Vehicle position identifying system and vehicle position identifying method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9714836-B2
Application number	US-201415031961-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 5, 2014
Priority date	Nov 5, 2013
Publication date	Jul 25, 2017
Grant date	Jul 25, 2017

Abstract

Identifying a position of a vehicle using an absolute position coordinate based on radio navigation and a relative position coordinate based on at least vehicle speed. Setting, for traveling history information, reference sections in which a traveling area is common, and reading two absolute position coordinates concerning a same vehicle that are transmitted at different points in the reference section. Calculating distances between the two absolute position coordinates. A first distance is calculated based on the road map information. A second distance is calculated based on the vehicle speed included in the traveling history information. Selectively performing, according to an absolute value of a difference between the first and second distances, one of identification of the position using the absolute position coordinate, identification of the position using a vehicle speed integrated value, and identification of the position using both of the absolute position coordinate and the vehicle speed integrated value.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A vehicle position identifying system that identifies a position of a vehicle using an absolute position coordinate based on radio navigation and a relative position coordinate based on at least vehicle speed, the vehicle position identifying system comprising:
a history information acquiring unit that acquires traveling history information including the absolute position coordinate and the vehicle speed from the vehicle;
a section-for-reference generating unit that sets, for the acquired traveling history information, a section for reference in which a traveling area is common;
a first distance calculating unit that reads two absolute position coordinates concerning a same vehicle that are transmitted at different points in the section for reference, and calculates a distance between the two absolute position coordinates as a first distance on the basis of road map information;
a second distance calculating unit that reads the two absolute position coordinates and calculates the distance between the two absolute position coordinates as a second distance on the basis of the vehicle speed included in the traveling history information; and
a position identifying unit that selectively performs, according to an absolute value of a difference between the first distance and the second distance, one of identification of the vehicle position using the absolute position coordinate based on the radio navigation, identification of the vehicle position using a vehicle speed integrated value, and identification of the vehicle position using both of the absolute position coordinate based on the radio navigation and the vehicle speed integrated value.

2. The vehicle position identifying system according to claim 1 , wherein,
in the identification of the vehicle position using both of the absolute position coordinate based on the radio navigation and the vehicle speed integrated value, concerning the section for reference in which the absolute value of the difference between the first distance and the second distance is small, the position identifying unit calculates a ratio of a vehicle speed integrated value calculated on the basis of the acquired traveling history information concerning at least a part of road sections in the section for reference and a distance calculated from the road map information concerning the road section, multiplies a vehicle speed integrated value based on the traveling history information of a position identification target by the calculated ratio, and identifies a vehicle position between the two absolute position coordinates.

3. The vehicle position identifying system according to claim 2 , wherein
the position identifying unit identifies the position of the vehicle by selecting, among absolute position coordinates detected at points in the section for reference in which the absolute value of the difference between the first distance and the second distance is small, absolute position coordinates closest to ends on both sides of the section for reference, and interpolating the absolute position coordinates with a relative moving distance obtained by multiplying the vehicle speed integrated value by the ratio.

4. The vehicle position identifying system according to claim 1 , further comprising
a variance calculating unit that calculates, for each piece of the acquired traveling history information, the absolute value of the difference between the first distance and the second distance, and calculates, using absolute values of the differences respectively calculated from the acquired traveling history information, variance of the absolute values, wherein
the position of the vehicle is identified using at least the absolute position coordinate concerning the section for reference in which the variance is small.

5. The vehicle position identifying system according to claims 1 , wherein
the section-for-reference generating unit sets a length of the section for reference to a length at which a distance including a cumulative error obtained when position identification is performed only by a relative moving distance based on the vehicle speed integrated value is within a positioning error range on a positioning system side using the radio navigation.

6. The vehicle position identifying system according to claims 1 , wherein,
concerning the section for reference in which the absolute value of the difference between the first distance and the second distance is large, the position identifying unit identifies the vehicle position using only a relative moving distance based on the vehicle speed integrated value.

7. The vehicle position identifying system according to claim 1 , wherein
the first distance calculating unit selects, among absolute position coordinates detected at points in the section for reference, absolute position coordinates closest to ends on both sides of the section for reference, matches the selected absolute position coordinates with positions on a road on the basis of the road map information, and calculates a distance between the matched positions as the first distance along a road shape included in the road map information.

8. The vehicle position identifying system according to claim 1 , wherein
the history information acquiring unit, the section-for-reference generating unit, the first distance calculating unit, the second distance calculating unit, and the position identifying unit are provided in an information collecting apparatus that configures a probe car system and collects probe information.

9. A vehicle position identifying method for identifying a position of a vehicle using an absolute position coordinate based on radio navigation and a relative position coordinate based on at least vehicle speed, the vehicle position identifying method comprising:
acquiring traveling history information including the absolute position coordinate and the vehicle speed from the vehicle;
setting, for the acquired traveling history information, sections for reference in which a traveling area is common;
reading two absolute position coordinates concerning a same vehicle that are transmitted at different points in the section for reference, and calculating a distance between the two absolute position coordinates as a first distance on the basis of road map information;
reading the two absolute position coordinates and calculating the distance between the two absolute position coordinates as a second distance on the basis of the vehicle speed included in the traveling history information; and
selectively performing, according to an absolute value of a difference between the first distance and the second distance, one of identification of the vehicle position using the absolute position coordinate based on the radio navigation, identification of the vehicle position using a vehicle speed integrated value, and identification of the vehicle position using both of the absolute position coordinate based on the radio navigation and the vehicle speed integrated value.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Neyama Ryo

Classifications

• G01S19/49

  whereby the further system is an inertial position system, e.g. loosely-coupled · CPC title

• G01C21/34 Primary

  Route searching; Route guidance · CPC title

• G01S19/42

  Determining position · CPC title

• G01C21/28 Primary

  with correlation of data from several navigational instruments · CPC title

• G01C21/30

  Map- or contour-matching · CPC title