JPH10253379A - Route guidance apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a route guidance apparatus by which a route according to the characteristic of a driver can be selected by a method wherein a driving difficulty which is judged on the basis of living-body measured data on a driver in a driving operation and on the bass of a road condition is compared with a predetermined allowable driving difficulty and an optimum route is decided. SOLUTION: A driving load level in every running section judged on the basis of living-body measured data in a running operating and a by-individual driving load level computed on the basis of the number of running operations in a specific section are registered in a by-individual driving load database 20. Then, a shortest running route is found by an optimum-route search method, and a driving difficulty on the route is computed by a driving-difficulty judgment means 24 is every predetermined section on the basis of data from a by-road- condition database 14 and on the basis of by-individual driving load data which is registered in a database 20. When the computed driving difficulty does not exceed an allowable driving difficulty, for every driver, which is input in advance, a running-route decision means 28 decides an optimum route. When the driving difficulty exceeds the allowable driving difficulty, the shortest route is searched again, and the above opeartion is repeated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a route guidance device, and more particularly, to a route guidance device capable of selecting an optimal route that reduces a driving load on a driver.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As this kind of route guidance device, there has been one which determines an optimal route by judging the difficulty of driving from the road width and the number of lanes. (Source: JP-A-8-2544)
No. 33)

[0003]

However, according to such a conventional route guidance device, the optimum route is selected by judging the difficulty only based on the road conditions, regardless of the driver's ability or intention. Therefore, there was a high possibility that a case where the route guidance did not meet the driver's wishes would occur. The present invention has been made in view of such conventional problems, and has as its object to provide a route guidance device that can select an optimal route according to the characteristics of a driver.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention determines a driving load amount from a physiological state of a driver obtained by measuring a driver in a living body, and uses the determined driving load amount as an individual. Separately, an individual driving load database that stores a driving load history for each road, and a driving load amount determined during traveling are registered in the individual driving load database.
A database registration / updating unit to be updated; a driving difficulty determining unit that determines a driving difficulty of the driver for each section of the driving route based on the two road condition-specific databases and an individual driving load database; and an allowable driving difficulty of the driver. An allowable driving difficulty input means for inputting, and a driving route determining means for determining an optimum route based on the driving difficulty of the driving route and the allowable driving difficulty are provided.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a personal ID number is input, and a driver at the time of driving performs living body measurement such as heartbeat, sweat, respiration, skin potential, etc., and obtains the living body measurement data. Based on the detected physiological condition of the driver, especially the state of increased heart rate and increased sweating, where the driving difficulty appears as a biological response, the physiological condition of the driver is determined for each section on the route actually running. The driving difficulty for the driver in the traveling section is determined from the road condition and the driving situation. Then, the input personal ID number and the driving difficulty determined for each traveling section are registered in the individual driving section-specific driving difficulty database. Then, when searching for a route, an optimum route is determined based on the permissible driving difficulty of each driver input in advance and the driving difficulty of each driving section in the database.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, when the driving load obtained in the first aspect is stored, data on the weather, brightness and road congestion conditions are simultaneously obtained. Each condition is stored as a condition-based driving load database showing the relationship between each condition and the driving load, and when the optimal route is determined, each road is congested based on the weather, brightness, and VICS information of the day. The optimal route is determined by taking in the degree and combining it with a condition-specific operation load database.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the driving difficulty is automatically set to an allowable driving difficulty when the number of times of running exceeds a certain number of times, based on the individual driving load database. Degree, and when the driving load level decreases every time the vehicle is repeated even if it is less than a certain number of times, by predicting the next driving load level, taking into account the number of travels of the same route If the vehicle travels many times, even if the driving difficulty is high, the route is treated as a route having a low driving difficulty, and the optimum route is determined in consideration of the driving experience.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first to third aspects, when it is determined that the driving difficulty of a specific section on the traveling route is high, the traveling on the navigation screen is performed. By devising the display such as changing the color so that the section can be distinguished from other roads, the driver can selectively determine the traveling route.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the route guidance apparatus according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

(First Embodiment) A first embodiment of a route guidance apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of the first embodiment, FIG. 2 is a flowchart for driving load determination, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an individual driving load database, FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an optimal route determination method, and FIG. It is a figure showing a road condition database.

First, the configuration will be described. The route guidance device according to the first embodiment has a personal ID as shown in FIG.
Route guidance including a personal ID number input unit 10 for inputting a number, a destination input unit 12 for inputting a destination of a traveling route, and a road condition-specific database 14 storing road widths, road curvatures, lanes, and the like. In the apparatus, a living body measuring means 16 for measuring a driver in a living body, a driving load amount determining means 18 for determining a driving load amount from a physiological state of the driver obtained by the living body measuring means 16, and a driving load history for each individual road are provided. Individual driving load database 20 to be stored
A database registration / updating means 22 for registering / updating the driving load amount determined at the time of traveling in the individual driving load database 20, and for each section of the traveling route by the two road condition databases 14 and the individual driving load database 20. Driving difficulty determining means 24 for determining the driving difficulty of the driver, allowable driving difficulty input means 26 for inputting the driver's allowable driving difficulty, and driving difficulty and allowable driving difficulty of the driving route. The driving route determining unit 28 determines an optimal route.

More specifically, an individual ID number for determining who is driving is input, and the optimum route is determined for each individual according to the following procedure.

The operation will be described with reference to a flowchart for determining the operation load amount shown in FIG. First, a living body measurement such as a heart rate, a sweat amount, and the number of blinks is performed during running (step S200).
Based on the data, the driving load amount for each traveling section (pre-divided road section) is determined. As a judgment method,
In the regression equation of Y = a × heart rate + b × perspiration rate + c × blink times + d, the average heart rate / average sweat rate / average number of blinks (in minutes) of the running section obtained from the biological measurement (step S20)
Substitute 2) to calculate the operating load representative amount Y (step S204). The operation load amount is divided into, for example, five levels according to the calculated representative amount (step S20).
6). That is, Y <Y0 is level 1, Y0 ≦ Y <Y1 is level 2,..., And Y4 ≦ Y is level 5.

Next, if the number of times of travel in the target specific section is 0,
It is determined whether or not this is the case (step S208). Running count is 0
In the case of, the driving load level and the number of times of driving are registered in the individual driving load database (see FIG. 3) for each predetermined driving section (step S212).

For the already registered travel section (when the number of travels is not 0), the average driving load level is calculated and the value is updated (step S21).
0). That is, in the traveling section X1, when the driving load level is 3 and the number of traveling times is 1, and a new driving load level 4 is obtained, (3 + 4) ÷ the number of traveling times (2 times) =
3.5 is obtained. Then, this value is newly updated and registered (step S212).

Next, a method for determining an optimum route will be described.
This will be described with reference to the flowchart of the optimum route determination method shown in FIG.

The input departure place and destination (step S
400), for example, the shortest distance travel route is determined by the conventional optimal route search method of the navigation system (step S402). Then, the driving difficulty level on this route is determined for each predetermined section from the road condition database (see FIG. 5) and the individual driving load database (see FIG. 3).

Next, a road difficulty level R for each section of the shortest route is calculated (step S404). This road difficulty R
Is R = a1 × road width + b1 from the road condition database
× number of lanes + c1 × average congestion degree + d1.
Then, for each section of the obtained shortest distance route, the level is classified (for example, five levels) according to the magnitude of the road difficulty R (step S406).

Next, it is determined whether or not there is a running history in the individual driving load database in each section (step S408). If there is a traveling history, the driving load level of the corresponding individual is extracted (step S410), and the driving difficulty Z is calculated (step S412). The driving difficulty level Z is obtained from Z = m × road difficulty level + n × driving load level.

Next, a comparison is made with the permissible driving difficulty of each driver (the same as the number of difficulty levels, here, the number of levels is 5) which has already been input (step S414), and the road calculated therefrom is compared. If the difficulty level R is large, the route search for the shortest distance is performed again so as not to enter the section (step S416). Then, the above-described driving difficulty level is calculated again, and it is checked whether the driving difficulty level exceeds the allowable driving difficulty level.

This operation is repeated to find the optimum route. If the optimum route cannot be found with this allowable driving difficulty, the allowable driving difficulty is reduced and the calculation is performed again.

(Second Embodiment) A second embodiment of the route guidance apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the present embodiment, and FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a condition-based operating load database.

The second embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that a condition-based driving load database indicating a relationship between driving loads corresponding to weather, brightness, and the degree of road congestion is provided. It is configured to have means for determining an optimal route based on the physical condition of the user on the day.

Specifically, in the first embodiment, when storing the driving load amount for each traveling section determined based on the biological measurement data, the weather, brightness, and road congestion degree conditions at that time are also stored. At the same time, data is acquired and stored as a condition-specific operating load database indicating the relationship between these conditions and the operating load (see FIG. 7).

This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When determining the optimal route, the weather of the day (step S600), the brightness (step S610), and
Based on the VICS information (step S620), the degree of congestion of each road is captured, and, for example, the weather is fine (step S60).
2), the time zone is 3:00 pm in December (step S61)
In 2), the congestion degree is very high (step S62).
Then, it is confirmed from the condition-specific driving load database whether or not there is data when the traveling section is sunny (step S604), and if there is, the average value S1 of the driving load level at that time is determined. It is calculated (step S606).
Similarly, the average values S2 and S3 of the driving load levels are similarly calculated for the time zone and the degree of road congestion (steps S616 and S626). Step S60
In 4, 614, S624, when there is no traveling history, the average values S1, S2, S3 of the respective operation load levels are set to 0 (steps S608, S618, S628).

The obtained average driving load level is further calculated to calculate a driving load level S in consideration of the weather, brightness and congestion degree. This operation load level S is expressed as S = (S
1 + S2 + S3) ÷ 3

Subsequent methods of calculating the optimum route are determined by the same method as in the first embodiment.

(Third Embodiment) A third embodiment of the route guidance apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The third embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that the driving difficulty is automatically determined to be equal to or less than the allowable driving difficulty when the number of times of running exceeds a certain number based on the individual driving load database. If the driving load level decreases every time the vehicle travels even if the number of times is equal to or less than a certain number of times, a means for determining an optimal route by predicting the next driving load level is provided.

That is, in the first embodiment, a normal shortest distance route is calculated (step S802), and when searching for a driving route in consideration of the driving load, the traveling of each section of the obtained shortest distance route is performed. The number of times is extracted from the individual driving load database (step S804) (step S806).

Then, it is determined whether or not the extracted number of times of running exceeds a predetermined number of times of running t (for example, 10 times) (step S808). , It is determined that the psychological load is small, and it is determined that it is equal to or lower than the allowable driving difficulty level (step S
810).

On the other hand, when the number of times of running is not equal to or more than the predetermined number (for example, less than 10 times), it is determined whether the number of times of running is three or more (step S812). It is determined whether the load level has continued to decrease (step S814). If the operating load level continues to decrease, the operating load level is calculated by predicting from the past decrease in the operating load level (step S8).
16). Other optimal path determination methods are based on the first embodiment.

(Fourth Embodiment) A fourth embodiment of the route guidance apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The fourth embodiment is different from the first to third embodiments in that when it is determined that a specific section on the traveling route has a high driving difficulty, the traveling section on the navigation screen is distinguished from other roads. This is to display such as changing the color so that it can be performed.

Specifically, it is determined whether or not the driving difficulty calculated in the first to third embodiments is equal to or higher than a certain level (level 3) (step S908). If it is equal to or higher than a certain level, the color of the road display of the traveling section is changed. Further, the color is changed and displayed as the level increases (step S91).
0), in particular, sections that are equal to or higher than the permissible difficulty level are displayed in distinctly different colors (step S914). When a route is selected, the driver can set in advance whether or not the route is to be included in the route by looking at the display.

[0034]

As described above in detail, according to the first embodiment, a personal ID number is inputted, and the driver at the time of driving is subjected to biological measurement such as heart rate, sweating, respiration, skin potential, etc. Based on the biometric data, the physiological condition of the driver, particularly the state of increased heart rate and increased sweating, in which the driving difficulty appears as a biological response, is detected, and each section on the route on which the vehicle is actually running is detected. Next, the driving difficulty level for the driver in the traveling section is determined based on the driver's physiological state, road conditions, and driving conditions. Then, the input personal ID number and the driving difficulty determined for each traveling section are registered in the individual driving section-specific driving difficulty database. Then, when searching for a route, an optimal route is determined based on the permissible driving difficulty of each driver input in advance and the driving difficulty of each driving section of the database, and the optimum route is determined according to the characteristics of the driver. A route can be selected.

Further, according to the second embodiment, when the driving load obtained in the first embodiment is stored, data on the weather, brightness and road congestion conditions are simultaneously obtained. Each condition is stored as a condition-based driving load database showing the relationship between each condition and the driving load, and when the optimal route is determined, each road is congested based on the weather, brightness, and VICS information of the day. The optimum route is determined by combining the degree with the driving load database for each condition, and a route can be selected that can also respond to variable factors such as the weather, time zone and congestion of the day.

According to the third embodiment, in the first embodiment, the driving difficulty is automatically set to the allowable driving difficulty when the number of running times exceeds a certain number based on the individual driving load database. Degree, and when the driving load level decreases every time the vehicle is repeated even if it is less than a certain number of times, by predicting the next driving load level, taking into account the number of travels of the same route If the driver has traveled many times, even if the driving difficulty is high, the route is treated as a low driving difficulty route, and a route search that takes into account the driving experience and history of the driver becomes possible, and the driver's feeling The route search suitable for can be performed.

Further, according to the fourth embodiment, the first
-In the third embodiment, when a specific section on the traveling route is determined to have a high degree of difficulty in driving, a display contrivance such as changing a color of the traveling section on the navigation screen so as to be distinguishable from other roads. Thus, the driver can selectively determine a traveling route, and the driver can visually know which route has a high load and is dangerous.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a route guidance device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for operating load determination.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an individual driving load database.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an optimal route determination method.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a road condition database.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a condition-specific operating load database.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of the third embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of the fourth embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Personal ID number input means 12 Destination input means 14 Database by road condition 16 Biological measurement means 18 Operation load amount judgment means 20 Individual operation load database 22 Database registration / update means 24 Driving difficulty judgment means 26 Allowable driving difficulty input Means 28 Driving route determination means

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A route guidance device having a means for inputting a personal ID number, a means for inputting a destination of a traveling route, and a road condition-specific database storing road widths, road curvatures, lanes, and the like of roads, Biological measuring means for measuring the driver's body; driving load determining means for determining the driving load from the physiological state of the driver obtained by the biological measuring means; A load database, a database registration / update means for registering / updating the driving load determined at the time of traveling in the individual driving load database, and two road condition-specific databases and an individual driving load database for each section of the traveling route. Driving difficulty determining means for determining the driving difficulty of the driver, and permissible driving difficulty for inputting the permissible driving difficulty of the driver A route guidance device comprising: a difficulty input unit; and a traveling route determination unit that determines an optimal route based on a driving difficulty and an allowable driving difficulty of a traveling route. 2. The route guidance device according to claim 1, wherein a condition-specific driving load database indicating a relationship between driving loads corresponding to each of weather, brightness, and road congestion degree; A route guidance device comprising means for determining an optimal route based on the physical condition of a person. 3. The route guidance device according to claim 1, wherein the driving difficulty is automatically determined to be equal to or less than the permissible driving difficulty when the number of times of traveling exceeds a certain number based on the individual driving load database. And a means for determining an optimum route by predicting the next driving load level when the driving load level is reduced each time the vehicle is repeated even if the number of times is less than a certain number of times. apparatus. 4. The route guidance device according to claim 1, wherein when it is determined that a specific section on the travel route has a high degree of difficulty in driving, another travel section for the travel section on the navigation screen is displayed. A route guidance device for displaying a color change or the like so as to be distinguished from the route guidance device.