JPH08339496A - Travel guidance device for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To find a required time up to a halfway point in an optimum course as much as possible and predict a required time up to a destination by detecting the connection of road sections from a current position in the searched optimum route, adding travel required times of corresponding road sections, and finding the travel required time of the connection part. CONSTITUTION: An FM multiplex broadcast receiver 9, a radio wave beacon receiver 11, and a light beacon receiver 14 when ready to receive traffic information receive the traffic information at any time and update the contents of internal memories with the information together with time data. A control processor 4 selects and uses the traffic information of the latest presented time to search for an optimum course. The control processor 4 detects the connection of road sections regarding the traffic information from the current position in the optimum route according to the information to find the position of the end point of the connection, finds the travel required time of the connection part by adding the required times of the respective road sections, and indicates the travel required time from the current position to the position of the end point of the connection.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle running guidance device for searching an optimum route from a current position of a vehicle on a road map to a destination and guiding the vehicle along the optimum route.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, traffic information about traffic congestion on a road, which is broadcast from a traffic information center, is received, and the received traffic information is used to reach a destination from a current position of a vehicle on a road map. A vehicle traveling guidance device has been developed which searches for an optimal route and guides the vehicle according to the optimal route (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-614).
09 gazette).

Further, conventionally, there is known a technique for calculating the total travel time through the searched optimum route from the data of the travel time for each road section included in the received traffic information (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. HEI 5-1993). No. 61409).

[0004]

The problem to be solved is to receive the traffic information broadcast, obtain the total travel time of the optimum route searched using the received traffic information, and calculate it. When trying to display as a guide for the arrival time at the destination, the optimum route may include roads other than the roads for which traffic information is to be provided, or due to changes in the environment when the vehicle is running. If some of the traffic information cannot be received, it is impossible to obtain the total travel time through the optimum route, and it becomes impossible to display the travel time.

[0005]

According to the present invention, even if it is not possible to obtain the total travel time of the optimum route from the received traffic information, the travel time to the middle of the optimum route is calculated as much as possible. , Driving for a vehicle that guides travel guidance by searching for an optimal route using traffic information that includes received travel time data for each road segment to enable prediction of travel time to the destination In the guidance device, in particular, the means for detecting the connection of the road section related to the traffic information from the current position on the searched optimum route and the position on the road map of the end point of the detected connection of the road section are displayed. A means for obtaining, a means for calculating the time required to travel the connected portion of the detected road section based on the received traffic information, and a notification of the travel time required to reach the position of the end point. It has to take the stage.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows an example of the construction of a vehicle running guidance device according to the present invention.

The basic configuration is as follows: a distance detector 1 for detecting the traveling distance of the vehicle, a direction detector 2 for detecting the traveling direction of the vehicle, and a GPS receiver 3 for measuring the position of the vehicle. And the position on the XY coordinates of the vehicle is cumulatively calculated based on the traveling distance of the vehicle detected by the distance detector 1 and the traveling direction of the vehicle detected by the direction detector 2, and The position information of the own vehicle measured by the GPS receiver 3 is obtained, the current position of the own vehicle on the road map is complementarily obtained, and the overall control and the control processing including a microcomputer for performing the necessary processing are performed. Device 4
And a map information storage medium 5 in which road map information based on digital map data is stored in advance, a storage medium reproducing device 6 for selectively reading out road map information of a necessary area from the storage medium 5, and its read out. And a display device 7 for displaying a predetermined road map on the screen based on the road map information, and for updating the current position of the vehicle on the road map displayed on the screen as the vehicle travels,
Various input operations such as giving an input command to the control processing unit 4 to selectively specify a map to be displayed on the display unit 7, change the setting of the display scale factor, and arbitrarily set a destination on the road map are performed. Operation device 8 that can be performed
And is constituted by.

The control processing device 4 responds to an input command from the operating device 8 or automatically when a destination is set.
By using the cost data related to the distance, travel time, road width, etc. for each link (digitized road line segment) included in the road map information, and traffic regulation data such as prohibition of right and left turn and entry prohibition, The optimal route that minimizes the cost of links that can pass from the current position to the destination on the road map is searched, and the optimal route is displayed on the road map displayed on the screen, On the screen or the voice synthesizer 1 for guidance to turn right or left so that the current position of the vehicle follows the route and guidance for driving such as off route.
This is performed by the voice from the speaker 16 via 5.

Here, a conventionally known method is widely applied as the search for the optimum route.

In such a vehicle running guidance device,
In particular, an FM multiplex broadcast receiver 9 that receives traffic information by FM multiplex broadcasting from a broadcasting station, and a radio wave beacon receiver 11 that receives traffic information by a radio wave beacon broadcast from a road facility via a pecon antenna 10. An optical beacon receiver 14 for receiving traffic information by an optical beacon broadcast from the on-road equipment via a light receiver 12 and an amplifier 13.
Are provided.

[0011] The broadcasted traffic information targets only specific roads such as national roads, prefectural roads, and highways in a predetermined area in order to suppress an increase in the amount of information. It consists of information about the degree of traffic congestion or required travel time for each road segment, and traffic regulation information such as traffic closure due to accidents and prohibition of right and left turns.
In addition, service information such as parking lot availability, charges, and weather is included.

[0012] The traffic information is periodically updated and broadcast along with its provision time.

Here, the degree of congestion is 0, 1,
It is expressed by the level of 2, 3, ..., and the coefficient for calculating the required travel time of the road segment is set for each level of the congestion degree, for example, 0, 1.5, 2, 2.5, ... ing. If the congestion degree of a certain road segment is 3, the control processing device 4 standardizes the coefficient 2.5 when the congestion degree is 3 in the map information storage medium 5 and stores the cost of the link on the corresponding road. To fix its link cost.

Further, when given as the information of the required travel time of the road section, the control processing device 4 replaces the cost of the link on the corresponding road standardized and stored in the map information storage medium 5.

Each of the FM multiplex broadcast receiver 9, the radio wave beacon receiver 11 and the optical beacon receiver 14 has a built-in computer, the radio wave intensity of the FM multiplex broadcast is large, and the traffic information can be received by the beacon passage. At some time, the traffic information is received at any time, and the received traffic information is updated and stored in the internal memory together with the data of the provision time.

The FM multiplex broadcasting transmits traffic information by using an empty portion of a general FM broadcast. When the FM multiplex receiver 9 is selected for the FM broadcast, the traffic information is received. It will be possible.

Each of the FM multiplex broadcast receiver 9, the radio wave beacon receiver 11 and the optical beacon receiver 14 updates its internal memory when a traffic information request is issued from the control processing unit 4 during route search. The traffic information and the data of its provision time accumulated in the control processing device 4
Send to.

The control processing device 4 selects the latest traffic information from among the traffic information sent from each receiver and uses it for searching for the optimum route.

At this time, since the FM multiplex broadcast receiver 9, the radio wave beacon receiver 11 and the optical beacon receiver 14 are receiving the traffic information in units of area, when the traffic information is requested, each receiver receives the current area. When the traffic information in is sent, select the latest one,
Further, when traffic information in different areas is sent from each receiver, the traffic information in the current area is adopted.

Then, the control processing unit 4 determines the cost of the link on the corresponding road in the road map information based on the latest traffic information in the current area obtained from any of the receivers as described above. After making changes, the standard link costs on other roads and traffic restrictions such as road closures will be taken into consideration to minimize the cost of roads that can be reached from the current position of the vehicle on the road map to the destination. Search for the optimal route to do.

The optimum route searched using the traffic information does not always consist of only the roads for which the traffic information is provided, and there are roads other than the roads for which the traffic information is provided, It includes the road segment where some of the traffic information cannot be received due to changes in the environment when the vehicle is running.

In such a case, particularly in the present invention, in the control processing device 4, based on the traffic information used for the route search, the connection of the road sections related to the traffic information from the current position on the optimum route is determined. The time required to detect the position of the end point of the connection of the detected road segment on the road map, and the time required to travel the connected part of the detected road segment, The time required for traveling from the current position to the position of the end point of the connection is notified by being obtained by the addition.

The specific processing will be described below with the flow shown in FIG.

First, it is judged whether or not the optimum route is searched using the traffic information (step 1),
If the optimum route has been searched, the road segment related to the actually received traffic information on the optimum route is extracted, and the travel time data corresponding to each extracted road segment is extracted ( Step 2).

Next, by looking at the continuity of each road segment derived from the optimum route, the connection from the current position is obtained, and the position of the end point of the connection of the road segment on the road map is obtained (step 3).

Now, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, an optimum route RL from the current position P of the vehicle to the destination O is being searched, and each of the road segments a to g and j is actually received. If the road segment of h is the target of the traffic information provision but is unreceivable and i is the target of the traffic information provision, from the current position O As a connection of a-b-c-d-e-
f-g is required. Further, the position of point A on the road map is obtained as the end point of the connection.

Then, it is judged whether or not the position of the end point of the connection of the road sections matches the destination (step 4), and according to the result of the judgment, the end point of the connection from the current position P is changed in different modes. Notify the required travel time to the position.

That is, when the position of the end point coincides with the destination, as a first display form, for example, as shown in FIG.
The total travel time is displayed as "0 minutes" (step 5).

Here, the distance from the current position P on the optimum route RL to the destination (set outside the area displayed on the screen) is displayed. The distance is obtained from the distance data in the link table in the road map information.

In the figure, M1, M2, ... Are symbol displays of traffic congestion points obtained from traffic information, which are displayed under the control of the control processor 4.

If the position of the end point does not coincide with the destination, it is further judged whether or not the position of the end point coincides with the exit of the expressway (step 6). As a display form of, for example, as shown in FIG.
The time required for traveling from the current position P to the exit of the expressway is displayed as "minute" (step 7).

Then, a flag F is displayed at a predetermined highway exit on the road map displayed on the screen to indicate the position. Further, the distance from the current position P on the optimum route RL to the expressway exit is displayed.

If the position of the end point does not coincide with the exit of the expressway, the third display form is, for example, as shown in FIG.
As shown in, the travel time required from the current position P to the position of the flag F set at the end point is displayed as "20 minutes to the flag position" at the corner of the navigation screen (step 8). Then, the distance from the current position P on the optimum route RL to the position of the flag F is displayed.

At this time, the name of the intersection (place name) registered in the map information storage medium 5 is read out based on the data of the position of the flag F and displayed as, for example, "20 minutes to the S intersection". You may

The required travel time from the current position P to the position of the end point of the connection may be periodically notified by voice from the speaker 16 under the control of the control processor 4.

FIG. 3 is a process for updating the calculation of the travel time required from the current position to the end point of the road section connection while following the transition of the current position as the vehicle travels. Shows the flow of.

Here, first, using the data of the required travel time of the road segment related to the actually received traffic information, the travel from the current position P on the optimum route RL to the end point position of the connection of the road segment is performed. The total required time is calculated (step 1).

At this time, as shown in FIG. 4, when the current position P exists in the middle of the road section a, the road section a
Based on the relationship between the remaining distance of the current position P and the remaining distance, the remaining travel time required for the road segment a is calculated.

Then, the total required travel time is set in a timer inside the control processor 4 (step 2).

Next, it is judged whether or not the road section in which the current position P is present has changed due to the traveling of the vehicle (step 3). If it has not changed, in the connection of the road section It is determined whether or not the received data of the required travel time for each road segment has been updated (step 4).

At that time, if the road segment in which the current position P is present has changed, or if the received data of the required travel time of each road segment has been updated, the process returns to step 1 and ends. Recalculate the total travel time to the position.

Then, the road segment in which the current position P exists does not change as the vehicle travels, and
If the received data of the required travel time for each road segment has not been updated, the required travel time displayed on the navigation screen will be updated based on the contents of the timer that counts in the subtraction direction over time ( Step 5).

After that, the processing from step 3 to step 5 is repeated.

Therefore, each time the vehicle travels and the road section in which the current position P exists changes, the required travel time to the position of the end point of the connection is recalculated, and the latest received data is always obtained. It becomes possible to obtain an accurate travel time required by using.

[0044]

As described above, according to the vehicle travel guidance device of the present invention, when the optimum route is searched using the received traffic information and guidance for travel guidance is provided, the guidance from the current position on the searched optimum route is determined. It is necessary to detect the connection of road sections related to traffic information, obtain the position on the road map of the end point of the detected connection of road sections, and then drive the connected section of the detected road sections. The time is calculated by adding the travel required times of the corresponding road sections in the received traffic information and informing the time, even if it is not possible to obtain the total travel required time of the optimum route from the received traffic information, There is an advantage that it is possible to obtain the travel time required up to the middle of the optimum route as much as possible and to predict the travel time actually required to reach the destination.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a vehicle running guidance device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a flow of processing when a travel required time from a current position in an optimum route searched using traffic information to an end position of a connection of road sections related to traffic information is obtained and notified.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a flow of processing when calculating a required travel time from a current position to an end position of a road section connection.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of an optimum route from a current position searched for using traffic information to a destination.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a display form of a required travel time on a navigation screen according to an end point position of connection of road sections.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing another example of the display form of the required travel time on the navigation screen according to the end point position of the connection of road sections.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing still another example of the display form of the required travel time on the navigation screen according to the end point position of the connection of the road divisions.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 distance detector 2 direction detector 3 GPS receiver 4 signal processing device 5 map information storage medium 6 storage medium reproducing device 7 display device 8 operating device 9 FM broadcast receiver 10 beacon antenna 11 radio wave beacon receiver 12 light receiver 13 amplifier 14 Optical beacon receiver 15 Voice synthesizer 16 Speaker P Current position RL Optimal route A End point position of connection

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A traffic information including travel time data for each road segment is received, the cost of the corresponding road in the road map information is changed according to the received traffic information, and the traffic cost on the road map is changed. In a vehicle travel guidance device that searches for an optimum route from the current position of the vehicle to the destination and guides the travel guidance according to the searched optimum route,
A means for detecting the connection of road sections related to traffic information from the current position on the searched optimum route, and obtaining the position on the road map of the end point of the connection of the detected road sections, and the detected road section. For a vehicle characterized in that it has means for calculating the time required to travel through the connected portion of the vehicle based on the received traffic information and means for notifying the required travel time to the position of the end point. Driving guidance device.