JP5464878B2 - Navigation device and lane reduction prediction guidance method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a navigation device and a lane reduction prediction guidance method, and is particularly suitable for use in a navigation device having a function of guiding a traveling lane.

  In general, in-vehicle navigation devices detect the current position of a vehicle using a self-contained navigation sensor, a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver, or the like, read out map data in the vicinity of the vehicle, and display it on a screen. Then, the vehicle position mark indicating the vehicle position is superimposed and displayed at a predetermined location on the screen, so that it can be seen at a glance where the vehicle is currently traveling.

  Most navigation devices can receive road traffic information (VICS information: VICS is a registered trademark) sent from the road traffic information center, and can display a constantly changing road condition on a navigation screen. Yes. In a navigation device equipped with a VICS reception function, it is possible to provide traffic information and regulation information to the user in real time.

  There is also a navigation device having a function of guiding in advance a traveling lane suitable for traveling along a guidance route when a vehicle approaches a guidance intersection of a road having a plurality of lanes. There is also a navigation device that determines a recommended lane due to traffic jams or temporary traffic restrictions. Furthermore, a navigation device has also been proposed in which an area in which a lane cannot be changed due to the presence of a road parked vehicle is predicted and stored as lane change avoidance area information so that lane change guidance is not performed while traveling in the area ( For example, see Patent Document 1).

JP 2007-192484 A

  According to the technique described in Patent Document 1, appropriate timing can be obtained by suppressing lane change guidance for the driver based on lane change avoidance area information created in consideration of the presence or absence of constant on-street parking. It is possible to provide lane change guidance. Here, the lane change avoidance area is determined based on information on the amount of parking on the road in each road section. Therefore, it is required to capture as accurately as possible in which time zone of which road section parking on the road is likely to occur. However, the above-mentioned Patent Document 1 does not disclose a method for capturing this road parking amount information as accurately as possible, and there is a problem that lane change guidance cannot always be performed at an appropriate timing. .

  The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and it is possible to capture as accurately as possible a road section and a time zone in which road parking is likely to occur, and to more appropriately guide lane reduction. The purpose is to.

In order to solve the above-described problem, in the present invention, the information on the parking stop inducing facility is used to identify the decreasing lane in which the occurrence of a lane decrease is expected, and the reduced lane due to the presence of the parking stop inducing facility is an expected travel route. When it is determined that the vehicle exists above, the possibility of lane reduction is notified. Here, the parking / parking induction facility is a facility that is determined in advance as a vehicle parking / parking induction on a road near the facility. The decreasing lane refers to the lane facing the parking stop inducing facility, the lane from the location where the parking stop inducing facility is located to the intersection just before the current position of the vehicle, and straight or left turn through the intersection with respect to the lane And a certain lane on the road to be connected.

  In another aspect of the present invention, a time zone in which parking / stopping of another vehicle is highly likely to be induced by the presence / absence of a parking / stop-inducing facility is stored in advance, a reduced lane exists on the predicted travel route, and When the current time corresponds to a time zone in which parking / stopping of other vehicles is likely to occur, the possibility of lane reduction is reported.

  According to the present invention configured as described above, the specification of the reduced lane is performed based on information on a parking stop inducing facility that is predetermined as a facility in which parking of other vehicles is induced, so that road parking occurs. Easy road sections can be captured as accurately as possible, and lane reduction guidance can be performed more appropriately.

  Further, according to another aspect of the present invention, since a message notifying the possibility of the reduced lane specified as described above is notified only in a time zone in which parking / stopping of other vehicles is likely to be induced, on-street parking is performed. It is possible to grasp not only the road sections that are likely to occur but also the time zones in which road parking is likely to occur as accurately as possible, and more appropriately guide the lane change.

It is a block diagram which shows the function structural example of the navigation apparatus by this embodiment. It is a figure for demonstrating the reduction | decrease lane anticipated from the position of a parking stop induction | guidance | derivation establishment facility in this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of the range which the facility presence determination part of this embodiment determines the presence or absence of a parking stop induction facility. It is a figure for demonstrating the existence determination of the reduction lane performed by the lane reduction determination part of this embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the operation example of the navigation apparatus by this embodiment.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration example of the navigation device according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 1, a navigation device 100 according to the present embodiment reads map data recorded on a recording medium such as a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) 200, performs various processes described below, and obtains a map image obtained as a result of the process. Is displayed on the display unit 300. Although the DVD 200 is used as a recording medium for storing map data here, other recording media such as a CD-ROM, a hard disk, and a semiconductor memory may be used.

  The map data recorded on the DVD 200 includes facility data representing various facilities adjacent to the road, in addition to road data representing roads on the map and used for map display, route search, and the like. ing. The road data is composed of data relating to links obtained by finely dividing roads and lanes, and data relating to nodes corresponding to points at both ends of each link (including points where a plurality of roads such as intersections and branches intersect).

  The facility data includes facility type data indicating the type of facility, facility position data indicating the location of the facility, flag data indicating whether or not the facility is a parking stop induction facility, and parking of other vehicles. And at least time zone information representing a time zone that is likely to be triggered.

  The parking / parking induction facility is a facility that is determined in advance as a vehicle parking / parking induction on a road near the facility. For example, a taxi stand or a bus stop corresponds to a parking stop induction facility. That is, when there is a taxi stand at a position facing the road, there is a high possibility that one or more taxis waiting for passengers are parked on the road in the vicinity. In addition, when there is a bus stop at a position facing the road, there is a high possibility that a bus that is getting on and off passengers is stopping on the side road. Therefore, in the present embodiment, flag data is stored so that a taxi stand or a bus stop can be identified as a parking stop induction facility.

  The time zone information is information representing a time zone in which parking / stopping of other vehicles (taxi, bus, etc.) is likely to be induced on a nearby road due to the presence of the parking / parking induction facility. This time zone information exists for each parking stop induction facility. For example, in the case of a taxi stand in front of a station, a certain time from slightly before the scheduled arrival time of the train to after the scheduled arrival time is stored in the DVD 200 as a time zone where there is a high possibility that taxi parking will be induced. In the case of a bus stop, a certain time from the scheduled arrival time of the bus is stored in the DVD 200 as a time zone in which the stop of the bus and other vehicles following the bus is likely to be induced.

  In the functional configuration of the navigation device 100, the vehicle position measurement unit 11 measures the current position of the vehicle, and includes a self-contained navigation sensor, a GPS receiver, and a position calculation CPU. The self-contained navigation sensor includes a vehicle speed sensor (distance sensor) that outputs a single pulse for each predetermined travel distance to detect the moving distance of the vehicle, and an angular velocity sensor (relative bearing sensor) such as a vibration gyro that detects the rotation angle of the vehicle. ). The self-contained navigation sensor detects the relative position and direction of the vehicle using these vehicle speed sensor and angular velocity sensor.

  The position calculation CPU calculates an absolute own vehicle device (estimated vehicle position) and a vehicle direction based on relative position and direction data output from the self-contained navigation sensor. The GPS receiver receives radio waves transmitted from a plurality of GPS satellites by a GPS antenna and performs a three-dimensional positioning process or a two-dimensional positioning process to calculate the absolute position and direction of the vehicle (the vehicle direction is The calculation is based on the current vehicle position and the current vehicle position one sampling time ΔT before).

  The read control unit 12 controls reading of map data from the DVD 200. That is, the read control unit 12 reads the map data from the DVD 200 by inputting information on the current vehicle position from the vehicle position measurement unit 11 and outputting an instruction to read a predetermined range of map data including the current vehicle position. The read control unit 12 stores the read map data (other than the time zone information) in the map data storage unit 13 and stores the time zone information in the time zone information storage unit 20.

  The map drawing unit 14 generates map image data necessary for map display on the display unit 300 based on the map data temporarily stored in the map data storage unit 13. The map image data generated by the map drawing unit 14 is supplied to the display unit 300. Thereby, a map image of a predetermined range including the vehicle position is displayed on the screen of the display unit 300 together with the vehicle position mark and various facility marks.

  The route search unit 15 searches for a guidance route from the current location to the destination based on the vehicle position information measured by the vehicle position measurement unit 11 and the map data stored in the map data storage unit 13. The guide route memory 16 temporarily stores the data of the guide route searched by the route search unit 15 (a set of nodes from the current location to the destination).

  The guide route drawing unit 17 uses the guide route data stored in the guide route memory 16 to generate guide route image data. The guide route image data generated by the guide route drawing unit 17 is supplied to the display unit 300. As a result, on the screen of the display unit 300, the guidance route that is overlaid on the map image and highlighted in a dark color different from other roads is displayed.

  The reduced lane presence / absence determination unit 18 further requires the map data (road data and facility data) stored in the map data storage unit 13 and the vehicle position information measured by the vehicle position measurement unit 11 as necessary. Whether or not there is a reduced lane expected from the position of the parking / parking induction facility on the expected travel route specified from the road data and the current vehicle position based on the guidance route data stored in the guidance route memory 16 Determine.

  Here, the predicted travel route is when traveling according to the guidance route searched by the route search unit 15 (during route guidance), or when traveling freely without searching for a guidance route (during non-route guidance) ) And different. At the time of route guidance, the road from the current vehicle position to the destination along the guidance route is the expected travel route. At the time of non-route guidance, for example, a road that travels straight forward from the current vehicle position in the direction of travel, and nth intersection (n is an arbitrary integer greater than or equal to 2; for example, n = 2) from the current vehicle position The road section up to is the expected travel route. Even during route guidance, a road section from the current vehicle position to the nth intersection along the guidance route may be used as the predicted travel route.

  The reduced lane is actually able to travel when a vehicle (taxi or bus in this embodiment) parks on a road near the parking induction facility (in this embodiment, taxi stand or bus stop). This is the section where the number of lanes is expected to decrease. In other words, a lane in a predetermined section where a line of taxis waiting for a plurality of passengers, or a line of buses that are getting on and off, followed by a stopped vehicle is expected to be a reduced lane.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a decrease lane predicted from the position of the parking / stop induction facility. As shown in FIG. 2, the reduced lane exists on a road having two or more lanes on at least one side. For example, in a lane facing the parking stop inducing facility 50, a lane 51 from the position where the parking stop inducing facility 50 is located to the previous intersection 54, and a straight or left turn through the intersection 54 with respect to the lane 51 The fixed-length lanes 52 and 53 on the connecting road correspond to the reduced lane of the present embodiment.

  In addition, the reduction lane shown here is only an example, and the present invention is not limited to this. For example, when the distance between the parking / parking induction facility 50 and the immediately preceding intersection 54 is greater than a certain length, only the lane of a certain length extending from the position where the parking / parking induction facility 50 is located toward the previous intersection 54 is reduced. It may be a lane. Moreover, it is good also considering only the lane 51 from the position where the parking stop induction | guidance | derivation induction | guidance | derivation facility 50 exists to the previous intersection 54 as a reduction | decrease lane irrespective of the distance of the parking stop induction | guidance | derivation establishment 50 and the nearest intersection 54. Further, the lane 51 and a lane 52 of a certain length on the road that is connected to the lane 51 via an intersection 54 through a straight line may be reduced lanes.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the decrease lane presence / absence determination unit 18 includes a facility presence / absence determination unit 18a, a decrease lane identification unit 18b, and a lane decrease determination unit 18c. The facility presence / absence determination unit 18a is further based on the map data (road data and facility data) stored in the map data storage unit 12 and the current vehicle position measured by the vehicle position measurement unit 11, as necessary. Based on the guidance route data stored in the guidance route memory 16, it is determined whether or not a parking / parking induction facility exists within a predetermined range from the current vehicle position.

  Here, the predetermined range from the current vehicle position is, for example, a range on the predicted travel route. That is, at the time of route guidance, the road from the current vehicle position to the destination along the guidance route (all sections of the guidance route), or the road from the current vehicle location to the nth intersection along the guidance route A section is defined as a predetermined range. In this case, the facility presence / absence determination unit 18a determines whether or not there is a parking stop induction facility at the entire section of the guidance route or at a position along the road section from the current vehicle position to the nth intersection along the guidance route. judge.

  Further, during non-route guidance, the road section when traveling straight ahead from the current vehicle position in the direction of travel is defined as a predetermined range of the road section from the current vehicle position to the nth intersection. In this case, the facility presence / absence determination unit 18a determines whether there is a parking stop induction facility at a position along the road section from the current vehicle position to the nth intersection in the straight line direction.

  In this case, it is determined whether or not there is a parking stop inducing facility with a predetermined range of roads on the guidance route (during route guidance) or on the route from the current vehicle position to the nth intersection in the straight line direction (during non-route guidance). However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the presence / absence of a parking / parking induction facility may be determined with a predetermined range including the road on the route to the surrounding road.

For example, an example of a predetermined range at the time of route guidance is shown in FIG. In the example shown in FIG. 3, the guide route and the section of the road from the current vehicle position MP of the RT to the n-th intersection IS _n, guide route RT and intersections _IS 1 within the _section, it IS 2, · · · IS _n Up to the next intersection IS ₁ ′, IS ₂ ′,... IS _n ′, IS ₁ ″, IS ₂ ″,... IS _n ″ The range including the road of the section (the range indicated by the dotted rectangle) is set as the predetermined range, and the facility presence / absence determination unit 18a determines whether or not there is a parking stop induction facility within the range indicated by the dotted rectangle. To do.

  The decrease lane identification unit 18b determines whether the parking presence / absence inducing facility is present by the facility existence determination unit 18a based on the map data (road data and facility data) stored in the map data storage unit 13. Identify the decreasing lane expected from the location where the stop-inducing facility exists. The reduced lane is as described with reference to FIG.

  The lane reduction determination unit 18c determines the possibility of lane reduction based on whether or not the reduced lane specified by the reduced lane specifying unit 18b exists on the predicted travel route. The predicted travel route is as described above.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the presence / absence determination of the reduced lane performed by the lane reduction determining unit 18c. 4 (a) and 4 (b) show that the positions of the reduced lanes 51, 52, and 53 change depending on the position where the parking stop induction facility 50 is present with respect to the vehicle current position MP. 4 (a) and 4 (b), the decrease lanes 51, 52, 53 are lanes facing the parking stop inducing facility 50 as described with reference to FIG. A lane 51 from the position where the facility 50 is located to the previous intersection 54, and lanes 52 and 53 of a certain length on the road connected to the lane 51 via the intersection 54 by going straight or turning left.

  In the case of FIG. 4A, a reduced lane 53 exists on the predicted travel route (for example, the road section from the current vehicle position MP to the nth intersection along the guidance route RT). On the other hand, in the case of FIG. 4B, none of the reduced lanes 51 to 53 exists on the predicted travel route. Accordingly, the lane decrease determination unit 18c determines that there is a decreased lane on the predicted travel route in the case of FIG. 4A, and determines that there is no decreased lane on the predicted travel route in the case of FIG. 4B. .

  FIG. 4 shows an example in which the facility presence / absence determination unit 18a determines the presence / absence of the parking / parking induction facility 50 within the rectangular range shown by the dotted line in FIG. As described above, if the presence / absence of the parking / parking induction facility 50 is determined within the rectangular range of the dotted line, the parking / parking induction facility 50 is compared with the case where the presence / absence of the parking / parking induction facility 50 is determined by setting only a section on the guidance route RT as a predetermined range. Not only the reduced lane 51 directly facing the stop-inducing facility 50 but also a reduced lane 53 on a road that does not directly face the stop-inducing facility 50 (the road that leads to the stop-inducing facility 50 by turning left at the intersection) Also, it can be added to the determination target by the lane reduction determination unit 18c whether or not it is on the predicted travel route.

  The message notification unit 19 monitors the current time using the timer 21. Then, the lane decrease determination unit 18c of the decrease lane existence determination unit 18 determines that there is a decrease lane on the predicted travel route, and the time zone indicated by the time zone information stored in the time zone information storage unit 19 When it is determined that the current time corresponds, a message notifying the possibility of lane reduction is output to the display unit 300. This message may be output by voice to a speaker (not shown).

  Next, the operation of the navigation apparatus 100 configured as described above according to the present embodiment will be described. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation example of the navigation device 100 according to the present embodiment. The flowchart shown in FIG. 5 starts when the navigation apparatus 100 is powered on.

  In FIG. 5, first, the facility presence / absence determination unit 18 a is within a predetermined range from the vehicle current position measured by the vehicle position measurement unit 11 based on the road data and facility data stored in the map data storage unit 13. It is determined whether there is a parking stop induction facility (step S1). Here, if it is determined that there is no parking stop induction facility, the process proceeds to step S6.

  On the other hand, if the facility presence / absence determining unit 18a determines that there is a parking / stop-inducing facility, the reduced lane specifying unit 18b is based on the road data and the facility data stored in the map data storage unit 13 and the parking / stop-inducing facility. A decrease lane expected from the position of is identified (step S2). Then, the lane decrease determination unit 18c determines whether or not the reduced lane specified by the decrease lane specifying unit 18b exists on the predicted travel route (step S3).

  Here, if it is determined that there is no reduced lane on the predicted travel route, the process proceeds to step S6. On the other hand, when it is determined that there is a reduced lane on the predicted travel route, the message notification unit 19 stores the time stored in the time zone information storage unit 20 regarding the parking / parking induction facility whose existence is confirmed by the facility presence / absence determination unit 18a. It is determined whether or not the current time falls within the time zone indicated by the zone information (step S4).

  If it is determined that the current time does not fall within the time zone indicated by the time zone information, the process proceeds to step S6. On the other hand, if it is determined that the current time falls within the time zone indicated by the time zone information, the message notification unit 19 outputs a message notifying the possibility of lane reduction (step S5), and the process proceeds to step S6. In step S6, it is determined whether the processing of the navigation device 100 is to be ended (whether the power is turned off). If not, the processing returns to step S1.

  As described above in detail, in the present embodiment, from the position of the parking stop inducing facility that is predetermined as a facility where parking of other vehicles is induced on the predicted travel route specified from the road data and the current vehicle position. Judgment is made whether there is an expected reduced lane, and if it is determined that a reduced lane due to the presence of a parking stop-inducing facility exists on the expected travel route, the possibility of lane reduction is reported. ing. According to the present embodiment configured as described above, the specification of the reduced lane is performed based on information on a parking stop inducing facility that is predetermined as a facility in which parking of other vehicles is induced. Easy road sections can be captured as accurately as possible, and lane reduction guidance can be performed more appropriately.

  Further, in the present embodiment, a time zone in which parking / stopping of other vehicles is likely to be induced due to the presence / absence of parking / stop-inducing facilities is stored in advance, a reduced lane exists on the predicted travel route, and other When the current time falls in a time zone where there is a high possibility that the vehicle will be parked or stopped, the possibility of lane reduction is reported. It is not essential to make such a time zone determination, but by doing this, a message that informs the possibility of lane reduction will be notified only in the time zone when parking of other vehicles is likely to be triggered. Become. Therefore, not only a road section in which road parking is likely to occur, but also a time zone in which road parking is likely to occur can be captured as accurately as possible, and lane change guidance can be performed more appropriately.

  In the above embodiment, it is determined whether or not it is a time zone for notifying a message after it is determined that there is a reduced lane on the predicted travel route, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, when the facility presence / absence determination unit 18a confirms that a parking / parking induction facility exists within a predetermined range from the current vehicle position (immediately after step S1 in the flowchart of FIG. 5), a time zone in which the message should be notified It may be determined whether or not. In this way, it is not necessary to wastefully perform the processing of the decrease lane specifying unit 18b and the lane decrease determination unit 18c.

  Moreover, in the said embodiment, although the taxi stand and the bus stop were mentioned as an example of a parking stop induction facility, this invention is not limited to this. For example, an outlet store or the like in which a reduced lane may occur in a vehicle waiting for a parking lot may be used as a parking stop induction facility.

  In addition, each of the above-described embodiments is merely an example of implementation in carrying out the present invention, and the technical scope of the present invention should not be construed in a limited manner. In other words, the present invention can be implemented in various forms without departing from the spirit or main features thereof.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Vehicle position measurement part 13 Map data memory | storage part 18 Decrease lane presence determination part 18a Facility presence / absence determination part 18b Decrease lane specific part 18c Lane decrease determination part 19 Message alerting | reporting part 20 Time zone information storage part

Claims (4)

A map data storage unit for storing map data including road data representing roads on the map and facility data representing facilities adjacent to the roads;
A vehicle position measuring unit for measuring the current position of the vehicle;
Based on the road data and the facility data stored in the map data storage unit, and the vehicle current position measured by the vehicle position measurement unit, the predicted travel specified from the road data and the vehicle current position A reduced lane presence / absence determining unit that determines whether or not there is a reduced lane expected from the position of a parking / inducing triggering facility that is predetermined as a facility where parking / stopping of other vehicles is induced on the route;
If the above reduced lane existence judgment unit the reduced lane on the predicted travel path by is determined to exist, a message notification unit for outputting a message informing the possibility of lane decreases,
The decrease lane is the lane facing the parking stop inducing facility, the lane from the position where the parking stop inducing facility is located to the intersection just before the current position of the vehicle, and straight or left turn through the intersection with respect to the lane And a lane of a certain length on the road connected by the navigation device. The reduced lane presence / absence determining unit is based on the vehicle current position based on the road data and the facility data stored in the map data storage unit and the vehicle current position measured by the vehicle position measuring unit. A facility presence / absence determination unit that determines whether or not the above parking stop induction facility exists within a predetermined range;
A position where the parking stop inducing facility exists based on the road data and the facility data stored in the map data storage unit when the facility presence determination unit determines that the parking stop inducing facility exists. A reduced lane identifying unit that identifies the reduced lane expected from
A lane reduction determination unit that determines the possibility of lane reduction based on whether or not the reduced lane specified by the reduced lane specifying unit exists on the predicted travel route specified from the road data and the current vehicle position; The navigation device according to claim 1 , further comprising: A time zone information storage unit for storing time zone information representing a time zone in which parking / stopping of the other vehicle is highly likely to be induced by the presence of the parking / stop induction facility;
The message notification unit is determined by the reduced lane presence / absence determining unit that the reduced lane is present on the predicted travel route, and the time zone indicated by the time zone information stored in the time zone information storage unit 3. The navigation device according to claim 1 , wherein a message notifying the possibility of the lane reduction is output when it is determined that the current time corresponds to. Based on road data representing roads on the map and facility data representing facilities adjacent to the roads, parking and stopping of other vehicles is induced within a predetermined range from the current vehicle position measured by the vehicle position measurement unit. A first step of determining whether there is a parking stop induction facility that is predetermined as a facility;
When it is determined in the first step that the parking / parking induction facility is present, a second lane for identifying a decrease lane expected from the position of the parking / parking induction facility is determined based on the road data and the facility data. Steps,
A third step of determining whether or not the reduced lane identified in the second step exists on the predicted travel route identified from the road data and the current vehicle position;
If the reduced traffic lane is determined to exist on the expected travel path in the third step, and a fourth step of outputting a message indicating possibility of lanes decreases,
The decrease lane is the lane facing the parking stop inducing facility, the lane from the position where the parking stop inducing facility is located to the intersection just before the current position of the vehicle, and straight or left turn through the intersection with respect to the lane A lane decrease prediction guidance method comprising: a lane of a certain length on a road connected by