Travel information recording system, method, and program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9846044-B2
Application number	US-201415021368-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 18, 2014
Priority date	Sep 20, 2013
Publication date	Dec 19, 2017
Grant date	Dec 19, 2017

Abstract

A travel information recording system for associating travel information on a vehicle obtained immediately after travel through a branch location with an appropriate road segment includes: travel segment specifying unit for specifying a travel segment that is a road segment in which a vehicle is traveling; and travel information recorder for recording travel information on the vehicle obtained during travel in the travel segment in association with the travel segment in a storage medium. In the case where there occurs a segment variation in which the travel segment is varied from one of several road segments branched off from a branch location, the travel information recorder acquires the travel information to be recorded in association with a post-variation segment, which is the travel segment after the segment variation, on the basis of the travel information obtained before the segment variation.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A travel information recording system comprising:
a position determining device configured to obtain a current position of a vehicle;
a memory operable to store computer program code;
a computer processor operable to acquire and execute the computer program code;
travel segment specifying code executable by said computer processor for specifying a travel segment that is a road segment in which the vehicle is traveling based on the current position of the vehicle; and
travel information recorder for recording travel information of the vehicle obtained during travel in the travel segment in association with the travel segment in a storage medium, wherein
in the case where there occurs a segment variation in which the travel segment is varied from one of a plurality of road segments branched off from a branch location in which the vehicle is traveling,
the travel information recorder acquires the travel information to be recorded in association with a post-variation segment, which is the travel segment after the segment variation, on the basis of the travel information obtained before the segment variation, and
wherein
in the case where the branch location and the post-variation segment are connected to each other by a non-specified segment, which is acquired as a shortest route connecting the branch location and the post-variation segment, that is not specified as the travel segment,
the travel information recorder acquires the travel information to be recorded in association with a segment including at least the non-specified segment on the basis of the travel information obtained before the segment variation, and
wherein
in the case where the branch location and the post-variation segment are connected to each other by the non-specified segment,
the travel information recorder switchably executes one of individual recording processing, in which the travel information is individually recorded in association with each of the non-specified segment and the post-variation segment, and integrated recording processing, in which the travel information is recorded in association with an integrated segment obtained by integrating the non-specified segment and the post-variation segment with each other;
the individual recording processing is executed in the case where an end point of the non-specified segment is an intersection; and
the integrated recording processing is executed in the case where the end point of the non-specified segment is not an intersection.

2. The travel information recording system according to claim 1 , wherein
the travel information recorder acquires the travel information to be recorded in association with the post-variation segment by integrating the travel information obtained before the segment variation and the travel information obtained when the vehicle travels in the post-variation segment after the segment variation with each other.

3. The travel information recording system according to claim 1 , wherein
the travel information recorder acquires the travel information to be recorded in association with the post-variation segment on the basis of the travel information obtained after travel through the branch location, of the travel information obtained before the segment variation.

4. The travel information recording system according to claim 1 , wherein
in the case where the branch location and the post-variation segment are connected to each other by the non-specified segment,
the travel information recorder executes individual recording processing in which the travel information is individually recorded in association with each of the non-specified segment and the post-variation segment.

5. The travel information recording system according to claim 4 , wherein
in the individual recording processing, the travel information recorder acquires the travel information to be recorded in association with the non-specified segment and the travel information to be recorded in association with the post-variation segment by distributing the travel information obtained after travel through the branch location and before travel in the post-variation segment is completed on the basis of proportions of segment lengths of the post-variation segment and the non-specified segment.

6. The travel information recording system according to claim 1 , wherein
in the case where the branch location and the post-variation segment are connected to each other by the non-specified segment,
the travel information recorder executes integrated recording processing in which the travel information is recorded in association with an integrated segment obtained by integrating the non-specified segment and the post-variation segment with each other.

7. The travel information recording system according to claim 6 , wherein
in the integrated recording processing, the travel information recorder acquires the travel information obtained after travel through the branch location and before travel in the post-variation segment is completed as the travel information to be recorded in association with the integrated segment.

8. The travel information recording system according to claim 1 , wherein
in the case where the branch location and the post-variation segment are connected to each other by the non-specified segment,
the travel information recorder switchably executes one of individual recording processing, in which the travel information is individually recorded in association with each of the non-specified segment and the post-variation segment, and integrated recording processing, in which the travel information is recorded in association with an integrated segment obtained by integrating the non-specified segment and the post-variation segment with each other;
the individual recording processing is executed in the case where a road type of the non-specified segment and a road type of the post-variation segment are different from each other; and
the integrated recording processing is executed in the case where the road type of the non-specified segment and the road type of the post-variation segment are identical to each other.

9. The travel information recording system according to claim 1 , wherein
the travel information is information indicating a motion state of the vehicle.

10. The travel information recording system according to claim 1 , wherein
the travel information is information indicating a drive operation state of the vehicle.

11. The travel information recording system according to claim 1 , wherein
the travel information is information indicating an energy state of the vehicle.

12. The travel information recording system according to claim 1 , wherein
the travel information is environment information on the vehicle.

13. A travel information recording method for causing a computer to perform:
a travel segment specifying step of specifying a travel segment that is a road segment in which a vehicle is traveling; and
a travel information recording step of recording travel information of the vehicle obtained during travel in the travel segment in association with the travel segment in a storage medium, wherein
the travel information recording step includes, in the case where there occurs a segment variation in which the travel segment is varied from one of a plurality of road segments branched off from a branch location in which the vehicle is traveling,
acquiring the travel information to be recorded in association with a post-variation segment, which is the travel segment after the segment variation, on the basis of the travel information obtained before the segment variation, and

Assignees

• Aisin Aw Co
• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Sanami Kenta
• Hirano Satoshi
• Miyajima Takayuki
• Kodan Tomoki
• Tanaka Kuniaki

Classifications

• Y02T90/16

  Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles · CPC title

• B60L2240/20

  angular · CPC title

• B60L2240/645

  Type of road · CPC title

• G01C21/30 Primary

  Map- or contour-matching · CPC title

• Y02T90/161

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic