JP2566271B2 - Vehicle navigation system - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a navigation device that guides a vehicle to a destination by displaying a current vehicle position on a display device together with a map, and in particular, smoothes navigation of the vehicle. It is about measures to be taken.

(Prior Art) This type of vehicle navigation device basically includes a map information storage unit such as a CD-ROM that stores in advance map information including various elements such as roads, place names, and city locations, and a vehicle navigation device. The present position recognition means for recognizing the present position and the display means arranged in the passenger compartment are provided, and the vehicle present position on the map is displayed on the display means by the signal from the present position recognition means and the signal from the map information storage means. Is configured to display.

However, in this conventional one, if only a display of the map and the current position of the vehicle is required to turn at an intersection on the way to the destination, the approaching intersection is the same as the intersection on the map. It is difficult to judge for sure. For this reason, there are problems such as passing through an intersection that should be turned, or becoming uneasy even when the vehicle turns the intersection correctly.

Therefore, the applicant has previously stored information for traveling guidance such as an actual image and a plurality of types of direction indication marks at a plurality of predetermined points on the map, and then stored the information from the current position of the vehicle to the destination. When the vehicle approaches a predetermined point on the map, the display means displays the actual image of the point and the direction indication mark according to the set traveling path in an overlapping manner. I have proposed such a thing (refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-93614).

(Problems to be solved by the invention) By the way, in that case, a plurality of lanes are set on a wide road, and for example, at an intersection where roads having the plurality of types of lanes intersect, the lane is a straight lane and a right turn. Alternatively, it is prohibited to use another lane dedicated to the left turn lane. In order to smoothly guide the vehicle at the intersection or the like, it is desirable to be able to accurately recognize whether or not the lane in which the vehicle is traveling corresponds to the traveling route.

The present invention has been made in view of these points, and its main purpose is to accurately recognize whether or not the lane in which the vehicle is actually traveling is the lane corresponding to the traveling route to the destination. And to guide the vehicle more smoothly to the destination.

(Means for Solving the Problem) In order to achieve this object, the solution means of the present invention detects the actual lane in which the vehicle is traveling, and the lane travels to a preset destination. When the route does not correspond to the route, the occupant is alerted to that fact.

As a concrete configuration, as shown in FIG. 1, the vehicle navigation device according to the invention of claim (1) has a map information storage means 11 storing map information in advance and a current position for recognizing the current position of the vehicle. Recognizing means 17 and the present position recognizing means 17
The current vehicle position recognized by the map information storage means 11
The display means 1 for displaying together with the map is provided to guide the traveling route of the vehicle to the destination.

Further, a traveling lane recognition means 20 for recognizing the lane of the road on which the vehicle is actually traveling is provided. The traveling lane recognition means 20 visually detects, for example, a center line on the road surface, a line that divides the lane, or a prohibition sign outside the designated direction on the road surface, and recognizes the traveling lane based on them.

Further, a target lane corresponding to a preset traveling route to the destination is read out from the map information storage means 11, a target lane reading means 23, a traveling lane recognized by the traveling lane recognition means 20, and the target lane. A lane determining means 21 for comparing the target lanes read by the reading means 23 and determining whether the two lanes are the same or different is provided.

Then, based on the output of the lane judging means 21, when the two lanes are different, a warning means 22 is provided to give a warning to that effect by a voice or a display on the display means 1.

In the invention of claim (2), the target lane reading means 23 is configured to read the target lane after the traveling lane recognition means 20 recognizes the lane of the road on which the vehicle is actually traveling. Be present.

(Operation) With this configuration, in the invention of claim (1), while the vehicle is traveling to the destination along the traveling route, the traveling lane on the road is recognized by the traveling lane recognition means 20 and the target lane is read out. By means of means 23, the target lane corresponding to the traveling route to the destination set in advance is the map information storage means.
11 is read. Then, the traveling lane recognition means 20
The traveling lane recognized by is compared with the target lane corresponding to the traveling route read by the target lane reading means 23 in the lane judging means 21, and the difference is judged. When these two lanes are different, the warning means 22 gives a warning to that effect. Therefore, the occupant can recognize that the actual traveling lane is different from the target lane by the warning of the warning means 22 and immediately change the lane to the target lane, and the lane can be smoothly changed to an appropriate lane even at an intersection having a plurality of designated lanes. The vehicle can be smoothly guided to the destination.

Further, since the target lane corresponding to the traveling route to the destination is read from the map information storage means 11 on the vehicle side, the reading can be performed reliably, and
The input of information from outside the device is only for recognizing the actual vehicle lane, and thus the reliability of the travel guidance by the navigation device can be improved.

Moreover, when the travel route to the destination is set,
At that time, it is possible to list the target lanes at the intersections on the way, and thereafter, the target lanes may be sequentially read from the map information storage means 11 each time the intersection is approached, which simplifies the processing.

Further, in the invention of claim (2), the reading of the target lane by the target lane reading means 23 is performed by the traveling lane recognition means 20.
Since it is performed after recognizing the actual vehicle lane by, the process of recognizing the actual vehicle lane based on the input information from the outside of the navigation device is performed prior to reading the target lane, and the time required for it is set. The vehicle lane can be sufficiently secured, and the traveling lane of the vehicle can be accurately compared with the target lane.

(Embodiment) An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings starting from FIG.

FIG. 2 shows the overall configuration of a navigation device according to an embodiment of the present invention, where 1 is a CRT (cathode ray tube) as a display means arranged in a vehicle cabin or the like, and 2 is a variety of vehicle driving guidance. A speaker for notifying the occupant of the information by voice, 3 is the display information of the CRT 1 and the speaker 2
Is a control device for controlling the voice information of the CPU 4, the control device 3 including a CPU 4 for performing various arithmetic processes, a ROM 5 and a RAM 6 connected to the CPU 4, and an input / output for exchanging signals with the outside of the CPU 4. Interface 7 and is connected to the CRT 1 via a display control circuit 8 and to the speaker 2 via a drive circuit 10 thereof, and a video memory 9 can send and receive signals to and from the display control circuit 8. It is connected.

Further, the control device 3 has a CD as a map information storage means.
− Decoder 1 is the CD player 12 that has the ROM 11 exchangeably installed.
It is connected so that signals can be sent and received via the above-mentioned CD-R.
OM11 includes map information such as roads, buildings, etc. necessary for vehicle guidance, actual images of major intersections P, P, ... on the map as shown in Fig. 5, and vehicle advancement. A plurality of direction indicating marks indicating straight direction, right / left turn, and the like indicating a right direction are digitally stored.

Further, an operation device 14 for performing various key operations for setting a vehicle destination and the like is connected to the control device 3 via an encoder 15 so as to be able to transmit and receive signals, and the operation device 14 is operated by an occupant in the vehicle interior. A key switch (not shown) is provided, and the CRT 1 sets the traveling route to the destination according to the operation.

Further, an output signal of the television camera 16 for visually detecting landscape such as topography outside the vehicle in front of the vehicle and display is input to the control device 3. Further, a current position recognizing device 17 for recognizing the current position P _{P of the} vehicle is connected to the control device 3 so as to be able to send and receive a signal. The current position recognizing device 17 has a vehicle speed sensor 18 for detecting an actual vehicle speed, Each output signal from the geomagnetic sensor 19 that detects the geomagnetism that crosses the vehicle body is input, and in the current position recognition device 17, the unit traveling distance of the vehicle is calculated based on the vehicle speed detected by the vehicle speed sensor 18, and the unit traveling is performed. Geomagnetic sensor 19 every time the vehicle travels a distance
The current direction P _P of the vehicle is recognized by finding the traveling direction based on the geomagnetism detected in step 1 and repeating these processes from the reference position such as the vehicle starting position.

Next, a processing procedure performed by the CPU 4 of the control device 3 will be described. This processing is performed by the basic routine shown in FIG. That is, first, in step S ₁ , a map corresponding to the current vehicle position P _P is read from the CD-ROM 11 as shown in FIG. 5, and then in step S ₂
At, the above map is displayed on the CRT1 together with the traveling locus 1 of the vehicle. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S _3, the current based on the signal of the position recognition device 17 recognizes the current position Pp of the vehicle, in step S _4, determines whether the display on the CRT1 Do map trajectory display. It determines if the decision is YES and the intersection P proceed to Sutepu S _8, P, searching ..., whether or not there is an intersection P in the next step S ₉ in the vicinity of the current vehicle position P _P. This judgment is returned immediately to the step S ₃ when NO, the at the time of YES of "intersection there", the flow proceeds to step S _10, approach direction of the vehicle relative to the distance and intersections P from the vehicle current position P _P up to the intersection P (Which road to enter the intersection P) and whether or not the distance to the intersection P is within a predetermined distance (for example, shown by a dashed circle in FIG. 5) in the next step S ₁₁ . judge. The process proceeds to step S ₁₂ and waits for the determination becomes YES, the determination whether there is a setting of the travel route to the destination by the operation device 14, when the NO "no setting of the travel route" as it is Proceed to step S ₁₅ . On the other hand, "there is a travel route setting"
If YES, then in step ₁₃ , the vehicle is searched for a direction instruction in which the vehicle should proceed, and then in step S ₁₄ , the vehicle is compared with the image of the approach direction of the intersection P as shown in FIG. After synthesizing so that the traveling direction indicator marks M for
Continue to S ₁₅ . In step S _15, the intersection P images (in the case of "Setting the travel path present" a composite of the direction indication mark M) is displayed on the screen of the CRT 1.

After such a display process, proceeds to the flow in the lane recognizing step S ₁₆ to S _21. This flow, first reads the image imaged by the television camera 16 in step S _16, performs image processing in step S _17. This image processing is specifically performed by the image processing routine shown in FIG. First, in the first step S ′ ₁ , the landscape image projected by the television camera 16 is captured, and in the next step S ′ ₂ , the image is preprocessed. In this pre-processing, the captured landscape image is processed so that the characteristic information in it can be extracted, and features are effectively extracted from image enhancement, differential processing, and color extraction. Combine as much as you can. "Image enhancement" above
Is, for example, to make bright parts of an image brighter and dark parts to be darker so that the bright parts are conspicuous. In the "differential processing" of, the change in the brightness of the image is examined and the captured image is converted into a line image. The "color extraction" of is to extract only a specific color portion from the captured image. Further, after this pretreatment, extracting features from the scene image in step S _'3. In this process, features such as "straight line", "circle", "number", and "character" are extracted from the preprocessed image, and the images are compared with the template describing these features to identify the features. This is the process of extracting. Further, the process proceeds to step S _'4, recognizes the thing that is reflected in the image. This processing is to recognize the center line L _{C of the} road surface and the line L _D for dividing the lane, including their contents, as shown in FIG. 7, from the characteristics extracted in step S ′ ₃ .

After such image processing, the process proceeds to step S _18, recognizes the traffic lane which the vehicle is currently traveling based on the center line L _C, and the lane dividing line L _D. Next, in step S ₁₉ , the target lane in the guidance direction corresponding to the set travel route is read, and in step S ₂₀ , it is determined whether the actual lane matches the target lane. When the determination is YES the "lane match" is directly returns to step S _3, when the NO in "lane mismatch", the process proceeds to step S _21, it activates a warning lane by the loudspeaker 2 and the target lane different effect After that, the process returns to step S ₃ .

On the other hand, when the determination in step S ₄ is NO, calculates the distance to the intersection P proceeds to step S _5, and then the distance in step S _6, it is determined whether within a predetermined distance, the decision is YES sometimes it is, when the NO back to each step S ₃ after switching to the map path display proceeds to step S _7.

Therefore, in this embodiment, in steps S _{16 to} S ₁₈ in the above flow, the center line L _C and the lane marking line of the road surface are determined from the landscape information detected by the TV camera 16.
The traveling lane recognition means 20 is configured to recognize L _D and recognize the actual lane in which the vehicle is traveling based on the recognized lines L _C and L _D.

Further, in step S ₁₉ , the above-mentioned driving lane recognition means 20
After recognizing the lane of the road on which the vehicle is actually traveling, the target lane corresponding to the preset traveling route to the destination is read from the CD-ROM 11 (map information storage means). Lane reading means 23 is configured.

Further, in step S _20, the traffic lane recognition means 2
The lane determining means 21 is configured to compare the traveling lane recognized by 0 with the target lane read by the target lane reading means 23 to determine the difference between the two lanes.

Then, in step S _21, the lane determining unit 2
Based on the output of 1, when the actual traveling lane and the target lane are different, the warning means 22 is configured to give a warning to that effect by the speaker 2.

Therefore, in the above embodiment, basically, the current position P _P of the vehicle is recognized by the current position recognizing device 17 based on the direction of the geomagnetism detected by the geomagnetic sensor 19 and the traveling distance detected by the vehicle speed sensor 18, This current position
The traveling locus 1 of the vehicle up to P _P is displayed together with the map on the CRT 1. Then, by operating the operating device 14, a travel route from the current position P _P to the destination is set, and when a vehicle approaches a main intersection P, P, ... On this travel route, an image of the intersection P and its The indication mark M indicating the direction in which the vehicle should go through the intersection P is combined and displayed on the CRT 1. Therefore, the occupant can specifically and surely recognize the direction in which to proceed at the intersection P by looking at the display of the CRT 1, and can easily guide the vehicle to the destination.

Also, at that time, the scenery outside the vehicle in front of the vehicle is a TV camera.
The center line L _C and the lane marking line L _{D of the} road surface are identified by the image processing of the image 16 and the line
The lane in which the vehicle is actually traveling is recognized based on L _C and L _D. After recognizing the driving lane of the vehicle as described above, the target lane corresponding to the driving route to the destination is set to the CD-ROM
Is read from. Then, the recognized actual driving lane is compared with the target lane read from the CD-ROM 11 to determine the difference, and when the two lanes are different,
The speaker 2 gives a warning to that effect as a voice. For this reason, the occupant can immediately recognize that the actual traveling lane is different from the target lane by changing the lane to the target lane and smoothly select an appropriate lane even at the intersection P having a plurality of designated lanes. can do. Therefore,
The vehicle can be smoothly guided to the destination.

In addition, the target lane corresponding to the driving route to the destination is
Since it is read from the CD-ROM 11 on the vehicle side, the reading can be performed reliably, and the only information input from outside the navigation device is for recognizing the actual vehicle lane. The reliability of device guidance is increased.

Moreover, when the travel route to the destination is set, it is possible to list the target lanes at the intersections on the way, and after that, the target lanes can be read in order each time the intersection is approached. Can be done.

Further, as described above, since the target lane corresponding to the traveling route to the destination is read after the actual vehicle traveling lane is recognized, the actual vehicle traveling that must be based on the input information from outside the navigation device. By performing the recognition processing of the traveling lane prior to reading the target lane, it is possible to secure a sufficient time required for that and to accurately compare the traveling lane of the vehicle with the target lane.

In the above embodiment, the driving lane is recognized by the center line L _C and the lane division line L _D of the road surface. However, as shown in FIG. It is also possible to perform recognition based on the marker S, and it is possible to obtain the same operational effect as the above-mentioned embodiment.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the occupant is warned by the voice from the speaker 2 that the traveling lane has deviated from the target lane, but it may be warned by the display on the CRT 1.

(Effect of the invention) As described above, according to the vehicle navigation device of the invention of claim (1), the actual lane of the vehicle is recognized and the target lane corresponding to the traveling route to the destination is stored as map information. When the actual lane of travel is different from the target lane, the occupant is alerted to that effect so that the target lane corresponding to the travel route can be selected quickly, and the vehicle can reach the destination more smoothly. Can be guided to. Moreover, since the target lane is read from the map information storage means on the vehicle side, the reading can be performed reliably and the reliability of guidance of the navigation device can be improved. Further, when the travel route to the destination is set, the target lanes may be sequentially read at the intersections thereafter, so that the processing can be simplified.

According to the invention of claim (2), the target lane is read after the actual vehicle lane is recognized, so that the actual vehicle lane can be determined based on the input information from the outside of the navigation device. The recognition process can be performed for a sufficient time, and the vehicle traveling lane can be compared with the target lane with high accuracy.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the present invention. FIG. 2 and the following drawings show an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the overall configuration thereof, and FIG. 3 is a flow chart diagram showing a basic processing procedure performed by the CPU of the control device. Four
FIG. 5 is a flow chart of a processing procedure in the image processing routine, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a vehicle traveling locus display state on the CRT, FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of an intersection image display state on the CRT, and FIG. It is a figure which illustrates the road surface sign used as the basis of lane recognition. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing another example of the road marking. 1 ... CRT (display means), 2 ... speaker, 3 ... control device, 11 ... CD-ROM (map information storage means), 16 ... TV camera, 17 ... current position recognition device (current position recognition) Means), 20 ... Lane recognition means, 21 ... Lane judgment means,
22 …… Warning means, 23 …… Target lane reading means, P _P …… Current vehicle position.

Continuation of the front page (56) Reference JP-A-1-119897 (JP, A) JP-A 61-49300 (JP, A) JP-A 62-93617 (JP, A) JP-A 64-16915 (JP , A) JP-A-62-221800 (JP, A) JP-A-59-200315 (JP, A) Sekikai-Sho 64-38510 (JP, U) JP-B-52-33756 (JP, B2)

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A map information storage means for storing map information in advance, a current position recognition means for recognizing a current position of a vehicle, and a vehicle current position recognized by the current position recognition means together with a map of the map information storage means. A vehicle navigation device that includes a display unit that displays and that guides a traveling route of a vehicle to a destination, the traveling line recognizing unit recognizing a lane of a road on which the vehicle is actually traveling, A target lane reading unit that reads out a target lane corresponding to a preset traveling route to the destination from the map information storage unit, a traveling lane recognized by the traveling lane recognition unit, and a target lane reading unit by the target lane reading unit A lane determining means for comparing the determined lane with the determined target lane and the lane determining means for determining whether the two lanes are different from each other based on the output of the lane determining means. A vehicle navigation device, comprising: a warning unit that warns. 2. The target lane reading means is configured to read the target lane after the traveling lane recognition means recognizes the lane of the road on which the vehicle is actually traveling. 1) The vehicle navigation device according to 1).