JP3214305B2 - Travel guide device for vehicles - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a traveling guide device for a vehicle (hereinafter, referred to as a navigation device), and more particularly to a navigation device for guiding a vehicle based on a standardized unified road information source.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A navigation apparatus that draws an optimal route from a current position of a vehicle to a destination on a map on a display screen and provides travel guidance has attracted attention. When deciding the optimal route, it is necessary to appropriately select a detour or the like in consideration of information such as traffic congestion on each road to the destination and travel restrictions.

[0003] In recent years, a VICS that transmits road information to a traveling vehicle in real time by a beacon or FM multiplex broadcasting provided at regular intervals along the road to enable a rapid traveling route to be determined to a destination. The development of such systems is underway. For example, according to VICS, JI
The map area is divided based on the area mesh defined in S, and the roads in each map area are linked to each other at predetermined intersections (links for driving guidance, hereinafter referred to as VIC links).
(Referred to as S-link), each of which is assigned a number (ID), and various road information is added to each VICS link ID.

[0004]

However, a link used in a navigation device mounted on each vehicle (hereinafter referred to as an ECU).
In order to provide finer travel guidance, the inner link is often a unique one obtained by dividing the road more finely than the VICS link. Therefore,
In order to use VICS road information, it is necessary to prepare a table for converting VICS links into links in the ECU. However, the capacity of this conversion table is enormous, and how to prepare the conversion table in the navigation device. Is a problem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves such a problem, and provides a huge conversion table from a standardized link to a link unique to each vehicle in a compact form for a vehicle which can be used for traveling guidance. It is an object to provide a travel guide device.

[0006]

According to a feature of the present invention, a conversion table for converting a standardized link into a link specific to the host vehicle is provided.
The external storage means (4) is stored in advance in the external storage means (4) so as to correspond to the standardized map area, and a conversion table of a portion necessary for traveling guidance is stored in the external storage means (4).
2), and converts the standardized link into a link unique to the own vehicle.

[0007] Thus, it is not necessary to prepare all the conversion tables of enormous capacity in the internal storage means, so that the whole apparatus becomes compact and inexpensive. If a CDROM or the like is used as the external storage means, for example, compactness can be easily achieved, and management can be facilitated by dividing the conversion table CDROM or the like for each predetermined map area. In addition, it is possible to easily cope with a change in the standard by replacing a CDROM or the like.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 schematically shows a hardware configuration of a navigation device. In the figure, a VICS electronic control unit (ECU) 2 including a receiving circuit includes a radio beacon 31 and an optical beacon 32 installed along a road or an FM multiplex broadcast 3
3, road information such as traffic congestion and driving regulation is obtained, and is processed into data (VICS data) of a predetermined format for each standardized map area (secondary mesh) described above.

The navigation CPU 11 converts map data including the detected current position of the vehicle into an external CD according to a known procedure.
The map data is read out from the ROM or the like into the internal memory 12, the map data is converted into two-dimensional display screen data, and displayed on the display device 5 as a travel guide map. Here, in the present embodiment, a conversion table for converting a VICS link into a link in the ECU is previously stored in the CDROM 4 as an external storage means for the secondary mesh in a predetermined range (for example, the Kanto area, the Tokai area, etc.). Have been.

Therefore, the navigation CPU 11 obtains VICS data from the VICS ECU 2 according to the procedure shown in FIG.
Used to determine the travel route to the destination. That is, when the navigation CPU 11 detects the position of the vehicle, the VICS including the numbers of the secondary meshes and the required information type (traffic jam, travel regulation, etc.) for the four secondary meshes adjacent to each other, including the secondary meshes. VICS data transfer request
VIC of the corresponding secondary mesh issued to ECU2
The S data is obtained (Step 101 in FIG. 2).

FIG. 3A shows an example of the format of the VICS data. In the VICS data, an information block partitioned by a subheader follows the common header. The common header includes the secondary mesh number and the navigation E
The information type requested by the CU 11 is described.
The subheader describes the type of road (high speed, general road, etc.) of the VICS link included in the secondary mesh. Then, in each information block following each subheader, as shown in FIG.
For example, data indicating the degree of traffic congestion is described in order from the link number (ID) 1.

In step 102 of FIG.
VICS included in the secondary mesh requested for U2
For the link, the conversion table of this part is
4 to the internal memory 12. Then, in the following step 103, the conversion from the VICS link to the link in the ECU is performed with reference to the conversion table. Here, FIG.
Shows an example of the conversion table. In the figure, VICS link ID 1 corresponds to link IDs a and b in the ECU,
N of the VICS link ID is x of the link ID in the ECU,
They correspond to y and z.

In this manner, each VICS link ID is assigned to the link I in the ECU together with the road information data associated therewith.
When converted to D, the navigation CPU 11 at step 104
Based on the link ID in the ECU after the conversion and the road information data attached thereto, the optimum traveling route to the destination is calculated,
In a succeeding step 105, the road information is displayed on the display device 5 as appropriate together with the optimum traveling route.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the display. In the figure, the optimal travel route from the white circle indicating the current location of the vehicle to the destination indicated by the black circle is displayed by a bold line, and this travel route is selected avoiding the congested portion indicated by the arrow along the road. . As described above, in the present embodiment, the standardized VICS information can be effectively used for determining a traveling route and the like, and only a part of the conversion table stored in the CDROM is used for the vehicle current location. As much as necessary to obtain the link ID in the ECU in the surrounding map area, it is read out into the internal memory, so that the entire device is made more compact than preparing all the conversion tables in the internal memory. Is realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing a hardware configuration of a vehicle travel guide device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a processing flowchart of a navigation CPU according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a format of VICS data in one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a conversion table according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic front view of a display screen of the display device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Navigation ECU, 11 ... Navigation CPU, 12 ... Internal memory, 2 ... VICSECU, 31 ... Radio beacon, 32 ...
Optical beacon, 33 ... FM multiplex broadcasting, 4 ... CDROM, 5
... display device.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G08G 1/0969 G01C 21/00 G06F 19/00 G09B 29/10

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A means for obtaining road information relating to a standardized link included in the standardized map area for a required number of standardized map areas;
01); an external storage means (4) in which a conversion table for converting the standardized link into a link specific to the vehicle is stored in advance so as to correspond to the standardized map area ; and means (11,102) to be transferred to the internal storage means (12) from said variable <br/> conversion table portion related to the map area which has been standardized external storage unit (4), said internal memory means (12) The standardized links included in the required number of standardized map areas are converted into links specific to the host vehicle by the partial conversion table transferred to the link, and the converted links specific to the host vehicle are converted. And means for guiding driving based on the obtained road information (11,
104, 105).