Map data query method and apparatus, computer device, and storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12276509-B2
Application number	US-202117516498-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 1, 2021
Priority date	Aug 30, 2019
Publication date	Apr 15, 2025
Grant date	Apr 15, 2025

Abstract

A map data query method is performed at a computer device, the method including: obtaining a current position of a vehicle; requesting map data matching the current position from a cloud database; caching the requested map data returned from the cloud database locally; constructing a real-time spatial index of the locally-cached map data according to road elements in the locally-cached map data; in response to a query request transmitted by an application layer associated with the vehicle, querying the locally-cached map data at which the query request is aimed according to the real-time spatial index to generate a query result; and returning the query result to the application layer.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A map data query method performed by an in-vehicle computer device that is disposed in a vehicle, the computer device configured to execute a map data engine and a map toolkit that are configured to communicate with each other through an inter-process communication (IPC) layer, the map toolkit configured to provide query and data returning service to an application layer, and the map toolkit includes a map agent layer, a data cache layer, and an asynchronous loading layer that are distinct from one another, the method comprising:
obtaining a current position of the vehicle while the vehicle is traveling on a predetermined vehicle travel path;
obtaining, from map data that is cached locally on the computer device, a reference travel position matching the current position of the vehicle, wherein the map data is cached at a previous time;
determining a difference between the current position and the reference travel position;
in accordance with a determination that the difference is greater than a preset difference threshold, requesting, from a cloud database, map data matching the current position, including:
receiving, by the map agent layer in the map toolkit, a path planning request from the application layer;
establishing a network connection between the computer device and the cloud database;
dynamically determining, according to the predetermined vehicle travel path, information about paths within a preset range ahead of the current position of the vehicle;
requesting, by the map data engine from the cloud database via the network connection, map data matching the current position of the vehicle and the information about the paths within the preset range ahead of the current position of the vehicle;
receiving, by the map data engine, first map data returned from the cloud database;
forwarding, by the map data engine to the asynchronous loading layer of the map toolkit through the IPC layer, the received first map data;
generating, by the asynchronous loading layer of the map toolkit, updated locally-cached map data, including adding or deleting map data from the locally-cached map data according to the received first map data:
updating, by the data cache layer of the map toolkit, a real-time spatial index of the locally-cached map data according to road elements in the received first map data, the road elements including lane lines and traffic lights; and
in response to a query request transmitted by the application layer associated with the vehicle:
querying, by the map agent layer from the data cache layer, the updated locally-cached map data at which the query request is aimed according to the updated real-time spatial index to generate a query result;
returning, by the map agent layer, the query result to the application layer; and
causing, by the application layer, the vehicle to at least partially self-drive according to the query result.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the information about the paths is determined through a path planning operation, and the path planning operation comprises:
obtaining a path planning request transmitted by the application layer;
transmitting a point of interest carried in the path planning request to the cloud database;
caching path planning information returned by the cloud database and made for the point of interest locally; and
returning the information about the paths to the application layer.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the requested map data is cached locally at the computer device at a present time, the map toolkit is a first map toolkit of a plurality of map toolkits, and the method further comprises:
delivering the map data cached locally at the present time to the plurality of map toolkits for caching, the plurality of map toolkits being disposed locally respectively corresponding to applications in the application layer; and
querying the locally-cached map data at which the query request is aimed according to the real-time spatial index comprises:
querying, when a respective map toolkit receives a query request transmitted by a corresponding application, the locally-cached map data at which the query request is aimed from the map data cached in the respective map toolkit.

4. The method according to claim 3 , further comprising:
performing difference comparison between the map data cached locally on the computer device at the present time and the map data cached locally on the computer device at the previous time; and
when there is a difference between the map data cached locally at the present time and the map data cached locally at the previous time, performing the operation of delivering the map data cached locally at the present time to the plurality of map toolkits for caching.

5. The method according to claim 3 , wherein delivering the map data cached locally at the present time to the plurality of map toolkits for caching comprises:
delivering the locally-cached map data to the plurality of map toolkits; and
when a coordinate system used by an application corresponding to a respective map toolkit is different from a coordinate system corresponding to the map data, converting coordinates of the map data into coordinates in the coordinate system used by the application by using the respective map toolkit.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the converting coordinates of the map data into coordinates in the coordinate system used by the application by using the respective map toolkit comprises:
converting longitude and latitude coordinates of points forming the road elements in the map data into coordinates in a topocentric coordinate system, the topocentric coordinate system being a spatial rectangular coordinate system using the current position as an origin;
selecting, for each road element, a center point from points forming the road element;
determining offsets of non-center points forming the road element from the center point; and
determining coordinates of the non-center points according to coordinates of the center point in the topocentric coordinate system and the offsets corresponding to the non-center points.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein:
updating the real-time spatial index of the locally-cached map data according to the road elements comprises:
constructing grid indexes locally respectively according to the road elements in the received first map data; and

querying the updated locally-cached map data at which the query request is aimed according to the updated real-time spatial index comprises:
when a positioning query request transmitted by the application layer is obtained, querying coordinates of a position at which the positioning query request is aimed according to the grid indexes.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein:
updating the real-time spatial index of the locally-cached map data according to the road elements comprises:
constructing tree indexes locally respectively according to the road elements in; and

querying the updated locally-cached map data at which the query request is aimed according to the real-time spatial index comprises:
when an object query request transmitted by the application layer is obtained, querying information about a road element at which the object query request is aimed according to the tree indexes.

9. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
recording abnormal map data not matching environment perception data in the locally-cached map data, the environment perception data being data obtained by perceiving a real environment by the application layer;
virtualizing the abnormal map data into virtual map data matching the environment perception data;
transmitting the vi

Assignees

• Tencent Tech Shenzhen Co Ltd

Inventors

• Jiang Min

Classifications

• G06F16/29 Primary

  Geographical information databases · CPC title

• G06F16/9537

  Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries · CPC title

• G06F16/24552

  Database cache management · CPC title

• G06F16/2246

  Trees, e.g. B+trees · CPC title

• G01C21/30

  Map- or contour-matching · CPC title