JP2003294463A - Navigation system of electric automobile - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To call attention so as to provide sure subsequent driving after arriving at a destination in a navigation system of an electric automobile. <P>SOLUTION: The navigation system makes an operator input a destination and the presence or absence of charging facilities at the destination. When there are charging facilities, the system calculates and displays the possibility of whether the electric automobile can travel to the destination or not on the present residual capacity of a battery. When it is unclear that whether there are charging facilities at the destination, the system searches for charging facilities near the destination, displays them as shown in (b), and makes the operator select one's desired charging facilities as shown in (d). It then judges and displays whether the automobile can travel to the destination on the residual capacity of the battery or not. Concerns are thereby prevented that the automobile cannot drive any more out of residual capacity of the battery after arriving at the destination. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a navigation system that presents information such as a current position and a driving route in an electric vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an electric vehicle using a battery-powered motor as a power source, how far the remaining capacity of the battery can travel, that is, the reachable range is important for making a travel plan. Therefore, an attempt to provide such information by a vehicle-mounted navigation system is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-112121. In this conventional navigation system for electric vehicles, the current position is displayed on a map by a display, and it is determined whether the destination input to the navigation system can be reached or not by the map information and the remaining capacity of the battery. When it is difficult to reach the destination, it is determined that the required battery charging time is indicated to announce that it is difficult to reach the destination.

[0003]

However, in the conventional navigation system for the electric vehicle described above, the battery charging time required only when it is difficult to reach the destination is used. No notification is given when the destination can be reached with the remaining capacity of the battery. Therefore, there is a possibility that the remaining capacity of the battery is almost exhausted when the vehicle reaches the destination.

However, unlike gas stations, the degree of popularization of battery charging equipment for electric vehicles is still low.
Therefore, if the destination is not equipped with charging facilities,
When the remaining capacity of the battery is close to zero, there is a possibility that the driver may not be able to travel to the next destination even if he tries to move next time. Therefore, in view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a navigation system for an electric vehicle that can be alerted so that the driver can surely perform the next traveling after reaching the destination.

[0005]

Therefore, in order to inform the driver or the like that not only the destination is reached, but also the electric power for further advancing or returning thereafter is kept in mind. When it is judged that the battery cannot be charged at the destination by the judgment means and it is judged that charging at the destination is impossible, the charging equipment near the destination searched by the charging equipment search means is displayed on the display. I decided to do it. By displaying the charging equipment near the destination, you will be alerted in advance about the remaining capacity of the battery, so make an appropriate travel plan without falling into the situation where you can not travel after reaching the destination. You can

[0006]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the embodiment. A motor (M) 30 driven by the electric power of a battery (BAT) 10 mounted on an electric vehicle is connected to a drive wheel 36 from a speed reducer 32 via a drive shaft 34. An inverter (INV) 20 is provided between the battery 10 and the motor 30, and the direct current of the battery 10 is converted into a three-phase alternating current and supplied to the motor 30. The inverter 20 is controlled by a control signal from a controller (not shown), which controls the rotation of the motor 30.

For charging the battery 10, an AC outlet 14 connected to the commercial AC power source 12 and a charger outlet 18 connected to an external dedicated charger 16 are connected, and selected according to the form of the charging facility. And can be used. In the output line of the battery 10, a current sensor (A) 22 for detecting the battery current and a battery 10
A voltage sensor (V) 24 for detecting the terminal voltage of the battery is provided, and the current sensor 22 and the voltage sensor 24 are connected to a battery control unit (BAT-C / U) 26.

The battery control unit 26 calculates the remaining capacity of the battery 10 based on the detection data from the current sensor 22 and the voltage sensor 24, and the result is calculated by the navigation control unit (NAVI-C / U) 4
It is designed to output to 0. The battery control unit 26 continuously calculates the remaining capacity of the battery 10 while the key switch (not shown) of the electric vehicle is turned on, and outputs the remaining capacity to the navigation control unit 40 at predetermined time intervals. The battery control unit 26 constitutes a battery remaining amount detecting means in the invention.

Navigation control unit 40
A vehicle speed sensor 42 for detecting a traveling speed, a GPS antenna 44, and a gyro sensor 46 are connected to the vehicle, and a display 50 and an input / operation unit 52 are connected to the vehicle. The input / operation unit 52 includes a keyboard 54 and a touch panel 56 attached on the display 50.
2 allows various kinds of input and selection operations. A DVD-ROM 58 storing map information is further connected to the navigation control unit 40, and the map information also includes information on the position of charging equipment such as a charging station.

In the navigation control unit 40, the current position is detected and its periphery is detected by satellite navigation using GPS data taken from the GPS antenna 44 and self-contained navigation using data from the vehicle speed sensor 42 and the gyro sensor 46. The map is displayed on the display 50. Further, in accordance with the destination input from the input / operation unit 52, it is possible to calculate the optimum route with the lowest power consumption and the highest efficiency and display it together.

Navigation control unit 40
Further, it determines whether or not the destination can be reached based on the remaining capacity of the battery 10, and therefore has the following control function. First, if there is no charging equipment at the destination, display nearby charging equipment 5
The information is presented on the display 50 by determining whether or not the vehicle can be driven to the selected charging facility by displaying it on the display 0. If the current battery remaining capacity cannot be reached to the destination or charging equipment, the minimum charging time required is presented. If you can not charge for the minimum charging time,
Presents information on how far the vehicle can travel on any charge. If the optimal route has narrow roads or busy streets along the way, and if you want to avoid them, determine the possibility of reaching the destination by another route.

2 to 4 are flow charts showing the flow of the above-mentioned control for determining reachability by the navigation control unit 40. First, when a key switch of an electric vehicle (hereinafter, vehicle) is turned on, the navigation control unit 40 is activated together with various systems of the vehicle, and control is started. In step 101, the touch panel 56 of the display 50 is
Use to enter the destination and destination.

FIG. 5 shows a procedure for inputting a destination and a destination. First, a menu is displayed on the display 50 as an initial screen as shown in (a). In (a), only the "destination search" button is shown for simplicity. When the operator touches or presses the displayed portion with his / her finger and selects "destination search", a screen asking for the number of transit destinations is displayed as shown in (b), and the number of transit destinations is input from the keyboard 54.

When the "next" button is pressed, the "route 1" guide is first displayed on the screen (c) according to the number of routes. When this guidance button is pressed, the first waypoint input processing is started. Note that, hereinafter, the operation of the button on the touch panel 56 is simply referred to as pressing, and particularly when one of a plurality of buttons is selected and pressed, it is referred to as selection.
The button displayed on the display 50 as the touch panel 56 is configured to change its color when pressed or selected, so that the operator can confirm his / her operation. In the following figures, hatching indicates that the color has changed.

First, a character list is displayed as shown in (d),
A screen for selecting the initials of the destination. When "A" is selected here, the reading as shown in (e) is a screen displaying a list of place names and landmarks starting with "A", so that "Atsugi station" can be selected, for example. In this way, when the first transit destination is determined, the initials of the transit destination similar to (d) are selected for inputting the second transit destination (f).
Screen. If "i" is selected here, a screen as shown in FIG. 6G is displayed in which a list of place names and the like starting with "i" is displayed.

On the screens of (e) and (g) above, in addition to the list of place names etc. set in advance, the button of "no item" is also displayed, so the place name to be transited is listed. If there is no item, press "No item". Then,
A screen for requesting an address, a telephone number, etc., as shown in (h) is displayed, so input from the keyboard 54 and press the "Next" button. When the input information indicates that the destination is recognized, the message "Just recognized the destination" is displayed as shown in (j). Here, if the transit destination cannot be recognized by the information input from the keyboard 54, the screen of (h) is repeated.

When the transit destination is recognized, the user enters the destination by pressing "Next" on the screen (j). Here, the destination is selected and input on the screens (k) and (m) similar to the via-point input processing. When the destination is selected from the list or the destination is recognized by the information input from the keyboard 54, a confirmation screen of each transit destination and the destination as shown in (n) is displayed, so an "OK" button is displayed. Select to finish inputting the destination and transit destination. When a change is required, the "correction" button is pressed to return to the immediately preceding screen, so that selection or keyboard input can be redone.

Returning to the flowchart, step 102
Now, let's enter information about whether charging at the destination is possible. Therefore, on the display 50, a selection screen as shown in FIG. 7 is displayed. If the operator knows that there is charging equipment at the destination, he / she selects the "Yes" button, and if there is no charging equipment or does not know that there is, then the "Unknown" button is selected. Push. Step 10
In 3, it is checked which button has been selected. If there is no charging facility (unknown), the process proceeds to step 111, and if there is charging facility, the process proceeds to step 104.

At step 104, as shown in FIG.
It displays that the information input is completed and waits for the "Next" button set on the screen to be pressed. When the "Next" button is pressed, in step 105, the optimum route to the destination is searched for using the map information of the DVD-ROM based on the information input as described above. While searching for the optimum route, the display 50 displays that fact, as shown in FIG.

In step 106, the battery 1 input from the battery control unit 26 at predetermined time intervals is input.
The remaining capacity of 0 is used to calculate whether or not it is possible to travel to the destination (the charging facility when a charging facility near the destination, which will be described later, is selected or input is set) by the optimum route. Then, when the remaining capacity is insufficient for traveling to the destination (or the charging facility), the required charging time is also calculated.

In step 107, the result of the above calculation is checked, and if the vehicle can travel, the route from the current value to the destination via the transit point is displayed in step 108 as shown in FIG. 9B. , Informs that the vehicle can run on the optimum route. Then, it waits until the "Next" button set on the screen is pressed.

When the "Next" button is pressed, step 1
At 09, the process moves to an approval screen including an “OK” button and a “NO” button as shown in FIG. 9C, and requests approval for traveling on the optimum route. Here, if there is a problem on the optimum traveling route due to circumstances, it is possible to select to change the traveling section. When the button is pressed, step 11
Check which button was pressed at 0,
When the travel on the optimum route is approved by the "OK" button, this flow ends.

In step 102, the "Unknown" button is pressed to input information about the charging equipment, and in step 111, which is a branch from step 103, the screen shown in FIG. Wait for the "Next" button to be pressed.

When the "Next" button is pressed, step 1
Proceed to 12 to display the charging equipment near the destination. As shown in FIG. 10 (b), this displays the position of the charging facility along with a ring R that indicates the distance from the destination at a predetermined interval centering on the destination, and if there are multiple charging facilities, It is designed to be displayed in each direction.
Here, a state is shown in which the A charging station is located 500 m diagonally forward of the destination and the B charging station is located approximately 1 km to the left of the destination.

When the "Next" button is pressed on this screen,
At step 113, the screen moves to the screen of FIG.
Confirm whether or not the charging equipment displayed on the screen of (b) is desired. The operator presses the "OK" button if there is a charging facility to be used, and presses the "NO" button if not.

When the "OK" button is pressed, the routine proceeds to step 114, where the screen for selecting desired charging equipment in (d) of FIG. 10 is displayed. On this screen, the A charging station and the B charging station shown in the screen of FIG. 10B are displayed in a list, and the “Next” button is also displayed. The operator selects one from the displayed list of charging equipment. After that, if you click the "Next" button, step 104
Go to.

In the screen of FIG. 10 (c) in step 113, there is no charging facility desired to be used, and "N
When the "O" button is pressed, the process proceeds to step 115,
Display the screen of FIG. 11 and ask whether to make a round trip. When the operator travels back and forth, "OK" on the screen
Press the button and press the "NO" button if you do not want to travel back and forth. When the "OK" button is pressed, step 104
Go to.

When the "NO" button is pressed here,
In step 116, the charging location designation screen shown in FIG. 12A is displayed, and the operator inputs the address, telephone number, or the nearest target object where the charging facility is desired, from the keyboard 54. When the charging place cannot be recognized from the input address or the like, the screen display of (a) is repeated. When the charging place is recognized, the process proceeds to step 117, the fact that the charging place is recognized and the recognized charging place are displayed as shown in FIG. 12B, and then the process proceeds to step 104.

Next, when it is determined in step 107 that it is not possible to travel to the destination due to the remaining capacity of the battery 10, the process proceeds to step 118, and as shown in FIG. A screen is displayed along with the route indicating that driving is not possible. When the "Next" button is pressed on this screen, the screen of FIG. 13 (b) is displayed and step 106
Show the charging time obtained in step 2 as the minimum charging time, and confirm whether to start charging. In addition to the "charge" button, this confirmation screen also has a "charge time specification" button so that a charge time different from the minimum charge time can be specified. The operator selects either button.

In step 119, it is checked whether the "charge" button has been pressed, that is, whether the start of charging has been approved. If the "charge" button has been pressed, the process proceeds to step 109. When the "charge time designation" button is pressed, the routine proceeds to step 120, where a desired charge time input screen as shown in FIG. 14 (a) is displayed. The operator inputs a desired time from the keyboard 54 on this input screen,
When the "next" button is pressed, in step 121, a post-charge drivable area is displayed as shown in FIG. 14 (b). On this screen, the travelable range in the charged state for the time entered on the screen of (a) is represented by the distance centered on the current value, and major landmarks such as hospitals and elementary schools are also displayed. It

When the "Next" button is pressed on this screen,
Next, at step 122, as shown in FIG. 14C, a travel plan change screen for asking whether to change the travel plan with the "OK" button and the "NO" button is displayed.
In step 123, it is checked which button has been pressed. If the "OK" button has been pressed, the process returns to step 101 and returns to the destination input screen from FIG.
On the other hand, if the “NO” button is pressed, step 124
Proceed to. In step 124, as in (d) of FIG. 14, the same charging time as shown in the screen of (b) of FIG. 13 above is displayed, and it is announced that charging is necessary when heading to the original destination. And finish.

Incidentally, step 110 concerning route approval.
When the "NO" button is pressed in the check of,
In step 125, as shown in FIG. 15 (a), a desired change section input screen for selecting each section on the optimum travel route is displayed. When the section to be changed is selected by the button and the "Next" button is pressed, a message for retrieving another route of the selected section is displayed as shown in FIG. 15 (b). When the "next" button on this screen is pressed, in step 126, a plurality of different routes except the optimum route in the desired change section are searched.

At step 127, the search result is displayed on the screen as shown in FIG. Here, an example is shown in which three routes, that is, another route 1 to another route 3, are searched and displayed when the route destination 2 and the destination are selected as the desired change section. When the "Next" button is pressed on this alternative route display screen, step 1
At 28, the screen shifts to the travel route selection screen shown in FIG. The operator selects one from a plurality of different routes displayed on the screen and presses the "Next" button.

As a result, in step 129, as shown in FIG.
After moving to the travel route decision screen as shown in (e), displaying the selected alternative route and displaying a message to calculate whether or not it is possible to travel to the destination by the alternative route, Return to 106.

In the above flow, step 101 constitutes the destination setting means in the invention, steps 102 and 103 constitute the charge availability judgment means, and step 112 constitutes the charging facility search means. Also, step 10
5, 109, 110, 125 to 129 constitute route setting means, steps 106 and 121 are reachability determining means, steps 113 and 114 are charging equipment selecting means, and steps 116 and 117 are charging equipment setting means. , And step 120 constitutes charging time setting means.

The present embodiment is configured as described above, and allows the operator to input the destination together with the transit destination and also determine whether or not the battery 10 can be charged at the destination based on the input information, and charge the battery 10. In that case, the reachability of whether or not the vehicle can travel to the destination with the current remaining capacity of the battery is calculated and displayed on the display 50. However, when the destination does not have a charging facility, the vicinity of the destination is calculated. It is assumed that the charging equipment is displayed and selected, and whether or not the vehicle can run to the charging equipment with the remaining capacity of the battery 10 is displayed. As a result, it is possible to prevent a situation in which the vehicle 10 has reached the destination but the remaining capacity of the battery 10 is exhausted and the vehicle cannot travel next. Further, since the charging equipment near the destination can be known in advance, it is not necessary to search for the charging equipment near the destination.

Further, instead of selecting the charging equipment in the vicinity of the destination, the operator can input the charging equipment by himself / herself. Therefore, the familiar charging equipment should be used and whether or not the charging equipment can be reached. You can also judge. Similarly, it is possible to judge whether or not the remaining capacity of the battery 10 allows the round trip from the current position to the destination by the selection operation of the operator, so that the options of the travel plan can be expanded.

When the remaining capacity of the battery 10 allows the vehicle to travel to the destination or the charging facility, the fact that the vehicle can travel along with the route is displayed on the display 50. Alternatively, the user can understand and understand the route to the destination, the round trip route, and the like via the charging facility that is selected and input and set, and can head to the destination with confidence. On the other hand, when traveling to the destination or the charging facility is impossible due to the remaining capacity of the battery 10, the minimum charging time required to reach the destination or the charging facility is calculated and displayed on the display 50.
You can clearly know the required charging time.

Further, the operator can arbitrarily set the charging time. For example, when the charging time is set shorter than the minimum charging time described above, the remaining capacity of the battery 10 at the time when the charging is completed. Is calculated and the range reachable by the remaining capacity is displayed on the display 50, so that the travel plan can be changed within the reachable range.

As for the route to the destination, the optimum route is calculated based on the map information, so that the destination can be reached most efficiently. Since the operator can select another route, the battery 10 can be selected for any route.
It is possible to know whether it is possible to reach by the remaining capacity of.

In the embodiment, the input / operation unit 52
Although the keyboard 54 and the touch panel 56 are used, the present invention is not limited to this, and various man-machine interfaces such as those using voice recognition and image recognition in the direction of the line of sight can be adopted. Also, the screen display on the display is merely an example, and any display form can be adopted.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a control flow.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a control flow.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a control flow.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an input screen for a destination and a destination.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an input screen for a destination and a destination.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a selection screen of whether or not charging equipment at a destination is present.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an information input completion screen.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a route setting screen.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a screen for selecting a charging facility near a destination when the charging facility is unknown.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a round-trip traveling confirmation screen.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a desired charging facility setting screen.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a display screen when traveling to a destination is impossible due to the remaining capacity of the battery.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a desired charging time input screen.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a route change setting screen.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 battery 12 Commercial AC power supply 14 AC outlet 16 dedicated charger 18 charger outlet 20 inverter 22 Current sensor 24 voltage sensor 26 Battery Control Unit 30 motor 32 reducer 34 drive shaft 36 drive wheels 40 Navigation control unit 42 vehicle speed sensor 44 GPS antenna 46 Gyro sensor 50 display 52 Input / Operation section 54 keyboard 56 touch panel 58 DVD-ROM

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Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. An electric vehicle using a battery-driven motor as a power source, a destination setting means for setting a destination, and whether or not the battery can be charged at the destination set by the destination setting means. Charging feasibility determining means, a charging equipment searching means for searching for charging equipment near the destination, and a charging equipment searching means when the charging feasibility determining means judges that charging at the destination is impossible. A navigation system for an electric vehicle, comprising: a display that displays the charging equipment searched for in. 2. A route setting means for setting a route from a current location to a predetermined location, a battery remaining amount detecting means for detecting a remaining capacity of a battery, and a battery remaining along a route from the current location to the predetermined location. Reachability determination means for determining whether or not capacity is possible, and charging equipment selection means for allowing the operator to select the charging equipment searched by the charging equipment search means, the predetermined location, charging availability determination means When it is determined that charging at the destination is possible, the destination is set as the destination, and when the charging availability determination unit determines that charging at the destination is impossible, as the location of the charging facility selected by the charging facility selection unit,
The navigation system for an electric vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the determination result of the reachability determination means is displayed on the display. 3. The charging equipment setting means allowing an operator to input charging equipment is further provided, and instead of selecting by the charging equipment selecting means, the location of the charging equipment input from the charging equipment setting means is set to the predetermined location. The navigation system for an electric vehicle according to claim 2, wherein the navigation system is a ground. 4. The reachability determination means is capable of determining whether or not the remaining capacity of the battery can be used for round trips from the present location to the destination by a selection operation by the operator. 2. The navigation system for an electric vehicle according to 2 or 3. 5. When the reachability determining means determines that the remaining capacity of the battery is enough to drive to the destination or the charging facility, the display indicates that the vehicle is capable of traveling and the route from the current location to the destination. Is displayed, The navigation system of the electric vehicle according to any one of claims 2 to 4. 6. When the reachability determining means determines that traveling to a destination or charging equipment is impossible due to the remaining capacity of the battery, the reachability determining means determines the minimum required to reach the destination or charging equipment. The charging time is calculated, and the charging time is displayed on the display.
5. The navigation system for an electric vehicle according to any one of 1 to 5. 7. A charging time setting means capable of setting an arbitrary charging time by an operator's input, and the reachability judging means is a time point when charging is completed by the charging time set by the charging time setting means. Calculate the remaining capacity of the battery in
7. The navigation system for an electric vehicle according to claim 2, wherein a range reachable by the remaining capacity can be displayed on the display. 8. The navigation system for an electric vehicle according to claim 2, wherein the route setting means calculates an optimum route based on map information and sets it as the route. 9. The navigation system for an electric vehicle according to claim 8, wherein the route setting means can set another route different from the optimum route by a selection operation of an operator.