JPH095099A - Vehicle traveling route selecting device and traveling route guiding device using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] It is an object of the present invention to provide a travel route selection device which selects an optimum travel route in consideration of traffic conditions without using communication means with the outside and a travel route guidance device using the same. [Structure] The travel route selection device of the present invention comprises means for detecting and recording a travel time required between adjacent node pairs on a road map (1,2,3,11,12), and the recorded adjacent nodes. A means (1, 11, 12, 5, 5) for notifying the driver by selecting the travel route having the shortest travel time between two arbitrary points on the road map by reading and referring to the travel time between the pair. 6,7,8) and. Further, the travel route guide device of the present invention comprises means (1,5,6,7,8,9) for guiding the driver so that the vehicle travels along the selected travel route.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle traveling route selecting device used for guiding various vehicle traveling routes, and a traveling route guiding device using the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A vehicle navigation route guidance device called a car navigation device or the like is designed to drive a vehicle between two points when a driver specifies a current point and a destination point on a screen on which a road map is displayed. It is known that the optimum travel route with the shortest required time is automatically determined by calculation and displayed on the road map on the screen. Conventionally, the determination of the optimal travel route that minimizes the required travel time has been performed based on the arithmetic processing that minimizes the travel route while considering traffic regulation information such as one-way traffic and the number of lanes.

As described above, in the configuration in which the shortest travel route is determined in consideration of traffic regulation information and the number of lanes, etc., it is involved in traffic jams and it takes time to reach the destination. There is a case that it ends up. Therefore, a method has been proposed in which a more practical route guidance is performed by combining such a route guidance device with a traffic information transmission / reception system relating to a traffic jam situation and the like.
Such transmission and reception of traffic information is realized by constructing a traffic information transmission facility along a road and mounting a vehicle with a receiving device for traffic information transmitted from the roadside.

[0004]

The method of determining the travel route having the shortest required travel time in combination with the above traffic information transfer system requires a considerable amount of cost to construct such a traffic information transfer system. There is. In addition, it is considered that it will take time for such a traffic information transmission facility to be installed along major roads, so there is a problem that it cannot be applied immediately. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a travel route selection device that can be realized without using any communication means with the outside.

[0005]

A vehicle travel route selecting apparatus according to the present invention comprises means for detecting and recording a required travel time between adjacent nodes on a road map, and traveling between the recorded adjacent nodes. By reading the required time and referring to it, a means for determining the traveling route having the shortest required traveling time between two arbitrary points on the road map and notifying the driver of the traveling route is provided.

[0006]

The required travel time between the adjacent nodes on the road map is recorded in the memory based on the travel history actually obtained for the vehicle equipped with the travel route selection device. When selecting a travel route for guiding the travel route, etc., the optimum travel route with the shortest travel time is selected by reading the recorded history of past travel required times from the memory. .

[0007]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a travel route guiding apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a processor, 2 is a CD-ROM for holding map data, 3 is a CD-ROM reader, 4 Is a vehicle position detector, 5 is a drawing processor, 6
Is a screen memory, 7 is a display control unit, 8 is a display panel, 9 is a speaker, 10 is a keyboard, 11 is a running history recording memory, and 12 is an electronic calendar including a clock.

A vehicle position detecting section 4 composed of a GPS receiver or the like detects the current position of the vehicle in which the traveling route guiding apparatus of this embodiment is installed and notifies the processor 1 of the current position. The detected current position is expressed as an absolute position on the earth such as how many times the latitude is north and how many times the longitude is east. Processor 1
Is a display screen based on the current position of the own vehicle notified from the own vehicle position detection unit 4, the display magnification of the display screen designated by the command input from the keyboard 10, the display position of the own vehicle in the screen, and the like. The latitude of the upper and lower edge lines and the longitude of the left and right edge lines are calculated.

The processor 1 reads the map data contained in the calculated upper, lower, left and right edge lines from the map data held in the CD-ROM 2 through the CD-ROM reader 3 and transfers it to the drawing processor 5. The drawing processor 5 receives the map data transferred from the processor 1 and executes a drawing command included in the map data to generate a dot pattern figure for displaying roads, railroad tracks, etc., which are constituent elements of the map. Then, the data is written in a predetermined portion of the screen memory 6. The drawing processor 5 converts the character code included in the map data received from the processor 1 into a dot pattern of the corresponding character and writes it in a predetermined portion of the screen memory 6.

The dot pattern map written in the screen memory 6 is periodically read out under the control of the display control unit 7 and displayed on the display unit 8 composed of a liquid crystal panel or a cathode ray tube. FIG. 2 shows an example of the road map displayed on the screen in this way. However, road names and intersection names are omitted in this map to avoid complications. As shown in FIG. 2, the current position of the vehicle detected by the position detection unit 2 is displayed on the map displayed on the screen as a predetermined symbol (triangle mark surrounded by circle). The processor 1 notifies the driver of the vehicle of audio information necessary for navigation via the speaker 9.

The processor 1 records the required travel time between the nodes of this vehicle in parallel with the above-mentioned map data display processing. That is, the processor 1 calculates the time required for traveling from the immediately preceding node to this node every time this vehicle passes an arbitrary node (intersection of roads) on the map, It is recorded as the required travel time. In order to calculate and record the travel time required by the processor 1, a CD as illustrated in FIG.
-Node numbers N ₁ , N ₂ , N ₃ for identifying each node existing on the ROM map data
・ Is added. However, the node number is not displayed on the display screen.

The processor 1, as illustrated in FIG.
The travel time between any pair of adjacent nodes (i, j) is read for each day of the week and time zone read from the electronic calendar 12, and the travel time together with the number of travels (the number of samples) is averaged in minutes, maximum value, The data is divided into minimum values and recorded in a large-capacity running history recording memory 11 including a hard disk. Note that public holidays are considered to be Sundays regardless of the actual day of the week.

The average value, the maximum value, and the minimum value of the required travel time between the adjacent node pairs are sequentially updated each time a new value appears. When the number of times of running reaches a predetermined value,
By discarding the oldest travel history, only the latest data is stored in the memory 11 based on the predetermined number of travels. An example of the processing for calculating and recording the required travel time is shown in the flowchart of FIG.

When the driver inputs data designating a target point from the keyboard 10, the processor 1 draws a symbol of the target point designated by the input data (illustrated by a double circle in FIG. 2). The image is drawn by the processor 5 and displayed on the display panel 8. Subsequently, the driver inputs the shortest travel route setting command based on the average value of the travel time required between the node pairs from the keyboard 10 so that the shortest travel route from the vehicle position to the set target point is input to the processor 1. The setting process of is started.

The processor 1 reads the average value of the required travel time between the adjacent node pairs (i, j) from the travel history recording memory 11 in order to find the shortest travel route from the vehicle position to the set target point. , Known Dijkstra (Dijk
stra) method, the shortest travel route from the current location to the target location is determined. The traveling record is read out for the day of the week and the time zone read from the electronic calendar 12.

The required travel time between the current point and its nearest node and the required travel time between the target point and its nearest node are the required travel times between adjacent nodes including each point with respect to the distance on the map. Determined by proportional distribution. Further, the time zone is updated in parallel with the addition of the required travel time. The processor 1 displays, on the road map, a special coloring such as red or blue that shows the shortest required travel time among the shortest travel route candidates calculated in this way. At the same time, the processor 1 displays the predicted value of the required travel time of the displayed traveling route on the screen.

When the driver selects the route which is selected by the processor 1 and has the shortest required travel time as the traveling route, the driver inputs a notice from the keyboard 10 that the processor 1 agrees with the selection. . When the driver does not select the route that has been selected by the processor 1 and has the shortest required travel time as the traveling route, the driver inputs a notification from the keyboard 10 that the processor 1 does not agree with the selection. Receiving this notification, the processor 1 selects and displays the travel route having the next shortest travel time. When the driver does not agree with the displayed travel route selected by the processor 1, the travel route having the next shortest travel time is selected and displayed.

The driver can remove the maximum value and the minimum value of the shortest travel route in order to increase the reliability of the average travel time when determining the average travel time between adjacent node pairs. When the travel route is set by the final driver's consent, the processor 1 travels along the travel route set by the display message or the symbol on the screen or the voice message from the speaker 9. Guide the driver.

When the amount of the traveling history already recorded in the traveling history recording memory 11 is insufficient, commercially available traveling time required data is recorded in the memory 11 and used as an initial value. It can be configured. Also, instead of such commercially available travel time data, the distance between adjacent node pairs is used to minimize the total distance between adjacent node pairs until a sufficient travel history is recorded. It is also possible to use the conventional configuration of selecting the most suitable travel route together.

The case where the shortest travel route from the current position to the target position is selected has been described above. However, if a waypoint is set in advance regardless of the length of time required for travel, a road map such as a route from the waypoint to the target point or another waypoint located in front of the waypoint is displayed. It is also possible to use a configuration in which a traveling steep road between any two points above is selected based on the required traveling time.

In addition, an example is shown in which the required travel time between each pair of adjacent nodes is divided and recorded on the days of the week and the holidays. However, in addition to this, it is also possible to adopt a configuration in which the travel required time between each pair of adjacent nodes is recorded on a so-called day (a date that is an integer multiple of 5 and the last day of every month). Alternatively, the day of the week can be simplified and divided into two such as weekdays and holidays.

Further, the case of the traveling route guiding device for guiding the driver along the selected traveling route has been described.
However, the present invention can be applied as a travel route selection device that does not perform guidance only by selecting and displaying a travel route.

[0023]

As described in detail above, the vehicle travel route guiding apparatus according to the present invention detects and records the travel time required between adjacent nodes, and refers to this recording result to determine the travel required. Since it is configured to notify the driver by determining the travel route with the shortest time, there is no need to build a traffic information transfer system that costs a considerable amount, and without waiting for the construction of such a system. It has the advantage that it can be executed immediately.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a travel route selection device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of a road map displayed on the screen by the travel route selection device of the above embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of a structure of travel history data regarding a travel required time between adjacent node pairs recorded in the travel route selection device of the above embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of a process for calculating and recording a required travel time.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Processor 2 CD-ROM that holds map data 3 CD-ROM reader 4 Vehicle position detection unit 5 Drawing processor 6 Screen memory 7 Display control unit 8 Display panel 9 Speaker 10 Keyboard 11 Running history recording memory

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A means for detecting and recording a travel time required between adjacent node pairs on a road map, and a means for reading and referring to the recorded travel time required between the adjacent node pairs on the road map. And a means for notifying a driver of a travel route having a shortest travel time required between two arbitrary points, the travel route selection device for a vehicle. 2. The traveling route selection device for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the required traveling time between the pair of adjacent nodes is detected and recorded separately for each day of the week and each time zone. 3. The traveling time between the adjacent node pairs according to claim 1 or 2, which is detected and recorded by being classified into a special day such as a month, a holiday or a holiday, a new year, a New Year's Eve, or a combination thereof. A travel route selection device for a vehicle, comprising: 4. A means for detecting and recording a required travel time between adjacent node pairs on a road map, and a means for reading and referring to the recorded required travel time between adjacent node pairs on the road map. Means for notifying a driver by selecting a travel route having the shortest required travel time between two arbitrary points, and guiding means for notifying the driver of guidance information so that the vehicle travels along the selected travel route. A travel route guiding device for a vehicle, comprising: