JP3181990B2 - Vehicle navigation system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a navigation apparatus for a vehicle, and more particularly to a processing after reaching a destination.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Various devices for reducing the burden on a driver have been studied and are now mounted on vehicles. Among them, there is a navigation device for guiding a route to a destination.

Such a navigation device has a function of searching for a route from the current position to the destination by inputting the destination and operating the guidance start switch.
The route obtained by the search can be displayed to notify the driver. It also has a function of detecting the current position of the vehicle. During traveling, both the route obtained by searching and the detected current position are displayed to perform route guidance.

When the vehicle travels along the route guidance and approaches the destination and the remaining distance from the destination is less than a predetermined distance (for example, 200 m), it is determined that the vehicle has reached the destination and the route is determined. End the guidance.

[0005]

However, even if it is determined that the vehicle has arrived at the original destination, the vehicle may get lost, for example, in order to park the vehicle in a parking area around the destination, or You may pass your destination.

[0006] Even in such a case, in the conventional navigation system, if it is determined that the vehicle has reached the destination, the guidance is terminated. Therefore, the driver has to perform the input operation of the current position and the destination again. There was a problem to be had.

[0007] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, and its purpose is to operate a guidance start switch or the like even after arriving at a destination so that a route guidance from the position on the route to the destination again can be made. It is an object of the present invention to provide a possible vehicle navigation device.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an input means for inputting a point such as a current position or a destination, a storage means for storing map information, and a storage means for storing the map information. Route calculation means for searching for a route to a destination based on the obtained map information, current location detection means for detecting the current location of the vehicle, guidance start setting means, and when guidance start is instructed by the guidance start setting means Control means for superimposing the route obtained by the search on the map information together with the detected current position on the map information and displaying the map information on the display means, the distance calculating means for calculating the remaining distance from the current position to the destination. And arrival determining means for determining that the destination has been reached when the calculated remaining distance is equal to or less than a predetermined distance, and determining whether the current location is located on the search route. A guidance start from the guidance start setting means when the arrival determination means determines that the vehicle has reached the destination and the position determination means determines that the vehicle is located on the search route. The search route is superimposed again on the map information together with the current position in response to the instruction, and is displayed on the display means.

[0009]

As described above, according to the present invention, even after it is determined that the vehicle has arrived at the destination, if the vehicle is located on the route and the guidance start setting means is operated, the search route is re-established. The route is displayed on the display means to guide the driver.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of a vehicle navigation system 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 that stores information such as roads, place names (intersection names), building names, and river names is provided, and the stored map information can be read as needed. I have. Also, a GPS receiver 14 using a satellite navigation system (GPS) for measuring the current position of the vehicle, an azimuth sensor 16 for detecting the traveling direction of the vehicle based on geomagnetism, and a 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. Further, information from the steering sensor 17 is also input, and is used for map matching or the like for correcting the current position to an intersection position on a map when turning right or left at an intersection.

When performing route guidance to a destination, a destination is instructed on a screen of a display unit to be described later by an input unit 19, or is input by a place name or the like, and the current position calculated by the current position measuring unit 12 is calculated. Calculation unit 2 calculates the route from the position to the destination
The calculated route is calculated by the route calculation unit 22 included in the route storage unit 0, and the calculated route is stored in the route storage unit 24. Note that an appropriate route search method is adopted for this route calculation.

After inputting the destination and determining the route, actual route guidance is performed. That is, by operating the guidance start switch of the input unit 19, the route guidance unit control unit 26 included in the arithmetic unit 20 reads the map information around the own vehicle from the guidance information storage unit 10a in the map information storage unit 10, The current position of the host vehicle, the traveling direction, and the route stored in the route storage unit 24 are superimposed and displayed on the display unit 28.

The display unit 28 is provided in the instrument panel near the driver's seat, and the driver can confirm the position of the own vehicle by looking at the display and obtain information on a future route. As a display example, the selected route is displayed as a thick line, the other lines are displayed as thin lines, the position of the own vehicle is indicated by a circle, and the traveling direction can be indicated by a wedge-shaped arrow.

When the position of the host vehicle approaches the intersection to be changed, the display unit 28 displays the name of the intersection and the distance to the intersection. The route guidance control unit 26 instructs the voice control unit 30 to generate a voice corresponding to the route guidance at the intersection together with this display. Voice control unit 30
Reads out information stored as digital data in the audio storage unit 32, converts this into an analog signal, and drives the speaker. Then, a route instruction is given to the driver from the speaker 34, for example, "the intersection is about 300 m ahead at the *** intersection to the left." This voice instruction is performed at predetermined intervals until the vehicle passes through the intersection. For example, when traveling on a road with two or more lanes, 700
The first guidance is given m m before, the second guidance 300 m before, and the final guidance 100 m before. These guidance voices are stored in the voice storage unit 32 as digital data for each phrase. Therefore, when outputting a guidance voice, a plurality of voices are read out, synthesized into a phrase, and output from the speaker 34 as a guidance signal. The output timing of the guidance voice is detected by the route guidance control unit 26, and the voice control unit 3
0 performs processing for audio output.

The arrival determination section 26a of the route guidance control section 26 determines whether or not the vehicle has reached the destination. If it is determined that the vehicle has reached the destination, a guidance stop message is displayed on the display section 28. In this embodiment, even if the vehicle is located on the route and the start of the guidance is instructed from the input unit 19, the guidance start control unit 26 b Displays the search route on the display unit 28 again.

FIGS. 2 to 5 show processing flowcharts of the arithmetic unit 20 in this embodiment. First, it is determined whether or not the guidance start mode is set (S101). If the guidance start is instructed from the input unit 19, it is determined whether or not the vehicle is traveling on the next route (S10).
2). This determination is made by comparing the detected current position with the obtained search result. If the vehicle is traveling on a route, the remaining distance to the destination is calculated (S
103). Then, a magnitude comparison between the calculated remaining distance and a predetermined distance (200 m in this embodiment) is performed. If there is a remaining distance equal to or more than the predetermined distance, the route guidance is continued (S107), and the distance is equal to or less than the predetermined distance. In this case, it is determined that the vehicle has arrived at the destination, and the guidance stop mode is set (S105). At this time, the display on the display unit 28 is switched to a screen indicating the guidance stop state. FIG. 6 shows a display example of a screen during guidance and a screen when guidance is stopped. In this example, it is indicated that guidance has been stopped by deleting the message “during guidance” from the display. . In the drawings, a circle is a mark indicating the current position, and an arrow is a mark indicating the traveling direction of the vehicle. The double circle is the destination.

On the other hand, if it is determined in S102 that the vehicle is not traveling on the route, a re-search key for prompting a re-search is displayed on the display unit 28 (S108). When the re-search key is operated, the route from the current position to the destination is searched again. The re-search will be described later.

After it is determined that the vehicle has arrived at the destination and the guidance is stopped, the processing is terminated in the conventional navigation system, but in the present embodiment, the guidance start switch is further set as shown in FIG. It is determined whether the operation has been performed (S109). If the driver gets lost in an attempt to go to parking or the like near the destination, the guidance start switch is operated again. When the guidance start switch is operated, the guidance start mode is set (S11).
0), it is determined again whether the vehicle is traveling on the route (S111). If the vehicle is located on the route, the remaining distance from the current position to the destination is calculated (S11).
2) It is determined whether the remaining distance to the destination is equal to or greater than a predetermined distance (200 m) (S113). If the remaining distance is equal to or greater than the predetermined distance, the guidance start control unit 26b again displays a screen indicating the guidance start state. The route is displayed for route guidance (S115).
Note that each process of S111-S115 is performed in S10 described above.
This is a process similar to 2-S107.

FIG. 7 shows an example of display on the display unit 28 when the guide start switch is operated again after being located on the route after the arrival at the destination is determined. FIG. 7A shows a state in which the user has got on the route again, and FIG. 7B shows a state in which the guidance start switch is operated again and the guidance start control unit 26b performs route guidance again. When the guidance start switch is operated, the message “in guidance” is displayed again, and the route guidance is started.

On the other hand, if it is determined in S111 that the vehicle is not traveling on the route, a screen indicating the guidance start state is displayed (S116), and a re-search key is displayed as in S108 (S117) (S117). (See the lower part of the screen in FIG. 7A).

FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of the re-search process. First, it is determined whether the re-search key displayed in S108 or S117 has been operated (in the case of a touch switch, whether or not it has been touched) (S11).
8). When the driver gets lost and is not located on the route, the re-search key is operated. When the re-search key is operated, the current position is measured next by the current position measuring unit 1.
2 (S119), and the route recalculating unit of the route calculating unit 22 uses the data of the guidance information storage unit 10a to search again for a route (route) to the destination (S120). This search method is the same as the first search method, for example, the Dijkstra method is used. Then, guide road information is created (S121) and stored in the route storage unit 24.

FIG. 8 shows an example of a screen display at the time of the above-described re-search. FIG. 8A is a screen display after the destination arrival determination similar to FIG. 6B. However, the difference from FIG. 6B is that the current position of the vehicle is not located on the route (thick line in the figure). When the driver operates the search key displayed at the bottom of the screen on this screen, the above-described search processing is started, and a search path is displayed as shown in FIG. 8B. When the guidance start switch is operated in this state, the route guidance according to the re-search result is started as shown in FIG. At this time, the message of "guidance" indicating that the route is being guided is displayed again.

When a route is displayed on the display unit 28 and guidance by voice is performed, voice processing is performed according to the flowchart shown in FIG. That is, first, S12
At 2, it is determined whether or not the mode is the advance notice (voice guidance) prohibition mode (S122). When the prohibition mode has not been instructed from the input unit 19, it is determined whether or not it is the guidance voice output timing (S123), and the voice is instructed to the voice control unit 30 (S124). When the vehicle has reached the vicinity of the intersection (S125), the screen is switched to the intersection diagram and voice guidance is performed (S126) as described above.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the route guidance is not terminated even after reaching the destination, but is resumed by the guidance start switch, so that the driver may get lost near the destination. Even if the vehicle has passed the destination, the driver can be reliably guided to the destination.

[0026]

As described above, according to the vehicular navigation device of the present invention, even after arriving at the destination, the guidance to the destination can be guided again by operating the guidance start switch, etc. You can be guided to the destination.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a processing flowchart of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a processing flowchart of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a processing flowchart of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a processing flowchart of the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing screen displays before and after a destination arrival determination according to the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a screen display of rerouting guidance after arrival at a destination in the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a screen display of a re-search after arrival at a destination according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 Map information storage unit 12 Current position measurement unit 19 Input unit 20 Operation unit 26 Route guidance control unit 28 Display unit

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Tohru Ito 1 Toyota Town, Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture Inside Toyota Motor Corporation (72) Inventor Jun Watanabe 1 Toyota Town, Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture Toyota Motor Corporation (56) Reference Document JP-A-4-110720 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G01C 21/00 G09B 29/10 G08G 1/0969

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An input unit for inputting a point such as a current position or a destination, a storage unit for storing map information, and a route calculation for searching for a route to a destination based on the map information stored in the storage unit. Means, a current position detecting means for detecting the current position of the vehicle, a guidance start setting means, and a route obtained by searching when guidance start is instructed by the guidance start setting means is added to the map information together with the detected current position. Control means for superimposing and displaying on a display means, a distance calculating means for calculating a remaining distance from a current position to a destination, and wherein the calculated remaining distance is equal to or less than a predetermined distance. Arrival determining means for determining that the vehicle has reached the destination; and position determining means for determining whether the current position is located on the search route. When it is determined that the vehicle has arrived, and when it is determined that the vehicle is located on the search route by the position determination unit, the search start is superimposed on the map information together with the current position again by the guidance start instruction from the guidance start setting unit. A vehicular navigation device characterized by displaying on a display means.