Route planning system

• US 20010025221A1
• Filed: 03/09/2001
• Published: 09/27/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Mannesmann VDO AG (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Klein, Bernhard
• Granted Patent: US 6,611,754 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/209
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096827 where the route is computed onboard
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096838 where the user preferences are taken into account or the user selects one route out of a plurality
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096888 where input information is obtained using learning systems, e.g. history databases
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096894 where input is assisted by the navigation device, i.e. the user does not type the complete name of the destination, e.g. using zip codes, telephone numbers, progressively selecting from initial letters

Abstract

A route planning system is provided with various interlinked facilities, including a user I/O facility, a route planning facility, a position determination facility, and a destination table facility. Under control of a set of start and/or destination requests from a user person a route plan to be traveled generated. In particular, the system further comprises a driving habit assessment facility for assessing a particular user person'"'"'s driving habits as additional input data for the route planning facility. On the basis of averaging the user person'"'"'s driving habits the generating is influenced in the time domain and/or in the spatial domain.

Claims

1. A route planning system provided with various interlinked facilities, including a user I/O facility, a route planning facility, a position determination facility, and a destination table facility, for under control of a set of start and/or destination requests from a user person generating a route plan to be traveled, characterized in that said system furthermore comprises a driving habit assessment facility for assessing a particular user person'"'"'s driving habits as additional input data for said route planning facility for on the basis of averaging said user person'"'"'s driving habits selectively co-controlling said generating.

2. A system as claimed in

claim 1

characterized in that said driving habits foremostly comprise actually measured traveling speeds on various routes and/or route categories.

3. A system as claimed in

claim 2

characterized in that said generating may be influenced in the spatial domain and/or in the temporal domain through said averaging of a user person'"'"'s driving habits.

4. A system as claimed in

claim 1

, characterized by recognizer means for recognizing a particular user person'"'"'s identity for selecting among stored driving habits associated to various different user persons.

5. A method for operating a route planning system as claimed in

claim 1

, said method comprising the steps of requesting a user person to enter a set of start and/or destination requests and generating a route plan to be traveled through using various interlinked facilities, including a user I/O facility, a route planning facility, a position determination facility, and a destination table facility, said method being characterized by assessing a particular user person'"'"'s driving habits as additional input data for said route planning facility for subsequently on the basis of averaging said user person'"'"'s driving habits selectively co-controlling said generating.

6. A method as claimed in

claim 4

, characterized by furthermore a user person'"'"'s identity being recognized as additional selection input for selecting past assessed driving habits for a plurality of user persons.

7. A method as claimed in

claim 4

, characterized in that said assessing is used as a dynamic input with a short averaging interval for an actual route being planned.