JP3599421B2 - Current position calculation device - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
[Industrial applications]
The present invention relates to a current position calculation device that is mounted on a moving body such as a vehicle and measures a traveling distance, a traveling direction, and the like of the moving body, and thereby calculates a current position of the moving body.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a current position calculation device that calculates a current position of a vehicle traveling on a road, the current position of the vehicle is measured by a traveling direction of the vehicle measured by a direction sensor such as a gyro and a vehicle speed sensor or a distance sensor. It is calculated based on the traveling distance of the vehicle.
[0003]
Generally, the travel distance of a vehicle is measured by measuring the output shaft of a transmission or the number of rotations of a tire, and multiplying the number of rotations by a distance coefficient which is a distance that the vehicle travels per rotation of the tire. Is required by
[0004]
Further, in order to correct the error of the current position obtained from the traveling direction and the traveling distance of the vehicle in this manner, as described in JP-A-63-148115, the vehicle determined to match the road is used. The technique of so-called map matching, which corrects the current position, is known, and the accuracy of current position calculation can be increased by this map matching technique.
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
By the way, even in the current position calculating device having such a map matching function, it is necessary to manually set the current position when starting the device. However, such a manually set current position does not always guarantee high position accuracy.
[0006]
Also, the current position calculation by radio navigation may be used together with the map matching. Radio navigation such as GPS (Global Positioning System) has an advantage that there is no accumulated error as compared with self-contained navigation, but at present, the accuracy of position calculation is not high. Therefore, it is often used as an auxiliary when the error of the self-contained navigation becomes too large. The current position determined by such radio navigation does not have high position accuracy.
[0007]
On the other hand, in the conventional map matching, when comparing the estimated position of the vehicle with the road data, all the roads (line segments) located within a certain range centered on the estimated position are searched. . The search range of the road is preferably narrow from the viewpoint of the processing load of the device. Because, when the search range is widened, the time required for the search process and the time required to calculate the reliability of the obtained candidate point on the road increase, and other processes to be executed by the device, for example, the direction sensor This is because reading data, reading data from a vehicle speed sensor or a distance sensor, or calculating a travel distance of a vehicle based on data from a vehicle speed sensor or a distance sensor may not be properly performed.
[0008]
Under such circumstances, there is a problem that the search range of the road may not be appropriate (that is, too narrow) with respect to the error of the current position accompanying the initialization of the current position.
[0009]
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a current position calculation device that appropriately calculates a current position of a vehicle by preventing a decrease in map matching accuracy due to initialization of a current position of the vehicle.
[0010]
[Means to solve the problem]
An object of the present invention is a current position calculating device mounted on a vehicle and calculating a current position of the vehicle,
Azimuth detecting means for detecting the traveling azimuth of the vehicle,
Distance calculating means for calculating the traveling distance of the vehicle,
Road data storage means for storing road data;
Based on the relative displacement obtained based on the traveling direction and the traveling distance, the current position of the vehicle is sequentially estimated as a virtual current position, and the virtual current position is compared with the road data in the road data storage unit. Calculating the candidate point of the current position on the road together with the reliability indicating its credibility, and when a plurality of candidate points are calculated, the candidate point having the highest reliability among the plurality of candidate points is identified as the current position. Map matching means,
A post-initialization travel distance calculation means for calculating a post-initialization travel distance of the current position,
The reliability calculated by the map matching means at the time of initialization of the current position is multiplied by a reliability correction coefficient for reducing the value to a predetermined ratio, and according to an increase in the mileage after the initialization. A reliability correction means for sequentially increasing the reliability correction coefficient to 1.
The map matching means, based on the reliability of the candidate point used to obtain the virtual current position, the search range of the line segment constituting the road to be matched with the virtual current position, the lower the reliability, The present invention is attained by a current position calculating device, which is set to be wider.
[0011]
In this device, the map matching means calculates the reliability of a candidate point obtained on the road based on the distance of the virtual current position to a road around the road and the azimuth difference between the road azimuth and the vehicle azimuth.
[0012]
Preferably, the reliability correction means keeps the reliability correction coefficient at 1 after the initialization travel distance reaches a predetermined distance until the current position is initialized again.
[0013]
The initialization of the current position is at least one of when the current position is set by the user and when the current position is set by radio navigation.
[0014]
[Action]
In the present invention, the map matching means sequentially estimates the current position of the vehicle as a virtual current position based on the relative displacement obtained based on the traveling direction and the traveling distance of the vehicle, and calculates the virtual current position as the road data. The candidate point of the current position on the road is calculated together with the reliability indicating its credibility by comparing with the road data in the storage means, and when a plurality of candidate points are calculated, the reliability of the plurality of candidate points is calculated. The highest candidate point is identified as the current position. At the same time, the reliability correction means multiplies the reliability calculated by the map matching means at the time of initializing the current position by a reliability correction coefficient for reducing the value to a predetermined ratio, and after the initialization, The reliability correction coefficient is sequentially increased to 1 according to the increase in the traveling distance. The map matching means, based on the reliability of the candidate point used to obtain the virtual current position, broadens the search range of the line segment constituting the road data to be compared with the virtual current position, as the reliability is lower, Set to be.
[0015]
As a result, the search range of the road is expanded immediately after the initialization of the current position, so that an error accompanying the initialization can be appropriately dealt with, and appropriate map matching can be performed.
[0016]
Further, after the travel distance after the initialization reaches the predetermined distance, the reliability correction coefficient is maintained at 1 until the current position is initialized again. , Normal map matching can be performed.
[0017]
【Example】
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
[0018]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the current position calculating device according to the embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the current position calculating device 10 includes an angular velocity sensor 11 that detects a change in the traveling direction by detecting a yaw rate of the vehicle, and a geomagnetic sensor 12 that detects the traveling direction of the vehicle by detecting geomagnetism. And a vehicle speed sensor 13 that outputs pulses at time intervals proportional to the rotation of the output shaft of the transmission of the vehicle, and a GPS receiver 27 for radio navigation.
[0019]
The display 17 displays a map around the current position, a mark indicating the current position, and the like; a switch 14 that receives a command to switch the scale of the map displayed on the display 17 from a user (driver); and stores digital map data. And a driver 16 for reading map data from the CD-ROM 15. Further, a controller 18 for controlling the operation of each peripheral device described above is provided. In the present embodiment, the digital map data described above includes road data composed of coordinates indicating the ends of a plurality of line segments, or road width data indicating the road width of the road, and whether the road is an expressway or a general road. It includes a highway flag indicating whether there is a vehicle.
[0020]
The controller 18 includes an A / D converter 19 that converts a signal (analog) of the angular velocity sensor 11 into a digital signal, an A / D converter 20 that converts a signal (analog) of the geomagnetic sensor 12 into a digital signal, and a vehicle speed sensor. A counter 26 that counts the number of pulses output from the switch 13 every 0.1 second, a parallel I / O 21 that inputs the presence or absence of pressing of the switch 14, and a DMA that transfers map data read from the CD-ROM 15 ( It has a Direct Memory Access controller 22 and a display processor 23 for displaying a map image on the display 17.
[0021]
The controller 18 further has a microprocessor 24 and a memory 25. The microprocessor 24 includes a signal of the angular velocity sensor 11 obtained through the A / D converter 19, a signal of the geomagnetic sensor 12 obtained through the A / D converter 20, and an output pulse of the vehicle speed sensor 13 counted by the counter 26. The number, the presence or absence of pressing of the switch 14 input through the parallel I / O 21, the map data from the CD-ROM 15 obtained through the DMA controller 22 are received, and the processing is performed based on these signals, and The current position is calculated and displayed on the display 17 via the display processor 23. The display of the vehicle position is performed by superimposing an arrow mark or the like on the map already displayed on the display 17 as shown in FIG. Thereby, the user can know the current position of the vehicle on the map. The memory 25 includes a ROM storing a program for defining the contents of processing (described later) for realizing such an operation, and a RAM used as a work area when the microprocessor 24 performs processing. I have.
[0022]
Hereinafter, the operation of the current position calculating device 10 configured as described above will be described.
[0023]
The operation of the device 10 generally includes a process of calculating the heading and traveling distance of the vehicle, a process of determining the current position of the vehicle from the calculated heading and distance, and displaying the obtained vehicle position and heading. Since these processes can be divided into three processes, these processes will be sequentially described.
[0024]
FIG. 3 illustrates a flow of a process for calculating the traveling direction and the traveling distance of the vehicle.
[0025]
This process is a routine of the microprocessor 24 that is started and executed at a fixed period, for example, every 100 ms.
[0026]
In this routine, first, the output value of the angular velocity sensor 11 is read from the A / D converter 19 (step 301). Since the azimuth change is output as the output value of the angular velocity sensor 11, only the relative value of the traveling direction of the vehicle can be detected. Therefore, next, the output value of the geomagnetic sensor 12 is read from the A / D converter 20 (step 302), and the absolute direction calculated based on the output value of the geomagnetic sensor 12 and the direction change output from each speed sensor 11 are changed. (Angular Velocity Output) and the estimated azimuth of the vehicle is determined (step 303).
[0027]
For example, when the vehicle speed is low for a long time, the error of the angular velocity sensor is large. Therefore, when the vehicle speed is low for a predetermined time or more, only the azimuth of the geomagnetic sensor is used.
[0028]
Next, the number of pulses output from the vehicle speed sensor 13 is counted by the counter 26 every 0.1 seconds, and the counted value is read (step 304). The read value is multiplied by a distance coefficient to obtain a distance advanced for 0.1 second (step 305).
[0029]
Next, the mileage value per 0.1 second obtained in this way is added to the value obtained last time to check whether or not the mileage of the vehicle has reached 20 m (step 306). If not (No in Step 306), the current process is terminated, and a new process is started.
[0030]
As a result of the travel distance calculation processing, when the integrated travel distance becomes a fixed distance, for example, 20 m (Yes in step 306), the traveling direction and the travel distance (20 m) at that time are output (step S306). 307). In step 307, the integrated distance is further initialized, and the integration of the traveling distance is newly started.
[0031]
Next, a description will be given of a process of calculating a virtual current position of a vehicle based on the calculated heading and traveling distance, and obtaining a candidate point of the vehicle based on the calculated virtual current position.
[0032]
FIG. 4 shows the flow of this processing.
[0033]
This processing is a routine of the microprocessor 24 that is started and executed in response to the output of the traveling direction and the traveling distance from FIG. That is, this process is started every time the vehicle travels 20 m.
[0034]
In this process, first, the traveling direction and the traveling distance output in the previous step 307 are read (step 41).
[0035]
Next, a map matching process is performed (step 42). This includes a process of calculating the reliability of the candidate point, as described later in detail.
[0036]
Thereafter, a reliability correction process for correcting the reliability of the candidate points obtained by the map matching process is performed (step 43). In the present embodiment, as described later, the reliability is corrected according to the length of the running distance after initialization.
[0037]
Finally, based on the corrected reliability, a candidate point having the highest reliability is selected from these candidate points as a display candidate, and the display candidate point data is output (step 44). More specifically, the position, the accumulated error cost, the reliability, etc., of the candidate point C having the highest reliability value as the display candidate point CD, that is, the candidate point to be displayed on the display 17, In addition to storing it in a predetermined area of the RAM of the memory 25, the position of the candidate points other than the display candidate points, the accumulated error cost, the reliability, the state flag, and the like are also stored in the predetermined area of the RAM. The display processing will be described later in detail.
[0038]
In this embodiment, data relating to seven candidate points can be stored. Therefore, when eight or more candidate points are calculated, among these, various data related to the seven candidate points in the descending order of the value of the reliability trst are stored in a predetermined area of the RAM of the memory 25. Will be done.
[0039]
FIG. 5 shows details of the map matching process.
[0040]
In the map matching process, first, the movement amount of the vehicle is separately obtained in the latitude and longitude directions. Further, the amount of movement in each of these directions is added to the position of the candidate point of the vehicle obtained in the process of obtaining the candidate point of the previous vehicle, and the virtual current position (the position where the current vehicle is estimated to exist) is added. A) is obtained (step 421). Details of this candidate point will be described later. If there is no candidate point obtained in the previous process for obtaining a candidate point for the vehicle, for example, immediately after the start of the apparatus, the position set separately is used as the position of the candidate point obtained last time, and the virtual current Find the position (A).
[0041]
Next, the obtained road data of the map around the virtual current position (A) is read from the CD-ROM 15 via the driver 16 and the DMA controller 23 (step 422).
[0042]
At this time, the search range D of the road is made variable based on the reliability (previously corrected) regarding the candidate point used to obtain the virtual current position (A). That is, for a virtual current position obtained from a candidate point with high reliability, a line segment included in a narrower range is selected, and conversely, for a virtual current position obtained from a candidate point with low reliability, a wider range is selected. Select the line segment included in. The reason for making the search range D variable based on the reliability is that if the reliability is low, it is considered that the credibility of the accuracy of the current position obtained last time is low. This is because searching is more appropriate for finding the correct current position.
[0043]
If the candidate point used to obtain the virtual current position (A) at the time of searching the road data is a candidate point on the road, it is a line segment within the distance search range D from the virtual current position (A). To select the line segment representing the road or the line segment connected to it. In the case of a candidate point that is not a candidate point on the road (a free state candidate point), a line segment within the distance search range D from the virtual current position (A) is selected. At this time, the search range D of the road may be variable based on the reliability (previously corrected) regarding the candidate point used to obtain the virtual current position. That is, for a virtual current position obtained from a candidate point with high reliability, a line segment included in a narrower range is selected, and conversely, for a virtual current position obtained from a candidate point with low reliability, a wider range is selected. Select the line segment included in. The reason for making the search range variable based on the reliability is that if the reliability is low, it is considered that the credibility of the accuracy of the current position obtained last time is low. This is because it is more appropriate for finding the correct current position.
[0044]
As described above, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 10, the road data is approximated by a plurality of line segments 51 to 55 connecting two points, and these line segments are defined as the start point and the end point. Those represented by coordinates are used. For example, the line segment 53 is represented by its start point (x3, y3) and end point (x4, y4).
[0045]
Next, from the line segments extracted in step 422, only the line segments whose azimuths are within the predetermined direction and the determined traveling direction are selected (step 423). With respect to all the n line segments, a perpendicular line is lowered from the virtual current position (A), and the length of the perpendicular line L (n) is obtained (step 424).
[0046]
Next, an error cost value ec (n) defined by the following equation is calculated for all the line segments selected in step 423 based on the lengths of these perpendicular lines.
[0047]
ec (n) = α × | θcar−θ (n) | + β | L (n) |
Here, θcar is the vehicle direction at the virtual current position (A), θ (n) is the direction of the line segment, and L (n) is the distance from the virtual current position (A) to the line segment, that is, the length of the perpendicular. , Α and β are weighting factors. The values of these weighting factors may be changed depending on which of the deviation between the traveling direction and the direction of the road and the deviation between the current position and the road is more important in selecting the road to which the current position belongs. For example, when importance is attached to a road whose direction is close to the traveling direction, α is increased.
[0048]
Here, details of the calculation of the candidate points will be described. In an initial state such as immediately after the start-up of the device, the virtual current position (A) is uniquely determined by the user (driver) inputting predetermined information using the switch 14, and the like. Is located on the line segment corresponding to the road. However, after the vehicle has traveled, the virtual current position (A) may not exist in the line segment corresponding to the road due to an error of a sensor such as a gyro. As a result, for example, as shown in FIG. 7, when the road is branched, that is, when two line segments 64 and 65 appear from the node 68 of the line segment 61 corresponding to the road, In many cases, it is not possible to clarify whether or not a vehicle exists on a road corresponding to.
[0049]
Therefore, in such a case, in this embodiment, predetermined points existing on two conceivable line segments are set as candidate points, and their current position, error cost, accumulated error cost described later, and the like are set. Are respectively stored in a predetermined area of the RAM of the memory 25. For the sake of simplicity, in the following description, one or more new candidate points will be generated from a single candidate point, unless otherwise specified.
[0050]
Next, according to the calculated error cost ec (n) and the accumulated error cost es related to the candidate point obtained in the previous process, the accumulated error cost in the current process defined by the following equation: es (n) is calculated (step 425).
[0051]
es (n) = (1−k) × es + k × ec (n)
Here, k is a weight coefficient larger than 0 and smaller than 1. The accumulated error cost es (n) indicates how much the error cost calculated in the previous process is reflected in the error cost calculated in the current process.
[0052]
Further, based on the calculated accumulated error cost es (n), a reliability trst (n) defined by the following equation is calculated (step 425).
[0053]
trst (n) = 100 / (1 + es (n))
As is clear from this equation, as the accumulated error cost ec (n) increases, the reliability trst (n) decreases and approaches 0 (zero). On the other hand, as this becomes smaller, the reliability trst (n) increases, and its value approaches 100. The reliability obtained here is a target to be corrected by the reliability correction processing in step 43 of FIG.
[0054]
By performing such processing, the reliability trst (n) relating to n line segments existing within a predetermined range D from the current position A for a certain candidate point is obtained. As described above, the reliability is calculated for each selected line segment, but in the present specification, for the sake of convenience, it is also treated as the reliability for a candidate obtained on the line segment.
[0055]
Then, based on the calculated reliability trst (n), a point advanced from a certain candidate point along a corresponding line segment by a length corresponding to the distance R traveled by the vehicle is set as a new candidate point C ( n) (step 426). Therefore, if the number of line segments at which a candidate point is located or a line segment connected thereto and the difference between the azimuth and the vehicle azimuth is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value is n, n new candidate points C (n) will be generated.
[0056]
For example, as shown in FIG. 7, it is assumed that a current position A is represented at a position indicated by a point 63 with respect to a certain candidate point 62 existing on a line segment 61. In such a case, a line segment 64 connected from the current position A to the line segment 61 at which the candidate point 62 is located, wherein the difference between the azimuth and the vehicle azimuth is equal to or less than a predetermined value, 65, the distances L (1) and L (2) from the current position A to the line segments 64 and 65 are calculated, and the calculated distances and angles θ (1) and θ ( Based on 2) and the vehicle direction θcar, the related error cost, accumulated error cost, and reliability are calculated. Further, based on the travel distance R of the vehicle obtained in step 307 of FIG. 3, a length corresponding to the travel distance R from a certain candidate point 62 along the line segments 61 and 64 or the line segments 61 and 65. Is calculated, and points corresponding to this position are set as candidate points 66 and 67, respectively.
[0057]
Further, as shown in FIG. 8, for the candidate point 66 on the line segment 64, a new current position A is represented at the position indicated by the point 71, while the candidate point 67 on the line segment 65 On the other hand, it is assumed that the new current position A ′ is represented at the position indicated by the point 72. In this case, from the current position A, the line segments 73 and 74 that are connected to the line segment 64 and whose difference between the azimuth and the vehicle azimuth is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value are extracted, and a new one is extracted. From the current position A ′, a line segment 75 that is connected to the line segment 65 and whose difference between the azimuth and the vehicle azimuth is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value is extracted. Next, the distances L1 (1) and L1 (2) from the current position A to the line segments 73 and 74 are calculated, and the distance L2 (1) from the current position A 'to the line segment 75 is calculated. . Further, based on the distance calculated in relation to the current position A, the angles θ1 (1) and θ1 (2) of the line segments 73 and 74, the vehicle direction θcar, and the like, the related error cost, accumulated error cost, and reliability And the associated error cost, accumulated error cost, and reliability are calculated based on the distance calculated in relation to the current position A ′, the angle θ2 (1) of the line segment 75, the vehicle direction θcar, and the like. .
[0058]
Further, based on the traveling distance R of the vehicle obtained in step 307 in FIG. 3, the line segment 64 and 73 from the candidate point 66, or the line segment 64 and 74, or from the candidate point 67, A position advanced by a length corresponding to the traveling distance R of the vehicle is calculated along 65 and 75, and a point corresponding to this position is set as a new candidate point. FIG. 9 shows candidate points 81 to 83 thus newly obtained.
[0059]
Now, a detailed flow of the reliability correction processing shown in FIG. 4 will be described with reference to FIG.
[0060]
In the present embodiment, the reliability is corrected according to the running distance after the initialization of the current position of the vehicle. In the present embodiment, the initialization of the current position corresponds to the manual setting of the current position and the setting value of the current position by the GPS. The current position by the GPS is adopted when the error of the current position by the self-contained navigation exceeds a predetermined threshold. A known method can be used for measuring the error of the current position by the self-contained navigation. This threshold may be changed between the candidate point in the free state and the candidate point in the matching state. That is, the threshold for the free state candidate point is made smaller.
[0061]
In FIG. 6, first, it is determined whether or not the current position has been initialized (step 431). If not, the process proceeds to step 433. If so, the post-initialization traveling distance L is reset to 0, and the accumulated error cost es is also reset to 0 (step 432). Next, the post-initialization traveling distance L is updated (step 433).
[0062]
Next, a reliability correction coefficient m is calculated based on the running distance L after the initialization (step 434).
[0063]
For this purpose, the present embodiment uses a table associating the range of the value of the distance L with the value of the correction coefficient m as shown in FIG. Here, the correction coefficient m starts from 0.75, and gradually increases by 0.05 as the distance L increases, and is maintained at 1.0 when the distance L becomes 100 km or more. Instead of this table, it is also possible to use an appropriate formula for obtaining the correction coefficient m for the distance L.
[0064]
Using this value of m, the corrected reliability trst (crr) is corrected by the following equation (step 435).
[0065]
trst (crr) = trst × m = m × 100 / (1 + es)
As can be seen from this equation, the value of the reliability trst (crr) approaches the maximum amplitude as the m value increases. Accordingly, the search range of the road with respect to the virtual current position obtained from the candidate point is gradually reduced.
[0066]
Here, the matching state and the free state of the candidate points will be described. From the current position A for a candidate point located on a certain line segment, a line segment where the candidate point is located or a line segment connected to the candidate point, and a difference between the direction and the traveling direction of the vehicle is equal to or less than a predetermined value. It is conceivable that there is no line segment such as. In this case, the current position A itself is handled as the next candidate point calculated from the candidate point. In the present embodiment, the candidate points thus obtained are referred to as free candidate points. On the other hand, in other states, that is, from the current position A for a candidate point located on a certain line segment, the line segment on which the candidate point is located or a line segment connected thereto, and its azimuth and A state where there is a line segment whose difference from the traveling direction of the vehicle is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value, and as a result, a next candidate point can exist on a specific line segment is referred to as a matching state.
[0067]
If there is no line segment at which the candidate point is located or a line segment connected to the line and the difference between the direction and the traveling direction of the vehicle is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value, the process proceeds to step 425. The error cost ec (n) to be calculated is given a constant value larger than the value of the error cost obtained in the case of the matching state.
[0068]
When a new candidate point is obtained based on the free state candidate point, the virtual current position itself with respect to the free state candidate point is set as a new free state candidate point, and a predetermined range from the virtual current position is determined. If a line segment whose difference between the direction and the traveling direction of the vehicle is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value exists in D, the intersection of the perpendicular drawn from the virtual current position to the line segment and this line segment is newly set. Candidate points.
[0069]
The display candidate points obtained in step 44 of FIG. 4 are displayed on the screen of the display 17 by processing based on the flowchart shown in FIG.
[0070]
This process is a routine of the microprocessor 24 which is started and executed every second.
[0071]
First, it is determined whether or not the switch 14 has been pressed to change the scale of the map by looking at the contents of the parallel I / O 21 (step 1301). If the button is pressed (Yes in step 1301), a predetermined scale flag is set accordingly (step 1302).
[0072]
Next, data indicating the position and orientation of the display candidate point is read from a predetermined area of the RAM of the memory 25 (step 1303), and a map of a scale corresponding to the contents of the scale flag switched in step 1302 is displayed on the display 17. For example, it is displayed in a state as shown in FIG. 2 (step 1304).
[0073]
Then, the position and the direction of the display candidate point are displayed on the map by using an arrow symbol “図”, for example, as shown in FIG. 2 described above (step 1305). Finally, a north mark indicating north and a distance mark corresponding to the scale are superimposed on them and displayed as shown in FIG. 2 (step 1306).
[0074]
In the present embodiment, the vehicle position and the direction are indicated using the arrow symbols as described above. However, the display form of the vehicle position and the direction is such that the position and the traveling direction are clearly displayed. If so, the form may be arbitrary. The same applies to the north mark and the like.
[0075]
According to this embodiment, since the road search range is expanded according to the straight traveling distance, the accuracy of map matching can be further improved.
[0076]
In this specification, means does not necessarily mean physical means, but also includes a case where the function of each means is realized by software. Further, the function of one unit may be realized by two or more physical units, or the function of two or more units may be realized by one physical unit.
[0077]
【The invention's effect】
According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a current position calculation device that appropriately calculates the current position of a vehicle by preventing the accuracy of map matching from being lowered due to the initialization of the current position of the vehicle.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a current position calculating device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a map and a current position according to the embodiment;
FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a process of calculating a traveling direction and a traveling distance of a vehicle.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a main process according to the embodiment;
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing details of one step (map matching processing) shown in FIG. 4;
FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating details of another step (reliability correction processing) illustrated in FIG. 4;
FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining a line segment corresponding to a road, a virtual current position, and a candidate point;
FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining a line segment corresponding to a road, a virtual current position, and a candidate point;
FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining a line segment corresponding to a road, a virtual current position, and a candidate point;
FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of road data according to the embodiment;
FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining calculation of a reliability correction coefficient according to the embodiment;
FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a display process according to the embodiment;
[Explanation of symbols]
Reference Signs List 10 Current position calculating device 11 Angular velocity sensor 12 Geomagnetic sensor 13 Vehicle speed sensor 14 Switch 15 CD-ROM
16 CD-ROM read driver 17 display 18 controller

Claims (4)

A current position calculation device mounted on a vehicle and calculating a current position of the vehicle,
Azimuth detecting means for detecting the traveling azimuth of the vehicle,
Distance calculating means for calculating the traveling distance of the vehicle,
Road data storage means for storing road data;
Based on the relative displacement obtained based on the traveling direction and the traveling distance, the current position of the vehicle is sequentially estimated as a virtual current position, and the virtual current position is compared with the road data in the road data storage unit. Calculating the candidate point of the current position on the road together with the reliability indicating its credibility, and when a plurality of candidate points are calculated, the candidate point having the highest reliability among the plurality of candidate points is identified as the current position. Map matching means,
A post-initialization travel distance calculation means for calculating a post-initialization travel distance of the current position,
The reliability calculated by the map matching means at the time of initialization of the current position is multiplied by a reliability correction coefficient for reducing the value to a predetermined ratio, and according to an increase in the mileage after the initialization. A reliability correction means for sequentially increasing the reliability correction coefficient to 1.
The map matching means, based on the reliability of the candidate point used to obtain the virtual current position, the search range of the line segment constituting the road to be matched with the virtual current position, the lower the reliability, A current position calculation device characterized by setting to be wider. The map matching means calculates a reliability of a candidate point obtained on the road based on a distance of the virtual current position to a road around the road and an azimuth difference between the road azimuth and a vehicle azimuth. The current position calculation device according to claim 1. The reliability correction means may maintain the reliability correction coefficient at 1 after the initialization travel distance reaches a predetermined distance until the current position is initialized again. The current position calculating device according to claim 1. 4. The current position calculating device according to claim 1, wherein the initialization of the current position is at least one of a time when the current position is set by a user and a time when the current position is set by radio navigation.

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