JP2008275419A - One's own vehicle position determination system and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a one's own vehicle position determination system and its method for accurately and relatively quickly determining on which of an elevated road and a flyunder a one's own vehicle is even where positioning is carried out on the flyunder running parallel to the elevated road, thereby shortening time taken for obtaining an appropriate travel guidance. <P>SOLUTION: A server is used for managing positional information on respective vehicles to indicate transmission timing of an ultrasonic wave so as to reduce error on altitude measurement carried out by the respective vehicles with each other. A car navigation system mounted on a vicinal vehicle transmits a radiowave and an ultrasonic wave to a vehicle desiring altitude information according to the indication transmitted from the server, the radiowave and ultrasonic wave including positional information on the own vehicle and transmission time of the ultrasonic wave. A car navigation system mounted on a vehicle desiring the altitude information uses an ultrasonic eave to measure the distance to the vicinal vehicle for calculating the altitude of the own vehicle from the positional information obtained by the navigation system and the measured distance. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a host vehicle position determination system and method for determining the position of the host vehicle using a car navigation system.

  As can be seen in Japan's Metropolitan Expressway, when there is an expressway on the overpass and a general road under the overpass, the car navigation system is very difficult to determine which road the vehicle is on It is difficult to.

  As known techniques for solving such problems, there are means for calculating the current position coordinates of the host vehicle from satellite radio waves received from a plurality of GPS (global positioning system) satellites, and satellite radio waves from a plurality of GPS satellites. Means for monitoring the reception status, determination means for determining whether or not the vehicle is on an overpass road based on a position in the sky where GPS satellites that cannot receive satellite radio waves (non-reception area) exist, and the determination There is known a car navigation system including means for determining which road the host vehicle is out of a plurality of roads parallel in the vertical direction based on the result and the calculated current position coordinates (Patent Document 1). reference).

In this car navigation system, when the road on the elevated side and the road under the elevated side are present in parallel, when the satellite radio wave from the GPS satellite located at a high elevation angle cannot be received, the vehicle travels on the road under the elevated side. It is determined that there is.
JP 2002-174528 A

  In GPS, positioning can be performed when satellite radio waves from three or four or more GPS satellites can be received among a plurality of GPS satellites scattered in the sky. Especially, three-dimensional positioning including altitude (2D + altitude ), It is necessary to receive satellite radio waves from four or more GPS satellites.

  However, on roads, the reception status of satellite radio waves changes due to surrounding obstacles such as buildings, so it may not be possible to measure the position of the vehicle even on an elevated route. In some cases, positioning is possible. In addition, even if positioning is possible under the elevated position, the latitude and longitude are almost the same between the elevated position and the elevated position, and the difference in altitude is often within the error range of the positional information. It is difficult to determine whether the host vehicle is on the elevated or under the elevated using only the vehicle.

  Therefore, in the technique described in Patent Document 1, a map matching function (a function for determining which road the vehicle is on) and a determination process for determining whether or not satellite radio waves can be received from the GPS satellites located at the high elevation angle are provided. To determine whether the vehicle is on the overpass or under the overpass.

  However, even with such a technique, in order to accurately determine the position of the host vehicle, it is necessary to repeat the determination process of whether or not satellite radio waves can be received a plurality of times and wait for the same determination result to be continuously obtained a predetermined number of times. For this reason, there is a problem that it takes time to judge whether it is above or below the overhead.

  Therefore, for example, when the car navigation system is activated on a road under an elevated road, it takes time until an appropriate travel guidance is obtained even if a route search is executed.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems of the prior art, and even when positioning is performed on a road under an overhead parallel to the road on the elevated road, the vehicle is It is an object of the present invention to provide a host vehicle position determination system and method capable of accurately determining whether the vehicle is up or down relatively quickly and shortening the time required to obtain appropriate travel guidance.

In order to achieve the above object, the host vehicle position determination system of the present invention stores position information for each vehicle, including at least latitude and longitude information, periodically transmitted from each car navigation system mounted on a plurality of vehicles. Then, based on the position information, a neighboring vehicle existing around the vehicle for which altitude information is desired is extracted, and the ultrasonic frequency used for measuring the distance to the extracted neighboring vehicle and the transmission timing of the ultrasonic wave are determined. A nearby vehicle search server that transmits the transmission timing information to be instructed;
When installed in the nearby vehicle, according to the transmission timing information transmitted from the nearby vehicle search server, includes information on the latitude, longitude and altitude of the nearby vehicle, and information on the transmission time of the ultrasonic wave When the radio wave and the ultrasonic wave are transmitted to the vehicle that desires the altitude information and the vehicle is mounted on the vehicle that desires the altitude information, depending on the time until the ultrasonic wave transmitted from the neighboring vehicle arrives A car navigation system that calculates the distance to the adjacent vehicle, and calculates the altitude of the own vehicle using the calculated distance, the latitude, longitude, and altitude of the neighboring vehicle, and the latitude and longitude of the own vehicle;
Have

On the other hand, the vehicle position determination method of the present invention is a vehicle position determination method for determining the position of the vehicle using a car navigation system,
The server
Stores location information for each vehicle, including at least latitude and longitude information, periodically transmitted from each car navigation system mounted on multiple vehicles,
Based on the location information, extract neighboring vehicles around the vehicle for which altitude information is desired,
Sending transmission timing information indicating the frequency of ultrasonic waves used for distance measurement and the transmission timing of the ultrasonic waves to the extracted neighboring vehicle,
The car navigation system mounted on the neighboring vehicle is
In accordance with the transmission timing information transmitted from the server, a vehicle that desires the altitude information from a radio wave including the latitude, longitude, and altitude information of the neighboring vehicle and information of the transmission time of the ultrasonic wave and the ultrasonic wave To send to
A car navigation system mounted on a vehicle that desires the altitude information,
The distance from the neighboring vehicle is calculated based on the time until the ultrasonic wave transmitted from the neighboring vehicle arrives, and the calculated distance, the latitude, longitude and altitude of the neighboring vehicle, and the latitude and longitude information of the own vehicle are calculated. This is a method of obtaining the altitude of the own vehicle using

  In the configuration and method as described above, the car navigation system mounted on the vehicle for which altitude information is desired measures the distance to the neighboring vehicle using ultrasonic waves, and the position information obtained by the car navigation system and the measured distance are measured. To calculate the altitude of the vehicle. Thereby, the error of the positional information obtained with a car navigation system can be reduced. At this time, the position information of each vehicle is managed by the server, and the ultrasonic measurement timing is instructed from the server so that the altitude measurement error executed between the vehicles is reduced. Is reduced.

  Therefore, even when positioning is performed on a road under the overhead parallel to the road on the overpass, it can be determined relatively quickly and accurately whether the host vehicle is above or below the overpass.

  According to the present invention, even when positioning is performed on a road under an elevated road parallel to the elevated road, it can be determined relatively quickly and accurately whether the host vehicle is above or below the elevated road. Time until it is obtained is shortened.

  Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a car navigation system provided in the own vehicle position determination system of the present invention.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the car navigation system of the present invention calculates absolute position coordinates and azimuths on the ground surface from a car navigation CU (control unit) 4 that is a car navigation system body and satellite radio waves received from GPS satellites. A GPS device 1, a relative direction detection unit 2 that detects the relative traveling direction of the host vehicle using a gyro sensor, a vehicle speed detection unit 3 that calculates the vehicle speed of the host vehicle from the rotational speed of the wheels, A radio wave transmitting device 10 that transmits inter-vehicle radio waves used for inter-vehicle communication with neighboring vehicles existing in the vicinity thereof, a radio wave receiving device 13 that receives the inter-vehicle radio waves transmitted from neighboring vehicles, and the own vehicle and neighboring vehicles An ultrasonic transmission device 14 that transmits ultrasonic waves used for measuring the relative distance between the ultrasonic wave and an ultrasonic reception device 15 that receives ultrasonic waves transmitted from neighboring vehicles; A server communication device 12 for communicating with a nearby vehicle search server, which will be described later, a display 7 that displays an image according to image data supplied from the car navigation CU 4, and a voice that is output according to audio data supplied from the car navigation CU 4 Speaker 8, a road data unit 5 composed of a CD drive device, a history data unit 9 in which a traveling history of the host vehicle is recorded, and an input unit 6 for a user to input information.

  The car navigation CU 4 stores a CPU unit 21 that controls the operation of the entire car navigation system, a user interface 22 that is an interface with the display 7 and the speaker 8, and a BIOS and a boot-up program that are necessary for the processing of the CPU unit 21. ROM 25, RAM 24 used as a work area necessary for processing of CPU unit 21, VRAM 26 storing image data to be displayed on display 7, flash memory 27 which is a nonvolatile memory, and a nearby vehicle search server And a communication control unit 28 for controlling communication.

  The CPU unit 21 includes a calculation unit 31, a destination setting unit 32, a route setting unit 33, and a guide unit 34 that execute processing according to a program. A program used by the CPU unit 21 to execute processing is stored in the ROM 25, the flash memory 27, or other recording medium.

  The calculation unit 31 is a map matching unit 31a that corrects the longitude and latitude of the host vehicle in accordance with the road on the map, measures a distance from a neighboring vehicle using ultrasonic waves, and determines the altitude of the host vehicle based on the measured value. Is provided with an altitude calculation section 31b for calculating the transmission timing and a radio wave transmission calculation section 31c for calculating the transmission timing of inter-vehicle radio waves and ultrasonic waves.

  The user interface 22 connects an input / output device such as the input unit 6, the display 7 and the speaker 8 to the CPU unit 21 using a well-known I / O control circuit, a driver, or the like. A voice control unit 22b is provided.

  The display control unit 22 a displays display information from the CPU unit 21 on the display 7. The audio control unit 22 b converts the audio output information from the CPU unit 21 into an audio signal and supplies it to the speaker 8.

  The data control unit 23 controls reading of road map data and various information from the road data unit 5. In this road map data, contour information of the outline of the building along the road is recorded. In the road data portion 5, in addition to road map data, point information for destination search and the like is stored.

  The server communication device 12 includes wireless communication means for communicating with wireless base stations installed around the road, and transmits / receives information to / from a neighboring vehicle search server via the wireless base station and the network.

  The input unit 6 includes various button switches (not shown) for searching and setting a destination, searching and setting a route, changing the scale of a map display, displaying a menu screen, selecting items on the menu screen, and the like. ing.

  The display 7 displays an operation screen, a map, and the like to the user according to the image data supplied from the display control unit 22a. That is, an operation screen is displayed when the user performs operations such as destination search / setting and route search / setting, and a map and road guidance are displayed during driving.

  The speaker 8 outputs operation guidance, road guidance, and the like for the user by voice according to the voice data supplied from the voice control unit 22b.

  The car navigation system shown in FIG. 1 includes a radio wave transmission device 10, a radio wave reception device 13, an ultrasonic wave transmission device 14, an ultrasonic wave reception device 15, and a server communication device 12 added to a well-known car navigation system, and a car navigation CU4. A communication control unit 28 for transmitting / receiving information to / from the nearby vehicle search server 102 is added to the calculation unit 31 included in the CPU unit 21 of the car navigation CU4, and an altitude calculation unit 31b and a radio wave transmission calculation unit 31c are added. It is. The configuration of the car navigation system is not limited to the configuration shown in FIG. 1. These radio wave transmitter 10, radio wave receiver 13, ultrasonic transmitter 14, ultrasonic receiver 15, server communication device 12, communication Any configuration may be used as long as the control unit 28, the altitude calculation unit 31b, the radio wave transmission calculation unit 31c, and the GPS device 1 are provided.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a nearby vehicle search server provided in the host vehicle position determination system of the present invention.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the nearby vehicle search server 102 is in accordance with a program and a communication device 101 for transmitting and receiving information via the server communication device 12 and a vehicle on which the car navigation system shown in FIG. A CPU 111 that controls the operation of the nearby vehicle search server 102 that executes processing, and a location information storage device 104 that stores location information such as longitude, latitude, and altitude transmitted from each vehicle are provided. .

  The CPU unit 111 includes a neighboring vehicle search unit 121 that searches for neighboring vehicles existing around a vehicle for which altitude information is desired, and a travel information registration unit 122 that registers the position information of each vehicle in the position information storage device 104. .

  Hereinafter, the preliminary preparation processing of the nearby vehicle search server 102 shown in FIG. 2 will be described.

  The car navigation system shown in FIG. 1 uses the server communication device 12 to periodically search for a nearby vehicle search server 102, position information such as longitude, latitude, altitude, etc., as well as speed information, body code, etc. Send information.

  When the communication device 101 receives the position information, speed information, and body code for each vehicle, the nearby vehicle search server 102 associates the position information and speed information for each vehicle received by the travel information registration unit 122 with the vehicle code. Registered in the position information storage device 104.

  Next, the operation of the vehicle position determination system of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 3 is a sequence diagram showing a processing procedure of the host vehicle position determination system of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an operation example of the host vehicle position determination system of the present invention.

  In the following description, a case where the vehicle for which altitude information is desired is assumed to be vehicle A, and the vehicle A acquires its own altitude information by measuring the distance to a neighboring vehicle existing in the vicinity thereof will be described as an example. The description will be made on the assumption that the neighboring vehicle travels a long distance and all the positional information of the latitude, longitude and altitude of the vehicle is obtained by the three-dimensional positioning by the GPS.

  As shown in FIG. 3, first, the vehicle A uses the GPS device 1 to acquire information on the longitude x, latitude y, and altitude z of the host vehicle (step a1). However, the altitude z of the vehicle A is not always obtained as described above. Here, it is assumed that the altitude z of the host vehicle (vehicle A) cannot be acquired.

  The CPU 32 corrects the longitude x and latitude y of the host vehicle acquired by the GPS device 1 by the map matching unit 31a based on the road information (Step a2), and obtains the corrected longitude x1 and the corrected latitude y1 (Step S2). a3).

  The CPU unit 32 uses the server communication device 12 to transmit the corrected longitude x1 and the corrected latitude y1 to the neighboring vehicle search server 102 via the network (step a4).

  The neighboring vehicle search server 102 receives the corrected longitude x1 and the corrected latitude y1 transmitted from the car navigation system of the vehicle A by the communication device 101 (step a5).

  The CPU unit 111 of the neighboring vehicle search server 102 searches for a neighboring vehicle of the vehicle A using the neighboring vehicle search unit 121 based on the received corrected longitude x1 and corrected latitude y1 of the vehicle A (step a6). . The neighboring vehicle search unit 121 searches the position information storage device 104, defines a vehicle located within 500 m from the vehicle A, for example, as a neighboring vehicle based on the corrected longitude x1 and the corrected longitude y2 of the vehicle A, Get information on the body code, speed, longitude and latitude of neighboring vehicles.

  The CPU unit 111 of the neighboring vehicle search server 102 assigns an ultrasonic frequency to each neighboring vehicle so that the ultrasonic frequencies used in a plurality of neighboring vehicles existing around the vehicle A do not overlap each other. The transmission timing information of the ultrasonic waves used for the distance measurement and the frequency information of the ultrasonic waves are transmitted to each neighboring vehicle using the communication device 101 (step a7). In the transmission timing information of the ultrasonic wave, information for instructing the transmission of the ultrasonic wave when the distance to the vehicle A is within 30 m, for example (distance close to the vehicle A so that the measurement error of the altitude difference is as small as possible). Should be included. In the present invention, the inter-vehicle radio wave is transmitted from the neighboring vehicle toward the vehicle A simultaneously with the transmission of the ultrasonic wave. This inter-vehicle radio wave includes information on the longitude, latitude, altitude, ultrasonic frequency of the host vehicle (neighboring vehicle), and inter-vehicle radio wave and ultrasonic wave transmission time.

  The vehicle corresponding to the vehicle body code (the neighboring vehicle of the vehicle A) is transmitted from the neighboring vehicle search server 102 by the server communication device 12 (latitude and longitude when the distance from the vehicle A is within 30 m) and the distance. The frequency of the ultrasonic wave used for the measurement is received (step a8).

  When the radio wave transmission device 10 installed in the nearby vehicle reaches the designated position included in the transmission timing information transmitted from the nearby vehicle search server 102, the transmission time of the inter-vehicle radio wave and the ultrasonic wave, the ultrasonic frequency, An inter-vehicle radio wave including information on latitude, longitude, and altitude is transmitted (step a9). Further, the ultrasonic transmission device 14 mounted on the nearby vehicle transmits an ultrasonic wave having a frequency instructed to the nearby vehicle search server 102 simultaneously with the transmission of the inter-vehicle radio wave (step a10).

  The vehicle A receives the inter-vehicle radio wave transmitted from the neighboring vehicle by the radio wave receiver 13 (step a11). This inter-vehicle radio wave includes inter-vehicle radio waves for each neighboring vehicle, ultrasonic transmission time t1, ultrasonic frequency, longitude x2, latitude y2, and altitude z2. Since the arrival speed of the ultrasonic wave is slower than the inter-vehicle radio wave, the vehicle A first receives the inter-vehicle radio wave from the same neighboring vehicle, and then receives the ultrasonic wave (step a12).

  The altitude calculation unit 31b of the vehicle A includes the transmission time t1, the ultrasonic reception time t2, the ultrasonic frequency, the longitude x2, the latitude y2, the altitude z2, The altitude z1 is calculated based on the longitude x1 and the latitude y1 of the host vehicle (vehicle A) (step a13).

  The map matching unit 31a performs mapping processing on the map data using the longitude x1, the latitude y1, and the altitude z1 (step a14). In addition, the CPU unit 21 displays the position of the host vehicle on the display 7 using the display control unit 22a of the user interface 22 (step a15).

  In addition, the process of the steps a7-a13 mentioned above corresponds to the measuring method of the distance between a neighboring vehicle and the own vehicle. Hereinafter, a method for measuring the distance between the vehicles will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 4, there are two neighboring vehicles B and C around the vehicle A for which altitude information of the own vehicle is desired, and the vehicle A can receive only the inter-vehicle radio waves and ultrasonic waves transmitted from the neighboring vehicle B. There is an example in which the ultrasonic waves transmitted from the nearby vehicle C cannot be received due to being obstructed by the elevated.

  First, an inter-vehicle radio wave and an ultrasonic wave are simultaneously transmitted from the neighboring vehicle B to the vehicle A. The inter-vehicle radio wave transmitted from the nearby vehicle B immediately reaches the vehicle A. Since this inter-vehicle radio wave has a higher frequency than ultrasonic waves and can carry more information, the position information (longitude x2, latitude y2, altitude z2) of the neighboring vehicle B is included in the inter-vehicle radio wave, transmission time. Information on the frequency of ultrasonic waves transmitted at the same time as t1 is mounted.

  When the vehicle A receives the inter-vehicle radio wave transmitted from the neighboring vehicle B and subsequently receives an ultrasonic wave transmitted from the neighboring vehicle B, the altitude calculating unit 31b of the CPU unit 31 first receives the ultrasonic wave. The distance L between the neighboring vehicle B and the host vehicle A is calculated from the time difference between the time t2 and the transmission time t1 included in the information transmitted by the inter-vehicle radio wave. For example, when the sound speed is c (about 340 m / s), the distance L can be obtained by L = c × (t2−t1).

  Also, the altitude z of the host vehicle is calculated based on the distance L, the position of the neighboring vehicle B (longitude x2, latitude y2, altitude z2) and the position of the host vehicle (longitude x1, latitude y1).

The altitude z is based on the longitude x2 and latitude y2 of the neighboring vehicle B and the longitude x1 and latitude y1 of the own vehicle, for example, the distance L ′ between the neighboring vehicle B and the position of the own vehicle projected on the plane of the altitude z2.
L ′ = {(x2−x1) ² + (y2−y1) ² } ^1/2
Based on the distance L, the distance L ′, and the altitude z2, the altitude z of the host vehicle is determined as z = z2− (L ² −L ′ ² ) ^1/2
Find it in

  According to the present invention, a car navigation system mounted on a vehicle for which altitude information is desired measures the distance to a neighboring vehicle using ultrasonic waves, and automatically detects the position information obtained by the car navigation system and the measured distance L. Calculate vehicle altitude. Thereby, the error of the positional information obtained with a car navigation system can be reduced. At this time, the location information of each vehicle is managed by the nearby vehicle search server, and the transmission timing of the ultrasonic wave is instructed from the nearby vehicle search server so that the measurement error of altitude executed between the vehicles is reduced. This reduces altitude measurement errors.

  Therefore, even when positioning is performed on a road under an elevated road parallel to the elevated road, it can be determined relatively quickly and accurately whether the vehicle is above or below the elevated road, so that appropriate travel guidance can be obtained. Time is shortened.

It is a block diagram which shows the example of 1 structure of the car navigation system with which the own vehicle position determination system of this invention is provided. It is a block diagram which shows one structural example of the nearby vehicle search server with which the own vehicle position determination system of this invention is provided. It is a sequence diagram which shows the process sequence of the own vehicle position determination system of this invention. It is a schematic diagram which shows the operation example of the own vehicle position determination system of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 GPS apparatus 2 Relative direction detection part 3 Vehicle speed detection part 4 Car navigation CU
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 5 Road data part 6 Input part 7 Display 8 Speaker 9 History data part 10 Radio wave transmission apparatus 12 Server communication apparatus 13 Radio wave reception apparatus 14 Ultrasonic transmission apparatus 15 Ultrasonic reception apparatus 21 CPU part 22 User interface 22a Display control part 22b Audio | voice control Unit 23 Data control unit 24 RAM
25 ROM
26 VRAM
27 Flash memory 28 Communication control unit 31 Calculation unit 31a Map matching unit 31b Altitude calculation unit 31c Radio wave transmission calculation unit 32 Destination setting unit 33 Route setting unit 34 Guide unit 101 Communication device 102 Neighboring vehicle search server 104 Location information storage device 111 CPU unit 121 Neighborhood vehicle search unit 122 Travel information registration unit

Claims (2)

Peripheral area of a vehicle that saves position information for each vehicle including at least latitude and longitude information that is periodically transmitted from each car navigation system mounted on a plurality of vehicles and desires altitude information based on the position information A neighboring vehicle search server for transmitting the transmission timing information indicating the frequency of the ultrasonic wave used for measuring the distance to the extracted neighboring vehicle and the transmission timing of the ultrasonic wave;
When installed in the nearby vehicle, according to the transmission timing information transmitted from the nearby vehicle search server, includes information on the latitude, longitude and altitude of the nearby vehicle, and information on the transmission time of the ultrasonic wave When the radio wave and the ultrasonic wave are transmitted to the vehicle that desires the altitude information and the vehicle is mounted on the vehicle that desires the altitude information, depending on the time until the ultrasonic wave transmitted from the neighboring vehicle arrives A car navigation system that calculates the distance to the adjacent vehicle, and calculates the altitude of the own vehicle using the calculated distance, the latitude, longitude, and altitude of the neighboring vehicle, and the latitude and longitude of the own vehicle;
A host vehicle position determination system. A host vehicle position determination method for determining the position of the host vehicle using a car navigation system,
The server
Stores location information for each vehicle, including at least latitude and longitude information, periodically transmitted from each car navigation system mounted on multiple vehicles,
Based on the location information, extract neighboring vehicles around the vehicle for which altitude information is desired,
Sending transmission timing information indicating the frequency of ultrasonic waves used for distance measurement and the transmission timing of the ultrasonic waves to the extracted neighboring vehicle,
The car navigation system mounted on the neighboring vehicle is
In accordance with the transmission timing information transmitted from the server, a vehicle that desires the altitude information from a radio wave including the latitude, longitude, and altitude information of the neighboring vehicle and information of the transmission time of the ultrasonic wave and the ultrasonic wave To send to
A car navigation system mounted on a vehicle that desires the altitude information,
The distance from the neighboring vehicle is calculated based on the time until the ultrasonic wave transmitted from the neighboring vehicle arrives, and the calculated distance, the latitude, longitude and altitude of the neighboring vehicle, and the latitude and longitude information of the own vehicle are calculated. A vehicle position determination method for determining the altitude of the vehicle using a vehicle.

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