JP2009210467A - On-vehicle navigation device, and program for navigation device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To execute exact route retrieval reflecting lane regulation of a road having a plurality of lanes. <P>SOLUTION: In an on-vehicle navigation device, a transmitter-receiver 6 receives lane regulation information about the lane regulation of the roads, a road to be retrieved is weighed by processing executed by a navigation ECU 12, the route to a destination is retrieved according to the weight, and finally a display device 8 displays the retrieved route to a user. Thus, weight is provided based on the lane regulation information about the lane regulation of the road, and a route is retrieved according to the weight, so that the exact route retrieval reflecting the lane regulation of the road having the plurality of lanes can be executed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an in-vehicle navigation device that searches for a route to a destination.

Conventionally, as an in-vehicle navigation device that searches for a route to a destination, a device that receives road information from a center and searches for a route in consideration of the road information has been proposed (see Patent Document 1). Specifically, information indicating whether or not the road is inaccessible due to flooding is received as road information. If the road is inaccessible due to flooding, a route that avoids the inaccessible road is searched.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-341795

  However, in such a conventional navigation device, the road information to be received is limited to either passable or non-passable, so there are multiple lanes (in this case, a case where one side of the road is composed of multiple lanes). The same is true below.) When only some of the lanes were restricted, it was not possible to search for an accurate route. In other words, since the route is searched for as being either passable or not passable, for example, only a part of the lanes of the plurality of lanes are restricted, and the road can be bypassed. Even though it is better to pass as it is, it is determined that it is simply not possible to search for a route that bypasses the road, or conversely, most lanes of multiple lanes Although traffic is possible, traffic is expected but traffic congestion is expected, so it is better to detour, but it is simply judged that traffic is possible and the route that passes through the road is searched. There was an inconvenience.

  The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to execute an accurate route search reflecting lane restrictions on a multi-lane road.

  In order to achieve the above object, an in-vehicle navigation device as an invention according to claim 1 includes a lane restriction information receiving unit, a weight setting unit, and a route search unit. Of these, the lane restriction information receiving means receives lane restriction information related to the lane restriction of the road, and the weight setting means is based on the lane restriction information received by the lane restriction information receiving means for the road that is a candidate route to the destination. On the other hand, a weight corresponding to the number of lanes that are restricted on the road is given. Then, the route search means searches for a route to the destination in consideration of the weight set by the weight setting means.

  According to the invention described in claim 1, since a weight corresponding to the number of lanes restricted in traffic is given to the road and a route to the destination is searched in consideration of the weight, a plurality of lanes are used. It is possible to obtain an effect that an accurate route search reflecting road lane restrictions can be executed.

The invention described in claim 2 is characterized in that the weight setting means gives weights in units of links constituting the road of the map data.
According to such a second aspect of the invention, it is possible to obtain an effect that weight setting can be realized by simple and rapid processing.

The invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that the route search means searches for a route so as to avoid a road in which all lanes are restricted.
According to the invention described in claim 3, even if there is a road in which all lanes are restricted, it is possible to search for an appropriate route that avoids the road.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, lane restriction information notifying means is provided, and the lane restriction information notifying means notifies lane restriction information of a predicted travel road on which traveling by the own vehicle is predicted.
According to the invention described in claim 4, there is an effect that the user can accurately know the lane restriction information about the road on which the user intends to travel.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the lane restriction information notifying unit sets the route searched by the route searching unit as the travel predicted road.
According to the invention described in claim 5, the user can know only the lane restriction information on the searched route that the user plans to travel, and can obtain more accurate lane restriction information. The effect is obtained.

  The invention described in claim 6 includes lane restriction determination information detection means, road identification information detection means, and lane restriction determination information transmission means. The lane restriction judgment information detecting means detects lane restriction judgment information that is the basis for judging the lane restrictions of roads in the vicinity of the own vehicle, and the lane restriction judgment information transmitting means is responsive to the lane restriction judgment information detecting means. Road identification information that can identify the detected road is detected based on the current position of the vehicle. And a lane regulation judgment information transmission means transmits lane regulation judgment information and road specific information outside.

According to such a sixth aspect of the invention, there is an effect that the lane restriction judgment information of the road in the vicinity of the own vehicle can be effectively used by the navigation device of the other vehicle.
The invention described in claim 7 is characterized in that the lane restriction determination information detecting means uses a road image photographed by a camera from the own vehicle as the lane restriction determination information.

  According to the seventh aspect of the invention, since the road image captured by the camera from the own vehicle is used as the lane restriction determination information, the effect of being able to accurately determine the road lane restriction is obtained. .

  The invention according to claim 8 is a program for a navigation device for causing a computer to function as an in-vehicle navigation device, and causes the computer to function as a lane restriction information receiving unit, a weight setting unit, and a route search unit. Specifically, the lane restriction information receiving means receives lane restriction information related to road lane restrictions, and the weight setting means is based on the lane restriction information received by the lane restriction information receiving means and the route candidate to the destination Is given a weight according to the number of lanes restricted on the road. Then, the route search means searches for a route to the destination in consideration of the weight set by the weight setting means.

  According to the invention described in claim 8 as described above, the computer can be caused to function as the vehicle-mounted navigation device according to claim 1 described above, and the same effect can be obtained.

Embodiments to which the present invention is applied will be described below with reference to the drawings.
[1 Configuration]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of the in-vehicle navigation device of the present embodiment.

  This in-vehicle navigation device is mounted on a vehicle and is a device that displays a road map to a user or searches and guides a route to a destination. A position detection unit 1, a map data input device 2, an operation switch group 3, a remote control sensor 4, an operation remote controller 5, a transceiver 6, an external memory 7, a display device 8, a voice recognition unit 9, a speaker 10, a vehicle front photographing device 11, and a navigation ECU 12.

  The position detection unit 1 is a sensor group for detecting the current position and direction (traveling direction) of a vehicle (hereinafter also referred to as “own vehicle”) on which the vehicle-mounted navigation device is mounted, and includes a geomagnetic sensor 13 and a gyroscope. 14, a distance sensor 15 and a GPS receiver 16 are provided.

  Here, the geomagnetic sensor 13 is an azimuth sensor using a semiconductor, and detects azimuth (traveling direction) by detecting north-south geomagnetism generated on the earth. The gyroscope 14 is a sensor for detecting the angular velocity (direction change amount) of the vehicle, and outputs a detection signal corresponding to the angular velocity of the rotational motion applied to the vehicle. The distance sensor 15 detects the distance traveled from the longitudinal acceleration or the like of the vehicle. The GPS receiver 16 receives a radio wave transmitted from a GPS (Global Positioning System) artificial satellite via a GPS antenna, and detects the position, direction (traveling direction), speed, and the like of the vehicle. Since each of these sensor groups has an error having a different property, each sensor group is configured to be used while being complemented by a plurality of sensors.

  The map data input device 2 is a data input device for inputting map data stored in a recording medium (not shown). As map data, link data representing roads, node data representing intersections, so-called map matching data for improving the accuracy of location, mark data indicating facilities, image data for display, voice guidance There are audio data. As the stored map data, roads and intersections are each composed of a combination of links and nodes, and weights (Weight) are given numerically as default values to each link. The search from the current position to the destination is preferentially recommended from the one with a light weight. As a recording medium for these data, a CD-ROM, DVD, hard disk, various memory cards, and the like can be used.

  The operation switch group 3 is an input operation panel that is configured integrally with the display device 8 and includes a touch panel set on the display screen and mechanical button switches arranged around the display device 8. The touch panel and the display device 8 are integrated by a laminated structure, and there are various types of touch panels such as a pressure-sensitive method, an electromagnetic induction method, a capacitance method, or a combination of these.

  The remote control sensor 4 and the operation remote controller 5 are devices that are used by a user to operate the vehicle-mounted navigation device from a remote location by wireless communication such as infrared rays or radio waves. The user can perform the same operation as the operation on the operation switch group 3 by operating the operation remote controller 5 with a button.

  The transceiver 6 is a communication device for this in-vehicle navigation device to communicate with the VICS center 17, and for a VICS (registered trademark: Vehicle Information and Communication System) service arranged near the road. Radio beacon signals and optical beacon signals are received from fixed stations. Further, vehicle information, user information and the like are transmitted from the transceiver 6 to the VICS center 17. In particular, the transceiver 6 of the in-vehicle navigation device of the present embodiment receives information on road lane restrictions (hereinafter referred to as “lane restriction information”) from the VICS center 17 and is photographed by the vehicle front photographing device 11. An image of the road ahead of the vehicle is transmitted to the VICS center 17 as lane restriction determination information. Various information received by the transceiver 6 is processed by the navigation ECU 12. Note that the transceiver 6 can also be connected to the Internet.

The external memory 7 is a storage device for storing various information such as facilities registered by the user, destinations, searched routes, and information received from the outside.
The display device 8 is a liquid crystal color display that displays a map, a searched road, a TV, a DVD image, and the like on a screen, in addition to buttons when functioning as a touch panel integrally with the operation switch group 3.

  The voice recognition unit 9 converts the voice generated by the user to a microphone (not shown) into an electrical signal, compares it with the vocabulary data (comparison target pattern) in the recognition dictionary stored therein, and has the highest degree of coincidence Is sent to the navigation ECU 12 as a recognition result.

The speaker 10 is a device for outputting a predetermined voice such as a route guidance voice and notifying the user of the contents.
The vehicle front photographing device 11 is a camera that is attached to a front portion of the own vehicle and photographs a road in a traveling direction (about 2 to 3 meters ahead). The photographed road image is sent from the navigation ECU 12 to the VICS center 17 by the transceiver 6. The VICS center 17 determines which lane and in which direction (up lane or down lane) traffic restriction is made on the road of multiple lanes from the road image, and transmits it to each vehicle as lane restriction information. .

The navigation ECU 12 is a control unit that performs predetermined processing on various data input from the transceiver 6, the map data input device 2, the operation switch group 3, and the like and outputs the processed data from the display device 8 or the speaker 10. In the in-vehicle navigation device of this embodiment, the display device 8 uses the weights given to the links to be searched based on the road lane restriction information received by the transceiver 6 and searches for the routes in consideration of the weights. A process for displaying the searched route is performed.
[2 processing]
Next, processing executed by the navigation ECU 12 of the in-vehicle navigation device of the present embodiment will be described using a flowchart.

  FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a process of transmitting an image of a road ahead of the vehicle along with the position of the road and the traveling direction (up lane or down lane) to the VICS center 17. This in-vehicle navigation device executes this process at regular time intervals (for example, every 5 minutes). In addition, it is not limited to a fixed time interval, For example, you may make it perform every time the link corresponding to the road on which the own vehicle is moving changes.

  First, in S101, a road ahead of the vehicle is photographed by the vehicle forward photographing device 11, and a photographed image (road image) is acquired as vehicle forward information. This road image is transmitted to the VICS center 17 in a process (S103) described later. Then, the VICS center 17 performs image recognition processing, and in addition to whether or not the road can pass, in the case of a plurality of lanes, it is determined whether or not there is a restriction for each lane.

Next, in S102, the position detection unit 1 detects the current position and the traveling direction of the vehicle.
Finally, in S103, an image of the road ahead of the vehicle and the position and direction of the road detected from the current position and traveling direction of the vehicle are transmitted to the VICS center 17. As the position of this road, in addition to transmitting the current position of the own vehicle (GPS information) as it is, it is also possible to transmit GPS information that is a certain distance ahead (for example, 2 to 3 meters) of the current position of the own vehicle, It is also possible to transmit identification information of a link that identifies a traveling road recognized by the in-vehicle navigation device.

  The VICS center 17 determines from which road lane the road is regulated based on the road image sent from each vehicle and the position and direction of the road. The result of the determination is transmitted to each vehicle as lane restriction information. At this time, the presence / absence of restriction is determined for each lane from the road image using image recognition technology. In the in-vehicle navigation device on the receiving side, the road to be searched is composed of links. Therefore, as lane regulation information, it is necessary to grasp in the form of which direction of which link has lane regulation. Become.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a process in which the vehicle-mounted navigation device of the present embodiment searches for a route. When the user operates the operation switch group 3 or the operation remote controller 5 or inputs an operation command by voice from the voice recognition unit 9, the navigation ECU 12 starts this process.

  First, in S201, lane regulation information in an area that is a route search target is acquired. This processing can be configured to receive lane regulation information from the center in advance by the transceiver 6 and obtain it from the information stored in the external memory 7, or newly transmitted from the center at the stage of executing S201. A configuration in which information is acquired by the machine 6 can also be adopted. It is also possible to combine both configurations.

  As shown in FIG. 4, for example, the map data is divided into 10 km sections, and the section to which the initial search path (shown by a bold line) from the current position to the destination belongs (see FIG. 4). (A gray area) is set as an area from which the lane restriction information of S201 is acquired.

  As for the method of determining the area to be searched, for example, it can be a fixed range including the current position and the destination, or a circle having a diameter connecting the current position and the destination with a straight line. It may be within the range, or may be within a rectangular range with the current position and the destination as a diagonal line.

Further, since the lane restriction information also includes the direction of the road (upward or downward), the lane restriction information acquired in this case is limited to the direction in which the host vehicle is traveling.
Next, in S202, based on the processing result in S201, it is determined whether or not there is a lane-restricted link in the area to be searched for a route. If there is no lane-restricted link (S202: NO), the process proceeds to S206, and if there is a lane-restricted link (S202: YES), the process proceeds to the next S203.

  In S203, it is determined whether or not a link with lane restrictions is allowed to travel (whether only some lanes are restricted or all lanes are restricted). If a link with lane restrictions is allowed to travel (S203: YES), the process proceeds to S204, and if it is not possible to travel (S203: NO), the process proceeds to S205.

  S204 shows processing when a link with lane restrictions can travel. Here, the weight of the target link is changed. In this case, the weight of the link corresponding to the road is changed so that the value increases as the number of lanes restricted in the lane increases.

  For example, if 3 lanes on a 4-lane road on one side are restricted, the default weight of 30 is changed to 60, and only one lane on a 4-lane road on one side is restricted. Is changed to 40. When the link weight is changed, the process proceeds to the next S206.

  S205 shows processing when a link with a lane restriction cannot travel. In this case, the target link is excluded from the search target because it cannot travel. When this process ends, the process proceeds to the next S206.

  In S206, the route is searched from the road in the area to be searched, and then the process proceeds to S207. For each link, a weight is set as a default value in accordance with the number of lanes, the vehicle width, the traffic volume, etc., and the weight for links with lane restrictions is changed to be larger than the default value (see S204). In searching for a route from the current position to the destination, the route with the smallest total weight is recommended in preference. In other words, the route is searched so that the road weight corresponding to the link is avoided as the link weight increases.

  A specific example of processing for searching for this route will be described with reference to FIG. When searching for a route, if there is no lane restriction and the default value is maintained, the route of link 4 → link 5 → link 6 → link 10 → link 14 has the minimum total weight. It will be recommended as the highest priority route. However, for example, when there is snow and traffic on the road corresponding to link 10 is restricted from passing on four lanes on one side, three lanes out of four lanes from the VICS center 17 to the north lane (up lane) of link 10 Receive lane regulation information that you are regulated. In this case, since the weight is changed from 30 to 60 by S204, the link 4 → link 5 → link 9 → link 13 → link 14 is minimized as a route and is preferentially recommended as a searched route.

  For the same link 10, for example, when only one lane out of four lanes on one side is restricted due to road construction, the weight is changed to 40, and the route to be searched is link 4 → link 5 → link 6 → link 10 → The route of the link 14 has the smallest total weight. In this case, it is not different from the case of searching with the default value.

  Finally, in S207, the searched route is displayed on the display device 8, the user confirms this, and the process ends. In addition, after this process, the process of guiding by voice or the like so as to travel along the searched route is started, but the description is omitted because it is a well-known process not directly related to the present invention.

  Next, FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a process in which the in-vehicle navigation device of the present embodiment acquires traffic information including lane restrictions while the vehicle is traveling. This process starts when the vehicle-mounted navigation device is turned on and operated by the user. In addition, this processing can be set so as to acquire the lane restriction information at a constant time interval (for example, every 5 minutes). In this case, the processing is started at a constant time interval.

First, in step S <b> 301, the vehicle position information detected by the position detection unit 1 is transmitted to the VICS center 17. When the process of S301 ends, the process proceeds to S302.
In S302, the transceiver 6 inquires of the VICS center 17 whether or not there is lane regulation information within a radius of about 10 km in the traveling direction, for example, according to the position and traveling direction of the vehicle. Also in this case, the lane restriction information to be acquired is limited to information about the direction in which the host vehicle travels.

  Next, in S303, it is determined whether or not lane regulation information has been acquired. If there is a lane restriction (S303: YES), the process proceeds to S304, and if there is no lane restriction (S303: NO), the process ends.

  In S304, it is determined whether or not the in-vehicle navigation device is guiding a route. If the route is not being guided (S304: NO), the process proceeds to S306, and if the route is being guided (S304: YES), the process proceeds to the next S305.

  In S305, when this in-vehicle navigation device is guiding a route, it is determined whether or not the acquired lane restriction information is on the searched route being guided. If the lane restriction information is on the searched route being guided (S305: YES), the process proceeds to the next S306, and if not on the searched route (S305: NO), the processing here is terminated.

In S <b> 306, the received lane restriction information is guided to the user by sound from the speaker 10 and screen display by the display device 8. The lane restriction information that is guided here is lane restriction information that is within a radius of about 10 km in the traveling direction where the vehicle is expected to travel (S303). Limited to lane restriction information on the top (S304 and S305).
[3 effects]
As described above, according to the in-vehicle navigation device of the present embodiment, weights are given in units of links based on lane restriction information related to road lane restrictions (S204), and a route is searched according to the weights. Therefore (S206), it is possible to execute an accurate route search that reflects the lane restrictions of the multi-lane road.

  Further, since lane restriction information within a radius of about 10 km in the traveling direction where the vehicle is expected to travel is notified (S306), the user knows the lane restriction information about the road on which he / she is going to travel accurately. Can do.

  Furthermore, if the searched route is being guided, only the lane restriction information on the searched route is guided (S304 to S306), so that the user knows only the lane restriction information on the route on which the user plans to travel. Can do.

Moreover, in the vehicle-mounted navigation device of the present embodiment, the vehicle front photographing device 11 photographs a road ahead of the vehicle, and transmits the position and direction for identifying the road from the transceiver 6 to the VICS center 17. The lane restriction information on the road in the vicinity of the own vehicle can be effectively used in the in-vehicle navigation device of another vehicle.
[4 Correspondence with Claims]
In correspondence with the claims, in the in-vehicle navigation device of the present embodiment, the navigation ECU 12 that executes S201 corresponds to the lane restriction information receiving means, and the navigation ECU 12 that executes S204 serves as the weight setting means. Correspondingly, the navigation ECU 12 that executes S206 corresponds to route search means. Further, the display device 8, the speaker 10, and the navigation ECU 12 that executes S306 correspond to the lane restriction information notification unit.

Further, the vehicle front photographing device 11 corresponds to lane restriction determination information detection means, the position detection unit 1 corresponds to road identification information detection means, and the transceiver 6 corresponds to lane restriction determination information transmission means.
[5 Other forms]
Although the in-vehicle navigation device has been described as an example of the embodiment of the present invention, the present invention is not limited to the embodiment described here, and can take various forms.

  For example, if traffic lanes are restricted, the weight may be changed in consideration of the expected traffic volume and time of day, and traffic lane restrictions are not only applied to snow and road construction, There are various causes such as flooding, road cave-in. Further, in the present embodiment, the road ahead of the host vehicle is the detection target, but the road after the traffic can be the detection target. Further, as a method of detecting the lane restriction, not only the image by the camera but also the temperature and illuminance of the road surface or the reflected wave by detecting the ultrasonic wave can be considered.

  In the present embodiment, the route is searched for a route having a smaller total weight when searching for a route. Conversely, a route having a higher priority and a larger total weight is set by increasing the weight. You may comprise so that it may search.

1 is a block diagram illustrating an overall configuration of an in-vehicle navigation device according to an embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the process which transmits the image of the road of the advancing direction to a center with the position of a road. It is a flowchart which shows the process in which the vehicle-mounted navigation apparatus of embodiment searches for a path | route. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating the area used as the object of a route search. It is explanatory drawing which shows the specific example of a route search. It is a flowchart which shows the process which acquires the traffic information containing a lane regulation while a vehicle drive | works.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Position detection part, 2 ... Map data input device, 3 ... Operation switch group, 4 ... Remote control sensor, 5 ... Operation remote control, 6 ... Transceiver, 7 ... VICS sensor, 8 ... Display apparatus, 9 ... Voice recognition unit, DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Speaker, 11 ... Vehicle front imaging device, 12 ... Navigation ECU, 13 ... Geomagnetic sensor, 14 ... Gyroscope, 15 ... Distance sensor, 16 ... GPS receiver, 17 ... VICS center

Claims (8)

Lane restriction information receiving means for receiving lane restriction information related to road lane restrictions;
Based on the lane restriction information received by the lane restriction information receiving means, a weight setting means for giving a weight according to the number of lanes restricted on the road to a road that is a candidate for a route to the destination;
Route search means for searching for a route to the destination in consideration of the weight set by the weight setting means;
An in-vehicle navigation device comprising:   2. The vehicle-mounted navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the weight setting means gives a weight for each link constituting a road of map data.   The in-vehicle navigation device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the route search means searches for a route so as to avoid a road in which all lanes are restricted.   The in-vehicle navigation device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising lane restriction information notifying means for notifying lane restriction information of a predicted travel road predicted to travel by the host vehicle.   The in-vehicle navigation device according to claim 4, wherein the lane restriction information notifying unit sets the route searched by the route searching unit as the travel predicted road. Lane regulation determination information detection means for detecting lane regulation judgment information that is a basis for judging lane regulation of roads in the vicinity of the own vehicle;
Road identification information detection means for detecting road identification information capable of identifying the road on which the lane restriction determination information is detected by the lane restriction determination information detection means based on the current position of the vehicle;
The in-vehicle navigation device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, further comprising: lane restriction determination information transmission means for transmitting the lane restriction determination information and the road identification information to the outside.   The in-vehicle navigation device according to claim 6, wherein the lane restriction determination information detection means uses a road image taken by a camera from the own vehicle as the lane restriction determination information. A program for a navigation device for causing a computer to function as an in-vehicle navigation device,
Lane restriction information receiving means for receiving lane restriction information related to road lane restrictions;
Based on the lane restriction information received by the lane restriction information receiving means, a weight setting means for giving a weight according to the number of lanes restricted on the road to a road that is a candidate for a route to the destination;
A program for a navigation apparatus, which causes a computer to function as route search means for searching for a route to a destination in consideration of a weight set by the weight setting means.