JP4745877B2 - Road guidance system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention is mounted on a vehicle and used to calculate and output a current position of the own vehicle, partial map information corresponding to the current position, a traveling direction and a traveling route, and an output of the navigation apparatus. The present invention relates to a road guidance system including a road guidance notification device that generates a road guidance image and sound and notifies a driver for each predetermined guidance point.

As this type of road guidance system, for example, in Patent Document 1 below, the road information based on image information obtained by a camera is compared with the road information output from the navigation device, and based on the comparison result. A system for correcting the vehicle position information is described. This system makes various estimations using a database of information.
JP 2002-8199 A (summary)

  However, road information that blocks a part of the road due to construction work or the number of lanes decreases may not be recorded in the database, or it may be different even if it is recorded temporarily Therefore, even if the road information database is frequently updated to match the current situation, it cannot keep up with the traffic conditions that change from time to time. Therefore, the system described in Patent Document 1 always provides the driver with accurate road guidance information. It was difficult to provide.

  In addition to Patent Document 1, a road guidance system having various functions has been proposed, but road guidance is performed based on a traffic jam prediction result, the current position of the vehicle is estimated, merge, branch, etc. When providing information for avoiding traffic congestion, there is also a problem that guidance information cannot be obtained until the traveling vehicle reaches the guidance start distance in front of the guidance point.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems of the prior art, and even before reaching the road guide point of the navigation device, the road information can be reliably grasped, thereby accurately and accurately. An object of the present invention is to provide a road guidance system capable of promptly presenting road guidance information to a driver.

The present invention is used by being mounted on a vehicle, and based on at least map information obtained from a map database, a signal from a GPS satellite, and destination information set from outside, the current position of the host vehicle, and the current position A navigation device that calculates partial map information corresponding to the driving direction and a driving direction and a driving route and outputs it as navigation data, and generates road guidance images and voices based on the navigation data, and drives each predetermined guidance point. A road guidance system having a road guidance notification device for notifying a person,
An image sensor capable of photographing the road and vehicle ahead of the vehicle;
Based on the output signal of the image sensor, a travelable area extracting means for extracting a travelable area of the entire road width developed in front of the vehicle, and the lane and the vehicle of the extracted travelable area traveled. An image processing apparatus comprising: a lane detection unit that sequentially detects an own vehicle traveling lane; and a congestion degree calculation unit that calculates a congestion degree for each lane based on an output signal of the image sensor;
The road information is obtained from the map database of the navigation device, and the travelable distance calculation means for obtaining each of the information processed by the image processing device and calculating the travelable distance that the vehicle can travel for each lane. The travel direction discriminating means for discriminating the travel direction of whether the next guidance point is going straight or turning left and right, the travel direction determined is straight travel, and the travelable distance of the vehicle lane is predetermined. If there is another lane with a low road congestion when the value is less than or equal to the value, road guidance information that prompts the user to move to that lane is generated, and the determined traveling direction is a left / right turn, and the current lane is the lane to be guided not, and the travelable distance to the guide point is not greater than the predetermined value, and the induction schedule lane is crowded, the travelable distance is a distance from the guide start position to the guide point If not greater, the guide will generate a road guidance information for prompting a moving only one lane in lane side, and the lane change inducing means for providing the road guidance providing device these road guide information as one of each of said navigation data And an information fusion processing device.
Further, according to the present invention, the lane change guiding means is such that the traveling direction determined by the traveling direction determining means is a left or right turn, the current traveling lane is not the planned guidance lane, and the guidance point is When the travelable distance is larger than the predetermined value, road guidance information that prompts the continuation of traveling on the own lane is generated.
Further, according to the present invention, the lane change guiding means is such that the traveling direction determined by the traveling direction determining means is a left or right turn, the current traveling lane is not the planned guidance lane, and the guidance point is When the travelable distance is not larger than the predetermined value and the guidance lane is not crowded, road guidance information that urges the guidance lane to move by one lane is generated.
Further, according to the present invention, the lane change guiding means is such that the traveling direction determined by the traveling direction determining means is a left or right turn, the current traveling lane is not the planned guidance lane, and the guidance point is When the travelable distance is not greater than the predetermined value and the planned lane is crowded, and the travelable distance is greater than the distance from the guidance start position to the guidance point, road guidance that encourages continuation of own lane travel It is configured to generate information.

  In the present invention, based on the output signal of the image sensor, a travelable area of the entire road width that is developed in front of the host vehicle is extracted, and image processing is performed on the extracted travelable area to thereby detect the lane and the vehicle. Sequentially detect the vehicle lane in which the vehicle is traveling, and appropriately alert and guide the driver according to the distance that the vehicle can travel, the distance to a predetermined guide point, and the road conditions Therefore, even before the road guide point of the navigation device is reached, the road information can be surely grasped, and thereby the road guide system can present the road guide information to the driver accurately and quickly. Provided.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on preferred embodiments shown in the drawings.
<First Embodiment>
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a first embodiment of a road guidance system according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, an image sensor 10 that can use a CCD camera, for example, captures a road, a vehicle, a separation zone, etc. in front of the host vehicle, and a video signal thereof is applied to the image processing device 20A. The image processing device 20A performs image processing based on the video signal output from the image sensor 10, thereby extracting a travelable area of the entire road width that is developed ahead of the host vehicle, and further, a lane in the travelable area. And the own vehicle traveling lane in which the own vehicle is traveling is sequentially detected. The navigation device 30 is based on at least map information obtained from a map database, a signal from a GPS (Global Positioning System) satellite, and destination information set from outside, and a portion corresponding to the current position of the host vehicle. Map information, travel direction, and travel route are calculated and output as navigation data. The information fusion processing device 40A is connected to both the image processing device 20A and the navigation device 30 so as to be able to exchange information. The information fusion processing device 40A sends the navigation data output from the navigation device 30 to the road guidance notification device 50 as it is. The signal from the image processing device 20A is processed in association with the navigation data of the device 30, and the result is sent to the road guidance notification device 50 as one of the navigation data. The road guidance notification device 50 generates a road guidance image and sound based on the navigation data sent from the information fusion processing device 40A, and notifies the driver for each predetermined guidance point.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of the first embodiment of the road guidance system according to the present invention. In the figure, the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 1 denote the same elements. In FIG. 2, an image processing device 20A and an information fusion processing device 40A each have a CPU (not shown) and a control procedure and fixed data necessary for the arithmetic processing of the CPU written in advance and provided to the CPU as needed. And a RAM (not shown) used as a working area for the arithmetic processing of the CPU. Therefore, paying attention to the function of the image processing apparatus 20A, the vehicle is provided with a travelable area extracting means 21 and a lane detecting means 22. Based on the output signal of the image sensor 10, the travelable area extracting unit 21 extracts a travelable area of the entire road width developed in front of the own vehicle. The lane detection unit 22 sequentially detects the extracted lane in the travelable area and the own vehicle travel lane in which the host vehicle is traveling.

  In the navigation device 30, the vehicle position extraction unit 32 calculates the latitude and longitude of the vehicle based on the position and time information of the GPS satellites received by the GPS unit 33 and matches the map data from the map database 31. To detect the position of the vehicle. The destination information 35 is input from the driver, and the route calculation unit 34 calculates a travel route based on the destination information 35 and the position information of the host vehicle detected by the vehicle position extraction unit 32. The map matching unit 36 performs map matching with map data based on the vehicle position on the map. As a result, the navigation device 30 outputs the current position of the vehicle, the partial map information corresponding to the current position, the travel direction and the travel route as navigation data for each predetermined guidance point and outputs it to the information fusion processing device 40A. Send it in.

Focusing on the function of the information fusion processing device 40A, the information fusion processing device 40A includes a travelable distance calculating means 41 and a lane further guiding means 42. The travelable distance calculation means 41 acquires each piece of information processed by the image processing device 20A, and calculates the travelable distance of the own vehicle for each lane. The lane change guiding means 42 generates road guidance information that prompts the user to move to the lane if there is another lane in which the travelable distance exceeds the predetermined value when the travelable distance of the host vehicle travel lane is equal to or less than the predetermined value, This is provided to the road guidance notification device 50 as one piece of navigation data.

  The road guidance notifying device 50 includes a road guidance receiving unit 51 that receives navigation data from the information fusion processing device 40A, and a voice generating unit 52 that generates and outputs voice based on the data received by the road guidance receiving unit 51. And an image generation unit 53 that generates image data based on data received by the road guidance reception unit 51, and a display device 54 that performs display according to the image data generated by the image generation unit 53. Yes.

The navigation device 30 and the road guidance notification device 50 are commercially available with various functions other than those described above as navigation units, and are widely used. Therefore, detailed description thereof is omitted, and image processing is performed. The apparatus 20A and the information fusion processing apparatus 40A will be described in detail below.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of the processing procedure of the CPU constituting the image processing apparatus 20A. Hereinafter, specific processing contents will be described with reference to this flowchart. First, in step 211, the image data is acquired from the image sensor 10 with the road and vehicle ahead of the host vehicle as processing targets, and in step 212, the image data is stored in the memory. Next, in step 213, image data is read from the memory, frame image region division processing is executed, and in step 214, a travelable region where the vehicle travels is extracted. The travelable area is not only the lane in which the host vehicle is traveling, but also the entire road width that develops ahead of the host vehicle including the adjacent lanes, and other vehicles within the practical field of view of the image sensor 10. If there is, there is a region up to the rear of the vehicle, and if there is no other vehicle in the field of view, the region up to the identifiable position is taken as the region. Next, in step 221, it is determined whether or not the area where the vehicle can travel is bidirectionally accessible, for example, based on the presence or absence of a median strip or the presence or absence of a center line. In step 222, only the traveling direction of the host vehicle is set as the travelable area, and the process proceeds to step 223.

  In step 223, the road curvature (running road shape) of the travelable area of the host vehicle is calculated, and then the number of lanes that can be traveled is calculated in step 224. If the number of lanes is plural, in step 225 it is calculated in which lane the vehicle exists, and in step 226 which lane of the plurality of lanes is running, that is, the own lane arrangement Is calculated. In step 227, one or a plurality of lane information of the travelable area obtained by the processing up to step 226 and the own lane arrangement information on which the host vehicle is traveling are stored in, for example, a memory. Among the processes described above, the processes of steps 211 to 214 correspond to the travelable area extracting means 21 in FIG. 2, and the processes of steps 221 to 227 correspond to the lane detecting means 22 in FIG.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of a processing procedure of the CPU constituting the information fusion processing device 40A. Hereinafter, specific processing contents will be described with reference to this flowchart. First, in step 411, information on the travelable region processed by the image processing device 20A and information on the lane and the own vehicle travel lane in which the host vehicle is traveling are acquired. In step 412, the navigation data of the navigation device 30 is obtained. While acquiring, the information of the map database 31 to the next guidance point is read. Subsequently, in step 413, after calculating the travel distance of the vehicle to the next guidance point and confirming that it is in front of the next guidance start point, the travelable distance DS of the vehicle is calculated. This travelable distance DS is an inter-vehicle distance where there is no obstacle between the own vehicle and the other vehicle when there is another vehicle ahead of the lane in which the host vehicle is traveling, If there is another vehicle in front of the lane other than the lane in which the vehicle is traveling, and the vehicle moves to the lane in which the other vehicle exists, there is no obstacle between the vehicle and the other vehicle, and the vehicle is safe. The distance between vehicles that can travel in the distance, and when there is no other vehicle ahead of the other lane, if the vehicle moves to another lane, there is no obstacle ahead and the distance can travel safely It means the distance that the vehicle can travel in all lanes. In step 421, it is determined whether or not the travelable distance DS of the lane in which the vehicle is traveling is shorter than a predetermined value TH (for example, 1.5 times the distance from the guidance start position to the guidance point), If it is shorter, the process proceeds to step 422. In step 422, the travelable distance of the travel lane of the vehicle is compared with the travelable distance of the other lane, and it is determined that the lane change is necessary before the next guidance start point when the travelable distance of the other lane is long. If the travelable distance of other lanes is also equal to or less than the predetermined value TH, it is determined that the lane change is unnecessary. In this way, when it is determined in step 422 that a lane change is necessary, the size and arrangement of a highlight mark (an arrow for right or left turn) indicating that a lane change is necessary is calculated in step 423. In addition to the road guidance notification device 50 as one of the navigation data, the process is terminated. On the other hand, if it is determined in step 421 that the travelable distance DH of the lane in which the host vehicle is traveling is longer than the predetermined value TH, if it is determined in step 422 that a lane change is not necessary, the series of processes is terminated. .

  Among the processes shown in the flowchart of FIG. 4, the processes of steps 411 to 413 correspond to the travelable distance calculating means 41, and the processes of steps 421 to 423 correspond to the lane change guiding means 42. When data indicating that a lane change is required from the information fusion processing device 40A is added to the road guidance notification device 50, the road guidance notification device 50 displays a right / left turn arrow on the display device 54. In addition, it is also possible to generate a voice in the voice generation unit 52 in addition to the direction display by the arrow and notify the driver.

  As described above, according to the first embodiment of the present invention, appropriate guidance is given to the driver in accordance with the travelable distance of the host vehicle. Even in this case, the road information can be surely grasped, and the road guide information can be presented to the driver accurately and quickly.

<Second Embodiment>
FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of the second embodiment of the road guidance system according to the present invention. In the figure, the same elements as those of the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals. . In the second embodiment, the image processing apparatus 20B includes a lane number change detecting means 23 in addition to the travelable area extracting means 21 and the lane detecting means 22 constituting the first embodiment, The information fusion processing device 40B includes the travelable distance calculation means 41 that constitutes the first embodiment as it is, but the lane change guidance means 42 that constitutes the first embodiment does not have the lane change guidance means 43. However, the configuration is different from that of the first embodiment, and the other configuration is the same as that of the first embodiment. Therefore, the operation will be described according to the processing procedure of the CPU, focusing on the parts that differ from the first embodiment.

  The lane number change detection means 23 constituting the image processing device 20B takes in the information of the lane detected by the lane detection means 22 and the own vehicle travel lane in which the host vehicle is traveling, and detects the change in the number of lanes in the travelable region. The travel attention alerting means 43 for detecting and composing the information fusion processing device 40B joins according to the change in the number of lanes in the travelable area when the travelable distance of the host vehicle travel lane is equal to or less than a predetermined value. Alternatively, road guidance information that prompts attention of branching is generated and provided to the road guidance notification device 50 as one piece of navigation data.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an example of the processing procedure of the CPU constituting the image processing apparatus 20B. Steps 231 to 234 are further added after the processing of steps 211 to 227 shown in FIG. Therefore, processing in steps 231 to 234 other than those described in the column of the first embodiment will be described. In step 231, it is determined whether or not the number of lanes has decreased in the travelable area. If not, the process proceeds to step 233. If it has decreased, road information indicating that there is a merge in step 232 is obtained. The process proceeds to step 233. In step 233, it is determined whether or not the number of lanes is increasing in the travelable region. If not, the process ends. If it has increased, step 234 generates road information indicating that there is a branch. To finish the process. The processing in steps 231 to 234 corresponds to the lane number change detecting means 23.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an example of the processing procedure of the CPU constituting the information fusion processing device 40B. The processing in steps 421 to 423 shown in FIG. 4 is changed to the processing in steps 431 to 434. Therefore, the processing of steps 431 to 434 other than those described in the column of the first embodiment will be described. In step 431, it is determined whether or not the travelable distance DS of the lane in which the host vehicle is traveling is shorter than a predetermined value TH. In step 432, it is determined whether or not the merge / branch information is present in the information acquired from the image processing apparatus 20B. If this merge / branch information is not present, the process is terminated, and the merge / branch information is present. In this case, the processing after step 433 is executed. In step 433, a warning of attention is generated in the merging vehicle or the decrease in the number of lanes. In step 434, voice and image information for alerting the merging vehicle is generated, and the information is added to the road guidance notification device 50 and processed. Exit. The processing in steps 431 to 434 corresponds to the travel alerting means 43.

  When information and image information for calling attention to the merging vehicle from the information fusion processing device 40B is added to the road guidance notification device 50, the voice guidance unit 52 generates a voice for merging attention in the road guidance notification device 50, and displays it. The device 54 displays an image of merging attention.

  As described above, according to the second embodiment of the present invention, it is detected that there is a merge or branch on the road to a predetermined guide point, and appropriate warning is given to the driver according to the situation. Thus, even before the road guide point of the navigation device is reached, the road information can be surely grasped, and the road guide information can be presented to the driver accurately and quickly.

<Third Embodiment>
FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of the third embodiment of the road guidance system according to the present invention. In FIG. 8, the same elements as those of the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals. . In the third embodiment, the image processing device 20C is based on the output signal of the image sensor 10 in addition to the travelable area extracting means 21 and the lane detecting means 22 constituting the first embodiment. In addition to the travel distance calculation means 41 in which the information fusion processing device 40C constitutes the first embodiment, the map database 31 of the navigation device 30 is provided. The road direction is acquired, and the next guidance point determines the traveling direction whether the vehicle travels straight or turns right and left, and the degree of congestion depends on whether the determined traveling direction is straight ahead or right / left turn. The lane change guidance means 45 for generating road guidance information according to the difference from the first embodiment is different from the first embodiment. In the following, the operation of the third embodiment will be described according to the processing procedure of the CPU, focusing on the difference in configuration from the first embodiment.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing an example of the processing procedure of the CPU constituting the information fusion processing device 40C. The processing in steps 211 to 214 corresponds to the travelable area extracting means 21, and the processing in steps 221 to 227 is a lane. Corresponding to the detection means 22, the process of detecting the degree of congestion for each lane in step 241 corresponds to the congestion degree detection means 24. In step 241, the image captured by the image sensor 10 is processed to detect the number of vehicles included in each lane, and the congestion levels of the own lane and other lanes are detected. Note that, as the degree of congestion for each lane, the travelable distance for each lane extracted by the travelable area extracting unit 21 can be used.

  FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing an example of the processing procedure of the CPU constituting the information fusion processing device 40C. The processing of steps 411 to 414 corresponds to the travelable distance calculating means 41, and the straight / right / left turn direction of step 441 is performed. The discrimination process corresponds to the travel direction discrimination means 44, and the lane change guidance process corresponding to the degree of congestion in step 451 corresponds to the lane change guidance means 45.

  FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing a more detailed processing procedure of steps 441 and 451 in FIG. 10, and the processing contents will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 12 according to this flowchart. First, in step 4411, the information of the map database 31 constituting the navigation device 30, that is, the road information database is read out. In step 4412, it is determined whether or not the next guide point is going straight. If it is not straight ahead, it is determined in step 4413 whether or not the next guidance point is a right or left turn. The processing of steps 4411 to 4413 is the processing content of step 441 in FIG.

  Next, in step 4511, it is determined whether or not it is possible to go straight in the traveling lane of the own vehicle (hereinafter, the lane is also abbreviated as lane), that is, whether or not it is possible to go straight in the current lane. In step 4512, it is determined that the vehicle continues to travel in its own lane. If it is determined in step 4511 that the vehicle cannot travel straight in the current lane, it is determined in step 4513 whether or not another lane can travel straight ahead. If it is possible to travel straight ahead, it is determined in step 4514 that the lane is changed to another lane. . If it is determined in step 4513 that driving in another lane is not possible, the degree of congestion between the own lane and the other lane is compared in step 4515. If the own lane is not available, it is determined in step 4514 that the lane is changed to another lane. FIG. 12C shows that the next guidance point for the own vehicle A is going straight, the current lane 12 is not able to go straight, and the lane is changed to another lane 11 when the own lane is not vacant compared to the other lane 11. The case where it determines with is illustrated.

Next, if it is determined in step 4413 that the next guidance point is a right or left turn, it is determined in step 4517 whether or not it is a planned left or right guidance lane. Decide to continue. On the other hand, if it is determined in step 4517 that the lane is not a guidance scheduled lane, the distance DS to the next guidance point in step 4519 is a predetermined value TH (for example, the distance GS × 1.5 from the guidance start position to the guidance point). ), If it is greater, it is determined in step 4518 that the vehicle will continue traveling on its own lane. Distance DS in step 4519 until the next guidance point is moving prediction lane in step 4520 if not greater than the predetermined value TH, it is determined whether or not crowded than the self lane, if the crowded Step 4521 It is then determined whether the distance DS is greater than the distance GS. If it is determined in step 4521 that the distance DS is greater than the distance GS, it is determined that the vehicle is traveling in its own lane in step 4522. If it is determined that the distance DS is not greater than the distance GS, it is determined in step 4523 that the lane is changed to one lane. . On the other hand, if it is determined in step 4520 that the scheduled lane is not crowded than the own lane, it is determined in step 4524 that the lane change is one lane. In step 4525, road guidance information is generated according to the continuation of own lane driving, the other lane lane change, the own lane continuation change, the one lane lane change, and the one lane lane change determined in steps 4512, 4514, 4518, 4522, 4523, and 4524, respectively. To do. FIG. 12A shows a case where the next guidance point for the vehicle A is a left or right turn, the current travel lane 11 is not a guidance lane, the distance DS is not greater than a predetermined value, and the guidance lane 13 is not crowded. The case where the lane is changed by one lane is illustrated. FIG. 12B shows that the next guidance point for the vehicle A is a left / right turn, the current driving lane 11 is not a guidance lane, the distance DS is not greater than a predetermined value, the guidance lane 12 is crowded, and When the distance DS is greater than the distance GS, the vehicle continues to travel on its own lane 11, and when the guidance scheduled lanes are crowded and the distance DS is not greater than the distance GS, the lane 11 is shifted to the lane 12 for one lane. The case of changing lanes is illustrated.

  As described above, according to the third embodiment of the present invention, it is detected whether the predetermined guidance point is going straight or turning right and left, and the driver is determined according to the distance to the guidance point and the congestion situation of the road. Therefore, it is possible to reliably grasp road information even before reaching the road guidance point of the navigation device, thereby presenting the road guidance information to the driver accurately and quickly. be able to.

It is a block diagram showing a schematic structure of a 1st embodiment of a road guidance system concerning the present invention. It is a block diagram which shows the detailed structure of 1st Embodiment of the road guidance system which concerns on this invention. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure of an image processing unit in the first embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the process sequence of the information fusion processing apparatus in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the detailed structure of 2nd Embodiment of the road guidance system which concerns on this invention. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure of an image processing unit in the second embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the process sequence of the information fusion processing apparatus in the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the detailed structure of 3rd Embodiment of the road guidance system which concerns on this invention. 14 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure of an image processing unit in the third embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the process sequence of the information fusion processing apparatus in the 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the detailed process procedure of a part of process procedure in FIG. It is operation | movement explanatory drawing of the 3rd Embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Image sensor 20A, 20B, 20C Image processing apparatus 21 Travelable area extraction means 22 Lane detection means 23 Lane number change detection means 24 Congestion degree detection means 30 Navigation apparatus 40A, 40B, 40C Information fusion processing apparatus 41 Travelable distance calculation means 42 Lane Change Guidance Means 43 Travel Warning Awareness Means 44 Travel Direction Discriminating Means 45 Lane Change Guidance Means 50

Claims (4)

A part corresponding to the current position of the vehicle and the current position based on map information obtained from at least a map database, a signal from a GPS satellite, and destination information set from the outside. A navigation device that calculates map information, a driving direction and a driving route, and outputs it as navigation data. Based on the navigation data, an image and sound of road guidance are generated and notified to the driver for each predetermined guidance point. A road guidance system having a road guidance notification device,
An image sensor capable of photographing the road and vehicle ahead of the vehicle;
Based on the output signal of the image sensor, a travelable area extracting means for extracting a travelable area of the entire road width developed in front of the vehicle, and the lane and the vehicle of the extracted travelable area traveled. An image processing apparatus comprising: a lane detection unit that sequentially detects an own vehicle traveling lane; and a congestion degree calculation unit that calculates a congestion degree for each lane based on an output signal of the image sensor;
The road information is obtained from the map database of the navigation device, and the travelable distance calculation means for obtaining each of the information processed by the image processing device and calculating the travelable distance that the vehicle can travel for each lane. The travel direction discriminating means for discriminating the travel direction of whether the next guidance point is going straight or turning left and right, the travel direction determined is straight travel, and the travelable distance of the vehicle lane is predetermined. If there is another lane with a low road congestion when the value is less than or equal to the value, road guidance information that prompts the user to move to that lane is generated, and the determined traveling direction is a left / right turn, and the current lane is the lane to be guided not, and the travelable distance to the guide point is not greater than the predetermined value, and the induction schedule lane is crowded, the travelable distance is a distance from the guide start position to the guide point If not greater, the guide will generate a road guidance information for prompting a moving only one lane in lane side, and the lane change inducing means for providing the road guidance providing device these road guide information as one of each of said navigation data an information fusion processing apparatus having,
Road guidance system equipped with. The lane change guiding means is such that the traveling direction determined by the traveling direction determining means is a left / right turn, the current traveling lane is not the planned guidance lane, and the travelable distance to the guide point is the predetermined distance The road guidance system according to claim 1, which is configured to generate road guidance information for encouraging continuation of the own lane when the value is larger than the value. The lane change guiding means is such that the traveling direction determined by the traveling direction determining means is a left / right turn, the current traveling lane is not the planned guidance lane, and the travelable distance to the guide point is the predetermined distance 2. The road guidance system according to claim 1, configured to generate road guidance information for urging the driver to move by one lane toward the guidance lane when the guidance lane is not crowded. The lane change guiding means is such that the traveling direction determined by the traveling direction determining means is a left / right turn, the current traveling lane is not the planned guidance lane, and the travelable distance to the guide point is the predetermined distance If the planned lane is crowded and the travelable distance is greater than the distance from the guidance start position to the guidance point, road guidance information that encourages continuation of own lane travel is generated. The road guidance system according to claim 1.

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