JPH0835848A - Route guiding device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To omit the guidance to excessive characteristic objects so as to only guide characteristic objects which contribute to safety driving by issuing a warning when the distance to a noticeable object from its own vehicle becomes shorter than a fixed distance. CONSTITUTION:A locator 5 calculates the present location of its own vehicle by finding the azimuth changing amount of the vehicle based on the turning angle of the vehicle detected by means of a vibrating gyro sensor 6 and the moved distance of the vehicle from the distance detected by means of a distance sensor 2. The locator 5 also calculates the running track data of the vehicle based on the present location data of the vehicle and detects a road and the location of the vehicle on the road by comparing the running track data with road patterns stored on a disk D (map matching method). The locations of noticeable objects (railroad crossings, tunnels, etc.) are stored on the disk D in advance. A voice outputting device 18 and display device 12 issue a warning when the distance between the positional information and the location of the vehicle becomes shorter the a fixed distance. Therefore, the number of objects to be guided is reduced an the driver of the vehicle is released from the plentifulnes of guidances.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a route guide device for guiding a recommended route obtained from a present location to a destination.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, navigation is performed according to a preset course while measuring a traveling distance and a rudder angle, and a characteristic object on the course of the course, for example, a position of an intersection and guidance information are stored to store the traveling distance and the traveling distance. There has been proposed a device that associates the position of a feature with the feature and outputs guidance information for the feature on condition that the feature is approached (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Sho-1).
6917).

[0003]

Conventionally, this type of device displays a guide if there is any characteristic on the course, thereby giving the driver a sense of security that he is simply traveling on the route. It is becoming possible.

However, when the number of features is large, the driver is troublesome to guide the driver, and the guide is constantly
There is still room for improvement in the conventional device in that the display screen becomes distracting and the operation is hindered.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a route guide device capable of guiding a feature that contributes to safe driving by omitting the guidance of an extra feature.

[0006]

In order to achieve such an object, the invention as set forth in claim 1 is a route guide device for guiding a recommended route to a destination, when it is located on the recommended route. A storage means for storing the position of the object of caution for generating a warning in front of it, and a recommended route travel determination means for determining that the vehicle is traveling on the recommended route,
When it is determined by the recommended route traveling determination means that the vehicle is traveling on the recommended route, the position of the object of caution in the storage means is referred to. When the distance between the vehicle and the object requiring attention is within a certain distance, the warning means gives a warning.

The invention according to claim 2 further comprises day / night judging means for judging whether the traveling time zone of the vehicle is daytime or nighttime, and the judgment result of the day / night judging means is nighttime, and When the distance between the vehicle and the object requiring attention is within a certain distance, the warning means gives a warning by display or voice.

[0008]

According to the first aspect of the invention, the position of the object of caution (railroad crossing, tunnel, etc.) for which an alarm is issued is stored in advance in the storage means (disk D in FIG. 2). When the condition that the distance between this position information and the position of the vehicle is within a certain distance and that the vehicle is following the recommended route is satisfied, the warning means (the voice output device of FIG. 2 is used. 18,
A warning is issued from the display device 12).

According to the second aspect of the invention, in addition to the condition for issuing the warning of the first aspect, the traveling time zone of the vehicle is at night.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

Prior to the description of the present invention, a system configuration of a route guidance device to which the present invention is applied will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 2, the route guidance device includes, as sensors, a distance sensor 2 for detecting the traveling distance of the vehicle and a shift sensor 3 for detecting whether the vehicle is moving forward or backward. The detection outputs of these two sensors 2 and 3 are given to the locator 5. Also,
Vibration gyro sensor 6 for detecting the turning angle of the vehicle
Is provided, and the detection output of the vibration gyro sensor 6 is also given to the locator 5.

The locator 5 is for calculating the current position of the vehicle. The locator 5 determines the direction change amount of the vehicle based on the turning angle of the vehicle detected by the vibration gyro sensor 6, and
The moving distance of the vehicle is obtained by adding the forward or backward movement of the vehicle given from the shift sensor 3 to the distance detected by the distance sensor 2. Therefore, for example, if accurate initial position data of the vehicle is given to locator 5 before the vehicle starts moving, locator 5 calculates the current position of the vehicle thereafter. The case where the vehicle position is obtained only in this way is called "free mode".

Further, the locator 5 calculates the traveling locus data based on the current position data of the vehicle, and compares the traveling locus data with the road pattern stored in the disk D (so-called map matching method). Thus, it has a function of detecting the road and the position of the vehicle on the road in consideration of the existence probability of the vehicle. In this way, the case where the vehicle position on the road is obtained by map matching is called "matching mode". When performing map matching, the road on which the vehicle position is obtained is not always single. For example, when roads intersect or are parallel, there may be multiple candidate roads. In such a case, the road having the highest pattern similarity is output as the first candidate, but the second and subsequent candidate roads are also stored (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-148115). Such a case where there are a plurality of candidate roads will be referred to as "temporary return mode".

The data representing the current position of the vehicle calculated by the locator 5 is given to the controller 7, which is the control center of the route guidance device. The controller 7
It includes a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, etc., is connected to the locator 5 and the memory drive 8 described above, and has a CR.
A display device 12 such as a T (cathode ray tube display device) and a remote control key 13 are connected. The controller 7 controls the memory drive 8 based on the current vehicle position data calculated by the locator 5. In response to the control signal given from the controller 7, the memory drive 8 reads the road map data for display corresponding to the current vehicle position from the disk D loaded in advance and outputs it to the controller 7. The controller 7 gives the present position data calculated by the locator 5 and the road map data for display given from the memory drive 8 to the display device 12 to generate a map and the vehicle present position mark on the other figure, and displays the mark. Let Further, a guidance message is sent to the voice output device 18, and voice guidance is executed.

In addition, the memory drive 8 responds to a control signal supplied from the controller 7 to read out route calculation link data for route calculation from the previously loaded disk D and output it to the controller 7. The controller 7 calculates the optimum route from the current position to the destination, obtains the coordinates on the road map, and displays the optimum route.

The route calculation link data is obtained by dividing a road map (including highway national roads, motorways, national highways, prefectural roads, prefectural roads, city roads of designated cities, and other living roads) into meshes, and each mesh is divided. It stores data consisting of combinations of nodes and links in units.

Here, a node is generally a coordinate point for specifying a characteristic point (including a point of caution of the present invention) such as a road intersection, a road bending point, a mesh boundary, or a dead end. That is.

A link connects the nodes.
The link data is the link number, the address of the start node and the end node of the link, the distance of the link, the direction of passing through the link, the time required in that direction, the type or type of road, the road width, one-way street, right turn prohibited, left turn prohibited, Includes data such as toll roads.

A beacon receiver 17 is further connected to the controller 7. The beacon receiver 17 is for receiving data such as position information and road information (intersection name, destination guidance) radiated from a beacon antenna installed on the roadside or the like. Beacon receiver 1
The beacon data received at 7 is given to the controller 7 and finally displayed on the display device 12 to display the beacon information to the driver.

As an optional device, the locator 5
A GPS receiver 19 is connected to. GPS receiver 1
9 is provided, a signal from a GPS satellite can be received to accurately detect the absolute azimuth or directly detect the current position of the moving body.

The GPS receiver 19 is designed so that it can receive radio waves from four or more GPS satellites so that it can always perform three-dimensional positioning. 4 or more GPS
The GPS reception mode when receiving radio waves from satellites is called "three-dimensional positioning mode". However, when entering the shadow of a building, the number of GPS satellites that can be received decreases. The GPS reception mode when receiving radio waves from three GPS satellites is called a "two-dimensional positioning mode". In addition, the GPS reception mode in the case where a radio wave from a GPS satellite cannot be received in a tunnel or the like is called an "unpositionable mode".

The functional configuration inside the controller 7 is shown in FIG. The functional blocks shown in FIG. 3 represent functions realized by the CPU executing software. The controller 7 reads the road map data for display and the link data for route calculation in a predetermined range from the memory drive 8, the map data management unit 73, the destination information input from the remote controller key 13 and the vehicle input from the locator 5. An optimum route calculation processing unit 72 that calculates an optimum route using link data for route calculation based on the current position information, and a memory 75.
The display control unit 76, the voice control unit 77, and the route guidance processing unit 71 that controls all the processes.

The guidance processing of the present invention realized by such a system configuration will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. FIG. 1 shows a processing procedure executed by the CPU in the controller, and is represented for convenience of explanation. The recommended route from the departure point to the destination point is created in advance by the conventional method.

While the vehicle is traveling, the controller 7 repeatedly acquires the current position information of the vehicle from the locator 5. When the controller 7 acquires the current position information, the controller 7 compares the recommended route with the current position indicated by the current position information, and confirms that the current position of the vehicle follows the recommended route (step S10).

Next, the controller 7 refers to the map on the disk D via the memory drive 8 to detect the feature points near the vehicle which are defined as the items requiring attention. More specifically, since railroad crossings, tunnels, etc. are defined as objects requiring attention, the current position of the vehicle and the distance between these objects requiring attention are compared with a certain distance (steps S20, S50).

When it is determined by this comparison that the current position of the vehicle is within a certain distance from the object requiring attention, the controller 7 detects that the small light of the vehicle is ON or the small light. It is confirmed by the level of the lighting signal (steps S30 and S60), that is, it is confirmed that it is currently nighttime, and the control process for notifying the driver of the warning message by voice and display is executed. More specifically, the voice message and the display message prepared in the controller 7 or the disk D are read and transferred to the voice output device 18 and the display device 12 (steps S40 and S70).

As described above, in the present embodiment, by guiding the attention-required object among the characteristic objects that have been conventionally guided as a warning, display and voice are bothersome for unnecessary guidance. Remove the

In addition to this embodiment, the following example can be carried out.

1) A conventional mode for guiding all the characteristic points and a mode for guiding only the items requiring attention can be determined, and the mode can be selected by the driver. In this case, the driver operates the remote controller key 13 to instruct the controller 7 in the guidance mode. The controller 7 selects either the conventional guidance processing program or the guidance processing program shown in FIG. 3 according to the instructed guidance mode.

2) The message for guiding the items requiring attention is
In addition to the guidance message indicating its presence, the driving-related operation required as the user passes the cautionary object can be guided. For example, in a tunnel, a small light of a vehicle is normally turned on, but when it is confirmed that the small light is not turned on, a message prompting the small light to turn on is displayed.

When the distance between the railroad crossing and the vehicle is less than a certain distance, a warning message such as "Please reduce the vehicle speed" is provided on condition that the vehicle speed is above a certain level. You can also In this case as well, the controller 7 takes in the output of the vehicle speed sensor and determines whether or not there is a warning.

3) In order to determine whether the time zone during which the vehicle is running is daytime or nighttime, in addition to determining whether the small lamp is on or off as in this embodiment, the output of the optical sensor is used. There is a method of determining that the vehicle is at night for a certain period of time (no detection of light), and a method of further determining by combining on / off of the headlights.

[0033]

As described above, according to the first and second aspects of the present invention, the object of the warning guidance is limited to the items requiring attention, and
A warning is issued when the vehicle is running over the recommended distance, the distance between the object requiring attention and the vehicle is within a certain distance, and it is at night, etc. To do. This reduces the number of features to be guided and relieves the driver of the large amount of guidance.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a guidance processing procedure of a controller 7 of FIG. 2 according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of a route guidance device to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing details of a controller 7 in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 5 Locator 7 Controller 8 Memory Drive 12 Display Device 13 Remote Control Key 17 Beacon Receiver 18 Voice Output Device 19 GPS Receiver 71 Route Guidance Processor 72 Optimal Route Calculation Processor 76 Display Controller 77 Voice Controller

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A route guide device for guiding a recommended route to a destination, a storage means for storing a position of a substance to be cautioned to generate a warning when the vehicle is located on the recommended route, and a vehicle. Has a recommended route travel determination means for determining that the vehicle is traveling on the recommended route, and a warning means by display or voice, and the recommended route travel determination means that the vehicle is traveling on the recommended route. If it is determined by the above, the position of the object of caution in the storage means is referred to, and when the distance from the vehicle to the object of caution is within a certain distance, the warning means issues a warning. A route guidance device. 2. A day / night judging means for judging whether the traveling time zone of the vehicle is daytime or nighttime, wherein the judgment result of the daytime / night judging means is nighttime, and between the vehicle and the object of caution. The route guidance device according to claim 1, wherein when the distance is within a certain distance, the warning means gives a warning by display or voice.