JP2007263878A - Navigation device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform course guidance considered appropriate according to the condition of a course, even if a destination is not set beforehand. <P>SOLUTION: A navigation device includes a positional information acquisition means for acquiring information on the position of its own vehicle and information on its progressing direction at each predetermined period of time, a passing-point storage means 103a for storing information on the positions of passing points one by one, a map storage means 103c for storing map information, a road information storage means 103b for storing information representing easiness of travelling of a road, a course guidance decision means 101b for determining whether the course guidance is necessary based on the information on the position of the own vehicle, the information on the progressing direction, the map information, and the information representing the easiness of travelling of the road, a virtual-destination determination means 101c which finds a smoothed straight line from the information on the positions of the passing points and information on the nearest position, and determines the position of the virtual destination on the basis of information on positions on this straight line, a course computation means 101d for computing a course up to the position of the virtual destination, and an output control means 101f which laps the information on the nearest position and the computed course on a map and allows a display device to display it. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a navigation device capable of performing appropriate route guidance according to the route situation even if the destination is not set in advance.

  A navigation device provided in a vehicle provides a function of measuring a current position of the vehicle and performing route guidance from the measured current position to a destination set by a user. This function allows the user to reach the destination easily and reliably. Here, in order to receive route guidance in the conventional navigation device, it is assumed that the user sets a destination in advance before the start of traveling. Thereby, the navigation device searches for a route that can reach the destination by the shortest route, for example, displays the current vehicle position superimposed on the map, and displays the guidance route on the map as other roads. By changing the color and displaying it thickly, it is possible to guide the route to the destination that the user wants to reach.

  There is also a navigation device having a heading-up control function for changing the orientation of a map displayed on the screen according to the orientation of the host vehicle. In this device, in order to make it easier for users to understand route guidance, a technology has been proposed that suppresses unnecessary rotation of the map when driving in areas with many sharp curves and intersections such as mountain roads ( For example, see Patent Document 1).

Furthermore, even when route guidance is not performed, a technique for suppressing unnecessary rotation of a map has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 2).
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-2530 JP 2002-13935 A

  However, the navigation device described in Patent Document 1 suppresses unnecessary rotation of the map. However, in order for the navigation device to perform route guidance, the user correctly sets the destination in advance before starting the travel. Had to be set. If the user forgets the setting of the destination and starts traveling, or starts traveling without having the destination, the navigation device described in Patent Document 1 cannot perform route guidance. Therefore, when the user encounters a T-shaped road or a Y-shaped road that the user does not know, there is a problem in that it is impossible to immediately determine which way to go, and he / she feels confused while driving. Therefore, in order to set the destination, the user has to temporarily stop the running vehicle for traffic safety.

  Further, in the navigation device described in Patent Document 2, even when the route guidance is not performed, the map is prevented from rotating unnecessarily. The person had to set the destination correctly in the navigation device before the start of traveling.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a navigation device that performs appropriate route guidance according to the route conditions even if the destination is not set in advance.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, a first feature of the navigation device according to the present invention is that position information acquisition means for acquiring position information and traveling direction information of the own vehicle every predetermined time, and acquired position information of the own vehicle. Corresponding to the road in the stored map information, the passing point storage means for sequentially storing the traveling direction information as the passing point position information, the map storage means for storing the map information, and the information indicating the ease of traveling on the road Information on the road information storage means to be stored, the position information and traveling direction information of the own vehicle acquired most recently by the position information acquisition means, the stored map information, and the stored road information The route guidance determination means for determining whether or not the route guidance is necessary based on the information indicating the ease of travel on the road corresponding to the latest position information, and the route guidance determination means If it is determined that it is necessary, the passing point position information until the host vehicle reaches the place corresponding to the latest position information is read from the passing point storage means, and the read passing point position information and the latest position information are read out. And a virtual destination determining means for determining a position of the virtual destination based on position information of the position determined on the obtained straight line, and a virtual destination determined from the latest position information The route calculation means for calculating the route to the position of the map and the map information stored in the map storage means are read out, and the nearest position information and the route to the calculated virtual destination position are superimposed on this map. And an output control means for displaying on the display device.

  In order to solve the above problems, a second feature of the navigation device according to the present invention is that the information indicating the ease of travel of the road stored in the road information storage means is a road rank, and the route guidance determination means is: The road rank of the road corresponding to the latest position information is read from the road information storage means, and the distance from the position on the road corresponding to the latest position information to the branch point is preset in the map information stored in the map storage means. If it is within the determined judgment reference distance, the road rank of all connected roads connected within a predetermined angle with respect to the straight direction at the branch point is read from the road information storage means, and the latest position information is supported When the road rank of the road corresponding to the most recent position information is equal to or higher than the road rank of the connected road, or More road No. of road rank of a road is summarized in that to determine the required route guidance when it is more road rank of road corresponding to the most recent location information.

  According to the navigation device of the present invention, even if the destination is not set in advance, appropriate route guidance is performed according to the route situation, so the user is confused without knowing which way to go while driving Can be prevented and the vehicle can travel safely.

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

  In the present embodiment, it is determined whether or not route guidance is necessary from the map information, the position information of the own vehicle acquired most recently, and the information indicating the ease of traveling on the road corresponding to the latest position information. If it is determined that guidance is necessary, a smoothed straight line is obtained from the position information of the passing point through which the vehicle passes and the latest position information, and the virtual destination is determined based on the position information of the point determined on the straight line. A navigation apparatus that determines and guides a route to a virtual destination will be described as an example.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a navigation device according to the present invention.

  1 includes a CPU 101, a storage device 103 connected to the CPU 101, an input panel 105, a vehicle speed sensor 107, a direction sensor 109, a gyro sensor 111, a GPS sensor 113, an audio output device 115, and display means. 117.

  The CPU 101 includes a current location calculation unit 101a, a route guidance determination unit 101b, a virtual destination determination unit 101c, a route calculation unit 101d, a route guidance unit 101e, an output control unit 101f, and the like. According to a program such as a navigation program, the CPU 101 Various processes such as position calculation, determination of necessity of route guidance, determination of virtual destination, calculation of route to destination, output control and route guidance are executed.

  The current location calculation means 101a is based on the GPS reception signal received by the GPS sensor 113 and the detection signals of the vehicle rotation direction, speed, and vehicle current direction detected by the gyro sensor 111, the vehicle speed sensor 107, and the direction sensor 109. The current location and the traveling direction of the host vehicle are calculated every predetermined time.

  The route guidance determination unit 101b determines whether route guidance is necessary from the map information stored in the map storage unit 103c, the road rank stored in the road information storage unit 103b, and the latest location information calculated by the current location calculation unit 101a. judge.

  When the route guidance determination unit 101b determines that the route guidance is necessary, the virtual destination determination unit 101c reads the passing point position information stored in the passing point storage unit 103a, and the position information closest to the read passing point position information. A smoothed straight line is obtained from the information, and a virtual destination is determined based on position information of a point determined on the straight line.

  The route calculation unit 101d calculates a route from the closest position of the host vehicle calculated by the current location calculation unit 101a to the virtual destination determined by the virtual destination determination unit 101c.

  The route guidance unit 101e performs guidance to the virtual destination determined by the route calculation unit 101d.

  The output control unit 101f displays a map on the display unit 117 based on the map information stored in the map storage unit 103c, and displays the latest position information and the route calculated by the route calculation unit 101d superimposed on the map. Let

  The storage device 103 is a storage medium such as a memory or an HDD, and includes a passing point storage unit 103a, a road information storage unit 103b, a map storage unit 103c, and the like. In addition to a navigation program and map information, the CPU 101 performs various processes. Data necessary for executing is also stored as appropriate.

  The passing point storage unit 103a sequentially stores information on the current location and the traveling direction calculated every predetermined time by the current location calculating unit 101a as passing point position information.

  The map storage means 103c stores map information, and the road information storage means 103b stores roads on the map in association with road ranks that determine the ease of travel of the roads.

  The input panel 105 receives an input signal from the user such as setting a destination or changing a display method, and transmits the received input signal to the CPU 101.

  The GPS sensor 113 receives a GPS signal from a GPS satellite for detecting the position of the vehicle, and transmits the received signal to the CPU 101.

  The gyro sensor 111, the vehicle speed sensor 107, and the direction sensor 105 detect the rotation direction, speed, and direction of the vehicle, respectively, and transmit the detected signals to the CPU 101.

  The voice output device 115 outputs voice guidance of the route at an appropriate timing during traveling, and the display means 117 is a liquid crystal display, for example, and receives an output signal from the CPU 101 to display a map, a route, instruction guidance, and the like. Device.

  Next, a processing procedure of an embodiment of the navigation device according to the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  First, the current position calculation unit 101a receives the GPS reception signal received by the GPS sensor 113 and the detection signals of the vehicle rotation direction, vehicle speed, and vehicle current direction detected by the gyro sensor 111, the vehicle speed sensor 107, and the direction sensor 109. Receiving (step S201), the present location and traveling direction of the host vehicle are calculated from these signals every predetermined time. (Step S202).

  Then, the current location calculation unit 101a reads road data around the current location calculated from the map storage unit 103c (step S203), matches the read road data with the calculated current location of the vehicle, and determines the current location of the vehicle and the progress of the vehicle. The direction is determined (step S204). When the current location calculation unit 101a determines the current location and the traveling direction of the vehicle, the current location and traveling direction information determined every predetermined time is stored in the passing point storage unit 103a as passing point position information.

  Next, does the route guidance determination unit 101b need route guidance from the map information stored by the map storage unit 103c, the road rank stored by the road information storage unit 103b, and the latest position information calculated by the current location calculation unit 101a? It is determined whether or not (step S205). Details of the process for determining whether route guidance is necessary will be described later.

  Next, when the route guidance determination unit 101b determines that the route guidance is necessary, the virtual destination determination unit 101c passes from the passing point storage unit 103a until the host vehicle reaches a location corresponding to the latest position information. The point position information is read out, a smoothed straight line is obtained from the read passing point position information and the latest position information, and a virtual destination is determined based on the position information of the position determined on the straight line (step S206). Details of the process of determining the virtual destination will be described later.

  Next, the route calculation unit 101d calculates a route from the location corresponding to the latest position information to the virtual destination determined by the virtual destination determination unit 101c.

  Then, the output control unit 101f reads the map information stored in the map storage unit 103c, superimposes the position information corresponding to the nearest position on the map and the route calculated by the route calculation unit 101d, and the traveling direction of the vehicle Is displayed on the display means 117 so as to be on the upper side (step S207).

≪Route guidance determination process≫
Next, the details of the process (step S205) for determining whether or not route guidance by the route guidance determination unit 101b is necessary will be described with reference to FIGS.

  First, the route guidance determination unit 101b determines whether the distance from the position on the road corresponding to the latest position information of the host vehicle to the branch point is within the determination reference distance on the map stored in the map storage unit 103c. To do. Here, the determination reference distance is a reference for determining whether or not the route guidance determination unit 101b has a branch point ahead on the road on which the host vehicle is traveling on the map stored in the map storage unit 103c. It is a distance and can be arbitrarily determined by a user or a navigation device provider.

  Next, the route guidance determination unit 101b connects the road at the branch point when the distance from the position on the road corresponding to the latest position information of the host vehicle to the branch point is within a predetermined determination reference distance. It is determined from the state whether route guidance is necessary.

  Specifically, the route guidance determination unit 101b first sets the road rank of the road corresponding to the latest position information from the road information storage unit 103b, and 0 degrees to the left and right as the most preferable example with respect to the straight direction at this branch point. The road ranks of all connected roads connected at an angle of 15 degrees or less are read. Then, the road rank of the road corresponding to the most recently read position information is compared with the road ranks of all connected roads.

  As a result of comparison, when the road rank of the road corresponding to the latest position information is equal to or higher than the road rank of the connected road (first pattern), or among the read road ranks of the connected road, the plurality of road ranks are the nearest When the road rank is equal to or higher than the road corresponding to the position information (second pattern), it is determined that route guidance is necessary.

  Here, the road rank is a variable that determines the ease of traveling on the road, and is stored in the road information storage means 103b in a one-to-one relationship for each road. In the present embodiment, the road rank is set higher as the road rank value is smaller. The value of the road rank can be determined based on the road width, the number of lanes, speed regulation, lane regulation, vehicle regulation, or the like. For example, the higher the road width, the greater the number of lanes, or the faster the maximum speed, the more comfortable the road can travel, so the road rank is set higher.

  FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the route guidance determination process of the first pattern.

  Currently, the host vehicle is traveling on a road 401 having a road rank value of “3”.

  When the distance from the position on the road corresponding to the latest position information of the host vehicle to the branch point is within the determination reference distance, the route guidance determination unit 101b branches to the front of the road on which the host vehicle is currently traveling. Judge that there is a point.

  Therefore, the route guidance determination unit 101b determines whether or not the road is connected at an angle of 0 to 15 degrees to the left and right as a most preferable example with respect to the straight direction at the branch point. The road rank is read from the road information storage means 103b. In FIG. 3, the road 409 is connected to each of the left and right angles with respect to the straight direction at this branch point at angles of 0 degrees to 15 degrees, so the road rank set for the road 409 is represented by the road information storage means 103b. Read from. When the road rank value “4” of the read road 409 is compared with the road rank value “3” of the road 401 corresponding to the latest position information, the road rank of the road 401 corresponding to the latest position information is connected. Since it is equal to or higher than the road rank of the road 409, the route guidance determination unit 101b determines that route guidance is necessary at this branch point.

  FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of route guidance determination processing of the second pattern.

  Currently, the host vehicle is traveling on a road 401 having a road rank value of “3”.

  When the distance from the position on the road corresponding to the latest position information to the branch point is within the determination reference distance, the route guidance determination unit 101b has a branch point ahead of the road on which the vehicle is currently traveling. Is determined.

  Therefore, the route guidance determination unit 101b determines whether or not the road is connected at an angle of 0 to 15 degrees to the left and right as a most preferable example with respect to the straight direction at the branch point. The road rank is read from the road information storage means 103b.

  In FIG. 4, roads 413 and 415 are connected to each other at angles within 0 to 15 degrees to the left and right with respect to the straight direction at this branch point. Read from the road information storage means 103b. When the road rank value “3” of the read road 413 is compared with the road rank value “3” of the road 401 corresponding to the latest position information, the road rank of the connection road 413 corresponds to the latest position information. It is determined that the road rank of the road 401 is the same. Further, when the road rank value “2” of the read road 415 is compared with the road rank value “3” of the road 401 corresponding to the latest position information, the road rank of the connection road 415 corresponds to the latest position information. It is determined that the road rank is equal to or higher than the road 401. Thereby, since the road ranks of the plurality of roads of the connection road 413 and the connection road 415 are equal to or higher than the road rank of the road corresponding to the latest position information, the route guidance determination unit 101b needs route guidance at this branch point. Is determined.

  In this way, by determining whether or not route guidance is necessary based on the connection angle of the connection road with respect to the straight direction of the vehicle at the starting point and the road rank, the user can go to any road while traveling. Route guidance can be started when a road that is easy to be confused without knowing whether or not appears at a fork ahead.

  The process for determining whether or not route guidance based on the road rank is necessary is an example, and other conditions that make it easy to get lost if the driver does not have information about the route in advance are extracted. It may be determined whether route guidance is necessary.

≪Virtual destination decision processing≫
Next, when the route guidance determination unit 101b determines that the route guidance is necessary, the virtual destination determination unit 101c corresponds the position information stored in the passing point storage unit 103a to the latest position information of the host vehicle. It is read as passing point position information until reaching the place, a smoothed straight line is obtained from the read passing point position information and the latest position information, and the virtual destination is determined based on the position information of the position determined on this straight line. decide.

  Details of the process of determining the virtual destination by the virtual destination determining means 101c (step S306) will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  First, the virtual destination determining means 101c uses the coordinate data {(P0x, P0y), (P0, P1, P2... PN) until the host vehicle reaches the place PN corresponding to the latest position information. P1x, P1y), (P2x, P2y)... (PNx, PNy)} are read from the passing point storage means 103a as passing point position information (step S501).

  Next, the virtual destination determination means 101c stores the position information of the passing points more than the number of samples (hereinafter referred to as Nmax) necessary for obtaining the smoothing straight line described later as the passing point position information. If the number of samples equal to or greater than Nmax is stored, the process proceeds to the next step (step S503). If the number of position information of the passing points is less than Nmax, the virtual destination determining unit 101c calculates the angle θ of the smoothing straight line from the latest traveling direction acquired from the current location calculating unit 101a (step S511), and step S513. Transfer processing to.

  Next, the virtual destination determination means 101c records the position information of the passing point exceeding Nmax as time elapses while the host vehicle is traveling. The position information of the point is erased, and the position information from the next passing point to the current location is overwritten and stored in the passing point storage means 103a as the position information of the passing point from the new P0 to PN (step S505).

  Next, the virtual destination determination unit 101c calculates a smoothing straight line as described below using the position information from P0 to PN (steps S507 and S509).

  First, the virtual destination determining means 101c calculates the average value (meanX, meanY) of the difference between the x coordinate and the y coordinate from the passing point to the next passing point in order to calculate a smoothing straight line (step S507). Is used to calculate the angle θ of the smoothing straight line by the following formula (step S509). Thereby, the virtual destination determination means 101c can obtain the smoothed straight line L drawn in the angle θ direction from the point P0.

θ = tan (meanY / meanX) (Formula 1)
The calculation process of the smoothing straight line L will be specifically described with reference to the explanatory diagram of the smoothing straight line L calculation in FIG.

  In FIG. 6, the passing point information of 6 points from P0 (P0x, P0y) to the place P5 (P5x, P5y) corresponding to the latest positional information is stored in the passing point storage means 103a, and Nmax is 6 or less. Is set.

  The virtual destination determining unit 101c calculates a difference ΔP1 (P1x−P0x, P1y−P0y) between the x coordinate and the y coordinate between P0 (P0x, P0y) and P1 (P1x, P1y). Similarly, ΔP2 (P2x−P1x, P2y−P1y), ΔP3 (P3x−P2x, P3y−P2y)... ΔP5 (P5x−P4x, P5y−P4y) are calculated, and from ΔP to ΔP5. (MeanX, meanY) is calculated as the average value of the differences between the x-coordinate and the y-coordinate.

  Then, the virtual destination determining unit 101c calculates the angle θ of the smoothing straight line by (Equation 1) using the average value (meanX, meanY) of the calculated difference between the x coordinate and the y coordinate. Thereby, the virtual destination determination means 101c can obtain | require the smoothing straight line L shown with the broken line of FIG. 6 pulled in the angle (theta) direction from P0 point.

  Next, the virtual destination determination unit 101c calculates position information (PRx, PRy) of the L extension point PR that is a point obtained by extending a distance corresponding to the distance between P0 and PN from the PN onto the smoothing straight line L. (Step S513).

  Then, the virtual destination determining means 101c determines the nearest point of the road having a road rank equal to or higher than the road rank of the currently running road and having the closest distance from the PR calculated in step S513. It is determined as PQ (PQx, PQy) (step S515).

  FIG. 7 shows an example of processing for determining the virtual destination PQ from the coordinates PR on the smoothing straight line L.

  The host vehicle is currently driving on a road having a road rank value “3”. A road 701 having a road rank value “1”, a road 703 having a road rank value “5”, and a road rank value “ There is a 4 ″ road 705.

  Therefore, the virtual destination determination unit 101c calculates the position information (PQx, PQy) of the virtual destination PQ from the L extension point PR (PRx, PRy) in FIG. 7 calculated in step S513. First, the virtual destination determining means 101c searches the map information stored in the map storage means 103c for the road closest to the L extension point PR. As a result, it is determined that the road 705 is closest to the L extension point PR, and the road rank of the road 705 is read from the road information storage unit 103b. However, since the road rank value of the read road 705 is “4” and the road rank value of the currently running road is not higher than the road rank value “3”, it is next close to the L extension point PR. Search for roads. Then, the road rank of the road 701 next to the L extension point PR is read, and the road rank value “1” of this road 701 has a road rank value “3” or higher of the road rank of the currently running road. to decide. Therefore, the virtual destination determining unit 101c determines a point near the L extension point PR on the road 701 as PQ.

  As described above, even if the user does not set the destination in advance in the navigation device 10, if the navigation device 10 determines that the route guidance is necessary, the location information of the passing point and the own vehicle acquired most recently A smoothed straight line is obtained from the position information of the vehicle, a virtual destination is determined based on the position information of the position determined on the straight line, and route guidance to this virtual destination is performed, so that the user can You can drive safely without being confused because you don't know what to do.

The block diagram which showed one Embodiment of the navigation apparatus concerning this invention. The flowchart which shows the process sequence of one Embodiment of the navigation apparatus concerning this invention. Explanatory drawing of the route guidance determination process in case the road rank of the road corresponding to the latest positional information is more than the road rank of a connection road. Explanatory drawing of a route guidance determination process in case a some road rank is more than the road rank of the road corresponding to the latest positional information among the road ranks of the read connection road. The flowchart of the process which determines a virtual destination. Explanatory drawing of the process which calculates a smoothing straight line from the positional information on a passing point, and the positional information acquired most recently. Explanatory drawing of the process which determines virtual destination PQ from L extension point PR on a smoothing straight line.

Explanation of symbols

10. Navigation device 101 ... CPU
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101a ... Present location calculation means 101b ... Route guidance determination means 101c ... Virtual destination determination means 101d ... Route calculation means 101e ... Route guidance means 101f ... Output control means 103 ... Storage device 103a ... Passage point storage means 103b ... Road information storage means 103c ... Map storage means 105 ... Input panel 107 ... Vehicle speed sensor 109 ... Direction sensor 111 ... Gyro sensor 113 ... GPS sensor 115 ... Audio output device 117 ... Display means

Claims (2)

A navigation device that displays a map on a display device and provides route guidance for the host vehicle,
Position information acquisition means for acquiring position information and traveling direction information of the host vehicle every predetermined time;
Passing point storage means for sequentially storing the acquired position information and traveling direction information of the own vehicle as passing point position information;
Map storage means for storing map information;
Road information storage means for storing information indicating the ease of traveling on the road in association with the road in the stored map information;
The latest position information among the position information and the traveling direction information of the host vehicle acquired most recently by the position information acquisition means, the stored map information, and the stored information indicating the ease of traveling on the road. Route guidance determination means for determining whether or not route guidance is necessary based on information indicating ease of travel on a road corresponding to
If the route guidance determination means determines that route guidance is necessary, the passing point position information until the host vehicle reaches the place corresponding to the latest position information is read from the passing point storage means, and this reading is performed. Virtual destination determination means for obtaining a smoothed straight line from the obtained passing point position information and the latest position information and determining the position of the virtual destination based on the position information of the position determined on the obtained straight line When,
Route calculation means for calculating a route from the latest position information to the determined virtual destination position;
Output control means for reading the map information stored in the map storage means and displaying the latest position information on the map and the route to the calculated virtual destination position so as to be displayed on the display device; A navigation device characterized by comprising: Information indicating the ease of travel of the road stored in the road information storage means is a road rank,
The route guidance determination means reads the road rank of the road corresponding to the latest position information from the road information storage means, and in the map information stored in the map storage means, the route information corresponding to the latest position information When the distance from the position to the branch point is within a predetermined judgment reference distance, the road ranks of all connected roads connected within a predetermined angle with respect to the straight direction at the branch point are The road rank of the road corresponding to the latest position information is read from the road information storage means, and the road rank of the road corresponding to the latest position information is compared with the road rank of the connection road. When it is higher than the rank, or a plurality of road ranks among the road ranks of the connection road are higher than the road rank of the road corresponding to the latest position information The navigation system of claim 1, wherein the determining required route guidance on.

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