JPH0688732A - Navigation apparatus for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To register an unregistered road automatically by storing the running locus from the starting point and the final point automatically when a vehicle runs on the unregistered road, which is not registered on a road map. CONSTITUTION:The high reliablity of the estimated position of a vehicle, which is operated based on the road map data in the vicinity of the vehicle and the running locus, is confirmed with a reliability judging means 107. Under this state, a point, which is deviated from a registered road, is specified with a first position specifying means 108 based on the running locus, the estimated position of the vehicle and the road map data in the vicinity of the vehicle. Then, a point, when the vehicle has returned to the registered, road again, is specified with a second position specifying means 109. The running locus between both points is correlated with the road map data in the region, wherein the vehicle is running, and the data are stored in a memory means 110.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle navigation system for displaying the present position of a vehicle on a road map and guiding an occupant to a destination.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When traveling on an unregistered road that is not registered in a road map, the traveling locus is stored in advance and is displayed on the road map based on the traveling locus stored when traveling in the area again. There is known a vehicle navigation device that additionally displays unregistered roads (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Sho 5).
8-48091). With this navigation device, it is determined whether the occupant is on a road registered in the road map, and when traveling on an unregistered road, the operation switch is operated in advance to start storing the traveling locus and further displayed on the display device. The cursor is moved on the created road map to input the start point and the end point of the unregistered road.

[0003]

However, in such a conventional vehicular navigation device, since the memory processing for unregistered roads is all manually performed, the operability is poor and it is possible to judge that the road is an unregistered road. After entering the unregistered road with a delay, there is a problem that the unregistered road cannot be registered from the starting point unless it returns to the starting point again.

An object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle for automatically registering an unregistered road by storing a traveling locus from a start point to an end point when the vehicle travels on an unregistered road not registered in a road map. It is to provide a navigation device.

[0005]

The present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1, which is a claim correspondence diagram, and the invention of claim 1 is a traveling distance detecting means 100 for detecting a traveling distance of a vehicle.
And an azimuth detecting means 101 for detecting the traveling azimuth of the vehicle,
Map storage means 103 for storing road map data divided into regions, traveling locus calculation means 104 for computing the traveling locus of the vehicle based on the traveling distance and the heading, and the road in the region where the vehicle is traveling. A position calculation means 105 for calculating an estimated position of the vehicle based on map data, a traveling locus, and position information from the outside, and a display means 106 for superimposing and displaying the estimated position of the vehicle on a road map around the vehicle. It is also applied to vehicle navigation devices. Then, the reliability determination unit 107 that determines the reliability of the estimated position of the vehicle calculated by the position calculation unit 105, and the traveling locus, the estimated position of the vehicle, and the vehicle travel with the reliability of the estimated position of the vehicle being high. The first position specifying means 108 for specifying a point off the road registered in the map storage means 103 based on the road map data of the area being operated, and the traveling locus in a state where the reliability of the estimated position of the vehicle is high. Second position specifying means 109 for specifying a point returned to the road registered in the map storage means 103 based on the estimated position of the vehicle and road map data of the area in which the vehicle is traveling, and the first position specifying Means 1
Storage unit 1 for storing the traveling locus from the point specified by 08 to the point specified by the second position specifying unit 109 in association with the road map data of the area where the vehicle is running
And 10 thereby achieving the above object. Further, the vehicle navigation device according to claim 2 includes position information receiving means 102 for receiving position information from the outside,
The position information receiving means 1 by the traveling locus calculation means 104A
The traveling locus of the vehicle is corrected based on the external position information received in 02. Further, the vehicle navigation device according to claim 3 deletes the traveling locus when the vehicle travels a predetermined distance or more without correcting the traveling locus of the vehicle based on the position information from the outside by the traveling locus calculation means 104B. It was done.

[0006]

[Operation] It is confirmed that the reliability of the estimated position of the vehicle calculated based on the road map data around the vehicle and the traveling locus is high, and in that state, the traveling locus, the estimated position of the vehicle and the road map data around the vehicle. Based on the above, the point deviating from the registered road is specified and the point returning to the registered road is specified again, and the traveling locus between the points is stored in association with the road map data of the area where the vehicle is traveling. Thereby, the unregistered road can be automatically registered.

[0007]

2 and 3 show the structure of a vehicle navigation system according to an embodiment. This device has a CPU as shown
It is composed of a microcomputer centering on 1. The CPU 1 exchanges data with various devices via the system bus 2 to perform various arithmetic processes. A direction sensor 3 detects the traveling direction of the vehicle, and is connected to the system bus 2 via the amplifier 4, the A / D converter 5 and the I / O controller 6. Reference numeral 7 is a distance sensor that detects the traveling distance of the vehicle, and is connected to the system bus 2 via the I / O controller 6. Reference numeral 8 is a key for inputting various commands and data to the device, which is connected to the system bus 2 via the I / O controller 9. Reference numeral 10 is a voice output speaker, which is connected to the system bus 2 via the sound generator 11 and the I / O controller 9.

Reference numeral 12 is a position detection system (Global Positioning System) using a satellite.
m, hereinafter referred to as GPS), which is a receiver (hereinafter referred to as GPS receiver) for receiving signal radio waves, and is connected to the system bus 2 via the extended I / O controller 13.
Further, 14 is a receiver equipped with an antenna 15, and receives road traffic information and position information such as traffic congestion, road construction, traffic regulation, etc. from road beacons installed at roads and intersections.

Further, in FIG. 3, reference numeral 16 is a CD-ROM storing road map data, which is an interface SC.
It is connected to the system bus 2 via the SI controller 17. 18 is a VDT (Visual Display)
It is a CRT that functions as a terminal, and is connected to the system bus 2 via the graphic controller 19 to display a road map around the vehicle and a mark indicating the current position of the vehicle. Further, the system bus 2 has a V-RAM 20 for image storage of the CRT 18, a ROM 21 for storing a control program described later, a D-RAM 22 for temporarily storing data, a kanji ROM 23, and a battery for storing information such as the current position when the ignition is off. The backup RAM 24 is connected.

4 and 5 are flowcharts showing a main program, FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a traveling data collection routine, FIGS. 7 and 8 are flowcharts showing unregistered road processing 1 and 2 routines, and FIGS. 9 and 10 are unregistered roads. 5 is a flowchart showing a data conversion routine of FIG. The operation of the embodiment will be described with reference to these flowcharts.

An ignition key (not shown) of a vehicle is turned on.
When set to the position, the vehicle navigation device is powered on and the CPU 1 starts executing the main program. In step S1 after the start of execution, initial settings such as the current position of the vehicle and the destination are performed. Here, the current position of the vehicle may be the position of the vehicle stored in the backup RAM 24 after the previous traveling as the initial position, or may be the position input by the occupant by operating the key 8.

In a succeeding step S2, a road map around the current position of the vehicle is read from the CD-ROM 16 into the D-RAM 22. The road map is managed by dividing the whole country into small sections (hereinafter referred to as regional meshes) defined by JIS-X0410. In addition, the road map is dataized as a set of nodes that indicate intersections, bending points of roads, etc., and straight lines connecting the nodes, that is, links, and the position coordinates of each node and each link and the road type. It is stored as digitized data together with attribute information such as.

Next, in step S3, the traveling locus is calculated based on the traveling distance and the traveling azimuth of the vehicle to calculate the current position of the vehicle. Note that, hereinafter, the current position calculated based on the traveling locus of the vehicle is referred to as an estimated position.

Here, the traveling distance and traveling direction of the vehicle are shown in FIG.
It is detected by the traveling data collection routine shown in. The CPU 1 executes the routine shown in FIG. 6 for each predetermined traveling distance, detects the traveling distance by the distance sensor 7 in step S31,
In step S32, the heading sensor 3 detects the traveling heading, and in step S33, those data are stored in the D-RAM 22.
Memorize to The vehicle running trajectory is collected by this routine,
It is calculated by integrating the stored traveling distance and traveling direction data. The traveling data collection routine may be executed at predetermined time intervals.

In step S4, it is determined whether or not highly reliable position information has been obtained by GPS or a beacon,
When highly reliable position information is obtained, the process proceeds to step S5, and the traveling locus and estimated position of the vehicle calculated in the above step are corrected. If highly reliable position information cannot be obtained, step S5 is skipped and the process proceeds to step S6.

Here, the reliability of the position information obtained by the GPS and the beacon will be described. Although the GPS positioning coordinates and the positioning accuracy are already known, the outline thereof will be described first. The GPS signal sent from the satellite includes position information indicating the position of the satellite, time information indicating an accurate time, G
Accuracy information indicating the accuracy of the PS signal itself is included. Normally, GPS signal radio waves are received from three or four satellites, the distance from each satellite is calculated based on the satellite position information and time information included in each signal, and the three-dimensional vehicle is based on the principle of triangulation. Position, that is, the GPS positioning coordinate is calculated. The accuracy of the calculated GPS positioning coordinates, that is, the positioning accuracy is substantially determined by the accuracy of the GPS signal itself and the positional relationship between the vehicle and each satellite. The accuracy of the former GPS signal itself is indicated by the accuracy information included in the GPS signal. Regarding the positional relationship of the latter satellites, for example, the closer the satellites are to each other and the smaller the elevation angle of each satellite, the worse the accuracy becomes. Therefore, the GPS positioning accuracy is represented by the radius (unit: meter) of the error circle centered on the calculated coordinates, and the accuracy information and the conversion table for converting the positional relationship with each satellite into the radius of the error circle (not shown). ) Is set to ROM2
Store in 1. Then, every time the GPS positioning coordinates are calculated, the conversion table is searched to find the radius of the error circle indicating the GPS positioning accuracy. Further, assuming that the reference radius for determining the reliability as the position information is, for example, 50 m, if the radius of the error circle indicating the positioning accuracy is 50 m or less, the calculated GPS positioning coordinates have high reliability as the position information. Then, the traveling locus and the estimated position are corrected based on the positioning coordinates. On the contrary, if the radius of the positioning accuracy is larger than the reference radius, the calculated positioning coordinates have low reliability, and the traveling locus and the estimated position are not corrected by the positioning coordinates.

Next, when the vehicle passes directly below the road beacon and the beacon signal is received by the receiver 14, the traveling locus and the estimated position are corrected by the position information included in the beacon signal. Since the position information of the road beacon has absolute reliability at its installation position, the traveling locus and the estimated position are unconditionally corrected when the beacon signal is received.

The running locus and the estimated position are unconditionally corrected even when the vehicle is stopped during operation and the occupant operates the key 8 to input the current position of the vehicle.

In step S6, the current position of the vehicle is calculated by map matching. That is, D-RA
The road map data around the vehicle stored in M22 is searched, and the road link in the direction close to the current traveling direction of the vehicle is extracted as a candidate link. When the candidate link is extracted, if the difference between the two is within a predetermined threshold in consideration of the detection error of the azimuth sensor 3, etc., it is adopted as a candidate link for the time being. Further, the search area is determined by the reliability of the past traveling locus and the estimated position data. That is, if the traveling locus and the estimated position data are corrected by GPS or a beacon signal, the reliability of the traveling locus and the estimated position data is high, and the search area can be narrowed.

In step S7, it is determined whether or not there is a candidate link that is considered to be running of the vehicle. If there is a candidate link, the process proceeds to step S8 in FIG. 5, and if there is no candidate link, the process proceeds to step S21.

First, the processing when there is no candidate link will be described. In step S21, the unregistered road processing 1 routine shown in FIGS. If there is no candidate link that the vehicle is currently driving as a result of map matching, C
Either a case where the vehicle is traveling on an unregistered road that is not registered in the road map of the D-ROM 16 or a case where there is a large error in the traveling locus and the estimated position of the calculation result can be considered. It is necessary to exclude the latter case in order to determine that the road currently being traveled is an unregistered road. First, in step S41, it is determined whether or not one candidate link was specified in the state immediately before the candidate link disappeared. Is determined by the flag F. That is, if the flag F is set, one candidate link is specified in the state immediately before the candidate links are exhausted, and there is a low possibility that the traveling locus and the estimated position will have a large error, and the road currently being traveled. Is highly likely to be an unregistered road, the process proceeds to step S42 to clear the flag F and then the process proceeds to step S43.

On the other hand, if the flag F is not set in step S41 and there are a plurality of candidate links immediately before the candidate links are exhausted, there is a high possibility that there will be a large error in the running trajectory and the estimated position. Since it is unlikely that the road being traveled is an unregistered road, the process returns to the main program in FIG. 4 without being registered as an unregistered road.

In step S43, it is determined whether a point deviating from the registered road can be specified within a predetermined distance from the current estimated position. In the above step, it was confirmed that the candidate link was identified as one just before the candidate link disappeared, so there is a high possibility that the road currently running is an unregistered road, but that is not enough. Insufficient to be a registered road. Therefore, the distance from the current estimated position to the point deviating from the registered road, that is, the point where there is no candidate link is checked, and if the distance is within a predetermined value, the currently running road is determined to be an unregistered road. . This is because it is considered that it is extremely rare that the vehicle is traveling on a registered road and goes straight to an unregistered road. That is, it is supposed that the traveling direction should be changed from the registered road to enter the unregistered road, or that the vehicle should go straight through an intersection such as a T-junction to enter the unregistered road. In the former case, the point where the traveling direction is changed, that is, the point where the direction is changed can be confirmed to some extent accurately from the traveling locus, and in the latter case, the map matching or the beacon can be accurately confirmed. After entering an unregistered road at such a point, if the vehicle travels straight as it is, the longer the distance is, the more likely the distance shift is. That is, when the point where the candidate link is lost by reversing the running trajectory from the current estimated position is specified as the starting point of the unregistered road, the error of the starting point position increases if the point retreats for a predetermined distance or more. Therefore,
If a point deviating from the registered road can be specified within a predetermined distance from the current estimated position, it is determined as an unregistered road, and the process proceeds to step S44. Return to the program.

In step S44, a point deviating from the registered road specified in the above step is registered as the starting point of the unregistered road, and in the following step S45, the running locus is calculated and stored in the V-RAM 20 as image data, and at the same time the graphic is displayed. The traveling track is displayed on the CRT 18 via the controller 19 together with a road map around the vehicle. Next, in step S46 of FIG. 8, it is determined whether or not the vehicle has entered the registered road again. At this time, it is not a problem if the candidate link of the registered road can be specified as one from the beginning, but normally, a plurality of candidate links appear for a while, and then the candidate link becomes 1
It can be specified in a book. Therefore, similarly to the above-described method of identifying the starting point of the unregistered road, the point that entered the registered road by reversing the traveling locus from the current estimated position, that is, the ending point of the unregistered road is identified.

In step S47, it is determined whether or not the point on the registered road within a predetermined distance from the current estimated position can be specified. If the point on the registered road within the predetermined distance can be specified, the process proceeds to step S48. Otherwise, it proceeds to step S55. It should be noted that the predetermined distance is self-supporting based on only the running locus and the estimated position calculated based on the detection results of the distance sensor 7 and the azimuth sensor 3 without correcting the estimated position based on reliable position information such as GPS and beacons. It is determined by the cumulative error when navigation and the above-mentioned search area of the candidate link. For example, if the search area has a radius of 200 m with the estimated position as the center, the traveling distance at which the accumulated error of self-contained navigation is considered to be 200 m is set as the predetermined distance. Further, when highly reliable position information is obtained on the way by GPS or a beacon, the traveling locus up to that point is excluded from the above predetermined distance as being highly reliable.

When a point on the registered road within a predetermined distance from the current estimated position can be specified, the point is registered as the end point of the unregistered road in step S48, and unregistered based on the end point data in step S49. Correct the running path from the starting point of the road. For example, as shown in FIG. 11A, if the traveling locus of the unregistered road from the start point A to the end point B is stored, FIG. 11B is based on the finally specified position data of the end point C. Correct the travel locus as shown in. Further, in step S50, the unregistered road data conversion routine shown in FIGS. 9 and 10 is executed to perform the digitization processing of the traveling locus of the unregistered road. This data conversion routine will be described later. In a succeeding step S51, the digitized data of the unregistered road is stored in the backup RAM 24, and the process returns to the main program.

As shown in FIG. 18, the unregistered road data represents the road by nodes and links like the road map stored in the CD-ROM 16, and the backup RAM 24 together with the area mesh number of the road map around the vehicle. Memorize to And, the road map of a certain area mesh number is C
When the data is read from the D-ROM 16 to the D-RAM 22, the unregistered road data of the same area mesh number stored in the backup RAM 24 is also automatically D-RAM.
It is read out to 22 and treated as the registered road stored in the CD-ROM 16 as a road search target as described above. The recording medium for recording the unregistered road data is, for example, a readable / writable ROM (EE-PROM),
Any recording medium such as a tape or an IC card may be used as long as the stored data is not lost even when the vehicle navigation device is powered off.

When the point entering the registered road cannot be specified within the predetermined distance from the current estimated position in step S47, the cumulative error due to the self-contained navigation exceeds the allowable value as described above, so the procedure proceeds to step S55. D-RAM22
The traveling locus of the unregistered road stored in is erased, and the process returns to the main program.

If it is determined in step S46 that the registered road has not been entered, the process proceeds to step S52,
It is determined whether or not highly reliable position information has been obtained by GPS or a beacon. If highly reliable position information is obtained, the process proceeds to step S53, and if not, the process proceeds to step S54. In step S53, the traveling locus is corrected based on the obtained highly reliable position information. Now, Figure 1
GPS at the current estimated position B as shown in 1 (a)
If highly reliable information on the current position C is obtained by a beacon or the like, the traveling locus from the starting point A to the current estimated position B is corrected as shown in FIG. 11B. After that, the process returns to step S45 of FIG. 7 again, and the running locus of the unregistered road is calculated. On the other hand, when highly reliable position information cannot be obtained by GPS or beacon, it is determined in step S54 whether or not the above-mentioned predetermined distance that can guarantee the reliability by the self-contained navigation has been exceeded, and if so, step S55. If the predetermined distance is not exceeded, the process returns to step S45 to continue the calculation of the traveling locus.

Although not shown, in this unregistered road processing routine, the occupant cancels the unregistered road data conversion process by operating the key 8 or the backup RAM 24.
The data of any unregistered road stored in can be deleted.

Next, returning to the main program shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, a case where a candidate link of a registered road is found as a result of map matching will be described. If it is determined in step S7 of FIG. 4 that there is a candidate link, it is determined in step S8 of FIG. 5 whether or not there is one candidate link, and if there is one candidate link, the process proceeds to step S9. If not, the process proceeds to step S15. In step S9, a flag F indicating that there is one candidate link is set,
Go to step S10. In step S10, it is determined whether or not the link is a link of a road previously registered as an unregistered road. If the link is a road link previously registered as an unregistered road, the process proceeds to step S11. If not, the process proceeds to step S14. move on.

As a result of the map matching, one candidate link which is considered to be currently running can be specified, and when the link is not a link of a road previously registered as an unregistered road, the vehicle is placed on the link in step S14. Current position of the V-RAM 20 as image data together with the road map data around the vehicle stored in the D-RAM 22.
Transfer to. Then, a road map around the vehicle and a mark indicating the current position of the vehicle are displayed on the CRT 18 via the graphic controller 19. Then, step S in FIG.
In step 22, it is determined whether or not the surrounding road map needs to be updated as the vehicle progresses. If it needs to be updated, the process returns to step S2, and if it does not need to be updated, the process returns to step S3.

When it is determined in step S10 that the candidate link is a link of a road previously registered as an unregistered road, the unregistered road processing 2 routine shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 is executed in step S11. This unregistered road processing 2 routine skips steps S41 and S42 of the unregistered road processing 1 routine described above and starts from step S43, and a description thereof will be omitted. However, when the digitized data of the unregistered road is stored in step S51 of FIG. 8, the same unregistered road is already converted into data and backup R
Since it is stored in the AM 24, the data of the unregistered road acquired this time is first stored in the D-RAM 22 and the process returns.

After returning from the unregistered road processing 2 routine, in step S12 of FIG. 5, it is determined whether or not the unregistered road has been converted into data. When the conversion into data is completed, the process proceeds to step S13, and on the way. When the registration processing of the unregistered road is stopped because the reliability cannot be ensured, the process proceeds to step S22 of FIG. In step S13, the unregistered road data previously stored in the backup RAM 24 is collated with the same unregistered road data acquired this time, and averaging is performed to obtain the newly created unregistered road numerical data. It is stored in the backup RAM 24. Then, it returns to step S22 of FIG.

As a result of the map matching in step S8,
When a plurality of links have become candidates, the process proceeds to step S15, and the flag F indicating that one candidate link is specified is cleared. In the following step S16, the link with the highest reliability is selected from the plurality of candidate links. The reliability of the candidate link may be determined by evaluating the similarity between the traveling direction of the vehicle and the direction of the link, the degree of correlation between the past traveling locus and the shape of the road including the candidate link, and the like. In step S17, the current position of the vehicle is set on the link with the highest reliability, and the road map data around the vehicle stored in the D-RAM 22 is used as image data VR.
Transfer to AM20. Then, a road map around the vehicle and a mark indicating the current position of the vehicle are displayed on the CRT 18 via the graphic controller 19. At this time, the estimated position of the vehicle is not corrected on the link, but is corrected when the candidate link can be specified to one later.

In step S18, it is determined whether or not the link selected as having the highest degree of reliability is a road link previously registered as an unregistered road, and a road link previously registered as an unregistered road is determined. If there is, step S11
Otherwise go to step S22 in FIG.

Next, the process for converting unregistered roads into data will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. Now, FIG.
As shown in, starting from point D on road R1, moving to road R2 at point G, entering an unregistered road at point J, re-entering registered road R3 at point U through point N, until point W The following description will be given by taking a traveling route as an example. In addition, D shown in FIG.
Each point of ~ W is an estimated position calculated based on the traveling distance and the traveling azimuth obtained by the traveling data collection routine of FIG. 6 executed for each predetermined traveling distance, and these points are converted into data. It represents the node of an unregistered road before processing. For simplification of explanation, it is assumed that points J and U, which are collection points of travel data, are the starting point and the ending point of an unregistered road, respectively. Further, as a result of executing the unregistered road processing routine described above, the points J and U are identified as the starting point and the ending point of the unregistered road, and the traveling locus from the starting point J to the ending point U is stored in the V-RAM 20. And

In the above-described conventional vehicle navigation device, as shown in FIG. 13, an unregistered road from point J to point U was extracted and recorded as image data based on the coordinates of each node. In this embodiment, a link connecting nodes of unregistered roads is created, data is simplified while one link that can be regarded as a substantially straight line is unified, and data digitization processing is further performed. In step S61, V
-The travel locus from the start point J to the end point U stored in the RAM 20 is read, the nodes are connected in the order in which the coordinates of the estimated position are recorded as the node coordinates, and a road link is created as shown in FIG. Now, two consecutive nodes J, K
Let the coordinates of (x1, y1), (x2, y2) be the links connecting the two nodes J and K, respectively.

[Equation 1] It is represented by.

In step S62, the angle formed by two adjacent links is calculated by the procedure described below. First, the angle θn from the true north direction of each link is calculated by the following formula.

[Equation 2] Next, the angle θn1, from the true north of two adjacent links,
If the difference θ between θn2 is obtained, this difference θ is the angle formed by two adjacent links.

[Equation 3]

In step S63, it is determined whether the angle θ formed by two adjacent links is approximately 180 degrees, that is, whether the two links can be regarded as a substantially straight line. If they can be regarded as a substantially straight line, the step in FIG. 10 is performed. If not, the process proceeds to step S64. The threshold value of the angle that can be regarded as a straight line is determined by the storage capacity of the memory that stores the data, the map matching method, and the like. For example,
If the memory storage capacity is large, set the threshold value to 179 to 1
81 degrees, and the threshold value is set to 160 when the recording capacity is small.
~ 200 degrees.

If the two adjacent links can be regarded as substantially straight lines as shown in FIG. 15, the process proceeds to step S67 in FIG. 10, and the two links are connected to form one link as shown in FIG. The angle θ between this unified link and the next adjacent link is calculated by the method described above. Then, in step S68, it is determined whether or not the angle θ formed by these links is approximately 180 degrees, and if it can be regarded as a straight line at approximately 180 degrees, the process proceeds to step S71, and if not, the process proceeds to step S69. In step S71, two links that can be regarded as almost straight lines are connected to form one link,
In step S72, it is determined whether or not there is a next adjacent link. If there is the next adjacent link, the process returns to step S67, and if not, the process returns to the unregistered road processing routine.

On the other hand, when it is determined in step S68 that the line is not a straight line, the process proceeds to step S69, and the angle θ between the adjacent link and the next link which is not one is checked. In step S70, it is determined whether or not the next adjacent link exists. If it exists, the process proceeds to step S68, and if not, the process returns to the unregistered road processing routine.

In addition, in step S63 of FIG.
When it is determined that the angle formed by one link is not approximately 180 degrees, the two links are treated as individual links in step S64, and the angle with the next adjacent link is checked in subsequent step S65. In step S66, it is determined whether or not the next link exists, and if it exists, the process returns to step S63, and if it does not exist, the process returns to the unregistered road processing routine.

In this way, if the adjacent links that can be regarded as straight lines are simplified and simplified, the unregistered road which was initially composed of many nodes and links as shown in FIG. 14 is as shown in FIG. Only four nodes J, N,
The road will consist of three links, R and L.

This unregistered road is, as shown in FIG.
Along with the area mesh number of the road map data around the current vehicle, a management number is assigned to each unregistered road and stored in the backup RAM 24. At this time, the data of the unregistered road is recorded as digitized data in the same data format as the registered road stored in the CD-ROM 16. For example, the node stores the coordinates of the road map of each regional mesh and its attributes, and the link stores the information of the connected node and its attributes.

Although the road map data is stored in the CD-ROM 16 in the above-mentioned embodiment, when the road map data of the registered road is recorded in a readable and writable large-capacity recording medium, As shown in FIG. 19, a fixed data area for registered roads and a free data area for unregistered roads are provided for each area mesh, and the data of unregistered roads are digitized and recorded in the free data area for unregistered roads. Good.

As described above, in the state where the reliability of the estimated position of the vehicle that is repeatedly calculated is high, the point deviating from the registered road, that is, the starting point of the unregistered road is specified, and the point entering the registered road, that is, the unregistered road is determined. Since the end point of the registered road is specified and the running locus from the start point to the end point of the unregistered road is stored in association with the road map data of the area where the vehicle is running, it is automatically stored when the unregistered road is run. The unregistered road can be registered, and when traveling in the area again, the data of the unregistered road can be read and used as the target of the search road like the registered road.

Further, when highly reliable position information is obtained by GPS or a beacon, the running locus of the unregistered road is corrected based on the position information.
Accurate unregistered roads can be registered.

Furthermore, when the vehicle travels for a predetermined distance or more without correcting the traveling locus based on highly reliable position information by GPS or beacon, the traveling locus is deleted, so that it is not reliable. Registered roads are registered.

Since the traveling locus data of the unregistered road is stored in the same form as the road data stored in the CD-ROM 16 which is the map storage means, the unregistered road can be handled in the same manner as the registered road. it can.

In the configuration of the above embodiment, the distance sensor 7 serves as the traveling distance detecting means, the azimuth sensor 3 serves as the azimuth detecting means, the GPS receiver 12, the receiver 14 and the antenna 1.
5 is position information receiving means, CD-ROM 16 is map storage means, and CPU 1 is running locus calculation means, position calculation means,
The reliability determination means, the first position specifying means, and the second position specifying means, the CRT 18 displays the display means, and the backup R
The AM 24 constitutes each storage means.

[0052]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the invention, it is confirmed that the estimated position of the vehicle calculated based on the road map data around the vehicle and the traveling locus is highly reliable, and the state thereof is confirmed. Then, based on the running locus, the estimated position of the vehicle, and the road map data around the vehicle, the point deviating from the registered road is specified and the point returning to the registered road is specified again. Since it is stored in association with the road map data of the area in which you are traveling, you can automatically register the unregistered road when you drive on the unregistered road, and when you travel in that area again, The data of the unregistered road can be read and used as the target of the search road in the same manner as the registered road. Further, according to the second aspect of the invention, the traveling locus is corrected based on the position information from the outside received by the position information receiving means, so that an accurate unregistered road can be registered. further,
According to the invention of claim 3, when the vehicle travels a predetermined distance or more without correcting the traveling locus based on the position information from the outside,
Since the traveling locus is erased, highly reliable unregistered roads are registered.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a complaint correspondence diagram.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a main program.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a main program.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a traveling data collection routine.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an unregistered road processing routine.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an unregistered road processing routine.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing an unregistered road data conversion routine.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing an unregistered road data conversion routine.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a method of correcting a traveling locus.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a travel route on an unregistered road.

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a recording mode of an unregistered road in a conventional navigation device.

FIG. 14 is a diagram in which nodes of unregistered roads are connected to create a link.

FIG. 15 is a view showing an angle formed by two adjacent links.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a result of connecting links that can be regarded as substantially straight lines into a single link.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing unregistered roads resulting from simplification by sequentially linking links that can be regarded as almost straight lines.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing an example of digitized unregistered road data.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing an example in which a readable / writable recording medium is provided with a registered road data area and an unregistered road free data area.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 CPU 2 System Bus 3 Direction Sensor 4 Amplifier 5 A / D Converter 6,9 I / O Controller 7 Distance Sensor 8 Key 12 GPS Receiver 13 Extended I / O 14 Receiver 15 Antenna 16 CD-ROM 17 SCSI Controller 18 CRT 19 Graphic controller 20 V-RAM 21 ROM 22 D-RAM 23 Kanji ROM 24 Backup RAM 100 Traveling distance detecting means 101 Direction detecting means 102 Position information receiving means 103 Map storing means 104, 104A, 104B Traveling locus calculating means 105 Position calculating means 106 display means 107 reliability determination means 108 first position specifying means 109 second position specifying means 110 storage means

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A traveling distance detecting means for detecting a traveling distance of a vehicle, an orientation detecting means for detecting an advancing direction of the vehicle, a map storing means for storing road map data classified by region, and the traveling. A traveling locus calculating means for calculating a traveling locus of the vehicle based on a distance and the traveling direction, and an estimated position of the vehicle based on the road map data of the area where the vehicle is traveling and the traveling locus. In a vehicular navigation device comprising position calculation means and display means for displaying the estimated position of the vehicle in a superimposed manner on a road map around the vehicle, the estimated position of the vehicle calculated by the position calculation means Reliability determining means for determining reliability, and the traveling locus, the estimated position of the vehicle, and the area in which the vehicle is traveling in a state where the reliability of the estimated position of the vehicle is high. A first position specifying unit that specifies a point off the road registered in the map storage unit based on road map data; and a state in which the estimated position of the vehicle is highly reliable, A second position specifying unit that specifies a point returning to the road registered in the map storage unit based on the estimated position and road map data of an area in which the vehicle is traveling; and the first position specifying unit. From the specified point to the second
A navigation device for a vehicle, comprising: a storage unit that stores a traveling locus to a point specified by the position specifying unit in association with road map data of an area in which the vehicle is traveling. 2. The vehicle navigation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a position information receiving unit that receives position information from the outside, wherein the traveling locus calculation unit includes the external unit received by the position information receiving unit. A navigation device for a vehicle, which corrects a traveling locus of the vehicle based on position information from the vehicle. 3. The vehicle navigation device according to claim 1, wherein the traveling locus calculation means is a predetermined distance or more without correcting the traveling locus of the vehicle based on the position information from the outside. A navigation device for a vehicle, characterized in that when the vehicle travels, the traveling locus is erased.