JPH10206174A - Method and apparatus for particularization of road information, vehicle control apparatus and road-information storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain precise data on a road shape which is obtained by a running operation. SOLUTION: A present position which contains the position (the traffic-lane position) in the width direction of a road is detected by a present-position acquisition device 20. On the other hand, a vehicle speed, an acceleration and the like are detected by a vehicle-state-amount acquisition device 10, and a road shape is computed. A road-information computing device 14 computes the road shape as a center line on the basis of the traffic-lane position of a vehicle. Thereby, map data which is stored in a road-information storage device 22 is updated. Thereby, a running operation can be controlled by taking the traffic- lane position into consideration.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for updating road information based on data obtained when a vehicle is actually running.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, navigation devices have been known, and vehicles equipped with such devices have been increasing. In this navigation device, the current position of the vehicle is constantly grasped by using a GPS (global positioning system) device or the like, and the detected current position is illuminated with map data stored in a map database, and a point on the map is displayed. Recognize as Then, the map and the current position are displayed on the display to guide the traveling. When a destination is set, an optimal route from the current position to the destination is searched, and when a route is set, route guidance based on the set route is performed.

[0003] Further, since data on road shapes is stored as road information in the map database, the shape of the road on which the vehicle travels can be known. Therefore, there is a proposal for controlling the operation of various on-vehicle devices according to the shape of the road on which the vehicle runs. For example, when entering a curve, a warning of deceleration or deceleration control has been proposed based on the curvature of the curve and the vehicle speed at the time of entering the curve.

However, in order to control the operation of such a vehicle-mounted device according to the road shape, very detailed data is required as the road shape data in the map database. That is, various data such as a curvature of a curve, a vertical gradient, and a cant are required. In addition, these data are stored as data of discrete points, and the interval must be considerably narrow. The data of the conventional map database is basically for displaying a map, and is not such detailed data. Therefore, it is necessary to fundamentally rebuild the map database.

However, radically recreating a map database requires a huge amount of work and is not practical.
Therefore, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-192194, various data on the traveling when the vehicle travels are stored in association with the map data, and when traveling on the road again, the previous traveling data is referred to. It has been proposed to control in-vehicle equipment. According to this configuration, the map is limited to roads that have traveled before, but the map database can be enhanced without fundamentally recreating the map data.

[0006]

Here, roads include one-lane roads on one side and roads having a plurality of lanes. Then, on a road having a plurality of lanes, the road curvature differs depending on the lane in which the vehicle traveled. Further, even on an opposite road with one lane on each side, the curvature in a curve differs depending on the traveling direction. Therefore, a road shape for each lane is required. However, if these are all stored separately, the capacity of the memory for this will be large. Further, data on the driving situation is required for each lane, and it is necessary to drive on all the lanes for one road to acquire data, which makes data acquisition inefficient.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and provides a method for refining road information, a refining device, a vehicle control device, and a road information storage medium capable of efficiently acquiring and storing data. With the goal.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method of refining road information for refining data on the shape of a road on which a vehicle travels. A road shape obtaining step of obtaining a road shape of a road, a position obtaining step of obtaining a position of a vehicle by specifying a width direction position of the road, and a vehicle position specifying the width direction position of the obtained road shape. And an updating step of updating the road information in association with.

The present invention also relates to a road information refinement device for refining data on the shape of a road on which a vehicle travels. A road shape obtaining means for obtaining the shape, a position obtaining means for obtaining the position of the vehicle by specifying the width direction position of the road, and associating the obtained road shape with a vehicle position in consideration of the width direction position of the road. Updating means for updating road information.

As described above, according to the present invention, the vehicle position that specifies the width direction position of the road is detected. Then, the road information on the road shape obtained by traveling is updated in association with this. Therefore, the road shape takes into consideration the traveling lane of the vehicle. By storing information about one road in association with the current road width direction position,
At the time of the next traveling, it can be converted and used based on the width direction position at that time. Therefore, there is no need to travel in a lane on one road to acquire data. In addition, the curvature of the curve and the like become very accurate, and by using this, a warning of deceleration (or deceleration control) at the time of entering the curve can be reliably performed.

Further, the present invention converts the road shape data acquired based on the vehicle position specifying the position in the width direction of the road into reference shape data based on a reference position in the width direction of the road, and obtains the obtained reference shape. The feature is that road information is updated by data.

As the reference position in the width direction of the road, any position such as the right end and the left end of the road can be adopted. For example, a center line position can be adopted. The data such as the curvature of the curve obtained by traveling corresponds to the locus of the vehicle actually traveling. By converting this into data relating to a reference position such as a center line and storing the converted data, it can be converted and used in accordance with the traveling position at the time of the next traveling. Therefore, in the case of an oncoming road,
One data may be stored regardless of whether it is one lane on one side or plural lanes. If the road is not the opposite road,
It is necessary to store one data for each traveling direction.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that the operation sensitivity of the traveling control device of the vehicle is reduced when the road shape is being acquired. When the road shape is calculated from the running state, it is often not possible to accurately calculate the road shape during the transition period in driving with a large acceleration. For example, when the vehicle is rapidly accelerating or when the steering wheel is turned, the calculated road shape is often different from the actual road shape. Therefore, highly reliable data can be obtained by suppressing sudden acceleration or changing the shift to an appropriate one before entering the curve.

Further, the vehicle control device according to the present invention, when detecting the width direction position of the road on which the vehicle travels, converts the road reference shape data to match the width direction position of the road on which the vehicle runs. Then, various vehicle devices are controlled based on the converted data. If data about the reference position in the width direction of the road, such as the center line, is stored and converted based on the traveling position at that time, it is possible to obtain the correct curve curvature and the like during traveling. And a suitable curve warning can be performed.

Further, the present invention is a road information storage medium for storing data on a road shape on which a vehicle travels. Data and the position of the vehicle specifying the widthwise position of the road,
It is characterized in that a program for storing data on the accepted road shape in association with a vehicle position in consideration of the width direction position of the road and updating road information already stored thereby is stored.

[0016]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention (hereinafter referred to as embodiments) will be described below with reference to the drawings.

[Overall Configuration] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a map database refinement apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a vehicle state quantity acquisition device 10
Is composed of various sensors for acquiring the state quantity of the vehicle. That is, it has a vehicle speed sensor that detects the speed of the vehicle in accordance with the rotation of the non-drive wheels, a yaw rate sensor that detects the angular velocity (yaw rate) in the rotational direction of the vehicle, and a longitudinal acceleration sensor that detects the acceleration in the longitudinal direction. These vehicle state quantities are acquired by the vehicle state quantity acquisition device 10.

A road information calculation device 12 is connected to the vehicle state quantity acquisition device 10.
2 calculates and calculates road information on the road shape based on the supplied vehicle state quantity.

For example, when the vehicle speed is Vx, the yaw rate is r, and the longitudinal acceleration is Gx, the distance D, the curvature 1 / R, and the gradient θx can be obtained by the following equations. G is the gravitational acceleration.

[0020]

## EQU00001 ## Distance: D = {Vxdt Curvature: 1 / R = r / Vx Gradient: .theta.x = sin-1 {(Gx-Vx) / g} The road information calculation device 12 performs these calculations. Thereby, the curvature and the gradient at each point on the road can be known. Further, cant and the like can be calculated by detecting the lateral acceleration. A road information operation device 14 is connected to the road information operation device 12, and the calculated road information is supplied to the road information operation device 14.

The current position acquisition device 20 detects the absolute position of the vehicle such as the latitude and longitude, and is constituted by, for example, a GPS device. In addition, D · GPS which obtains error information by FM multiplex broadcasting or the like and corrects a detection position of a GPS device.
(Differential GPS), map matching for associating with map information, and position detection by autonomous navigation that detects the position from the traveling direction of the vehicle, etc.
It is preferable to perform more accurate position detection. further,
It is also preferable to use communication (radio wave or light) with a magnetic marker embedded in the road or a roadside beacon installed on the side of the road.

In the present embodiment, the current position acquisition device 20 also detects the position in the width direction of the road (lane position), that is, the traveling lane. Therefore, it is preferable to specify the position in the width direction of the road including the lane position using a CCD sensor or the like. In this way, the current position acquisition device 20 specifies the absolute position of the vehicle including the traveling lane.

The current position acquisition device 20 is connected to a road information storage device (map database) 22. The road information storage device 22 stores map information on roads nationwide. Then, based on the current position acquired by the current position acquisition device 20, road information around the current position is output. This road information is basically position data for each node on the road set for each predetermined distance required to display the road.

The road information storage device 22 is connected to the road information operation device 14, and road information around the current position is provided to the road information operation device 14. Road information operation device 1
Reference numeral 4 refers to the road information obtained from the road information calculation device 12 and the road information obtained from the road information storage device 22, and compares the road information stored in the road information storage device 22 with the road information obtained from the road information calculation device 12. Supplement the information,
More detailed road information is created, and thereby the road information stored in the road information storage device 22 is updated. Accordingly, the road information in the road information storage device 22 is refined by the data obtained by the vehicle state quantity acquisition device 10 by traveling.

Various control devices 30 are connected to the road information operation device 14. The various control devices 30
Are, for example, a brake control for operating a brake, a shift stage control device for controlling a shift stage in a transmission, an alarm control device for controlling a warning of deceleration, and the like. Then, the road information operation device 14 determines the necessity of deceleration by braking or downshifting and the necessity of issuing a deceleration warning based on the vehicle position such as the current position, map information around the current position, and the vehicle speed. When this is done, deceleration control or the like is performed.

[Overall Operation] Next, the operation of this apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. First, the current position is acquired by the current position acquisition device 20 (S11). Next, road information around the current position is acquired from the road information storage device 22 based on the current position (S12). Then, the road information operation device 14 determines whether the road information obtained by the road information storage device 22 has already been detailed, and whether the road information has high reliability (S1).
3).

If the determination in S13 is NO, it is preferable to refine the road information. Therefore, the vehicle state quantity acquisition device 10 acquires the vehicle state amount (S14), and the road information calculation device 12 calculates and calculates the road information (S15). Next, it is determined whether the road is on the opposite side of one lane on one side (S16). If the determination is YES, the road information is corrected using the course width (S1).
7).

The correction of the curvature will be described with reference to FIG. When the curvature is calculated based on the data obtained by the vehicle state quantity acquisition device 10, the curvature becomes the curvature when the vehicle actually travels. That is, the curvature (1 / R, where R is a radius) in the running locus at the center of the vehicle. Assuming that the traveling lane width (course width) is Cw, the radius Rc at the center of the road is as follows: Rc = R + Cw / 2. Here, it is assumed that the vehicle travels in the center of the traveling lane.

In this manner, the curvature at the center of the road is obtained in consideration of the width of the traveling lane. And
The road information thus corrected is stored in the road information storage device 22.
(S18).

If NO in S16, the data subjected to the predetermined processing is stored in the road information storage device 22 together with various flags (S19). For example, in the case of an oncoming road having two or more lanes on one side, the lane on which the vehicle has traveled is specified by the current position acquisition device 20, converted into the curvature of the center line position, and the curvature data is stored. The current position specifying device 20 specifies a position in the width direction of a road such as a traveling lane by accurate D / GPS or image recognition from a CCD camera or the like.

When the vehicle is located on the Nth lane in a plurality of lanes, the radius Rc at the center of the road is calculated by Rc = R + Cw (N + 1/2). Then, the calculated Rc is registered together with the traveling direction data and the traveled lane information (the number of the lane from the center line side).

If the traveling lane cannot be specified, the calculated data is registered as it is along with the traveling direction and information indicating that the data has low reliability. Further, on a road that is not opposite to the road such as an expressway, in the case of one lane on one side, the calculated data is registered together with the traveling direction. When traveling on the return route, the data is also registered.

In S13, if YES, sufficiently detailed data is stored in the road information storage device 22.
Therefore, there is no need to acquire road information in future traveling. On the other hand, using the detailed data stored in the road information storage device 22,
Can be controlled.

Therefore, in the case of YES in S13, the curvature of the curve and the course width are acquired (S20), and the curvature and the like are corrected in accordance with the traveling lane (S21).
That is, as described above, the curvature is stored as data of the center line. Therefore, it is necessary to correct this according to the lane in which the vehicle travels. For example, if the vehicle is traveling on the same traveling lane as that of FIG. 3, R = Rc−Cw / 2 is used to calculate R for the track on which the vehicle actually travels.

In the case where the center line data is stored in a plurality of lanes and the vehicle runs on the inside lane of the curve, R is calculated by R = Rc-Cw (N + 1/2).

Further, when data which is not converted into the data of the center line is included, R and the like are calculated based on the judgment as to whether or not the traveling lanes are the same.

Then, using the obtained curvature, an alarm,
Control such as deceleration is performed (S22). That is, by acquiring the curvature of the curve that will enter the road in advance, it is possible to determine the appropriate vehicle speed when entering the curve. Therefore, when the vehicle is traveling at the appropriate vehicle speed or higher, an alarm is output, downshifting or braking control is performed so as to enter a curve at the appropriate vehicle speed, thereby ensuring safer traveling.

[Distance Interpolation] Next, interpolation based on newly obtained road information will be described. That is, the map data stored in the road information storage device 22 is, for example,
It is stored as coarse data for each node at 100 m intervals. Therefore, in the present embodiment, data between nodes is interpolated based on data obtained by the vehicle state quantity acquisition device 10 during actual traveling to obtain higher-density and higher-precision data.

That is, the calculated data is separately held as an array connecting the nodes, and the data is extracted based on the actual traveling distance from the node. That is, as shown in FIG. 4, data such as curvature and gradient is stored for each of a plurality of points between two nodes according to the distance from the node.

Here, in the case of a one-lane opposite road on one side, 0: converted on the center line as a traveling direction flag, 1:
Positive direction (node A → node B) 2: negative direction (node B
→ The flag of node A) is stored. Further, a reliability flag (0: low reliability, 1: high reliability) is stored according to the state when the data is stored.

In the case of a two-lane non-facing road on one side,
The traveling direction flag is set to either 1 or 2,
A flag indicating whether or not the data has been converted to the data of the center line (0: converted, 1: not converted) is provided separately. Further, a flag is provided for the traveled lane (0:
Unknown, 1 or more: value counted from the center line).

The reliability flag thus stored is
This can be used for the determination in S13 of FIG. In addition, according to the traveling direction flag and the lane flag, S21
Can be converted appropriately.

Further, the distance from the node in such interpolation differs depending on the traveling direction (and the traveling lane). Therefore, this also needs to be corrected. For example, the travel distance D is obtained by using the conversion coefficient Kpd from the wheel pulse P to the distance, and by the integration of D = (Kpd * P).

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, the traveling distance Dc converted on the center line is obtained by the following equation using the turning radius R and the above-described center line position turning radius Rc: Dc = D * Rc / R. Therefore, according to the converted distance,
Each data is stored. Also, when using data, based on the traveling direction at that time and the traveling lane position,
By performing the same conversion and using the data, correct data can be obtained. In this case, R needs to be known, and R is calculated from the vehicle speed and the yaw rate or the wheel speed of each wheel. Further, the distance may be an integral of the vehicle speed.

"Improvement of reliability" When road information is acquired from such actual traveling data and added and updated, when the driver's operation is rough or when driving at high G (front-rear, left-right acceleration is large), Road information far from the actual road may be obtained. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, the curvature obtained by calculation at the time of entering or leaving a curve becomes considerably different from the actual one.

In order to obtain more accurate road information, it is desirable that the operation be as smooth as possible with small transient behavior.

Therefore, (i) the driver is informed that the road information is to be measured by light, voice, or the like, so that smooth operation and running are performed as much as possible.

(Ii) To reduce the transient behavior,
Change vehicle characteristics. For example, the power steering is set to be heavy, the control suspension is set to the hard side, or the sensitivity of the accelerator is reduced. Furthermore, when updating the three-dimensional data, it is determined whether there is a curve,
It is also preferable to set the gear position to an optimal position.

When such a characteristic change is performed, it is preferable to notify the driver of the change by light, voice, or the like. Further, since it may be assumed that the characteristic change is troublesome, it is preferable to be able to select in advance whether or not the characteristic can be changed.

Such processing will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. This processing is performed in S13 of FIG.
This is a process inserted between and. First, the driver is notified by voice, light, or the like that data addition is to be performed (S31). Then, it is determined whether or not the vehicle characteristics for updating are selected (S32). This is determined by the driver reading out the preset data. Then, in the case of YES in S32, the characteristics of the vehicle are changed to the characteristics for measurement as described above (S3).
3). Further, the driver is informed that the characteristic has been changed by voice, light, or the like (S34). If the process in S34 has been performed and if NO in S32, the process ends.

[Registration Control] In addition, there may be cases where it is not desired to register the measured road information due to road construction, the influence of stopped vehicles, and the like. Therefore, as shown in FIG.
A temporary storage memory 40 and a registration permission / inhibition recognition device 42 are provided.

The calculated data is stored in the temporary storage memory 40. When a certain amount of data is obtained after traveling for a certain distance (or for a certain time), the driver is notified by voice, light, or the like so as to perform an input operation of whether or not to register. If the driver does not perform the registration input / output operation, the registration enable / disable recognition device 42 registers the data in the temporary storage memory 40 as highly reliable data. If the driver does not register, the data on the temporary storage memory 40 is cleared. Also, if the reliability is low,
The calculated data is registered together with information of low reliability.

As described above, data obtained at any time during traveling is separately stored, and whether to register the data later is selected in accordance with the recognition result of the registration permission / recognition device 42. The registration permission / inhibition recognition device 42 may recognize whether registration is possible or not by inputting from the driver, or may recognize that the vehicle is not traveling normally by comparing the traveling state with the stored road shape data.

As described above, in the case of a system capable of registering data reliability, data may be registered as data having low reliability. At this time, if there is no existing data, the data may be unconditionally registered and the reliability may be input later.

When updating existing low reliability data, it is preferable that the driver can confirm the newly added data for updating the existing data on the navigation screen.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an overall operation.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing curvature correction.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing interpolation of data between nodes.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing correction of a traveling distance.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of an error based on a transient behavior.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing processing at the time of data acquisition.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a device that performs registration permission / prohibition control.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 vehicle state quantity acquisition device, 12 road information calculation device,
14 road information operation device, 20 current position acquisition device, 2
2 Road information storage device, 30 various control devices.

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A method for refining road information for refining data on a shape of a road on which a vehicle travels, the method comprising: acquiring a road shape of a traveling road from a traveling state of the vehicle when the vehicle travels. A road shape obtaining step; a position obtaining step of obtaining the position of the vehicle by specifying the width direction position of the road; and updating the road information by associating the obtained road shape with the vehicle position specifying the width direction position of the road. And an updating step of: (a) refining the road information. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the road shape data obtained based on the vehicle position specifying the width direction position of the road is converted into reference shape data based on a reference position in the width direction of the road, A method for refining road information, comprising updating road information with the obtained reference shape data. 3. The method for refining road information according to claim 1, wherein the operation sensitivity of the travel control device of the vehicle is reduced when acquiring the road shape. 4. A road information refinement device for refining data on a road shape on which a vehicle travels, wherein the device acquires a road shape of a running road from a traveling state when the vehicle travels. Road shape obtaining means; position obtaining means for obtaining the position of the vehicle by specifying the width direction position of the road; updating the road information by associating the obtained road shape with the vehicle position in consideration of the width direction position of the road And an updating unit that performs the updating. 5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the road shape data acquired based on the vehicle position specifying the width direction position of the road is converted into reference shape data based on a reference position in the width direction of the road, An apparatus for refining road information, which updates road information with the obtained reference shape data. 6. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the operation sensitivity of the travel control device of the vehicle is reduced when the road shape is being acquired. 7. A vehicle control device for controlling a vehicle using road information refined by the method or the device according to claim 5, wherein a position in a width direction of a road on which the vehicle runs is detected. A vehicle control device that converts the road reference shape data into data that matches the position in the width direction of the road on which the vehicle runs, and controls various vehicle devices based on the converted data. 8. A road information storage medium for storing data on a road shape on which a vehicle travels, wherein the data on the road shape of the road on which the vehicle travels is determined based on the traveling state of the vehicle. And the position data specifying the width direction position of the road is received, and the data on the received road shape is stored in association with the vehicle position in consideration of the width direction position of the road, thereby being already stored. A road information recording medium storing a program for updating road information.