Location estimation apparatus, moving object, location estimation method, and computer-readable storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11313663-B2
Application number	US-202016986296-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 6, 2020
Priority date	Feb 28, 2018
Publication date	Apr 26, 2022
Grant date	Apr 26, 2022

Abstract

It includes an intensity pattern determination section to determine an intensity pattern indicating a distribution of a magnitude of a target quantity in at least a part of a moving path of the moving object, a subarea determination section to determine, among a plurality of subareas, one or more subareas having an intensity pattern which matches or is similar to an intensity pattern determined by the intensity pattern determination section based on map information which associates area identification information which identifies each of a plurality of subareas included in a target region having a predetermined geographic range and an intensity parameter indicating a magnitude of a target quantity premeasured in the subarea, and an output section to output, as a location of the moving object, one or more subareas determined by the subarea determination section.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A location estimation apparatus, comprising:
an intensity information obtaining section to obtain intensity information indicating a magnitude of a target quantity detected by a detection section mounted to a moving object;
a distance information obtaining section to obtain a distance information indicating a distance between two spots where each of two pieces of intensity information obtained by the intensity information obtaining section has been obtained;
an intensity pattern determination section to determine, based on (i) a plurality of pieces of intensity information obtained by the intensity information obtaining section along at least a part of a moving path of the moving object and (ii) distance information corresponding to the plurality of intensity information obtained by the distance information obtaining section, an intensity pattern indicating a distribution of a magnitude of the target quantity along the at least a part of the moving path of the moving object;
a subarea determination section to determine, among the plurality of subareas, one or more subareas having an intensity pattern which matches or is similar to the intensity pattern determined by the intensity pattern determination section based on map information which associates area identification information which identifies each of a plurality of subareas included in a target region having a predetermined geographic range and an intensity parameter indicating a magnitude of the target quantity premeasured in the subarea; and
an output section to output, as a location of the moving object, at least a part of the one or more subareas determined by the subarea determination section.

2. The location estimation apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
in the map information, area identification information of each subarea is associated to a precision parameter indicating an estimation precision of a location in each subarea,
the location estimation apparatus further includes:
a positioning signal obtaining section to obtain a positioning signal including a precision information indicating a positioning precision from a positioning signal reception section mounted to a moving object, and
if a precision indicated by a precision parameter associated to the one or more subareas extracted by the subarea determination section is lower than a precision indicated by the precision information included in the positioning signal obtained by the positioning signal obtaining section, the output section outputs, as a location of the moving object, a region defined by a location and error range indicated by the positioning signal obtained by the positioning signal obtaining section.

3. The location estimation apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein
the subarea determination section determines, among one or more subareas which are at least partly present inside a region defined by a location and error range indicated by the positioning signal obtained by the positioning signal obtaining section, one or more subareas having an intensity pattern which matches or is similar to the intensity pattern determined by the intensity pattern determination section.

4. The location estimation apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the intensity information indicates a magnitude of magnetic field [A/m].

5. The location estimation apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the intensity information indicates a magnitude of inclination H of the moving object relative to a horizontal direction or a vertical direction.

6. The location estimation apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the intensity information obtaining section obtains (i) first intensity information indicating a magnitude of magnetic field [A/m] and (ii) second intensity information indicating a magnitude of an inclination [°] of the moving object relative to at least one of a horizontal direction or a vertical direction,
the intensity pattern determination section determines (i) a first intensity pattern indicating a distribution of a magnitude of the magnetic field in the at least a part of the moving path of the moving object and (ii) a second intensity pattern indicating a distribution of a magnitude of an inclination of the moving object in the at least a part of the moving path of the moving object, and
the subarea determination section determines the one or more subareas based on (i) a first map information related to a magnitude of magnetic field in each of the plurality of subareas included in the target region, (ii) second map information related to a magnitude of an inclination of the moving object in each of the plurality of subareas included in the target region, and (iii) the first intensity pattern and the second intensity pattern determined by the intensity pattern determination section.

7. The location estimation apparatus according to claim 1 , comprising:
a measurement result obtaining section to obtain, for each of the plurality of subareas, information indicating a magnitude of the target quantity measured inside an area of the subarea;
an intensity parameter determination section to determine the intensity parameter of each subarea based on information indicating a magnitude of the target quantity obtained by the measurement result obtaining section; and
a map information generation section to generate the map information by associating the intensity parameter of each subarea determined by the intensity parameter determination section and the area identification information of each subarea.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium to store a program, wherein
the program enables a computer to perform:
an intensity information obtaining step to obtain intensity information indicating a magnitude of a target quantity detected by a detection section mounted to a moving object;
a distance information obtaining step to obtain distance information indicating a distance between two spots where each of two pieces of intensity information obtained in the intensity information obtaining step has been obtained;
an intensity pattern determination step to determine, based on (i) a plurality of pieces of intensity information obtained along at least a part of a moving path of the moving object in the intensity information obtaining step and (ii) a distance information corresponding to the plurality of intensity information obtained in the distance information obtaining step, an intensity pattern indicating a distribution of a magnitude of the target quantity in the at least a part of the moving path of the moving object;
a subarea determination step to determine, based on map information which associates area identification information which identifies each of a plurality of subareas included in a target region having a predetermined geographic range and an intensity parameter indicating a magnitude of the target quantity premeasured in the subarea, one or more subareas having an intensity pattern which matches or is similar to the intensity pattern determined in the intensity pattern determination step among the plurality of subareas; and
an output step to output, as a location of the moving object, the one or more subareas determined in the subarea determination step.

9. A moving object, comprising:
a location estimation apparatus according to claim 1 ; and
the detection section.

10. A moving object, comprising:
a location estimation apparatus according to claim 2 ; and
the detection section.

11. A location estimation method, comprising:
an intensity information obtaining step to obtain intensity information indicating a magnitude of a target quantity detected by a detection section mounted to a moving object;
a distanc

Assignees

• Honda Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Shimamura Hideaki
• Muro Keiji
• Kameyama Naoki

Classifications

• G01S19/48

  by combining or switching between position solutions derived from the satellite radio beacon positioning system and position solutions derived from a further system · CPC title

• A01K61/95

  specially adapted for fish · CPC title

• G01B7/004 Primary

  for measuring coordinates of points · CPC title

• G06M11/00

  Counting of objects distributed at random, e.g. on a surface · CPC title

• G01C9/02

  Details · CPC title