METHOD FOR THE AUTOMATIC, COMPUTER-ASSISTED DETERMINATION OF A ROUTE TRAVELABLE BY MOTOR VEHICLES

• US 20080004797A1
• Filed: 06/13/2007
• Published: 01/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Navigon AG (Garmin Limited)
• Original Assignee: Navigon AG (Garmin Limited)
• Inventors: Katzer, Jochen
• Granted Patent: US 8,224,562 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/201
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3461 Preferred or disfavoured areas, e.g. dangerous zones, toll or emission zones, intersections, manoeuvre types, segments such as motorways, toll roads, ferries

Abstract

A method for the automatic, computer-assisted determination of a route travelable by motor vehicles from a starting point to a destination point based on digitalized map data, wherein a computer acquires a starting point and destination point, and determines the route based on possible road segments, is expanded in such a way that the automatically generated routes have a high recreational value. To this end, it is proposed that the computer determining the route preferably incorporate those road segments into the route that exhibit a high number of curves.

Claims

1. A method for the automatic, computer-assisted determination of route travelable by motor vehicles from a starting point to a destination point based on digitalized map data, wherein a computer acquires a starting point and destination point, and determines the route based on possible road segments, characterized in that

the computer determining the route preferably incorporates those road segments into the route that exhibit a high number of curves.

2. The method according to claim 1,

characterized in that

the digital map data are prepared at the outset in such a way that road segments having a high number of curves are marked, and the commuter preferably includes road segments thusly marked into the route during route determination.

3. The method according to claim 2,

characterized in that

the road segments having a high number of curves are determined as follows:

a) Road segments having more than two points (starting and end point) in a vector representation are automatically selected;

b) A computer takes the road segments selected in this way and determines the circles traversing the adjacent points and their radii;

c) A possible transverse acceleration is computed from an automatically determined average velocity possible for these road segments, and this value is defined as a measure of “

curviness”

for the segment;

d) The value for “

curviness”

determined in this way is automatically compared with a preset minimum value, and the road segment is designated as curvy when the minimum value is reached or exceeded.

4. The method according to claim 1,

characterized in that,

when determining the route, the computer takes into account both the overall distance or overall travel time for the route resulting form the various road segments, and a preferred application or road segments with a high number of curves, where a weighting is prescribed, based on which the computer integrates those road segments with a high number of curves into the route, even if the road segment is longer or take more time to travel.

5. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that

the starting point is determined by means of a satellite-assisted position acquisition system, in particular a GPS.

6. A navigation system, in particular for a satellite-assisted navigation,

characterized in that

it is set up for determining the route based on a method according to one of the preceding claims, in particular by means of software that implements this method.