Support point management system, method, and program

• US 10,030,983 B2
• Filed: 09/16/2014
• Issued: 07/24/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aisin AW Company Limited (Aisin Corp.), Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Aisin AW Company Limited (Aisin Corp.), Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Niwa, Toshiaki, Kodan, Tomoki, Tanaka, Kuniaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Anwari, Maceeh
• Application Number:
  US15/026,149
• Publication Number:
  US 20160245658A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,407 Days
• Field of Search: 701300
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 2210/36 Global Positioning System [GPS]
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 7/18 operated by wayside apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: B60T 8/172 Determining control parameters used in the regulation, e.g. by calculations involving measured or detected parameters B60T8/17551 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/32 Structuring or formatting of map data
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3815 Road data
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3837 Data obtained from a single source
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3844 Data obtained from position sensors only, e.g. from inertial navigation
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0967 Systems involving transmission of highway information, e.g. weather, speed limits transmission of navigation instructions to the vehicle G08G1/0968
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096741 where the source of the transmitted information selects which information to transmit to each vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station

Abstract

Support point management systems, methods, and programs acquire a support point registered as a subject of deceleration support and exclude the support point as the subject of deceleration support in a case a vehicle travels on a new road after having traveled through the support point without deceleration at the support point.

Claims

1. A support point management system for use with a navigation terminal of a vehicle comprising:

a memory; and

a processor programmed to;

receive sensor data indicating the current position of the vehicle, and sensor data indicating deceleration of the vehicle;

acquire, from the memory, a support point registered as a target of deceleration support; and

in a case that the vehicle is determined to have traveled nearby the registered support point;

record, as travel log information, information indicating whether the vehicle passes through nearby the registered support point without decelerating, or, alternatively, decelerates nearby the registered support point; and

in the case that the vehicle passes through the registered support point;

obtain a deceleration probability of the vehicle at the registered support point by dividing the number of times of deceleration nearby the support point in the recorded travel log information, by a sum total of the number of times of deceleration nearby the support point in the recorded travel log information and the number of times of passage through the registered support point without deceleration in the recorded travel log information; and

in a case that the obtained deceleration probability is less than a threshold exclusion deceleration probability;

exclude the registered support point by updating the memory to indicate that the registered support point is no longer the target of deceleration support.

2. The support point management system according to claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to:

specify a traveled road being traveled on by the vehicle based on a traveling path of the vehicle and map information; and

determine that the vehicle is traveling on the new road in a case where the traveled road is not specified.

3. The support point management system according to claim 2, wherein the processor is further programmed to:

exclude the support point as the subject of deceleration support in a case where a number of times of travel in which the vehicle travels on the new road after having traveled through the support point without deceleration at the support point is greater than or equal to a new road threshold.

4. The support point management system according to claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to:

exclude the support point as the subject of deceleration support in a case where a number of times of travel in which the vehicle travels on the new road after having traveled through the support point without deceleration at the support point is greater than or equal to a threshold.

5. The support point management system according to claim 1, wherein the processor is further programmed to:

in the case that the vehicle passes through the support point and the obtained deceleration probability is not less than the threshold exclusion deceleration probability;

perform map matching to determine whether a traveled road section can be specified by map matching; and

in a case that the traveled road section cannot be specified by the map matching;

exclude the support point by updating the memory to indicate that the support point is no longer the target of deceleration support, thereby accounting for new road additions that obviate the need for the registered support point.

6. The support point management system according to claim 5, wherein the case that the traveled road section cannot be specified by the map matching is a case that the traveled road section cannot be specified by the map matching at the time when the vehicle has traveled a predetermined distance after passing through the registered support point.

7. A support point management method for use with a navigation terminal of a vehicle, the method comprising:

receiving sensor data indicating the current position of the vehicle, and sensor data indicating deceleration of the vehicle;

acquiring, from a memory, a support point registered as a target of deceleration support; and

in a case that the vehicle is determined to have traveled nearby the registered support point;

recording, as travel log information, information indicating whether the vehicle passes through nearby the registered support point without decelerating, or, alternatively, decelerates nearby the registered support point; and

in the case that the vehicle passes through the registered support point;

obtaining a deceleration probability of the vehicle at the registered support point by dividing the number of times of deceleration nearby the support point in the recorded travel log information, by a sum total of the number of times of deceleration nearby the support point in the recorded travel log information and the number of times of passage through the registered support point without deceleration in the recorded travel log information; and

in a case that the obtained deceleration probability is less than a threshold exclusion deceleration probability;

excluding the registered support point by updating the memory to indicate that the registered support point is no longer the target of deceleration support.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer-executable support point management program for use with a navigation terminal of a vehicle, the computer-executable support point management program, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to:

receive sensor data indicating the current position of the vehicle, and sensor data indicating deceleration of the vehicle;

acquire, from a memory, a support point registered as a target of deceleration support; and

in a case that the vehicle is determined to have traveled nearby the registered support point;

record, as travel log information, information indicating whether the vehicle passes through nearby the registered support point without decelerating, or, alternatively, decelerates nearby the registered support point; and

in the case that the vehicle passes through the registered support point;

obtain a deceleration probability of the vehicle at the registered support point by dividing the number of times of deceleration nearby the support point in the recorded travel log information, by a sum total of the number of times of deceleration nearby the support point in the recorded travel log information and the number of times of passage through the registered support point without deceleration in the recorded travel log information; and

in a case that the obtained deceleration probability is less than a threshold exclusion deceleration probability;

exclude the registered support point by updating the memory to indicate that the registered support point is no longer the target of deceleration support.