JP2766032B2 - Travel time calculation method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a travel time calculation method for easily estimating the time required for travel between two points.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, some systems have been developed which perform some control on the movement of a vehicle or the like using map information.
These often have road map information in secondary memory,
It was loaded into main memory and used as needed. When considering the movement between two points, most of the suggestions indicate that the vehicle or the like is on which side of the map now and how and how to move to reach the destination.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, when solving an actual problem, there are many cases where the traveling time is significant rather than the route. It seems that there is no conventional system that takes the travel time into consideration. It is thought to have the following background.

First, the data of the map information itself is very large. A secondary storage device with a very large capacity for storing information and a huge main storage device for processing large amounts of data are required, and naturally a very high-speed CPU (central processing unit) is required. Required. Due to such a background, it is difficult to further store information for estimating the travel time, and if the processing for calculating the travel time is also executed, the processing time becomes long.

Second, when considering travel time, traffic congestion information on roads cannot be ignored. For example, rush hours will require some extra travel time than during normal hours, and roads with many traffic lights will also take longer. If such traffic congestion information is to be used in such a system in earnest, a road monitoring system for monitoring congestion information is required, and a delay time for traffic congestion is predicted according to the identified congestion prediction. A system is also required. However, such a system would cost as much as city planning and would be practically impossible.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a travel time calculation method capable of easily estimating a travel time between two points in consideration of traffic information.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In the present invention, a map is divided into a plurality of blocks, and a plurality of abstraction areas in which each block is represented by one point and a point having a time zone in which the traveling time is delayed are designated. The concept of a gate was introduced.

To calculate the travel time, a standard travel time between different abstraction areas, a travel time ratio indicating the degree of influence of the time zone on the travel time, and a second travel time from the first abstraction area are calculated.
The gate arrangement existing up to the abstraction area, the delay time zone of each gate and the delay time are modeled in advance and stored.

Then, when the departure abstraction area, the arrival abstraction area, and the departure time are designated, the standard travel time of the departure abstraction area and the arrival abstraction area is extracted, and the travel time is corrected based on the designated departure time. The standard travel time is corrected according to the travel time ratio, and if the correction is determined to be necessary, the standard travel time is corrected between the departure abstraction area and the arrival abstraction area. The movement time is obtained by adding the delay time at each gate.

[Operation] In the present invention, the map is divided into a plurality of blocks so that the amount of data stored for calculating the travel time is reduced and the calculation time is shortened. The concept of was introduced. In addition, in order to increase the calculation accuracy of the travel time even when the concept of the abstraction area is introduced, the concept of a gate that indicates a point having a time zone in which the travel time is delayed is introduced.

In accordance with the introduction of such a concept, a standard travel time between different abstraction areas, a gate arrangement existing from the first abstraction area to the second abstraction area, and a delay time zone of each gate And its delay time are modeled in advance and stored. In consideration of the fact that the travel time varies depending on the time zone, the travel time ratio representing the degree of influence of the time zone on the travel time is modeled and stored in advance.

Therefore, when the departure abstraction area, the arrival abstraction area, and the departure time are specified, the standard travel time of the departure abstraction area and the arrival abstraction area is extracted, and the correction of the travel time is performed based on the specified departure time. The necessity and the degree are determined, and when it is determined that the correction is necessary, the standard travel time is corrected according to the travel time ratio. Further, the delay time at each gate existing between the departure abstraction area and the arrival abstraction area is added to the correction time, and the influence of the gate on the movement time is added.

[Embodiment] Hereinafter, the present invention is applied to an application model of the first embodiment and the second embodiment, a hardware configuration of the first embodiment, a method of expanding each data file in the first embodiment, and a transfer in the first embodiment. Time calculation processing, effects of the first embodiment, second embodiment,
Description will be made in the order of other embodiments.

Applied Model In the first embodiment and the second embodiment of the present invention, a model is introduced for the following items in order to easily obtain the travel time between two points.

(1) Average travel time per unit distance (2) Setting of abstraction area (3) Setting of travel time ratio by time zone (4) Setting of traffic congestion frequently occurring point (gate) Each item will be described below.

(1) Average moving time per unit distance A unit distance is appropriately set according to the size of the moving range to be handled. For example, if one prefecture is handled, 50 km is set as a unit distance, and if one city is handled, 5 km is set as a unit distance. Then, a travel time estimated to be required to travel the unit distance is set.
The travel time to be set (hereinafter referred to as the average travel time)
Is the average travel time when there is no congestion.

(2) Setting of abstraction area The map is divided into several blocks, for example, a square or a rectangle. In the following, each block is called an area. Then, the area is abstracted. That is, although the actual area has a spread, the spread of the area is represented by one point such as the center in the area. Here, the area represented by one point is called an abstraction area. The size of the area is determined in consideration of, for example, a unit distance.

(3) Setting of travel time ratio according to time zone 24 hours a day is classified according to the time zone of congestion. Then, from time to time, a moving time ratio that is a multiple of the average moving time is set for each time zone. The travel time ratio according to this time zone is set in common for each abstraction area regardless of the abstraction area.

(4) Setting of heavy traffic congestion points Depending on points on the road, traffic congestion may occur due to factors other than the time zone. For example, a road with many traffic lights, a point where a bridge is built, and the like correspond to this. Such a point is specifically set as a point of heavy traffic congestion (hereinafter, referred to as a gate), and an average delay time specifying a delay time zone is set for each gate. Note that a plurality of gates can exist between the abstraction areas.

According to such a model, the travel time T from the abstraction area A to the abstraction area B is represented by the following equation: T = ρ * Tave * D + ΣPi * Gi (Equation 1) (where, ρ: travel time by time zone) Ratio Tave: Average travel time per unit distance D: Distance between area A and area B i: Passage gate when moving from area A to B Pi: Boolean value whether or not gate i is congested Gi: Gate i (delay time at i).

Here, the time Tave * D is a standard travel time from the abstraction area A to the abstraction area B, and by multiplying this time by the travel time ratio ρ according to the time zone, the travel time considering the time zone (the right side) 1)). A Boolean value Pi (1 indicates traffic congestion, 0 indicates no traffic congestion) indicating whether or not traffic congestion occurs at each gate i passing when moving from the abstraction area A to the abstraction area B. Delay time at gate i
By multiplying by Gi and obtaining the sum, the sum of the delay time at each gate where traffic congestion occurs during the traveling time zone, that is, the delay time due to passing through each gate where congestion occurs, is obtained. ing.

In the first and second embodiments described later, the travel time ratio ρ according to the time zone and the truth value Pi indicating whether or not traffic congestion occurs at each gate i are determined in consideration of simplification of processing. Is determined based on the movement start time.

In the first embodiment and the second embodiment described later, the moving time ratio ρ according to the time zone and the average moving time Tave per unit distance are not separately handled, but the standard moving time obtained by multiplying them is regarded as one. Treated as data.

Hardware Configuration of First Embodiment Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention to which the above-described model is applied will be described.
Embodiments will be described with reference to the drawings. In the first embodiment,
This embodiment is realized by a stand-alone computer system, and differs from the second embodiment in which a computer system for calculating travel time and a computer system for database management are separately provided, mainly in the number of computer systems. Things.

First, the hardware configuration of the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

This system has a CPU 10 for controlling the entire system, and a built-in memory 12 for storing data and a hard disk 13 as an external memory are connected to the CPU 10 via a data bus 11. The data bus 11 is connected to an input device 14 such as a keyboard and a display device 15 such as a CRT display.

The input device 14 is used to input a departure abstraction area, a departure time, and an arrival abstraction area. CPU10
Information loaded into memory 12 (or information stored on hard disk 13 if not fully loaded into memory 12)
The processing shown in FIG. 1 to be described later is executed to calculate the travel time between the departure abstraction area and the arrival abstraction area. The obtained moving time is output to, for example, the display device 15.

On the hard disk 13 as an external memory, a standard travel time file 13a that models the standard travel time between different abstraction areas, a travel time ratio file 13b that models the travel time ratio, and gate delay time information are modeled. A gate delay time file 13c is prepared, and a gate array file 13d that models passing gate array information is prepared.

The CPU 10 reads the information of these four files 13a to 13d in the hard disk 13 once into the built-in data storage memory 12 via the data bus 11, and then calculates the movement time.

Prior to the description of the movement time calculation process, the file contents 13a to 13d stored in the hard disk 13 are stored in the memory 12
A description will be given of a method of expanding the file when loading the file.

The standard travel time file 13a stored on the hard disk 13 includes a departure abstraction area (area code),
The arrival abstraction area (area code), the standard travel time from the departure abstraction area to the arrival abstraction area (the product of the average travel time per unit distance and the distance from the departure abstraction area to the arrival abstraction area) (Predetermined and calculated in advance) are stored.

This moving time file 13a is developed in the memory 12, as shown in FIG. Each index 20 of the index array has a one-to-one correspondence with the area code of each departure abstraction area, and the first record corresponding to the index 20
The pointer to 21a is stored. And each element 21 of the index array has the index of that element
Records 21a, 21b,... Having a standard travel time from the departure abstraction area corresponding to 20 to each arrival abstraction area are sequentially linked by pointers.

The moving time ratio file 13b stored on the hard disk 13 stores a plurality of sets of three pieces of information of a time zone start time, a time zone end time, and a moving time ratio in the time zone.

This moving time ratio file 13b is developed in the memory 12 as shown in FIG. That is, the expanded records 22a, 22b,... Are the start time and end time of the time zone to which the same travel time ratio is applied, the travel time ratio applied in that time zone, and the address indicating the next record. (Next pointer) field information.
22a, 22b, ... are connected.

In the gate delay time file 13c, a gate code for identifying a gate, a start time of a time zone to which a delay process (addition of delay time due to traffic congestion) is applied at the gate, an end time of the time zone, And delay time 4
A plurality of information sets are stored.

The gate delay time file 13c is developed in the memory 12 as shown in FIG. Each of the records 23a, 23b,... Developed in the memory 12 includes field information of a gate code, a delay time zone start time, a delay time zone end time, a delay time, and an address (next pointer) pointing to the next record. These records 23a, 23b,... Are connected.

The gate arrangement file 13d includes a departure abstraction area (area code), an arrival abstraction area (area code), and a gate code (gate arrangement) of all gates existing between the departure abstraction area and the arrival abstraction area. A plurality of sets of three pieces of information are stored.

This gate arrangement file 13d is developed in the memory 12 as shown in FIG. Each record obtained by expanding
24a, 24b,... Are composed of field information of a departure abstraction area, an arrival abstraction area, an array of gates passing by the movement, and an address (next pointer) pointing to the next record. , ... are connected. When moving from the departure abstraction area to the arrival abstraction area and the number of gates passing is large, the data may be expanded to a plurality of records.

As described above, each of the files 13a to 13d stored in the hard disk 13 is expanded in the memory 12 in this manner and used for calculating the travel time.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a travel time calculation process in the first embodiment, and the calculation process will be specifically described with reference to FIG.

First, the area code of the departure abstraction area, the area code of the arrival abstraction area, and the departure time are input from the input device 14 (step 100). In the following, the processing will be described on the assumption that the area A is designated as the departure abstraction area and the area B is designated as the arrival abstraction area.

Next, the contents of the standard travel time file 13a, travel time ratio file 13b, gate delay time file 13c, and gate array file 13d stored in the hard disk 13 are developed in the memory 12 (step 101).

Based on the index array of the standard travel time developed in the memory 12 (see FIG. 3), a pointer is extracted from the index element corresponding to the area code of the area A (step 102). It is determined whether or not the code of the area B designated as the arrival abstraction area is stored in the arrival abstraction area field of the record indicated by the pointer (step 103). If not,
The pointer set in the next pointer field of the record is taken out, the process proceeds to the next record, and the process returns to the step of determining whether or not the code of the area B is stored (step 104). On the other hand, if the area code stored in the arrival abstraction area field is the code of the arrival abstraction area B, the standard travel time stored in the record is stored in the register unit (step
105).

A series of processing in steps 102 to 105 described above is performed for a plurality of linked records 20 related to the departure abstraction area A.
This is a process of searching for records having the area code of the arrival abstraction area B from a, 20b,... and extracting the standard travel time in the searched records.

By such processing, the standard movement time Tave * D in (Equation 1) is obtained.

Next, in substantially the same manner as the extraction of the standard travel time, the gate codes of all the gates passing through the movement from the departure abstraction area A to the arrival abstraction area B are extracted.

That is, from the memory 12 in which the contents of the gate array file 13d are expanded, the first record 24
a, and determines whether or not the record 24a relates to the departure abstraction area A and the arrival abstraction area B,
If they are different, the process advances to the next record 24b based on the contents of the next pointer field of the record 24a, and thereafter, the determination process is repeated in the same manner, and the departure abstraction area is area A and the arrival abstraction area is area B. The record is searched, and the gate array (all gate codes) stored in the searched record is stored in the register section in the memory 12 (steps 106 to 110). In this case, since the gate arrangement related to the movement from the departure abstraction area A to the arrival abstraction area B may be expanded to a plurality of records, a search is performed for all records.

By such a process, the gate information i in the above (Equation 1) is obtained.

Furthermore, the travel time ratio file expanded in the memory 12
From the content of 13b, the moving time ratio according to the time zone to be applied is extracted and stored.

Also in this process, the record search is almost the same as the process for obtaining the standard time. That is, the first record 22a relating to the travel time ratio according to the time zone is fetched from the memory 12, and the record 22a stores the time zone start time in the area A
Before the departure time from and the time zone end time satisfies the condition that it is later than the departure time from area A. If the condition is not satisfied, the record 22a The process proceeds to the next record 22b based on the contents of the next pointer field, and thereafter, the determination process is repeated in the same manner to find a record that satisfies the above condition, and stores the moving time ratio stored in the found record in the memory.
The data is stored in the register section in the memory 12 (steps 111 to 114).

By such processing, the movement time ratio ρ in (Equation 1) is obtained.

Next, the gate delay time file expanded in the memory 12
From the contents of 13c, the total delay time at the gate passing when moving from the departure abstraction area A to the arrival abstraction area B is obtained and stored.

In this process, first, the first record 23a concerning the gate delay time is fetched from the memory 12 and the record 23a
Is determined to be valid (steps 115 and 116).
That is, it is first determined whether or not the gate is related to any of the gates stored in the register unit in step 110 described above, and if so, the departure time of the departure abstraction area A is further delayed at that gate. It is determined whether it is within the time zone (affected by traffic congestion).

If the record is for a gate other than a passing gate or a record for a passing gate but the departure time is not included in the delay time zone at that gate, the record is based on the contents of the next pointer field of the record 23a. The process proceeds to the next record 23b, and the same determination processing is repeated (step 117). If the record relates to the passing gate and includes the departure time in the delay time zone of the gate, the delay time stored in the record is stored in the register unit in the memory 12 (step 118).

Thereafter, in step 110, it is determined whether or not the processing of extracting delay times for all the passing gates stored in the register unit (including the case where the delay time is not extracted because the time zone condition is not satisfied) is completed. If not, the process proceeds to step 117 to proceed to the next record based on the contents of the next pointer field of the record to be processed, and repeats the above-described record validity / invalidity determination process (step 11).
9).

In this way, when the processing for extracting the delay times for all the passing gates stored in the register unit at step 110 is completed, the delay times at the respective extracted gates are added, and the departure abstraction area A to the arrival abstraction area are added. The total delay time at a plurality of gates before reaching B is obtained and stored in the content register section of the memory 12 (step 120).

By a series of processing of such steps 115 to 120,
This means that the delay time ΔPi * Gi in (Equation 1) described above has been obtained.

With the above processing, the information for calculating the above-mentioned (Equation 1) has been prepared, so the calculation of (Equation 1) is executed, and the instruction from the departure abstraction area A to the arrival abstraction area B is issued. The travel time at the departure time is obtained, and output processing such as display output is executed (steps 121 and 122). That is, the standard travel time stored in step 105 is multiplied by the travel time ratio stored in step 114, and the result is multiplied by step 120.
Is added to the total delay time stored in step (1) to obtain and output the entire travel time.

Effects of the First Embodiment According to the first embodiment described above, the concept of the abstracted area, the concept of the change of the traveling time depending on the time zone, the delay time at the point of heavy traffic congestion (gate), the standard traveling time between the abstracted areas. Since the travel time is obtained by modeling the map information using the method described above, the travel time can be easily and quickly obtained.

Also, it is determined whether or not the delay time at each gate is taken into consideration by determining whether or not the departure time belongs to the delay time zone. , The determination process is simplified, and the moving time can be easily and quickly obtained from this point. In order to improve the accuracy of the required travel time, it is necessary to determine to which delay time the arrival time at each gate belongs, and to which time zone the moving intermediate time belongs. However, in this case, a large amount of stored information is required for such a determination, and a large amount of arithmetic processing is required, so that the travel time cannot be easily obtained.

Further, in the first embodiment, since a stand-alone computer system is applied, the travel time can be obtained by one system. Therefore, it can be realized not only as an installation type but also as an in-vehicle system.

Second Embodiment FIG. 7 is a hardware configuration diagram showing a second embodiment when a database management system is used. The second embodiment comprises a computer system of terminals for calculating travel time and a common database management system that can be used by a plurality of terminal computer systems. FIG. 7 shows one of the terminal computer systems. 2 shows a common database management system.

Both the terminal computer system 30 and the common database management system 40 have basic components as a computer system. That is, the terminal computer system 30 has a CPU 31 that controls the entire system 30, and the CPU 31 has a built-in data storage memory 33, an external memory hard disk 34, and a keyboard via a data bus 32. And an input device 35 such as a CRT are connected. The database management system 40 also has a CPU 41 for controlling the entire system 40, and the CPU 41 has a built-in data storage memory 43, an external memory hard disk 44, and a keyboard via a data bus 42. Is connected to a display device 46 such as a CRT. In addition, these systems
30 and 40 are provided with communication interface circuits 37 and 47, respectively, for executing data transfer between the two systems.

Also in the second embodiment, the model to be applied is the same as that of the first embodiment, and information for calculating the travel time is stored in a file. However, in the second embodiment, an information file for calculating the movement time is stored in the hard disk 44 which is an external memory of the database management system 40. That is, a standard travel time file 44a that models a standard travel time between different abstraction areas,
Travel time ratio file modeling the travel time ratio 44
b, a gate delay time file 44c modeling the gate delay time information, and a gate array file 44d modeling the passing gate array information.

The contents of these four files 44a to 44d are stored in the database management system 40 when the terminal computer system 30 executes the travel time calculation process. Transferred via 37 and 47, memory
Loaded at 32.

As described above, in the second embodiment, four files 44a
The processing for extracting necessary information from .about.44d is different from that of the first embodiment, but the subsequent processing is the same as that of the first embodiment, and a description thereof will be omitted.

Therefore, according to the second embodiment, the map information is modeled and moved based on the concept of the abstracted area, the concept of the change of the traveling time depending on the time zone, the delay time at the point where the traffic jam occurs frequently, the standard traveling time between the abstracted areas, and the like. I asked for time,
The traveling time can be obtained easily and at high speed.

In addition, since the travel time is obtained using the database management system, the travel time can be calculated by many terminal computer systems, and the memory is effectively used when viewed as a whole network. Will be.

Other Embodiments In the above-described embodiment, an example in which the standard travel time Tave * D between two abstraction areas is stored and (Equation 1) is applied has been described. As you did,
(Equation 1) may be applied after storing the average travel time Tave per unit distance and the distance between the two abstraction areas.

Further, the size of the abstraction area is not uniquely determined, and may be appropriately selected. For example, if the amount of data to be stored is to be reduced, the abstraction area may be made large. In this case, the present invention can be implemented even in an extremely small system such as a personal computer. Conversely, if the calculation accuracy of the travel time is to be increased, the abstraction area may be narrowed. That is, it is easy to realize a system that meets the purpose.

Further, the moving object used for calculating the moving time is not limited to a vehicle, but may be a person, a ship, or the like.
Of course, it is necessary to appropriately select the size of the abstracted area, the standard travel time between the areas, and the like depending on the moving object.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the concept of an abstraction area in which a map is divided into blocks and which is represented by one point is introduced, and the influence on travel time in a time zone and delay due to traffic congestion. Applying a model that considers time, etc., extracts the standard travel time from the departure abstraction area and the arrival abstraction area, determines the necessity and extent of travel time correction based on the indicated departure time, If you decide it is necessary,
The standard travel time is corrected according to the travel time ratio, and the travel time is obtained by adding the delay time at each gate existing between the departure abstraction area and the arrival abstraction area to the corrected time. The travel time can be calculated simply, quickly and inexpensively without using a large-scale system such as a travel route monitoring system and an identification prediction system.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a calculation process of a first embodiment of a travel time calculation method according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration to which the first embodiment is applied, and FIGS.
The figures respectively show the standard travel time file 13a of the first embodiment,
Travel time ratio file 13b, gate delay time file 13
c, an explanatory diagram showing a method of expanding the gate array file 13d in the memory 12, and FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration to which the second embodiment of the present invention is applied. 10 ... CPU, 11 ... Bus, 12 ... Memory, 13 ... Hard disk, 14 ... Input device, 15 ... Display device, 13a ...
Standard travel time file, 13b: travel time ratio file, 13c: gate delay time file, 13d: gate array file.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Nobuyuki Chikada 1-4-10 Irifune, Chuo-ku, Tokyo Inside the Tokyo Electric Power Company System Research Laboratory (72) Inventor Osamu Hirabayashi 1-4-10 Irifune, Chuo-ku, Tokyo (56) References JP-A-56-59398 (JP, A) JP-A-62-60100 (JP, A) JP-A-60-45816 (JP, A) (58) Field (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G08G 1/00-1/16

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A map is divided into a plurality of blocks, and a plurality of abstract areas each representing one block are provided, and a plurality of gates indicating a point having a time zone in which a traveling time is delayed are provided. A standard travel time between the abstraction areas, a travel time ratio indicating a degree of influence of the time zone on the travel time, a gate arrangement existing from the first abstraction area to the second abstraction area, and each gate The delay time zone and its delay time are modeled and stored in advance, and when the departure abstraction area, the arrival abstraction area, and the departure time are specified, the standard travel time of the departure abstraction area and the arrival abstraction area Take out, determine the necessity and the degree of correction of the travel time based on the instructed departure time, if it is determined that the correction is necessary, correct the standard travel time according to the travel time ratio, Of the correction time, the moving time calculation method and obtains the travel time by adding the delay time in each gate that exists between the origin abstraction areas and arrival abstraction areas. 2. Instead of storing the standard travel time between different abstract areas, the distance between different abstract areas and the average travel time per unit distance are stored in advance, and the departure abstract area and the arrival abstract are stored. When the generalized area and the departure time are designated, the standard travel time is obtained by first multiplying the distance between the departure abstraction area and the arrival abstraction area by the average travel time per unit distance. The travel time calculation method according to claim 1.