JP3093037B2 - Route guidance device for vehicles - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle route guidance device mounted on a vehicle for guiding a route to a destination, and more particularly to a vehicle for indicating a road to be selected at a branch point by voice.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Various devices for reducing the burden on the driver have been studied and mounted on vehicles. Among them, a route for guiding along a route to a destination is included. There is a guidance device. The route guidance device has a function of notifying a driver of a route to be selected when passing through a branch point such as an intersection. There is a route guidance device provided with an image display device by a display to notify a driver of a route.

[0003] Further, in addition to such notification by image display, there is also known a device that performs route notification by voice.
For example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 62-267900 discloses a device for giving a voice instruction when a vehicle reaches a predetermined position just before an intersection or a junction where a route is to be notified. According to such route guidance by voice, the driver does not need to look at the display or the like, and can concentrate on monitoring ahead.

[0004]

However, according to the above-described conventional route guidance device, the voice expression of guidance at an intersection is limited to a right turn or left turn instruction, and appropriate guidance cannot be performed depending on the type of intersection. There was a case. In other words, when the intersection is a rotary intersection, a passage unique to the rotary intersection must be performed. For example, when making a right turn at a roundabout, at the time of entering the roundabout, first turn left and enter, turn about 270 °, and then turn left and enter the target road. Therefore, at the roundabout, the driver cannot distinguish from a normal intersection simply by being instructed by the route "The next intersection is a right turn." There is a problem that a margin for preparing a driving operation corresponding to a rotary intersection is reduced.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problem. When approaching an intersection, it is determined whether the intersection is a rotary intersection or a normal intersection.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicular route guidance device that can provide route guidance according to a rotary intersection.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a vehicle route guidance device according to the present invention uses a road intersection stored in advance to determine whether an intersection to be entered is a rotary intersection. A rotary judgment means for judging whether or not, when it is determined that the intersection is a rotary intersection, voice guidance that the intersection to enter is a rotary intersection, and further select guidance contents suitable for passing through the rotary intersection It has voice guidance means for voice guidance. The guidance content suitable for passing through the roundabout is selected according to the angle between the road entering the intersection and the road to be guided. Further, the content suitable for passing through the rotary intersection may be such that the content is selected in accordance with the angle around the rotary from the entry position to the intersection to the exit position of the intersection.

[0007]

According to the present invention, when entering a rotary intersection, voice guidance such as that the intersection is a rotary intersection and that the vehicle is going around a roundabout and exits a specific road is provided. be able to. Therefore, route guidance can be performed by voice according to the driver's request.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the present apparatus. A map information storage unit 10 for storing information such as roads, place names, building names, river names, and the like is provided so that the stored map information can be read out as needed. In addition, a satellite navigation system (hereinafter referred to as GP) for measuring the current position of the vehicle
S), a direction sensor 16 for detecting the traveling direction of the vehicle based on the geomagnetism,
Distance sensor 18 for detecting the traveling distance based on the number of rotations of the wheels
Is provided, and the current position measuring unit 12 determines the current position of the own vehicle based on the detection results of these sensors.

When performing route guidance to a destination, a destination is first instructed on an input unit 19 on a screen of a display unit to be described later, or is input by a place name or the like. Then, a route from the current position calculated by the current position measurement unit 12 to the destination is calculated by the route calculation unit 22 included in the calculation unit 20, and the calculated route is stored in the route storage unit 24.

After inputting the destination and determining the route, actual route guidance is performed. The route guidance control unit 26 included in the arithmetic unit 20 reads the map information around the own vehicle from the map information storage unit 10 and reads the map information together with the current position and traveling direction of the own vehicle and the route stored in the route storage unit 24. The information is superimposed and displayed on the display unit 28.

The display unit 28 is provided in an instrument panel near the driver's seat.
To check the position of the vehicle and obtain information about the future route. FIG. 2 shows an example of this display. In FIG. 2, the selected route is indicated by a thick solid line 100, and other roads are indicated by a thin solid line 102. The position of the host vehicle is indicated by a circle 104 and the traveling direction is indicated by a wedge-shaped arrow 106. For road markings,
The distinction can be made not only by the line thickness but also by changing the color.

At the intersection 10 where the position of the host vehicle is to change course.
When the distance approaches 8, the display screen changes as shown in FIG. 3, and the intersection name 110 and the distance 112 to the intersection are displayed. The route guidance control unit 26 also instructs the voice control unit 30 to generate a voice corresponding to the route guidance at the intersection at the same time as the display switching. The voice control unit 30 reads information stored as digital data in the voice storage unit, converts the information into an analog signal, and drives the speaker 34. Then, the driver gives route guidance to the driver such as "turn left at the next intersection." This voice instruction is performed at predetermined intervals until the vehicle passes through the intersection.

Further, in the present embodiment, regarding the guidance of the above-mentioned intersection, when an intersection is detected, information as to whether this intersection is a rotary intersection is stored in the intersection information storage unit 10a included in the map information storage unit 10. Read from. Then, the rotary determination unit 26a determines whether the intersection is a rotary intersection.

When it is determined that the approaching intersection is a rotary intersection, a route guidance specific to the rotary intersection is performed by the route guidance control unit 26. As shown in FIG. 4, when approaching a rotary intersection from the arrow Y direction, route guidance according to the outflow direction is performed. That is, the guidance content is changed depending on the angle (α) between the road to be entered and the road to be guided. For example, a rightward direction when 0 ° <α <165 °, a straight-forward direction when 165 ° ≦ α ≦ 195 °, and a leftward direction when 195 ° ≦ α <360 °. (Α = 360 °), the route guidance is performed as the returning direction. In the case of FIG. 4, in the case of a, "the rotary is in the left direction." In the case of b, "the rotary is in the straight direction." In the case of c, "turn right after the rotary." It is a direction to turn around and return. " In particular, by using the expression “turning” in the directions c and d, the driver can be prompted to perform a driving operation according to a route unique to a rotary intersection.

The position at which this route guidance is performed is the same as that at a normal intersection. For example, the route guidance is performed 300 m before traveling on a one-lane road, and 700 m before two-lane lane. I do. This route guidance is also performed when an intersection approaches immediately before.

As described above, in this embodiment, the route guidance at the rotary intersection is divided into left turn, right turn, straight ahead, etc. according to the angle (α) between the entering road and the outgoing road. The case may be divided by β. For example, if a roundabout shown in FIG. 5, the outflow path angle between the direction Y ₂ between the direction Y ₁ of the approach path 1
80 °, but the angle around the roundabout is about 100
°, it is determined to be a left turn in this case.

[0017]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is determined whether or not an intersection is a rotary intersection, and this is guided to the driver, so that the driver performs a driving operation according to the rotary intersection. It becomes possible. That is, even in the case of a right turn at a roundabout, it is necessary to once turn left into the roundabout, and the driver can perform this preparation.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram of a preferred embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a display example of the apparatus according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a display example of the apparatus according to the present embodiment, particularly illustrating an example of an enlarged display when approaching an intersection where a right or left turn is made;

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining route guidance at a rotary intersection according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining route guidance at a rotary intersection according to the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Map information storage unit 10a Intersection information storage unit 26 Route guidance control unit 26a Rotary determination unit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Yuki Morimoto 10 Takane, Fujiicho, Anjo, Aichi Prefecture Inside Aisin AW Co., Ltd. (72) Shoji Yokoyama 10 Takane, Fujiicho, Anjo, Aichi Prefecture Aishi (72) Inventor Kenji Kuroda 10 Takane, Fujii-machi, Anjo-shi, Aichi Prefecture Inside Aisin-AW Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-63-211499 (JP, A) ( 58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G08G 1/0969 G01C 21/00

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A vehicular route guidance device that provides voice guidance at an intersection and guides a route to a destination, wherein the intersection to be entered is a rotary intersection based on stored road information. A rotary judging means for judging whether or not there is, and if the intersection is a rotary intersection according to the judgment result of the rotary judging means, voice guidance that the entering intersection is a rotary intersection,
Voice guidance means for selecting a guidance content suitable for passing through the roundabout according to an angle between a road entering the rotary intersection and a road to be guided, and providing voice guidance, Vehicle route guidance device. 2. A vehicular route guidance device that provides voice guidance at an intersection and guides a route to a destination, wherein the intersection to be entered is a rotary intersection based on stored road information. A rotary judging means for judging whether or not there is, and if the intersection is a rotary intersection according to the judgment result of the rotary judging means, voice guidance that the entering intersection is a rotary intersection,
Voice guidance means for selecting a guidance content suitable for passing through the rotary intersection according to an angle around the rotary from an entrance position to the rotary intersection to an exit position from the rotary intersection and providing voice guidance, A route guidance device for a vehicle, comprising: