JPH08292056A - On-vehicle route searching device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To set the starting point of a route search in a proper position even in the case where passing on the road is restricted due to obstacles such as rivers and suchlike in and around a vehicle position. CONSTITUTION: In this on-vehicle route searching device to be equipped with a current position detector 1 and a map storage memory 7, when a vehicle position detected by this current position detector 1 is not on a road being possible for a route search, plural nodes existing on a road being possible for the route search a car are selected, and the route search is carried out as to each route of up to each node from the car with map displaying data in the map storage memory 7. Then, the node in the nearest distance from the vehicle is set up as a starting point of the route search. With this constitution, a spot being at the shortest route from a vehicle position and actually reachable can be set as to starting point of the route search.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is to search for a route from a vehicle position to a preset destination, calculate a recommended route, and display the calculated recommended route on a road map on the screen in an on-vehicle route search. Regarding the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There is known a vehicle-mounted route search device that performs a route search from a starting point or a destination set or input in advance and calculates a recommended route. The departure place and the destination may be manually set by an operator himself operating a keyboard or the like, or may be automatically set based on the vehicle position detected by a GPS sensor or the like.

On the other hand, if a route search is performed for all roads, a huge amount of calculation time is required. Therefore, usually a route search is performed except for narrow roads. However, since the starting point and the destination may be set on a narrow road, in such a case, the starting point of the route search is set near the starting point and the ending point of the route search is set near the destination. It is common to start the route search after setting. For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 5-6239 discloses a device that limits the setting range of the start point and the end point as much as possible so that the start point and the end point of the route search can be set in a short time.

[0004]

However, in some cases, there is an obstacle such as a river between the departure point and the start point of the route search, or between the destination and the end point of the route search. May not be able to reach the start or end. However, since the conventional device determines the starting point and the ending point of the route search without considering such obstacles, there are cases where a recommended route that cannot be actually traveled is set.

An object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle-mounted route search device capable of setting a route search start point at an appropriate position even when roads are restricted due to obstacles such as rivers around the vehicle position. To provide.

[0006]

The present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1 showing an embodiment. According to the present invention, the road map memory stores various information necessary for displaying a road map on a display device 6. Means 7, vehicle position detecting means 1 for detecting the vehicle position, destination setting means 3 for setting the destination of the vehicle, and route search from the detected vehicle position to the set destination to make a recommended route. The present invention is applied to a vehicle-mounted route search device equipped with a recommended route calculation means for calculating and a display control means for displaying the calculated recommended route on the display device 6, and the detected vehicle position is on a road on which the route can be searched. If not,
Starting point candidate selecting means for selecting one or more nodes on a road on which a route can be searched within a predetermined distance from the vehicle position as candidates for a starting point for the route search, and a predetermined condition of the selected nodes The above-mentioned object is achieved by providing a starting point selecting means for selecting a node satisfying the condition as a starting point of the route search, and configuring the recommended route calculating means so as to calculate the recommended route starting from the selected starting point. It According to a second aspect of the invention, in the vehicle-mounted route search device according to the first aspect, the road map storage means 7 includes map display data used for displaying a road map on the display device 6, and a recommendation. At least the route search data used to calculate the route are stored, and the start point selection means is configured to select the start point based on the map display data, and the selected start point is set as the start point. The recommended route calculating means is configured to calculate the recommended route based on the route search data. Claim 3
The invention according to claim 2 is the vehicle-mounted route search device according to claim 2, further comprising a node selection means for selecting a plurality of nodes within a predetermined distance from the detected vehicle position and on a road on which the route can be searched. The route from the vehicle position to each node selected by the starting point candidate selecting means is configured so that the starting point candidate selecting means is configured to select a plurality of nodes on the road connecting the selected nodes. The starting point selecting means is configured to perform a route search based on the map display data and select a starting point based on the route search result.

[0007]

According to the invention described in claim 1, when the vehicle position is not on the road on which the route can be searched, one or more locations within the predetermined distance from the vehicle position and on the road on which the route can be searched are located. A node is selected as a candidate for the starting point of the route search, a node satisfying a predetermined condition among the selected nodes is selected as the starting point of the route search, and the recommended route is calculated using the selected starting point as the starting point. According to the second aspect of the present invention, the road map data used for selecting the starting point of the route search and the road map data used for calculating the recommended route are separately provided. That is, the map display data is used when selecting the start point of the route search, and the route search data is used when calculating the recommended route. In the invention according to claim 3, after selecting a plurality of nodes on a road within a predetermined distance from the vehicle and on which a route can be searched, a plurality of nodes on a road connecting the selected nodes are newly added. Select one. Then, a route search is performed on the route from the vehicle position to the newly selected node based on the map display data, and the starting point of the route search is selected based on the search result.

Incidentally, in the section of means and action for solving the above-mentioned problems for explaining the constitution of the present invention, the drawings of the embodiments are used to make the present invention easy to understand. It is not limited to.

[0009]

1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a vehicle-mounted route search device according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a current position detection device for detecting the current position of the vehicle, for example, a direction sensor for detecting the traveling direction of the vehicle, a vehicle speed sensor for detecting the vehicle speed, and a GPS signal from a GPS (Global Positioning System) satellite. It is composed of a GPS sensor and the like.

Reference numeral 2 is a control circuit for controlling the entire apparatus,
It consists of a microprocessor and its peripheral circuits. 3 is an input device for inputting the destination of the vehicle, 4 is a DRAM for storing vehicle position information detected by the control circuit 2 using the current position detection device 1, and 5 is image data to be displayed on the display device 6. The image data is an image memory to be stored, and the image data stored in the image memory 5 is appropriately read and displayed on the display device 6.

Reference numeral 7 is a map storage memory for storing various data for performing road map display, route search, map matching, etc., and is composed of, for example, a CD-ROM device or a magnetic recording device. The map storage memory 7 stores map display data composed of information about road shapes and route search data composed of branch point information and intersection information not directly related to road shapes. The map display data is mainly used when the road map is displayed on the display device 6, and the route search data is mainly used when the recommended route is calculated.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the outline of the main processing performed by the control circuit 2. In step S1 of FIG. 2, the vehicle position is detected by using the current position detection device 1, and a start point of the route search is set on a route which is close to the detected vehicle position and is capable of route search. Details of the processing in step S1 will be described later. In step S2, the destination information input by the user with the input device 3 is fetched, and the end point of the route search is set on the road where the route search is possible near the destination.

In step S3, a recommended route from the set start point to the set end point is calculated. Step S
In 4, the map drawing process shown in detail in FIG. 3 is performed, and the data to be displayed on the display device 6 is stored in the image memory 5. First, in step S11 of FIG. 3, map display data around the vehicle position is read from the map storage memory 7. next,
In step S12, a part of the read map display data is drawn (stored) in the image memory 5. Step S13
Then, the data necessary for displaying the recommended route calculated in step S3 of FIG. 2 is drawn (stored) in the image memory 5 in an overlapping manner.

When the process of step S13 of FIG. 3 is completed, the process proceeds to step S5 of FIG. 2, the data stored in the image memory 5 is read, and the recommended route and the road map around it are displayed.

Next, details of the processing in step S1 of FIG. 2 will be described with reference to FIG. In step S51, the current position detection device 1 is used to detect the vehicle position and the vehicle traveling direction. In step S52, it is determined whether or not the vehicle is on a road on which the route can be searched. Here, step S51
The vehicle position and the vehicle traveling azimuth detected in step 3 and the map display data stored in the map storage memory 7 are subjected to map matching for determination.

If the determination in step S52 is negative,
That is, when the vehicle is not on a road on which the route can be searched, the process proceeds to step S53, the start point setting process shown in detail in FIG. . Details of the process of step S53 will be described later.

On the other hand, if the determination in step S52 is affirmative, that is, if the vehicle is on a road on which the route can be searched, the process proceeds to step S54, and the node on the road on which the vehicle is closest to the vehicle After setting the starting point of the search,
To return.

Next, details of the processing in step S53 of FIG. 4 will be described with reference to FIG. In step S101 of FIG. 5, the map display data stored in the map storage memory 7 is read to detect a node on the road where a route can be searched near the vehicle. For example, when the arrow position in FIG. 6 is the vehicle position and the thick line portion in FIG. 6 is the road on which the route search is possible, nodes A, B, C and D are selected.

In step S102, step S101
Select all the end points of the narrow road connected to the road that connects the nodes detected in. For example, in the case of FIG. 6, node a
Select ~ j. In step S103, the narrow road closest to the vehicle position is selected. For example, in the case of FIG. 6, the narrow road L is selected.

In step S104, step S103
Starting from the narrow road L selected in step S10, a route search is performed for each route up to the end points a to j selected in step S102, and the shortest route of each route is detected.
At that time, the route search is performed using the map display data stored in the map storage memory 7.

In step S105, step S104
It is determined whether the shortest route has been found by the route search. If the determination is affirmative, the process proceeds to step S106, and the shortest route is selected from the respective shortest routes until reaching the end points a to j. In step S107, the end point connected to the route selected in step S106 is set as the start point of the route search. For example, when the route shown by the dotted line in FIG. 6 is selected in step S106, the end point b is set as the start point of the route search and the process returns.

On the other hand, if the determination in step S105 is negative, the process proceeds to step S108, and the process for setting the starting point of the route search on the road near the vehicle is performed. This step S
Details of the process of 108 are shown in FIG. In step S201 of FIG. 7, the current vehicle position is detected using the current position detection device 1. In step S202, it is determined whether or not there is a road connected to a road on which a route can be searched within a predetermined distance from the vehicle position. If the determination is negative, the process proceeds to step S203, the flag indicating that the route search cannot be performed is set to "1", and the process returns.

On the other hand, if the determination in step S202 is affirmative, the flow proceeds to step S204, where the vehicle position is the starting point.
The distance from the vehicle position to each road within a predetermined distance is calculated. In step S205, the shortest road is selected from the distances calculated in step S204, the start point of the route search is set on this road, and the process returns.

When the process of step S108 of FIG. 5 is completed, the process proceeds to step S109 of FIG. 5 to determine whether the flag is "1", that is, whether the route search is possible. If the determination is affirmative, the process proceeds to step S110, the message that the route search cannot be performed is displayed on the screen of the display device 6, and the process returns.

As described above, in the present embodiment, when the vehicle position detected by the current position detecting device 1 is not on the road on which the route can be searched, the road on which the route can be searched near the vehicle position. A plurality of nodes above are selected, and a route search is performed for each route from the vehicle to each node using the map display data. Then, the node closest to the vehicle is set as the start point of the route search.

As described above, a route search is performed using the vehicle position as a reference by using the map display data, and the start point of the route search is set based on the search result. Therefore, the shortest route from the vehicle position can be reached. Can be set as the starting point for route search.

For example, as shown in FIG. 8, when a vehicle is located on a narrow road where route search is not possible and there is a road A near which the route can be searched across a river, the river is actually searched. Although it is not easy to go to Road A because of the
Conventionally, the recommended route has been set on the side of the road A as shown in FIG. 9, but according to the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 10, the recommended route having a start point at the shortest route from the vehicle position Is set.

In this embodiment, the route search is performed using the map display data from the vehicle position to the start point of the route search, and the route search data is used from the start point of the route search to the destination. Since the route search is performed based on, it is not necessary to increase the amount of route search data,
It is possible to suppress an increase in the amount of data in the map storage memory 7.

In FIG. 10, a thick line is not shown from the vehicle position to the start point of the route search, but the shortest route from the vehicle position to the start point of the route search is highlighted with a thick line or the like. Good.

In the embodiment configured as described above, the map storage memory 7 serves as road map storage means, the current location detection device 1 serves as vehicle position detection means, the input device 3 serves as destination setting means, and FIG. Step S102 is the start point candidate selection means,
Step S107 in FIG. 5 corresponds to the starting point selecting means.

[0031]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, when the vehicle position is not on the road on which the route can be searched, one or more candidate points for the route search are selected from around the vehicle position. However, since the node that satisfies the predetermined condition is selected as the starting point for the route search, the point that can be reached by the shortest route from the vehicle position is set as the starting point for the route search regardless of the vehicle position. You can do route search.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, the route search start point is set by using the map display data provided separately from the route search data for performing the route search. It is not necessary to increase the data amount of the map data, and the map display data can be effectively used. According to the third aspect of the present invention, first, a plurality of nodes on the road on which the route can be searched are selected, and then a plurality of nodes on the road connecting these nodes are newly selected. Since the starting point for the original route search is set based on the result of the route search for the route to the selected node, it is possible to set the starting point to the shortest distance from the vehicle position.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of an in-vehicle route search device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing main processing performed by a control circuit.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the map drawing process of step S4 of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a detailed flowchart of step S3 in FIG.

5 is a detailed flowchart of step S53 of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing nodes around a vehicle position.

FIG. 7 is a detailed flowchart of step S108 of FIG.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example in which a vehicle is located near a river.

9 is a diagram showing a conventional recommended route corresponding to FIG.

10 is a diagram showing a recommended route of this embodiment corresponding to FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 current position detection device 2 control circuit 3 input device 4 DRAM 5 image memory 6 display device 7 map storage memory

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A road map storage means for storing various kinds of information necessary for displaying a road map on a display device, a vehicle position detection means for detecting a vehicle position, and a destination setting means for setting a destination of the vehicle. And a recommended route calculation unit that calculates a recommended route by performing a route search from the detected vehicle position to the set destination, and a display control unit that displays the calculated recommended route on a display device. In the in-vehicle route search device, when the detected vehicle position is not on a road for which route search is possible, at least one location within a predetermined distance from the vehicle position and on a road for which route search is possible. Start point candidate selecting means for selecting a node as a candidate for the start point of the route search, and selecting a node satisfying a predetermined condition among the selected nodes as a start point for the route search. An in-vehicle route search device comprising: start point selecting means, wherein the recommended route calculating means calculates the recommended route with the selected start point as a starting point. 2. The in-vehicle route search device according to claim 1, wherein the road map storage means calculates map display data used for displaying a road map on the display device and the recommended route. At least the route search data used to do so are stored, the start point selecting means selects the start point based on the map display data, and the recommended route calculating means selects the selected start point. An in-vehicle route search device, characterized in that the calculation of the recommended route starting from the starting point is performed based on the route search data. 3. The on-vehicle route search device according to claim 2, further comprising a node selection unit that selects a plurality of nodes within a predetermined distance from the detected vehicle position and on a road on which a route can be searched. The starting point candidate selecting means selects a plurality of nodes on a road connecting the selected nodes, and the starting point selecting means is selected from the vehicle position by the starting point candidate selecting means. An in-vehicle route search device, which performs a route search for a route to each node based on the map display data and selects the start point based on the route search result.