Determining speed information

• US 10,131,361 B2
• Filed: 05/25/2016
• Issued: 11/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HERE Global B.V. (HERE Holding Corporation)
• Original Assignee: HERE Global B.V. (HERE Holding Corporation)
• Inventors: Jang, Dongwook, Thompson, Joshua, Giurgiu, Gavril, Anastassov, Anton
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Cuong H
• Application Number:
  US15/164,172
• Publication Number:
  US 20170341660A1
• Time in Patent Office: 909 Days
• Field of Search: 701119, 701 2393, 701 96
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2520/105 Longitudinal acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/10 Number of lanes
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/15 Road slope, i.e. the inclination of a road segment in the longitudinal direction
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2552/30 Road curve radius
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2555/60 Traffic rules, e.g. speed limits or right of way
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2556/50 of positioning data, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System] data
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2720/103 Speed profile
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 30/143 Speed control B60W30/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/105 Speed
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 60/0013 specially adapted for occupant comfort
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0223 involving speed control of the vehicle vehicle fittings for automatically controlling, i.e. preventing speed from exceeding an arbitrarily established velocity or maintaining speed at a particular velocity, as selected by the vehicle operator B60K31/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0858 wherein the data carrier is removable
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/012 from other sources than vehicle or roadside beacons, e.g. mobile networks
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0129 for creating historical data or processing based on historical data
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0141 for traffic information dissemination
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/052 with provision for determining speed or overspeed speed measuring in general G01P
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096725 where the received information generates an automatic action on the vehicle control
• 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

A method is presented, which comprises:

• • obtaining or holding available at least one speed profile for at least one selected link of a travel network, wherein said at least one speed profile represents a plurality of speeds for a plurality of subsequent segments of said selected link;
  • smoothing said at least one speed profile for said at least one selected link in a first smoothing step by:
    • determining whether said at least one speed profile represents one or more speeds that are associated with an acceleration above a predetermined acceleration threshold or a deceleration below a predetermined deceleration threshold;
    • for each speed that is determined to be associated with an acceleration above said acceleration threshold or a deceleration below said deceleration threshold, determining a respective adapted speed for replacing said respective speed at least partially based on speeds for one or more adjacent segments of said respective segment.

Further presented are inter-alia corresponding apparatuses, a corresponding system and a corresponding computer program code.

Claims

1. A method, said method comprising:

obtaining or holding available at least one speed profile for at least one selected link of a travel network, wherein said at least one speed profile represents a plurality of speeds for a plurality of subsequent segments of said selected link;

smoothing said at least one speed profile for said at least one selected link in a first smoothing step by;

determining whether said at least one speed profile represents one or more speeds that are associated with an acceleration above a predetermined acceleration threshold or a deceleration below a predetermined deceleration threshold;

for each speed that is determined to be associated with an acceleration above said acceleration threshold or a deceleration below said deceleration threshold, determining a respective adapted speed for replacing said respective speed at least partially based on speeds for one or more adjacent segments of said respective segment; and

causing at least partial control of a vehicle according to the at least one speed profile after smoothing.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said respective adapted speed for replacing said respective speed is determined by one of:

calculating a mean speed of the speeds for the one or more adjacent segments,

calculating a weighted mean speed of the speeds for the one or more adjacent segments.

3. The method according to claim 1, said smoothing in a second smoothing step further comprising:

applying one or more additional smoothing techniques on at least one speed profile obtained as a result of said first smoothing step.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein said one or more additional smoothing techniques are one of:

locally weighted scatterplot smoothing;

smoothing spline;

Friedman'"'"'s super smoother;

rolling mean;

rounded splines.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein said first smoothing step is repeated at least twice.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein in said first smoothing step one or more further speed profiles for one or more links adjacent to said selected link are at least partially considered.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein said selected link and said one or more links adjacent to said selected link represent three or more subsequent links.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein said selected link and said one or more links adjacent to said selected link represent a potential travel path for said selected link, wherein said potential travel path for said at least one selected link is at least partially defined by an incoming link of said travel network and an outgoing link of said travel network that are linked by said selected link and a direction of travel from said incoming link to said outgoing link on said selected link.

9. The method according to claim 1, said method further comprising:

determining said at least one speed profile for said selected link of said travel network at least partially based on speeds represented by a plurality of probe data points of one or more probe data sets of a plurality of probe data sets.

10. The method according to claim 1, said method further comprising:

providing or generating speed map data representing an association of map data and a plurality of speed profiles for links of said travel network, said plurality of speed profiles comprising at least one smoothed speed profile obtained as a result of said smoothing.

11. The method according to claim 1, said method further comprising:

determining speed information for at least one vehicle;

providing said speed information to said at least one vehicle.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein causing at least partial control of a vehicle according to the at least one speed profile after smoothing comprises causing at least partial autonomous control of a vehicle according to the at least one speed profile after smoothing as the vehicle travels along the at least one selected link.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein said method is performed for a plurality of links of said travel network as selected link.

14. An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code for one or more programs, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to:

obtain or hold available at least one speed profile for at least one selected link of a travel network, wherein said at least one speed profile represents a plurality of speeds for a plurality of subsequent segments of said selected link;

smooth said at least one speed profile for said at least one selected link in a first smoothing step by;

determining whether said at least one speed profile represents one or more speeds that are associated with an acceleration above a predetermined acceleration threshold or a deceleration below a predetermined deceleration threshold;

for each speed that is determined to be associated with an acceleration above said acceleration threshold or a deceleration below said deceleration threshold, determining a respective adapted speed for replacing said respective speed at least partially based on speeds for one or more adjacent segments of said respective segment; and

cause at least partial control of a vehicle according to the at least one speed profile after smoothing.

15. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein said respective adapted speed for replacing said respective speed is determined by one of:

calculating a mean speed of the speeds for the one or more adjacent segments,

calculating a weighted mean speed of the speeds for the one or more adjacent segments.

16. The apparatus according to claim 14, said smoothing in a second smoothing step further comprising:

applying one or more additional smoothing techniques on at least one speed profile obtained as a result of said first smoothing step.

17. The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said one or more additional smoothing techniques are one of:

locally weighted scatterplot smoothing;

smoothing spline;

Friedman'"'"'s super smoother;

rolling mean;

rounded splines.

18. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein said first smoothing step is repeated at least twice.

19. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein in said first smoothing step one or more further speed profiles for one or more links adjacent to said selected link are at least partially considered.

20. The apparatus according to claim 19, wherein said selected link and said one or more links adjacent to said selected link represent three or more subsequent links.

21. The apparatus according to claim 19, wherein said selected link and said one or more links adjacent to said selected link represent a potential travel path for said selected link, wherein said potential travel path for said at least one selected link is at least partially defined by an incoming link of said travel network and an outgoing link of said travel network that are linked by said selected link and a direction of travel from said incoming link to said outgoing link on said selected link.

22. The apparatus according to claim 14, said apparatus further caused to:

determine said at least one speed profile for said selected link of said travel network at least partially based on speeds represented by a plurality of probe data points of one or more probe data sets of a plurality of probe data sets.

23. The apparatus according to claim 14, said apparatus further caused to:

provide or generate speed map data representing an association of map data and a plurality of speed profiles for links of said travel network, said plurality of speed profiles comprising at least one smoothed speed profile obtained as a result of said smoothing.

24. The apparatus according to claim 14, said apparatus further caused to:

determine speed information for at least one vehicle;

provide said speed information to said at least one vehicle.

25. The apparatus according to claim 24, wherein said at least one vehicle is, at least in part, an autonomous vehicle, a highly-assisted-driving vehicle, a vehicle with predictive cruise control, or a combination thereof.

26. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein said apparatus is part of:

an embedded navigation device of a vehicle.

27. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium including one or more sequences of one or more instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause an apparatus to at least perform:

obtaining or holding available at least one speed profile for at least one selected link of a travel network, wherein said at least one speed profile represents a plurality of speeds for a plurality of subsequent segments of said selected link;

smoothing said at least one speed profile for said at least one selected link in a first smoothing step by;

determining whether said at least one speed profile represents one or more speeds that are associated with an acceleration above a predetermined acceleration threshold or a deceleration below a predetermined deceleration threshold;

for each speed that is determined to be associated with an acceleration above said acceleration threshold or a deceleration below said deceleration threshold, determining a respective adapted speed for replacing said respective speed at least partially based on speeds for one or more adjacent segments of said respective segment; and

causing at least partial control of a vehicle according to the at least one speed profile after smoothing.