JP2012247358A - Driving support device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a driving support device that enables precise determination of a destination without relying on information on a vehicle in the destination.SOLUTION: A driving support device includes: a track acquisition unit 12 which functions as a travel track acquisition unit for acquiring a travel track of a vehicle on the basis of present position information thereof, etc. acquired by a present position acquisition unit 11, and as a history track acquisition unit for acquiring history information on the travel track on the basis of information stored in a travel history storage unit 4, etc.; a track comparison unit 13 for comparing history information on the latest travel track with that on a similar travel track thereto; and a destination estimation unit 14 for estimating a destination in the latest travel track on the basis of differences thereby.

Description

  The present invention relates to a driving support device that supports a driver's driving operation, and more particularly, to a driving support device that acquires driver's destination information.

  2. Description of the Related Art A driving assistance device that provides route guidance to a destination and provides information around the destination is known as a driving assistance device in a vehicle. The technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 is one of such techniques. At a point where the vehicle is stopped, an accessory switch on / off state, presence / absence of a parking brake, door opening / closing, change in the number of occupants, stop time, etc. Based on this information, it is determined whether the stop point is a destination or a stopover. Thus, it is described that a point to be a destination can be accurately determined.

JP 2007-10570 A

  However, the destination and the stop-off place cannot always be determined only from the stop time and the presence / absence of boarding / exiting. Moreover, in the technique of Patent Document 1, since the destination and the stop-off place are determined only from the vehicle information, the destination determination condition is not satisfied even though the destination is actually a destination, and the vehicle is temporarily stopped. Sometimes it is determined.

  Then, this invention makes it a subject to provide the driving assistance device which enables the destination to be determined with high precision, without using the vehicle information at the destination.

  In order to solve the above problems, a driving support device according to the present invention is similar to a travel locus acquisition unit that acquires a travel locus of a vehicle, a history locus acquisition unit that acquires history information of a travel locus, and a latest travel locus. A destination estimation unit that compares the history information of the travel locus and estimates a destination in the latest travel locus based on the difference.

  Specifically, in estimating the destination in the latest travel locus (route), first, a route (route, locus) including a portion matching the latest travel history is searched from the history information as a similar route. In this way, it is determined that there is a high possibility that there is a destination in a difference between the route with a high degree of coincidence searched for and the latest travel route, and the destination is determined for that portion.

  The difference that the destination estimation unit uses for destination estimation is, for example, a difference in distance. Specifically, a distance from the departure point, a distance from a branch point when a route branched from a similar route, a distance from a similar route, or the like is used.

  The history track acquisition unit may further include a function of acquiring history information of a travel track of another vehicle. The destination estimation unit may estimate the destination by taking into account the statistical information of the destination in the history information.

  According to the present invention, since the destination is estimated based on the travel route, it is possible to estimate a destination that does not satisfy the conventional destination determination conditions such as getting on and off as a destination, and perform the determination with high accuracy. Can do.

  By performing the destination estimation using the route distance difference, the destination can be estimated more accurately even when traveling on a route branched from the existing route.

  By referring to the history information of the travel trajectory of another vehicle, it is possible to refer to many existing routes, and the estimation accuracy is further improved. In addition, estimation accuracy can be further improved by performing estimation taking into account the statistical information of the destination.

1 is a block configuration diagram showing a first embodiment of a driving support apparatus according to the present invention. It is a flowchart which shows the destination estimation process in the apparatus of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a route in the process of FIG. It is a block block diagram which shows 2nd Embodiment of the driving assistance device which concerns on this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the destination estimation process in the apparatus of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the destination prediction logic process in the process of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a route in the process of FIG. It is a block block diagram which shows 3rd Embodiment of the driving assistance device which concerns on this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the destination estimation process in the apparatus of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a route in the process of FIG.

  DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In order to facilitate the understanding of the description, the same reference numerals are given to the same components in the drawings as much as possible, and duplicate descriptions are omitted.

  FIG. 1 shows a block configuration diagram of a first embodiment of a driving support apparatus according to the present invention. This apparatus 100 is mainly composed of an ECU (Electric Control Unit) 1 that is a control apparatus. The ECU 1 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a ROM (Read Only Memory), a RAM (Random Access Memory), and the like, and executes a desired control operation in accordance with a preset program. The ECU 1 includes a current position acquisition unit 11 that acquires the current position of the vehicle, a travel route, a trajectory acquisition unit 12 that acquires a trajectory, a trajectory comparison unit 13 that compares a past trajectory with the latest trajectory, and a purpose of performing destination estimation. A ground estimation unit 14 is provided. Each of these units 11 to 14 may be divided in hardware in the ECU 1, but may share a part or all of the hardware and may be realized in software. When each part 11-14 is implement | achieved by software, the software which comprises each part 11-14 is not independent, A part of each software may be shared and may be implement | achieved by one software.

  In this embodiment, the trajectory acquisition unit 12 functions as a travel trajectory acquisition unit that acquires the latest travel trajectory based on the information acquired by the current position acquisition unit 11, and travel trajectory history information from the travel history storage unit 14. It also functions as a history trajectory acquisition unit for acquiring. Both trajectory acquisition units may be configured independently, and the history trajectory acquisition unit may be integrated with the trajectory comparison unit.

  The ECU 1 also includes an ACC power switch 21 that is a power switch for auxiliary equipment of the vehicle, a vehicle speed sensor 22 that detects the speed of the host vehicle, an acceleration sensor 23 that detects acceleration, and a brake pedal that detects the operating state of the brake pedal. The outputs of the sensor 24 and the shift sensor 25 for detecting the shift state are input.

  The ACC power switch 21 is integrated with, for example, an ignition key switch. As the vehicle speed sensor 22, a wheel speed sensor that is disposed on a wheel and detects the wheel speed based on the rotation amount thereof can be used. As the acceleration sensor 23, various sensors that mainly detect acceleration in the traveling direction of the vehicle can be used. As the brake pedal sensor 24, in addition to a sensor that detects the brake pedal opening (stroke, depression amount, etc.), a sensor that detects whether the brake is on or off can also be used. As the shift sensor 25, in addition to a sensor that detects a shift state, a sensor that detects only a parking state may be used.

  The ECU 1 is connected to a navigation device 30 that detects the current position of the vehicle and provides route guidance so that the navigation device 30 can receive GPS (Global Positioning System) satellite transmission data. The machine 31 is connected to a map database (DB) 32 that stores map information. Furthermore, the ECU 1 is connected to a travel history storage unit 4 that stores a travel history.

  As the map DB 32 and the travel history storage unit 4, various storage devices such as a hard disk and a flash memory can be used. Although it is necessary to use a readable / writable storage medium for the travel history storage unit 4, the map DB 32 can also use a storage medium that can only be read and cannot be written. The same storage device may be used for the map DB 32 and the travel history storage unit 4, and they may be recorded in the same database without being divided internally.

  The operation of the present embodiment, that is, the destination estimation process will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the destination estimation process in the apparatus of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the route during the process of FIG. This process is executed by the ECU 1 after the ACC power switch 21 is turned off, for example. Or, after the ACC power switch 21 is turned on next time, the time when the calculation load of the ECU 1 is low may be selected and executed.

  As a premise of this process, the ECU 1 is based on the current position of the vehicle acquired by the current position acquisition unit 11 based on the output information of the navigation device 30 from when the ACC power switch 21 is turned on until it is turned off. The trajectory acquisition unit 12 acquires trajectory information that is information on the actual travel route, and the vehicle speed, acceleration, presence / absence of a brake operation, and shift acquired by the vehicle speed sensor 22, the acceleration sensor 23, the brake pedal sensor 24, and the shift sensor 25, respectively. It is temporarily stored and recorded in the travel history storage unit 4 in association with vehicle information such as the state. This travel history is stored as a route starting from the time / position when the ACC power switch 21 is turned on and ending at the time / position when the ACC power switch 21 is turned off.

  In the process shown in FIG. 2, first, it is determined whether or not the positions of the ACC power switch 21 at the on and off times are the same for the latest travel history acquired by the trajectory acquisition unit 12 (step S1). In other words, the latest travel history indicates a travel route whose end point is the time / position at which the latest ACC power switch 21 is turned off. Further, when the vehicle is at a different position in the same parking lot or at a different point on the road facing the same building or facility, the vehicle positions may be determined to be the same. This refers to the information on the surroundings of the on and off points stored in the map DB 32, or when the distance between the on point and the off point is within a predetermined distance, or when the shortest path connecting both is within the predetermined distance, the shortest It may be determined that both points are the same when the required time of the route is within a predetermined time.

  If it is determined in the recent travel history that the position where the ACC power switch 21 is turned on and the position where the ACC power switch 21 is turned off are not the same and are different, the process proceeds to step S6. In this case, the destination estimation unit 14 determines that the point where the ACC power switch 21 is turned off is likely to be the destination, and sets the point where the ACC power switch 21 is turned on as the departure point and off. The travel history information is generated with the set point as the destination and the route between the travel points as the travel route, and the process proceeds to step S5 to store the created travel history information in the travel history storage unit 4.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S1 that the position where the ACC power switch 21 is turned on and the position where it is turned off are the same, the process proceeds to step S2. In step S2, the trajectory comparison unit 13 compares the past travel history stored in the travel history storage unit 4 with the latest travel history, so that the latest travel history matches a part of the route. Extract similar running history. When a similar route is obtained, the process proceeds to step S3, and a difference from the past route is extracted. For example, with respect to the most recent history route shown in FIG. 3 (b), if the similarity travel history route R ₁ shown in FIGS. 3 (a) is obtained, the difference of the routes R ₂ to be shown in FIG. 3 (b) And the process proceeds to step S4. On the other hand, if a similar route is not obtained, the difference route is not extracted, and the process proceeds to step S4 while retaining the entire route.

In step S4, destination estimation is performed based on the extraction result. Specifically, the vicinity of the area farthest from the end point of the route is set as the destination, the on point of the ACC power switch 21 is set as the starting point, and travel history information is generated with the route between the points as the travel route, and the process goes to step S5. And the generated travel history information is stored in the travel history storage unit 4. For example, in the route shown in FIG. 3C, the area T ₁ farthest from the starting point D ₀ (distance l _max1 ) is set as the destination. In the case of differential extraction route shown in FIG. 3 (d), the distance from the divergent root sets the farthest (distance l _max1) area T ₂ in the destination.

  According to the present embodiment, the destination is estimated using, for example, the difference in distance based on the difference between the travel route, in particular, the travel route, and the ACC power switch 21 is turned off at the destination. It is possible to estimate the destination as a destination even when it is not selected or when getting on and off is not performed.

  FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of a second embodiment of the driving support apparatus according to the present invention. This device 110 is different from the driving support device 100 of the first embodiment in that it includes a road-to-vehicle communication device 5 that performs mutual communication with a communication device installed on the roadside. The roadside communication device 201 is connected to a vehicle-by-vehicle travel history storage unit 202 disposed in a center or the like, and constitutes a roadside communication system 200.

  The operation of the present embodiment, that is, the destination estimation process will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6 are flowcharts showing the destination estimation process in the apparatus 110, and FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a route example during the processes shown in FIGS. Similar to the processing shown in FIG. 2, this processing is performed after learning the latest travel history.

  In the first step S <b> 11, the road-to-vehicle communication device 5 obtains the route of the same starting point as the latest travel route from the accumulated data stored in the vehicle-by-vehicle travel history storage unit 202 of the road-side communication system 200 through the road-side communication device 201. Search and read into the trajectory acquisition unit 12.

  The trajectory comparison unit 13 compares the road link information between the search result and the latest travel route (step S12). The road link information is, for example, main passage point information of a route, and for example, main intersections, road connection points, and the like are used as the main passage points. By representing the travel route using the main passing point information, it is possible to represent the travel history with a small amount of data, reduce the amount of necessary data, and facilitate comparison between data.

  Next, the comparison result is determined (step S13). If it is determined that the road link is the same, it is determined that the vehicle has traveled the same route as the accumulated data, so the process proceeds to step S14, the destination is predicted to be the same as the accumulated data, and the process ends. On the other hand, if the road links are not the same, the process proceeds to step S15, where the road link identity is compared with a preset threshold value. If the identity is equal to or less than a preset threshold value, it is determined that the route identity is low, that is, the route difference is large and the destination prediction is difficult based on the accumulated data. , The accumulated data is excluded from the destination prediction data, and the process is terminated.

When the identity of the road link exceeds a preset threshold value, the process proceeds to step S16 to extract road link information as a difference. A specific example is shown in FIG. The latest route _{R 12,} the stored data and _{R 11,} both the starting point _{O 1,} When the end point _{D 1,} the region area surrounded by a broken line _{R e} are extracted.

In the subsequent step S17, a start point and an end point are set for the road link information (route) as a difference. In the example shown in FIG. 7, as shown in FIG. 7 (b), the root _{R 12} in the area surrounded by a broken line _{R e,} sets the start point _{O 2} and the end point _{D 2.} Subsequently, a destination prediction logic process to be described later is performed (step S18), and the process ends.

This destination prediction logic process is shown in FIG. This process is performed by the destination estimation unit 14. First, road link information with start point and end point information is input (step S21). Next, the stop position information on the road link is searched (step S22), and the stop position information of the top N places having the long stop time is extracted from the searched stop position information (step S23). In the route shown in FIG. 7B, S _{1 to} S ₄ are extracted as the stop positions.

  Subsequently, the presence / absence of door opening / closing information at the extracted stop position is determined (step S24). If there is a stop position where the door is opened and closed, the process proceeds to step S27, where the stop position is set as a destination candidate. When there is no stop position where the door is opened and closed, the process proceeds to step S25, and it is determined whether or not the parking state is set at the stop position. If there is a stop position set in the parking state, the process proceeds to step S27 to set the stop position as a destination candidate. On the other hand, if there is no stop position set in the parking state, the process proceeds to step S26, the stop position information having the longest stop time is selected, the process proceeds to step S27, and the stop position is selected as a destination candidate. Set.

  In subsequent step S28, it is checked whether or not there is POI (Point Of Interest) information corresponding to the position information of the stop position that is the destination candidate. The POI information is information stored in the map DB 32 in association with position information such as facility information and spot information. If there is POI information corresponding to the stop position, it is determined that the destination is likely to be a destination, and the process proceeds to step S29, where the corresponding POI information point is set as the destination, and the process ends. On the other hand, if there is no corresponding POI information, it is determined that the point is not the destination, and the process proceeds to step S30 to exclude the corresponding stop position information. In step S31, the presence / absence of the remaining stop position information is determined. If there is stop position information, the process proceeds to step S24, and determination processing for other stop position information is performed. If it is determined in step S31 that there is no stop position information, it is determined that there is no stop position that satisfies the conditions for all the stop positions, and the processing is terminated assuming that there is no destination prediction result.

  According to this embodiment, since the destination is estimated based on the travel history and POI information of the other vehicle, the destination can be estimated with high accuracy even on the route traveled for the first time by the own vehicle.

  FIG. 8 shows a block configuration diagram of a third embodiment of the driving support apparatus according to the present invention. This device 120 is different from the driving support device 100 of the first embodiment in that it includes an inter-vehicle communication device 6 that performs mutual communication with other vehicles.

  The operation of this embodiment, that is, the destination estimation process will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the destination estimation process in the apparatus 110, and FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of the route during the process of FIG.

First, the current position acquisition unit 11 acquires the route of the vehicle by acquiring the traveling route (step S41). Next, a missing section in the route is specified (step S42). For example, this missing section has a problem in reception by the GPS receiver 31, and when the current position cannot be obtained accurately or the road that has not been registered in the map DB 32 has been traveled, the road link information cannot be obtained accurately. It occurs in the case of. Here, as shown in FIG. 10 (a), although the route data R ₂₁ to the destination D ₃ is present, return path data R ₂₂ is unknown, consider a case drop destination D ₄ is unknown.

Next, the required time for the missing section is calculated (step S43). This can be calculated from the start point transit time of the missing section and the end point transit time of the missing section. In addition, it may be calculated by subtracting the time during which the route data can be acquired from the time from when the ACC power switch 21 is turned on to when it is turned off. Next, an area that can be moved in this required time is estimated (step S44). As shown in FIG. 10 (b), this region is calculated as a predetermined area A ₁ containing known route data R _21.

  Next, route destination information of other vehicles in the movable area is acquired (step S45). This can be acquired by exchanging destination information with another vehicle by the inter-vehicle communication device 6. This acquisition may be performed either during traveling on the route or at the time of determination, but it is preferable to acquire during traveling in consideration of the communication range of inter-vehicle communication.

In step S46, a route destination candidate for the host vehicle is selected based on the obtained route destination information. Specifically, in addition to the points set by the driver of the other vehicle as the destinations, the points where the ACC power switch 21 is turned on / off are mapped on the map as the via destinations acquired from the other vehicles. FIG. 10 (c) shows this mapping example, a via destination _S 11 _{to S 14} and the like which × mark mapped. It believed the same destination from the mapping results to estimate the high frequent area A ₂ as via destination. That is, the destination is estimated in consideration of the statistical information of the destination.

  According to this embodiment, even when there is a missing section in the acquired route, the destination can be estimated accurately by estimating the destination by taking into account the statistical information of the destination in the history information. The destination acquisition frequency can be increased, and the driving support accuracy according to the destination is also improved.

  The present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above, and can be appropriately changed and combined. For example, in the second embodiment, information acquired by inter-vehicle communication as in the third embodiment may be used instead of road-to-vehicle communication. Alternatively, information may be acquired using road-to-vehicle communication as described in the second embodiment instead of vehicle-to-vehicle communication in the third embodiment. In the first embodiment, vehicle-to-vehicle communication and road-to-vehicle communication may be used. In each embodiment, both road-to-vehicle communication and vehicle-to-vehicle communication may be used in combination.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... ECU, 4 ... Travel history memory | storage part, 5 ... Road-to-vehicle communication machine, 6 ... Inter-vehicle communication machine, 11 ... Current position acquisition part, 12 ... Trajectory acquisition part, 13 ... Trajectory comparison part, 14 ... Destination estimation part, DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 21 ... Power switch, 22 ... Vehicle speed sensor, 23 ... Acceleration sensor, 24 ... Brake pedal sensor, 25 ... Shift sensor, 30 ... Navigation apparatus, 31 ... GPS receiver, 200 ... Roadside communication system, 201 ... Roadside communication machine, 202 ... Vehicle-specific travel history storage unit.

Claims (4)

A travel locus acquisition unit for obtaining a travel locus of the vehicle;
A history trajectory acquisition unit for acquiring history information of the travel trajectory;
A destination estimation unit that compares the latest travel locus with history information of a similar travel locus and estimates a destination in the latest travel locus based on the difference,
A driving assistance apparatus comprising: The driving support device according to claim 1, wherein the difference used by the destination estimation unit for destination estimation is a difference in distance. The driving support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the history track acquisition unit further includes a function of acquiring history information of a travel track of another vehicle. The driving assistance apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the destination estimation unit estimates the destination in consideration of statistical information of the destination in the history information.

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