JP2011053163A - Navigation device and vehicle control device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem wherein a speed is insufficient when more detailed map information is necessary for vehicle control in a system using information of a map of a navigation device for the vehicle control. <P>SOLUTION: The navigation device includes a storage device for storing the map on a vehicle control device, which stores the map necessary for position detection and the vehicle control. The map stored to the storage device is transferred from the navigation device via map network connecting the vehicle control device with the navigation device and transfers map requirements of a current spot circumference from the vehicle control device or the map along a route accompanying route calculation from the navigation device. Since the vehicle control device holds the map, detailed map information is used at a high speed, so that advanced control using intersection shape or the like is enabled. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicle navigation device and a controller for vehicle control.

  Systems for controlling vehicles using map information have been developed. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-72591 discloses an invention in which the position of the vehicle is specified and the engine and automatic transmission are controlled using electronic map data. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-194886 discloses an invention that uses a map information of a navigation device to generate a warning to a driver and control a vehicle speed immediately before entering a curve. Furthermore, there is a system in which the map system uses map information to calculate the curvature of the curve ahead of the course and communicates the calculation result to the vehicle controller to perform deceleration in front of the curve. It is described in 2008-145154 gazette.

  In addition, information from cameras and radars has been used for vehicle control of automobiles. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 08-287395 describes an invention that uses map information, radar information, and camera information of a navigation device for signal processing for vehicle control. At this time, the current position on the road where the vehicle is traveling is determined from the road conditions around the vehicle sensed by the camera or radar, and the current position of the vehicle comes to the corresponding location on the road map. As described above, it is described that the current position on the map is corrected and that the sensed road condition is corrected based on the road data read from the map information storage medium according to the current position of the vehicle. Yes.

JP-A-8-72591 JP-A-8-194886 JP 2008-145154 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 08-287395

  In the prior art that uses the map information held by the navigation device in the vehicle control device, the curvature information of the curve is transmitted from the navigation device to the vehicle control device before the vehicle reaches the curve, so that the speed is suitable for the curve in advance. Decelerate, send information such as railroad crossings, temporary stop lines or tollgates to the vehicle control device to control stoppage.

  However, in order to control more advanced control, for example speed and steering when turning at intersections when merging at road junctions, detailed maps such as road and intersection shapes are not just curves Information is needed. At this time, if detailed map information is transmitted from the navigation device each time, there is a possibility that the processing may not be in time.

  In addition, in a configuration in which a camera is connected to the vehicle control device, when attempting to recognize the shape of a road intersection using the image of this camera, the detailed shape data of the road held by the map of the navigation device is used as the source. It is necessary to perform image recognition processing. However, since it takes time to transmit detailed road shape data from the navigation device to the vehicle control device, it is difficult to use it for the control of an automobile that requires control in units of 10 milliseconds.

  Some navigation devices have a function of receiving new map data by communication and updating the map data. When the map data of the navigation device is used in the vehicle control device, it is necessary to appropriately update the map data used by the vehicle control device when the map data of the navigation device is updated.

  A storage device for storing the map is provided in the vehicle control device, and the map necessary for position detection and control is stored. As a result, the vehicle control device can access necessary map information at high speed, and vehicle control can be performed in units of 10 milliseconds.

  However, having a map for the whole country in the storage device of the vehicle control device is not realistic in terms of the cost of the storage device. Therefore, the storage device of the vehicle control device stores the route to be traveled and map data around the route. For this reason, the vehicle control device and the navigation device are connected by a map data transfer network, and when the navigation device performs a route search, a map along the route is transferred from the navigation device to the vehicle control device. If the current position deviates from the calculated route, the vehicle control device may need a new map of the area, so the navigation device will calculate the route again and map along the new route. Is transferred to the vehicle control device through the map data transfer network.

  Even if the vehicle control device finishes receiving the map based on the new route, there is a possibility that a malfunction may occur if the vehicle control device switches to a new map while performing control using the map. Therefore, a flag is provided for determining whether or not the vehicle control device performs control using the map, and the control program of the vehicle control device turns this flag on when performing control using the map, and turns it off when not performing the control. To do. The program for receiving the map refers to a flag indicating the use status of the map in this vehicle control device, and after confirming that the flag is off, switches to the newly received map. Thereby, it becomes possible to switch a map safely.

  Furthermore, when the navigation device downloads the latest map using communication with the outside, etc., and updates the map it has, it determines whether the map that has been transferred to the vehicle control device has been updated. Then, the updated new map is transferred to the vehicle control device through the map data transfer network. This prevents inconsistencies in the map between the navigation device and the vehicle control device.

  When transferring a map that requires a vehicle control device, a map around the current location detected by the position detection means of the vehicle control device is requested to the navigation device via the map data transfer network, and the navigation device is requested. The map is transmitted to the vehicle control device.

  By connecting the vehicle control device and the navigation device with a map data transfer network, and having the map along the route in the vehicle control device or the map around the current location, transferring the map from the navigation device to the vehicle control device, The vehicle control device can access the detailed shapes of roads and intersections at high speed, and advanced control such as merging support and right / left turn control at intersections becomes possible.

  When the driver travels on a road different from the route calculated in advance or when the map of the navigation device is updated, new map data is transmitted to the vehicle control device via the map data transfer network. Other information transmission is not hindered by the transfer.

  Further, the vehicle control device is provided with a region for storing a new map received via the map data transfer network, separately from a region for storing the map in use by the vehicle control device. By confirming and switching that the control device is not using the map, a new map can be used safely.

  In addition, it is possible to reduce the storage capacity of the map for the vehicle control device and reduce the cost.

It is a figure which shows the whole structure of the system using this invention. It is a figure which shows the structure of a navigation apparatus. It is a figure which shows the structure of a vehicle control controller. It is a figure explaining the image image | photographed with a camera. It is a figure explaining map data. It is a figure explaining partial map data. It is a figure which shows the structure of detailed map data. It is a figure explaining the map data along a route. It is a figure explaining plane projection of an image recognition object. It is a figure explaining the matching of the road edge projected on the plane, and a map. It is a flowchart of a position specific task. It is a flowchart of a navigation task. It is a flowchart of a sign recognition task. It is a flowchart of a map request task. It is a flowchart of a map transmission task. It is a flowchart of a brake controller. It is a flowchart of route calculation. It is a flowchart of a map reception task. It is a figure which shows the structure of the main memory unit of a navigation apparatus. It is a figure which shows the structure of the main memory unit of a vehicle control controller. It is a figure explaining the partial update of a map. It is a flowchart of a map update task.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows an example of the configuration of a vehicle control system using the present invention. The navigation device 10 displays a map, searches for a destination, searches for a route to the destination, and guides to the destination. These functions are the same as those of the conventional navigation device. However, there are two differences from conventional navigation devices. The first point is that the navigation apparatus 10 itself does not have a means for positioning such as GPS, and receives current location information from the outside via a CAN (Controller Area Network) 32. The second point is to have a function of transmitting map data to the map network 31.

  The disk 11 is a storage device in which data such as a map used by the navigation device 10 is stored, and is realized by a device that reads map data recorded on an optical disk such as a magnetic disk or a DVD-ROM, such as a hard disk device. The The disk 11 may be a storage device using a nonvolatile memory such as a semiconductor memory in addition to the disk. The vehicle controller 20 controls the vehicle based on information based on maps and information based on images. The storage device 21 stores a map used by the vehicle controller 20. Since the storage device 21 only needs to be able to store a map of a necessary part, the capacity of the storage device 21 may be smaller than that of the disk 11 in which the map used by the navigation device 10 is stored. As for the map stored in the storage device 21, the navigation device 10 transfers the map on the disk 11 using the map network 31.

  In the vehicle controller 20, image recognition processing is performed on an image outside the automobile photographed by the camera 22, and the vehicle is controlled based on the recognition result. The GPS antenna 23 is an antenna for receiving a positioning signal from a GPS satellite. The vehicle controller 20 performs positioning by receiving radio waves from GPS satellites using this GPS antenna. GPS positioning includes an error. More accurate positioning is required for use in vehicle control. The vehicle controller 20 has a function of correcting the positioning position obtained by GPS based on the map information in the storage device 21 and the video of the camera 22 and performing more accurate positioning.

  Control information for the vehicle determined by the vehicle controller 20 is transmitted to the CAN 32. The brake controller 40 receives control information from the CAN 32, and controls the brake based on the control information. The navigation device can communicate with the center through the mobile phone 45 and update the map stored in the disk 11.

  FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of the navigation device 10. Data is read from and written to the CPU 122 that executes the program, the main storage device 123 that stores the program executed by the CPU 122 and data used by the program, the display 124 that displays map and route guidance information, and the disk 11. A disk interface (hereinafter referred to as disk I / F) 125 having a function, a map network interface (hereinafter referred to as map network) having a function of receiving data from the map network 31 or transmitting data to the map network 31 I / F) 126, CAN interface (hereinafter referred to as CAN I / F) 127 having a function of receiving data from CAN 32 and transmitting data to CAN 32, and a function in which navigation device 10 communicates through mobile phone 45 Mobile A speech interface (hereinafter referred to as a mobile phone I / F) 128 and a memory card interface (hereinafter referred to as a memory card I / F) 129 for reading from and writing to the memory card 13 are connected to a bus 121 for transferring data between the devices. It is connected.

  The map stored on the disk 11 is updated by inserting the memory card 13 on which the new map is written into the memory card I / F 129, reading the new map from the memory card 13, and updating the map via the disk I / F. Is possible.

  FIG. 3 shows an example of the configuration of the vehicle controller 20. The bus 251 for transferring data between the devices reads / writes data to / from the main storage device 253 storing the program executed by the CPU 252 and the data executed by the CPU 252 and the data used by the program. A storage device interface (hereinafter referred to as storage device I / F) 255 having a function of performing a map network interface having a function of receiving data from and transmitting data to the map network 31 (hereinafter referred to as map network I / F) CAN interface (hereinafter referred to as CAN I / F) 257 having a function of receiving data from 256 and CAN 32 and transmitting data thereto, a function of processing an image photographed by the camera 22 and recognizing a designated pattern A plurality of GPs received by the image recognition device 221 and the GPS antenna 23 having GPS receiver 231 having a function of calculating the current position from the radio waves transmitted from the satellite by the principle of triangulation, the storage device 21 is connected to store the map.

  The CAN 32 is used to transmit control information to the brake controller 40 or to transmit current position information calculated by the GPS receiver 231 to the navigation device 10. The storage device 21 for storing the map is provided with two areas, one is the area 211 in which the map in use is stored, and the other is for storing the map data received through the map network 31. Region 212. Thereby, when the map which can still be used exists in the area | region 211, control can be continued even if it is receiving the map. When reception ends, the two areas are switched.

  FIG. 4 shows an example of the scenery in front as seen from the traveling car. The camera 22 is attached so as to photograph the front of the automobile, and an image as shown in this figure is photographed. In the image taken by the camera 22, the road 611 is a road on which the vehicle is traveling, and the roads 621, 622, and 623 are roads that merge with the road 611 on which the vehicle is traveling. In addition to the road markings such as the stop sign 631 and the pedestrian crossing 632, the image includes a building 641 along the road.

  FIG. 5 shows map data stored in the disk 11. The map data is assumed to be stored by dividing data such as roads 652 into a square area 653 called a map mesh. The current position mark 651 is shown for convenience of explanation and is not included in the map data.

  FIG. 6 shows an enlarged partial map data of only the area 654 around the current location in the map data shown in FIG. The current position 651 is given for convenience of explanation. The map mesh 6531 containing the current position is referred to as the current location mesh. Meshes 6532 to 6539 surrounding the current location mesh are referred to as peripheral meshes. For vehicle control by the vehicle controller 20, it is only necessary to have data about the map mesh around the host vehicle, and a wide area map is not necessary. Accordingly, only the map data of the map mesh around the current location is stored in the storage device 21 as shown in FIG. The map data of the current location mesh and the surrounding mesh is transferred from the navigation device 10 to the vehicle controller 20 through the map network 31.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram showing details of the map data. Roads are represented in the map by an array of nodes (661 to 667) and links (671 to 676) connecting them. Each node has position information based on a combination of latitude and longitude, and a link is data for connecting the nodes. Each link has shape data (6521 to 6527) representing the shape of the road as a series of line segments. The data of the sign 6311 includes information such as position information, a sign type, and a link number where the sign exists. Similarly to the data of the sign 6311, the data of the pedestrian crossing 6321 includes position information, a sign type, and a link number. The map data also includes facility information 6411 corresponding to the building 641 along the road. In FIG. 7, only one piece of link information is drawn between nodes, but management may be performed so that separate links are provided in the upward direction and the downward direction of the road section corresponding to the link.

  In the road shown in FIG. 5, a route 67 represents an example of a route calculated by the navigation device 10. The navigation apparatus 10 normally calculates a route from the current location to the destination in advance, and performs guidance guidance according to the route information. As a method for calculating the route, the Dijkstra method is known. The navigation apparatus 10 according to the present invention can also use the Dijkstra method for route calculation.

  FIG. 8 shows map data corresponding to the map mesh along the route 67 calculated by the navigation device 10. In the above description, since the vehicle controller 20 only needs to use a map around the current location, the storage device 21 stores only a map around the current location. In addition to this method, map data along the route may be copied in advance to the storage device 21 and stored in the vehicle controller 20 during route guidance by the navigation device 10.

  The map meshes 6541 to 6544 are map meshes through which the calculated route 67 passes. These map meshes also include data on roads that intersect with the route 67 such as roads 6525 to 6527. There are two reasons to include data for roads that intersect the roads of the route. One is the situation where the road data intersecting with the route is shown in the front situation as shown in FIG. 4, such as when supporting the joining with the car driving on the road 622 or turning right to the road 621 off the route. Because it is necessary.

  Another reason is that the vehicle controller 20 can use the map data for a while when the vehicle runs off the route 67 calculated in advance. When the vehicle travels outside the previously calculated route, it takes time to transmit the map along the newly calculated route by calculating the route again with the navigation device 10. During this time, it is inconvenient that the vehicle controller 20 cannot perform control using the map, but if you have a map of the road that intersects the previously calculated route, there is a possibility that you are traveling on that road for a while. Is expensive.

  In order to perform the control function using the map data by the vehicle controller 20 while the route is recalculated, the storage device 21 is provided with two types of areas 211 and 212 for storing map data of the map mesh around the current location. One is an area 211 for storing map data in use, and the other is an area 212 for receiving a map along a newly calculated route when the route is deviated. The vehicle controller 20 refers to the map data in the area 211 when performing control using the map data, and stores the map data received via the map network 31 in the area 212. Then, when the reception of the map data via the map network 31 for the map mesh along the newly calculated route is completed, the currently used area 211 and the receiving area 212 are exchanged so that the newly received map data is used. To.

  FIG. 19 shows the contents of the main storage device 123 in the navigation device 10. In the main storage device 123, a navigation task 431 program, a map transmission task 491 program, a route calculation 511 program, a map update task 541 program, and a destination search for searching a place where the user wants to go and setting it as a destination 1237 programs are stored. Also, an area 1231 for writing and holding the value of the current position received from the CAN 32 in the navigation task 431, an area 1232 for writing and holding the position of the destination determined by the program of the destination search 1237, and the mesh read in the map transmission task 491 An update mesh number sequence, which is a map mesh number updated when the navigation device 10 partially updates the map, the area 1233 for temporarily storing the map data to be sequentially written and transmitted to the vehicle controller. In the stored area 1336 and route calculation 511 program, an area 1234 that holds a route link string and an area 1235 that holds a guidance point string are provided. The partial update of the map will be described later with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 20 shows the contents of the main storage device 253 in the vehicle controller 20. The main storage device 253 stores a program for the position identification task 411, a program for the sign recognition task 451, a program for the map request task 471, and a program for the map reception task 531. Further, an area 2531 for holding the value of the current position written by the position specifying task 411 and an area 2532 for holding the current location mesh number updated by the map request task 471 are provided. In addition, in the area 2533 of the main storage device 253, it is assumed that a marking pattern to be collated when performing pattern matching with a sign / feature is stored for each sign type of the sign / feature. Further, an in-control flag 2535 indicating the usage status of the map data stored in the area 211 of the storage device 21 by the vehicle controller 20 is stored.

  FIG. 11 shows a flow of the position specifying task 411 which is one of programs executed by the CPU 252 of the vehicle controller 20. In this position identification task 411 for obtaining the current position using GPS and image recognition, first, an image of the front situation as shown in FIG. 4 taken by the camera 22 is captured (412), and the captured image is captured by the image recognition device 221. Processing is performed to perform edge enhancement (413). Then, a road edge is extracted from the result of edge enhancement, and its road edge shape is recognized (414). As a result, a portion represented by a thick line such as 612 to 615 in FIG. 4 is recognized as a road edge. A method for recognizing a road edge is known in which edge enhancement processing is performed on a video image using a Laplacian filter and the road edge is recognized by connecting the edges.

  Next, the recognized road edge shape is projected and converted to a plane (415). The road edge recognized by the image recognition device 221 is in the form of a road viewed from the position of the camera. This is projected onto the coordinates seen from directly above. FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating planar projection of the image recognition result. In FIG. 9, it is assumed that the camera 22 is installed at a height h from the road surface in the automobile 1. A target 69 on the road corresponds to the road ends 612 to 615 and the like. The depression angle θ when the target 69 is viewed from the camera 22 can be obtained from the optical axis direction and angle of view of the camera 22 and the position of the target in the photographed image. If θ is obtained, the distance L from the camera to the target 69 can be obtained by h / tan θ. This is a calculation of the distance in the front-rear direction to the target, but the distance in the horizontal direction of the target can be calculated based on the angle from the front of the camera as well. Thereby, the coordinates of the road edge recognized by the image processing can be projected onto the plane.

  Subsequently, the latitude and longitude of the current location are read from the GPS receiver 231 (416). The position information obtained by GPS may include an error depending on the reception state of radio waves from the satellite. In the subsequent processing, this error is corrected from the result of the map and image recognition.

  Therefore, detailed map data around the current position obtained by GPS is read from the area 211 of the storage device 21, and only road shape data is extracted therefrom (417). Pattern matching is performed between the road edge projection shape obtained by projecting the coordinates of the road edge shape obtained by image recognition onto the plane in step 415 and the read road shape data near the current location (418).

  FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a result of collating road edge data projected on a plane with link shape data. The road edges 612 to 615 recognized in FIG. 4 are projected on a plane as road edges 6121, 6131, 6141, and 6151, respectively, when the point 6510 is the position of the camera 22. The road edges 6121, 6131, 6141, 6151 projected on these planes correspond to the shape data 6522, 6523, 6524, 6525, respectively. At that time, the current position at the road edge projected on the plane is a point 6510 corresponding to the position of the camera 22.

  In this pattern match, the position where the distance between the two data becomes the minimum is determined as the position where the two are the best match. 70 in FIG. 10 represents the distance between the recognized road edge and map data. For example, after adjusting the size of the road edge projection shape obtained by projecting on a plane based on a pre-estimated value such as the road width, at multiple points on the road, such as the end points of line segments forming the road shape data Then, the distance from this road edge projection shape is obtained, and a place where the total distance is minimized is searched for as a matched place. Then, the distance between the location matched by the pattern match and the GPS value is obtained, and it is determined whether this distance is within a certain value (419). If the distance is within a certain value, the location matched by the pattern match is adopted as the new current location (420). On the other hand, if the distance is more than a certain value, there is a possibility that it matches the map of the wrong place in the pattern matching process, so the GPS value is used instead of the position obtained by pattern matching. (421).

  In this way, it is possible to obtain a more accurate current position by correcting the GPS value based on the result of collating the road edge data projected on the plane with the link shape data in the map data.

  The value of the current position obtained in this way is output to the CAN 32 for notification to the navigation device 10 (422), and the current position is recorded in the main memory 253 (423). The processing of these position specifying tasks 411 is repeatedly executed at regular time intervals.

  FIG. 12 shows a processing flow of the navigation task 431 executed by the CPU 122 of the navigation device 10. In the vehicle control system using the present invention, since the vehicle controller 20 is equipped with GPS positioning means, the vehicle controller 20 measures the current position as described above, and the navigation device 10 uses the CAN 32 to detect the current position. You will receive location information. Therefore, in the navigation task 431, the current position is first received from the CAN 32 and stored in the area 1231 of the main storage device 123 (432). This current position is information that is output to the CAN 32 in the process 422 that is repeatedly executed at regular intervals by the position specifying task 411 of the vehicle controller 20. Based on the current position information received from the CAN 32, map mesh data around the current location is read from the disk 11 (433). The read map data is drawn on the display 124 (434).

  Next, it is determined whether a route for guidance is set (435). The route calculation is performed by a program of route calculation 511 described later. If no route is set, the processing of the navigation task 431 is terminated. When the route is set, the set route is drawn on the map already drawn on the display 124 (436).

  Next, it is determined whether the result of map matching the current position obtained from the CAN 32 is on this route (437). If the result of map matching the current position is not on the route, it is considered that the car is moving off the route, and therefore reroute processing for recalculating the route is performed (511). In the reroute processing, the position information stored in the area 1232 for storing the destination in the main storage device 123 is used as the destination, and a new route is calculated by the program of the route calculation 511 described later using the current position as the departure point. . After the reroute process, a new route is set and the process returns to the beginning to repeat the process.

  If the result of map matching the current position is on the route, the distance between the next guidance point and the current position is calculated (438). Guide points are stored in the area 1235 of the disk 11 as a guide point sequence by obtaining points for guidance and guidance such as places where the direction of travel needs to be changed when the route is calculated. Then, from the result of map matching the current position, the next guide point in the traveling direction on the route becomes the next guide point, and it is determined whether the distance to this guide point is a certain value (439). The process ends. If the distance to the next guide point is below a certain value, guidance is provided according to the distance to the next guide point. For example, “1 km ahead, right direction” or “300 m ahead, ○ A guidance voice such as “Turn left at the intersection” is output (440). A guide screen including an enlarged view of an intersection for guidance and guidance, an arrow in a turning direction, a distance to the turning point, and the like is drawn on the display 124 (441). Also, if the next guide point is the destination, when the guidance voice is output and the guidance screen is drawn (440, 441), it is notified that the guidance guidance will be terminated because it has arrived near the destination. To cancel the route setting.

  The navigation task 431 is also executed at regular time intervals, and the map to be drawn and the current position display are updated.

  If the brake controller 40 automatically controls the vehicle to stop at a place where there is a stop sign, the vehicle controller 20 creates a control command by integrating the map data and image recognition to prevent malfunction. The brake controller 40 is controlled via the CAN 32. Therefore, the vehicle controller 20 causes the sign recognition task 451 to be executed at a constant cycle.

  FIG. 13 is a processing flow of the sign recognition task 451 executed by the vehicle controller 20. In this process, a sign or a feature is recognized from the image captured by the camera 22 by pattern matching. However, in order not to perform useless processing, the presence of a sign or feature to be subjected to pattern matching is confirmed. Therefore, the current position information is read from the area 2531 of the main memory 253 (452). Then, the vehicle control controller 20 turns on the in-control flag 2535 indicating that the map data stored in the area 211 of the storage device 21 is in use (463).

  Next, map data around the current position of the map mesh including the current position read earlier is read from the area 211 of the storage device 21 (453). And it searches from the map data which read the sign and the feature near the present position. Thus, if there is a sign or feature data around the current position, the sign 6311 and the pedestrian crossing 6321 are obtained in the case of the map data shown in FIG. It is determined whether or not a sign / feature has been found by this search (455). If neither a sign nor a feature is found, the in-control flag 2535 is turned off (464), and the process ends. If a sign or a feature is found, a sign pattern corresponding to the sign / feature is read from the area 2533 (456). In the case of map data as shown in FIG. 7, a stop sign or a crossing sign pattern is read.

  Next, an image is read from the camera 22 (457). Then, the position information of the sign / feature found in the search is read from the map data and converted into coordinates on the screen (458). This conversion is possible by performing a conversion opposite to the conversion in which the road edge shape on the image in the position specifying task 411 is projected onto a plane. As a result, the position of the sign / feature such as a stop sign or a pedestrian crossing read on the screen is obtained. For the vicinity of the calculated position on the screen, if the sign is a restricted range regarding the installation location or the size of the sign itself, and if it is a road marking, the range expected from the direction and size is the image recognition target area. By doing so, it is possible to improve the accuracy of image recognition related to road markings such as corresponding signs and pedestrian crossings. In FIG. 4, the area 71 is a recognition target area for a stop sign, and the area 72 is a recognition target area for a pedestrian crossing.

  Then, pattern matching is performed between the image data of the recognition target area of the searched sign / feature and the marking pattern in the image read from the camera 22 (459). This pattern matching means searching for an image similar to the marking pattern in the recognition target area of the image. It is determined whether or not the pattern match is successful (460). If the match is not successful, the in-control flag 2535 is turned off (464) and the process is terminated. On the other hand, if successful, the control information 2534 corresponding to the recognized sign is read from the main memory 253 (461), and the control information is output to the CAN 32 (462). When the stop sign is recognized, the stop instruction and the distance to the place to be stopped are output. With the above processing, since a series of processing from reading the map data to vehicle control using the read map data is divided, the in-control flag 2535 is turned off (464), and the processing ends.

  In this way, when a stop sign or a pedestrian crossing is recognized in the image from the camera 22, the vehicle controller 20 controls the stop. As a result, it is possible to prevent a malfunction that is erroneously stopped at a place other than the temporary stop.

  The control flag 2535 that is switched on and off in the process 463 and the process 464 is displayed when the vehicle controller 20 receives a new map from the map network 31 in the map request task 471 or the map reception task 531 described later. The timing at which the new map data is started is controlled so that the vehicle controller 20 does not start using the map while the map data already in use is being used.

  FIG. 16 is a flowchart of a brake control program executed by the brake controller 40. The brake controller 40 executes this program for each control cycle, receives control information that the vehicle controller 20 outputs to the CAN 32 by executing the sign recognition task 451, and controls the brake. In the program, control information is first received from the CAN 32 (502), and the target speed of the vehicle is extracted from the received control information (503). An engine controller (not shown) is connected to the CAN 32, and automobile speed information output from these controllers also flows to the CAN 32. The brake controller 40 receives this speed information (504), compares it with the target speed extracted from the received control information (505), and if the received speed is larger than the target speed, operates the brake to decelerate. (506).

  As described above, the vehicle controller 20 uses the map data for grasping the current position and processing for image recognition. However, the necessary map data is only the map mesh data around the vehicle. Therefore, only the map data of the map mesh around the host vehicle needs to be stored in the storage device 21 as described above. However, in this case, the map mesh including necessary map data also changes as the position of the vehicle moves. For this reason, the vehicle controller 20 requests the map data required for the navigation device 10 via the map network 31 and performs a process of receiving the requested map data via the map network 31 as necessary. Will be done.

  Next, using FIG. 14 and FIG. 15, the operation of a program that requests map data required by the vehicle controller 20 to the navigation device 10 and receives the sent map data will be described.

  FIG. 14 is a processing flow of the map request task 471 executed by the vehicle controller 20. The current location mesh number is read from the area 2532 of the main memory 253 (472). Next, the current position information is read from the area 2531 of the main memory 253 (473). The information on the current position is a value written by the position specifying task 411 in the process 423. Then, it is determined whether the current position is in the map mesh of the current location mesh number (474). Since the current position moves from moment to moment, it may go out of the range of the current location mesh recorded previously. If the current position is still within the map mesh corresponding to the current location mesh number, the processing ends because the map data currently in the area 211 of the storage device 21 may be used.

  However, when the current position deviates from the map mesh range corresponding to the current location mesh number, it is necessary to request map data corresponding to the new current position. Therefore, first, the current location mesh number of the region 2532 is updated using the mesh number of the map mesh containing the new current location as the current location mesh number (475). Then, for the current location mesh corresponding to the updated current location mesh number and the surrounding meshes, a list of mesh numbers of map meshes that are insufficient in the region 211 where the map mesh in use of the storage device 21 is stored is created. (476). When the current location mesh updated with the movement of the current position and its surrounding mesh are as shown in FIG. 6, the map mesh held in the storage device 21 is composed of the current location mesh 6531 and surrounding meshes 6532 to 6539. Among these nine map meshes, a list of mesh numbers of map meshes that are not in the area 211 where the in-use map meshes of the storage device 21 are stored is created. The list of mesh numbers created in this way is output to the map network 31 as a map request message and sent to the navigation device (477). On the other hand, for the map data of the map mesh existing in the area 211 where the used map mesh is recorded among the updated current position mesh and its surrounding meshes, the area for storing the received map data from this area 211 It is copied to 212 (481).

  The navigation apparatus 10 receives this map request message, and returns map data of the requested map mesh by a map transmission task 491 described later.

  The map request task 471 waits for the map data returned from the navigation device 10, receives the map data sent from the navigation device 10 via the map network 31 from the map network 31 (478), and receives the received map. The data is stored in the area 212 where the received map data of the storage device 21 is recorded (479). The map of the current location mesh and the surrounding mesh corresponding to the updated current position is completed by combining the map data copied from the region 211 in the process 481 and the received map data.

  Here, when the above-described sign recognition task 451 or the like is performing processing / control using map data, if the map data is immediately switched to newly received map data, the map data used in the middle of processing changes, and control is performed. May malfunction. Therefore, when the in-control flag 2535 indicating that the control using the map data is being performed is on, the system waits for switching of the map area to be used until the in-control flag is turned off. It is checked whether the in-control flag 2535 is turned on (482). If the in-control flag 2535 is on, after waiting for a predetermined time (483), it is checked again whether the in-control flag 2535 is on (482). If the in-control flag 2535 is off, the areas 211 and 212 are exchanged (480), and the process is terminated. As a result, the area 212 in which the map data used for vehicle control stores the new current location mesh and its surrounding mesh is handled as the area where the in-use map mesh is recorded.

  FIG. 15 is a processing flow of the map transmission task 491 executed by the navigation device 10. The map request message sent from the map request task 471 is received from the map network 31 and the map data of the map mesh requested as the mesh number list is returned via the map network 31. The map network I / F 126 of the navigation device 10 monitors the communication state of the map network 31, and various processes are executed based on messages communicated through the map network I / F 126. When the map reception task is started at the initialization stage of the navigation device 10, it waits in a state of receiving a map request message from the map network 31. When transmission of a map request message is detected in the map network I / F 126, reception processing of this map request message is performed (492). The map request message includes a mesh number list of map meshes required by the vehicle controller 20. Therefore, in this map request message reception process (492), a mesh number list is extracted from the map request message.

  In the map transmission task 491, mesh numbers are sequentially extracted from the extracted mesh number list (493), and if all mesh numbers are extracted and processed, it is checked if there are no mesh numbers to be extracted from the mesh number list (494), and processing is performed. If there is a mesh number to be read, the map data of the map mesh corresponding to the extracted mesh number is read from the disk 11 and temporarily stored in the area 1233 of the main storage device 123 (495).

  When the map data has been read for all the mesh numbers in the mesh number list, the mesh number to be extracted from the mesh number list is empty, so the map data read and stored in the area 1233 is used for the map. The data is sent to the network 31 and returned to the vehicle controller 20 (496). When the map data transmission process is completed in this way, the process again waits for reception of a map request message (492).

  As described above, when the map request task 471 and the map transmission task 491 process only the map around the current location in the storage device 21 of the vehicle controller 20, Updates are made. By updating the map data in the storage device 21 using the map network 31, map data having a large amount of data is transferred without imposing a load on the CAN 32. It is possible to suppress the transmission delay of the control command between the controllers.

  In this way, in addition to the configuration having the map around the current location in the storage device 21, it is also possible to have a configuration having map data along the route as described in FIG. An advantage of this configuration is that if a map along the route is transferred to the vehicle controller at the time of route calculation, subsequent map transfer is not necessary as long as the vehicle is traveling on this route. The operation when the storage device 21 has a map along the route in this way will be described with reference to FIGS. 17 and 18.

  FIG. 17 is a processing flow of the route calculation 511 executed by the navigation device 10. The route calculation 511 is activated when the destination is set by the navigation device 10 or when the route is recalculated due to the current position being off the route in the processing of the navigation task 431 in FIG. . First, the current position is read from the area 1231 of the main memory 123 as a departure point (512). The current position can be the one received from the CAN 32 via the CAN I / F 127 in the same manner as the navigation task 431. Next, when the destination is set separately, the destination information written in the area 1232 by the destination search 1237 program is read from the main storage device 123 (513).

  A route search is performed for the starting point and the destination thus obtained (514). As a route search method, an algorithm such as the Dijkstra method is known, and it is possible to obtain the shortest distance route and the shortest time route by assigning a cost based on the distance and travel time to each road link. is there. For the route from the starting point to the destination obtained by the route calculation, a route link sequence that is a list of road links constituting this route is stored in the area 1234 of the main storage device 123 (515). In addition, a guidance point sequence obtained from the departure point to the destination among the guidance points that need to be changed in the traveling direction among the routes obtained by the route calculation is stored in the area 1235 of the main storage device 123 ( 516).

  Next, the root link string stored in the area 1234 is read, and the mesh number string is initialized (517). In the following, it is checked whether or not there is an unprocessed link among the links constituting the read root link string, and unprocessed links are taken out one by one in order (518). When an unprocessed link is extracted, the map mesh through which the extracted link passes is searched (519), the mesh number of the map mesh is added to the mesh number string, and the mesh number string is updated (520). At this time, if the mesh number is already in the mesh number sequence, no addition to the mesh number sequence is performed to prevent duplication of the mesh number. When the mesh number string is updated, the process returns to the unprocessed link extraction process (518).

  Update the mesh number sequence for all links in the route link sequence, and when the processing is completed for all links, there will be no unprocessed links. Next, map maps that will cover the route for the map network 31 The process proceeds to a process of transmitting a route map transmission start message which means to start data transmission (521). Then, it is checked whether or not there is an unprocessed mesh number from among the mesh numbers included in the mesh number sequence, and unprocessed mesh numbers are extracted in order (522). When the unprocessed mesh number is extracted, the map data of the map mesh corresponding to the extracted unprocessed mesh number is read from the disk 11 (523). The read map data is sent to the map network 31 (524), and the process returns to the unprocessed mesh number extraction process (522). When there is no unprocessed mesh number in the mesh number string and map data transmission processing (524) corresponding to all mesh numbers is performed, a message indicating the end of map transmission is transmitted to the map network 31 (525) ), And finishes the route calculation process.

  FIG. 18 is a process flow of the map reception task 531 executed by the vehicle controller 20, and a process of receiving map data of a map mesh along the route transmitted to the map network 31 in the process flow of the route calculation 511. I do. The map network I / F 256 of the vehicle controller 20 also monitors the communication state of the map network 31 and notifies the map reception task 531 of the reception of the message based on the message communicated through the map network I / F 256. Is done. When the map reception task 531 is activated when the vehicle controller 20 is initialized, the map reception task 531 waits in a reception process (532) of a map transmission start message from the map network 31. When the reception of the message is notified from the map network I / F 256, the reception processing of the map transmission start message is performed (532).

  The map transmission start message includes a route map transmission start message transmitted in the process 521 in the route calculation 511 and an update map transmission start message transmitted by a map update task 541 described later. Accordingly, it is determined which of the received map transmission start messages is (538), and if it is an update map transmission start message, it is stored in the area 211 of the storage device 21 where the map data in use is stored. The existing map data is copied to the area 212 for storing the map data received from the map network 31 (539). In the case of the update map data sent by the map update task 541, only the updated map is sent, so the map data in use is copied to the area 212 and the received update data is sent. By overwriting old map data with map data, it becomes possible to continue using the map data of the part that has not been updated.

  Next, message reception processing (533) is started. For the message received in the message reception process (533), it is determined whether the message is a map transmission end message (534). If it is not a map transmission end message, the message is a message containing map data, so map data is extracted from the received message and stored in the receiving area 212 of the storage device 21. Then, the process returns to the process 533 to wait for the next message reception. If the received message is a map transmission end message from the navigation device 10, it means that the reception of the map data has ended. Therefore, in order to use the updated map data after the reception is completed, the storage area of the map data to be used is changed by exchanging the area 211 and the area 212. However, when the above-described sign recognition task 451 or the like performs vehicle control using map data, if the map is updated during the processing, the map data used by the sign recognition task 451 or the like is halfway. May change and control may malfunction. Therefore, when the in-control flag 2535 indicating that the control using the map data is being executed is on, the control flag 2535 is turned on in order to wait for switching of the map area to be used until it is turned off. It is checked whether or not (537). If the in-control flag 2535 is on, after waiting for a predetermined time (540), it is checked again whether the in-control flag 2535 is on (534). If the in-control flag is off, the map area 211 used up to now and the area 212 storing the updated map are switched (536). When the reception process of the map data sent from the navigation device 10 is completed by the above process, the process returns to the process 532 again and waits until the next map transmission start message is received.

  When a new road is opened, a state occurs in which the map stored in the disk 11 of the navigation device 10 and the actual road state do not match. In order to solve this problem, the navigation device 10 receives map update data by communication with the center through the mobile phone 45 or reads new map update data written in the memory card 13 as described above. The map data stored in the disk 11 can be updated. FIG. 21 is a diagram for explaining such partial update of the map. In the partial update of the map shown in this figure, the map mesh 74 (the map mesh of the hatched range) including the newly opened road 73 is the map range to be updated. Further, the vehicle controller 20 also has the map data of the current location surrounding mesh 654. When the map data stored in the disk 11 of the navigation device 10 is updated, the map data held by the vehicle controller 20 needs to be updated when the map data of the mesh around the current location 654 includes the updated map range. is there.

  FIG. 22 is a processing flow of the map update task 541 that performs partial update of the map. Here, a description will be given on the assumption that the map of the navigation device 10 is updated by a user operation and the map update task 541 is activated. Based on the user's operation, the map update task 541 receives update data of the map from the mobile phone 45 or reads update data from the memory card 13 to input update data to the navigation device 10 ( 542). Then, it is determined whether the update data has been received from the mobile phone 45 or the update data has been read from the memory card 13 and the input process has been completed (543). If the input process has not been completed, if there is received or read map data, the mesh number of the map data is added to the updated mesh number string in area 1236 (544), and the map data to be updated is written to the disk 11. (545). When the received or read update data is written to the disk 11, the process returns to the process 542 and proceeds to the next data input process. When the update data input process is completed, a map transmission start message is sent to the map network 31 in order to notify the vehicle controller 20 that map data will be transmitted (546). Subsequently, it is checked whether there is an unprocessed mesh number from the updated mesh number string stored in the area 1236, and an unprocessed mesh number is extracted (547). If there is an unprocessed mesh number, it is determined whether the extracted unprocessed mesh number corresponds to a mesh around the current location (548). In the example shown in FIG. 21, it is determined whether or not the map mesh belongs to the current location surrounding mesh 654. If it does not correspond to the mesh around the current location, there is no need to send the corresponding updated map data of the mesh to the vehicle controller 20, so the process returns to the process 547 and the next unprocessed mesh number is extracted. On the other hand, if the mesh number corresponds to the mesh around the current location, the map data of the mesh number is read from the disk 11 (549), and the read map data is sent to the map network 31 (550) for processing. Returning to 547, the next unprocessed mesh number is taken out. When processing is completed for all mesh numbers in the updated mesh number sequence in processing 547, a map transmission end message indicating that map transmission has ended is sent to the map network 31 (551). Process.

  The vehicle controller 20 receives the map data updated by the map reception task described above, and updates the map data in the storage device 21.

10 navigation device 11 disk 13 memory card 20 vehicle controller 21 storage device 22 camera 23 GPS antenna 31 map network 32 CAN
121,251 bus 122,252 CPU
123, 253 Main storage device 124 Display 125 Disk interface 126, 256 Map network interface 127, 257 CAN interface 128 Mobile phone interface 129 Memory card interface 221 Image recognition device 231 GPS receiver 255 Storage device interface

Claims (7)

In a navigation device connected to a vehicle control device that controls the travel of a vehicle by a first communication path for control and searching for a route and performing guidance,
The vehicle control device includes a position detection unit and a first storage unit that stores first map data.
The navigation device includes second storage means for storing second map data used for vehicle guidance,
The vehicle control device and the navigation device are connected by a second communication path,
The vehicle control device transmits the current position measured by the position detection means to the navigation device through the second communication path,
The navigation device calculates a route based on the current position input from the second communication path and the designated destination, reads out map data around the route from the second storage means, and outputs the second communication path. To the first storage means of the vehicle control device. In a navigation device connected to a vehicle control device that controls the travel of a vehicle by a first communication path for control and searching for a route and performing guidance,
The vehicle control device includes a position detection unit and a first storage unit that stores first map data.
The navigation device includes second storage means for storing second map data used for vehicle guidance,
The vehicle control device and the navigation device are connected by a second communication path,
The vehicle control device requests map data around the current position that is not stored in the first storage means to the navigation device through the second communication path based on the current position measured by the position detection means,
The navigation device reads out the requested map data around the current position from the second storage means, and transmits the map data to the first storage means of the vehicle control device through the second communication path. apparatus. In a vehicle control device for controlling the traveling of a vehicle, connected to a navigation device that searches for a route through a first communication path for control and performs guidance,
The vehicle control device includes:
Position detecting means;
First storage means for storing first map data;
The navigation device
Second storage means for storing second map data used for guiding the vehicle;
The vehicle control device and the navigation device are connected by a second communication path,
The vehicle control device transmits the current position measured by the position detection means to the navigation device through the second communication path,
The navigation device calculates a route based on the current location and the designated destination, receives the map data around the route read from the second storage means via the second communication route, and receives the first data A vehicle control device storing the data in a storage means. In a vehicle control device for controlling the traveling of a vehicle, connected to a navigation device that searches for a route through a first communication path for control and performs guidance,
The vehicle control device includes:
Position detecting means;
First storage means for storing first map data;
Controlling the driving of the vehicle based on the first map data
The navigation device
Second storage means for storing second map data used for guiding the vehicle;
The vehicle control device and the navigation device are connected by a second communication path,
The vehicle control device requests map data around the current position, which is not stored in the first storage means, to the navigation device through a second communication path based on the current position measured by the position detection means,
The navigation device reads map data around the requested current position from the second storage means and receives the map data transmitted through the second communication path and stores the map data in the first storage means. A vehicle control device. In a navigation device connected to a vehicle control device that controls the travel of a vehicle by a first communication path for control and searching for a route and performing guidance,
The vehicle control device includes:
Position detecting means;
First storage means for storing first map data;
The navigation device
Second storage means for storing second map data used for guiding the vehicle;
The vehicle control device and the navigation device are connected by a second communication path,
When the second map data stored in the second storage means is updated, the navigation device updates the map data around the position detection received from the vehicle control device via the second communication path. If it is, the navigation apparatus transmits the updated map data of the map data around the current position to the first storage means of the vehicle control apparatus through the second communication path.   2. The navigation device according to claim 1, wherein when a current position input from the second communication path deviates from a previously calculated route, a route calculation from the current position to the destination is performed. A navigation device, wherein a new route is calculated, map data around the new route is read from a second storage means, and transmitted to the vehicle control device through the second communication path. 5. The vehicle control device according to claim 3, wherein the vehicle control device includes a map usage status identification unit that indicates a usage status of the first map data,
The first storage means is provided with a plurality of areas for holding map data,
When map data is transmitted through the second communication path, the transmitted map data is stored in a different area from the map data used by the vehicle control device, and the map data is transmitted. After the operation is completed, the vehicle control device confirms that the map data is not in use by the map in-use identifying means, and switches the map data to be used to the transferred map data. apparatus.

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