognized that the area where the own vehicle is currently running is outside the indoor parking lot. It is a method of calculating the position of the vehicle and whether the vehicle is traveling in the indoor parking lot without adding new devices and parts to the navigation device, and adding parking lot existence information etc. to the map database. Has the effect that it can be determined.

[0013] The invention described in claim 4 is a case where the own vehicle travels straight ahead for a certain distance or more or the own vehicle runs at a certain speed or more while recognizing the running of the own vehicle in the indoor parking lot. A self-vehicle position calculation method characterized by recognizing that an indoor parking lot has been exited, and adding a new device or part to a navigation device, or adding parking lot existence information or the like to a map database. It is possible to determine whether or not the own vehicle is traveling in the indoor parking lot without any need.

Further, according to the invention described in claim 5, the area where the vehicle is currently traveling is outside the indoor parking lot, the GPS receiver is not connected, or the GPS is not received until the GPS is received even once. It is determined that the receiver is malfunctioning, and G
This is a method of calculating the position of the own vehicle, which does not start determining whether or not the vehicle is traveling in the next indoor parking lot until a PS satellite is received, and adds new devices and parts to the navigation device. This has the effect that it is possible to determine whether or not the vehicle is traveling in an indoor parking lot, without adding parking lot presence information or the like to the map database.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, when it is determined that the vehicle is traveling in an indoor parking lot, the vehicle surely goes back to the position of the own vehicle when traveling on the road and starts from that position. It is a self-vehicle position calculation method characterized by moving and correcting the current self-vehicle position to a position by autonomous navigation that does not match the road. There is an effect that a correct position can be calculated without calculating the own vehicle position on the road.

The invention described in claim 7 is the first invention.
When it is recognized that the vehicle is traveling in the indoor parking lot by the own vehicle position calculation method according to claim 4, the own vehicle position calculated by the autonomous navigation using the traveling azimuth information and the traveling distance information of the own vehicle is calculated. It is a method of calculating the position of the own vehicle, which is set to a position for display, and shows a correct position without calculating the position of the own vehicle on a surrounding road even while driving in an indoor parking lot which is running off the road It has the effect of being able to.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a configuration of an own-vehicle position calculating apparatus for performing indoor parking lot determination according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the own-vehicle position calculating device stores a GPS receiver 11, a direction sensor 12 for measuring a running direction of the own vehicle, a vehicle speed sensor 13 for measuring a running distance of the own vehicle, and road data as a map database. Map storage means 14
A position calculating means 15 for calculating the position of the own vehicle on the road data in the map storage means 14 from information obtained from the GPS receiver 11, the direction sensor 12, and the vehicle speed sensor 13; Storage means 16 for storing the calculated position information
And road data stored in the map storage means 14 and a display means 17 for displaying the position of the own vehicle calculated by the position calculation means 15.

A vehicle equipped with the vehicle position calculating device is
Consider entering the indoor parking lot shown in FIG. FIG. 2 shows roads 201, 202, 203, and 204 outside the parking lot where data exists in the map database and a passage 205 in the parking lot where no data exists in the map database. Further, an entrance 206 and an exit 207 of the indoor parking lot 205 are shown. In addition, corners 208, 209, 210, 2 of passages in the parking lot
11 and an on-road position 212 on the off-parking road 201 are shown.

Generally, a passage in a parking lot is narrower than a normal road. Therefore, when turning at the corner 208, the corner 209, or the like, a sharper turn than a normal road is forced. In other words, when turning at a corner in a parking lot, the angle at which the vehicle turns while traveling a certain distance becomes larger than turning at a corner on a normal road. Therefore, every time the vehicle travels for a certain distance, the total of the turning angles during that time is sequentially measured, and when the value exceeds a certain threshold, it is determined that the own vehicle has made a sharp turn.

Further, when traveling in a parking lot, since the area is of a finite size, it often turns continuously in the same direction. Therefore, the number of times of the sharp turn detected by the above method is counted. Here, considering that the direction of the sharp turn is the opposite direction in the left and right direction, for example, by counting +1 for a left turn and -1 for a right turn, it is possible to count continuous turns in the same direction. it can. When the absolute value of the counted number of sharp turns exceeds a certain number, it can be determined that the area where the vehicle is currently traveling is a parking lot.

However, the above-mentioned feature of turning in a parking lot may also appear in turning on a normal narrow road outdoors, and it is not possible to determine a parking lot only by the shape and the number of turns. Therefore, the parking lot is limited to an indoor parking lot and a condition that GPS satellites cannot be received is added.

When the vehicle enters the entrance 206 and travels in the hall, the GPS satellites cannot be received until the vehicle leaves the exit 207. Therefore, the time during which GPS satellite reception is disabled is counted. When the count of GPS satellite reception failure reaches a certain value or more, it is determined that the area where the vehicle is currently traveling may be an indoor parking lot, and the running determination in the indoor parking lot is started. Here, the count number before starting the determination is a value to be determined according to the GPS receiver and the GPS satellite reception status in the vicinity thereof.

As described above, by utilizing the two conditions of the GPS satellite reception disabled condition and the sharp turn detection condition,
It is possible to accurately determine that the vehicle is running in the indoor parking lot.

Here, if the following event occurs while the vehicle is running in the indoor parking lot, the determination is stopped.

(1) When the speed of the own vehicle becomes higher than a certain value. Regardless of the indoor parking lot, the width of the aisle is narrow in the parking lot, so it is unlikely that you will drive at high speed unless intentional, and if this condition is satisfied, your vehicle is not considered to be in the indoor parking lot Therefore, the determination is stopped and it is determined that the vehicle is traveling outside the indoor parking lot.

(2) When the distance between sudden turns exceeds a certain distance. When this condition is satisfied because the parking area is a finite size, the vehicle is not considered to be in the indoor parking lot, so the determination is stopped and it is determined that the vehicle is traveling outside the indoor parking lot.

(3) When the straight running distance is equal to or longer than a certain distance. This is also the same as the above-mentioned condition, but when the vehicle travels straight without detecting a normal gentle turn, it is determined that the vehicle is traveling outside the indoor parking lot earlier than the condition of the distance between sudden turns.

(4) When the distance from the start of the judgment is equal to or longer than a certain distance. Even if the determination is started, if the number of sudden turns is not detected more than a certain number of times, if the vehicle travels beyond this distance, the determination is stopped, and the vehicle is determined to be traveling outside the indoor parking lot.

Further, if the following event occurs after a sudden turn is detected a predetermined number of times or more and it is determined that the own vehicle is traveling in the indoor parking lot, it is assumed that the own vehicle has left the indoor parking lot. .

(1) When the speed of the own vehicle becomes higher than a certain speed. Regardless of the indoor parking lot, the width of the aisle is narrow in the parking lot, so it is unlikely that you will drive at high speed unless intentional, and if this condition is satisfied, your vehicle is not considered to be in the indoor parking lot Therefore, it is determined that the vehicle is traveling outside the indoor parking lot.

(2) When the distance between sudden turns exceeds a certain distance. When this condition is satisfied because the parking area is of a finite size, it is determined that the vehicle is traveling outside the indoor parking area because the own vehicle is not considered to be in the indoor parking area.

(3) The straight running distance is equal to or more than a certain distance. This is also the same as the above-mentioned condition, but when the vehicle travels straight without detecting a normal gentle turn, it is determined that the vehicle is traveling outside the indoor parking lot earlier than the condition of the distance between sudden turns.

FIG. 3 is a state transition diagram at the time of judging whether or not the vehicle is traveling in an indoor parking lot by the own vehicle position calculating method of the present invention. State transition 301 is a normal traveling state in which the GPS satellite is being received, state transition 302 is an indoor parking lot determination state in which the GPS satellite cannot be received for a certain period of time, and a sharp turn is detected, and state transition 303 is an indoor parking state. In the parking lot judgment, a sudden turn more than a certain number of times is detected and the car is running in the indoor parking lot, recognizing that the car is running in the indoor parking lot. Represents a traveling state outside the indoor parking lot that is recognized as traveling outside the indoor parking lot.

When it is determined whether or not the vehicle is traveling in the indoor parking lot, or when it is recognized that the vehicle is traveling in the indoor parking lot, the vehicle is traveling outside the indoor parking lot according to the above conditions. Is determined, no matter how long the GPS positioning impossible state continues, detection of a sharp turn is not started until GPS satellites are received again. This is because the GPS receiver is not connected, the GPS receiver is out of order, etc.
When it is determined that the vehicle is traveling outside the indoor parking lot when it falls into the state where PS positioning is impossible or when the GPS satellite is temporarily in a state where positioning is impossible for some reason. This is to prevent the state transition between the indoor parking lot determination state 302 and the indoor parking outside traveling state 304 from being repeated even though it is not necessary to repeat the determination any more.

Next, the processing after the above-described determination of traveling in the indoor parking lot will be described. In the indoor parking lot of FIG.
The roads 201, 202, 203, and 204 outside the parking lot and the passage 205 in the parking lot are very close to each other on each side, and the direction of the road is also in the same direction.

In such a case, for example, while the vehicle is traveling from the inside corner 208 of the parking lot to the corner 209, the road outside the parking lot 20
The position is often calculated at 2. In order to prevent this, while the traveling in the indoor parking lot is being recognized, the own vehicle position calculated by the autonomous navigation using the traveling azimuth information and the traveling distance information of the own vehicle is used as the display position.

However, even if the own vehicle position calculated by the autonomous navigation is set as the display position after the determination of traveling in the indoor parking lot, the position is calculated on the road data until the determination is completed. At that point, there is a possibility that the position of the own vehicle will be significantly out of order.

For example, enter the indoor parking lot from the entrance 206,
It is assumed that the GPS reception impossible count exceeds a certain value while proceeding to the inside corner of the parking lot, and the indoor parking lot determination state 302 is entered. At this time, if it is determined that the vehicle is traveling inside the indoor parking lot when three sharp turns are detected, a sharp turn is detected at the corners 208, 209, and 210 in the parking lot, and the inside parking lot is detected at the corner 210. Recognize driving.

At this time, the positions on the outside parking roads 201, 204, and 203 are calculated while traveling from the entrance 206 to the corner 210.

Therefore, when it is determined that the vehicle is traveling in the indoor parking lot, the position is corrected using the history of the azimuth information, the traveling distance information, and the position information of the own vehicle stored in the storage means 16. The traveling history of the own vehicle is sequentially accumulated when the vehicle is traveling accurately on the road.

It is assumed that the vehicle travels from above the road 201 outside the parking lot and enters the parking lot at the entrance 206. At this time, it is assumed that the on-road position 212 which has been traced by a certain distance or more from the start of the parking lot traveling determination exists in the history. This position is used as a starting point for correcting the position of the own vehicle.

Next, from this starting point, using the history of the azimuth information and the traveling distance information of the own vehicle, the current position when the position is not calculated on the road is calculated and set as the corrected position of the own vehicle position. In other words, the position of the own vehicle is surely corrected to the current position calculated by the autonomous navigation based on the position information when the vehicle is traveling on the road without fail.

[0044]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to add a new device or part to a navigation device or to add a parking lot presence information or the like to a map database.
There is an effect that it is possible to determine whether or not the own vehicle is traveling in the indoor parking lot by using the reception state of the PS and the turning shape of the own vehicle.

When it is recognized that the vehicle is traveling in the indoor parking lot, it is assumed that the position of the own vehicle has already been calculated on the surrounding road from the start of the determination to the recognition. Then, while correcting the own vehicle position to the current position when the position was not calculated on the road from a certain point in the past,
After that, by setting the position of the own vehicle calculated by autonomous navigation using the azimuth information of the own vehicle and the mileage information as the position for display, it is possible to indicate the correct position while driving inside the indoor parking lot that is driving outside the road It has the effect of being able to.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an own-vehicle position calculating device for performing traveling determination in an indoor parking lot according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a vehicle position calculation method for determining whether or not the vehicle is traveling in an indoor parking lot according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a state transition diagram when a determination is made as to whether or not the vehicle is traveling in an indoor parking lot by the own vehicle position calculation method according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 GPS receiver 12 Vehicle speed sensor 13 Direction sensor 14 Map storage means 15 Position calculation means 16 Storage means 17 Display means 201-204 Road outside parking lot 205 Passage inside parking lot 206 Indoor parking lot entrance 207 Indoor parking lot exit 208-211 Indoor parking Corner of inside passageway 212 Position on road outside parking lot 301 Normal running state 302 Indoor parking lot judgment state 303 Running state inside indoor parking lot 304 Running state outside indoor parking lot

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Hiroyuki Maeda 4-3-1 Tsunashima Higashi, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture F-term (reference) 2F029 AA02 AB01 AB07 AB09 AC01 AC02 AC04 5H180 AA01 BB13 FF04 FF05 FF27 KK04 KK08

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. When a GPS satellite cannot be received for a predetermined time,
Your car may be driving in an indoor parking lot,
A self-vehicle position calculation method, which starts determining whether or not the vehicle is traveling in an indoor parking lot. 2. The vehicle is traveling in the indoor parking lot if the own vehicle makes a sharp turn more than a certain number of times in the same direction while determining whether or not the own vehicle is traveling in the indoor parking lot. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determination is made as follows. 3. A determination as to whether or not the vehicle is traveling in an indoor parking lot, if the vehicle cannot be detected a sudden turn more than a predetermined number of times even if the vehicle travels a predetermined distance or a predetermined distance. The vehicle position according to claim 2, wherein when the vehicle travels straight ahead or when the vehicle travels at a certain speed or higher, it is determined that the area where the vehicle is currently traveling is outside the indoor parking lot. Calculation method. 4. While recognizing that the vehicle is traveling in the indoor parking lot, if the vehicle travels straight ahead for a certain distance or more, or if the vehicle runs at a certain speed or more, it is recognized that the indoor parking lot has been exited. The method according to claim 3, wherein the vehicle position is calculated. 5. An area in which the own vehicle is currently traveling is outside an indoor parking lot until the GPS is received even once.
Determining that the S receiver is not connected or that the GPS receiver is malfunctioning, and does not start determining whether or not the vehicle is traveling in the next indoor parking lot until a GPS satellite is received again. The vehicle position calculation method according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the vehicle position is calculated. 6. When it is determined that the vehicle is traveling in an indoor parking lot, the vehicle autonomously navigates back to the position of the vehicle when the vehicle was traveling on the road and starts from that position, and does not match the road. The present vehicle position is calculated by correcting the current vehicle position to the position according to (1). 7. An autonomous vehicle using traveling direction information and traveling distance information of a vehicle when it is recognized that the vehicle is traveling in an indoor parking lot according to the vehicle position calculation method according to claim 1. A self-vehicle position calculation method, wherein the self-vehicle position calculated by navigation is used as a display position.