VEHICLE POSITIONING DEVICE

• US 20100169013A1
• Filed: 05/15/2007
• Published: 07/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• 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: Nakamura, Motohiro, Suzuki, Hidenobu, Nakamura, Masaki
• Application Number:
  US12/066,774
• Publication Number:
  US 20100169013A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/213
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/30 Map- or contour-matching
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/485 whereby the further system is an optical system or imaging system
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/50 whereby the position solution is constrained to lie upon a particular curve or surface, e.g. for locomotives on railway tracks
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0969 having a display in the form of a map
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 29/106 using electronic means

Abstract

Setting a planimetric feature having a high frequency of appearance as a planimetric feature to be recognized necessary for an own-vehicle position correction by referring to arrangement patterns of planimetric features having a high frequency of appearance for each of a plurality of types of road in response to a target object for an assist control, for example, a characteristic planimetric feature in an area where the own-vehicle will travel hereafter from among planimetric features on a road of which information is stored in a map database. Then, recognizing the set planimetric feature, and correcting an own-vehicle position from one based on a GPS and a travel path in accordance with a recognition result thereof.

Claims

1. An own-vehicle position measuring apparatus comprising:

planimetric feature recognizing means for recognizing a planimetric feature on a road that is necessary for correcting an own-vehicle position; and

position correcting means for correcting the own-vehicle position detected according to a predetermined method based on a recognition result by said planimetric feature recognizing means,

the own-vehicle position measuring apparatus further comprising recognizing planimetric feature setting means for setting a planimetric feature characteristic in an area where the own-vehicle will travel hereafter from among planimetric features on the road of which information is stored in a database,

wherein said planimetric feature recognizing means recognizes said planimetric feature set by said recognizing planimetric feature setting means.

2. The own-vehicle position measuring apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said recognizing planimetric feature setting means sets a planimetric feature, which is estimated to appear in the area where the own-vehicle will travel hereafter by referring to a predetermined arrangement pattern of the planimetric feature according to a kind of a road on which the own-vehicle will travel hereafter, as said planimetric feature to be recognized by said planimetric feature recognizing means.

3. The own-vehicle position measuring apparatus as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein said recognizing planimetric feature setting means sets a planimetric feature of a kind in which a characteristic thereof tends to appear in the area where the own-vehicle will travel hereafter as said planimetric feature to be recognized by said planimetric feature recognizing means.

4. The own-vehicle position measuring apparatus as claimed in one of claims 1 to 3, wherein said recognizing planimetric feature setting means sets a planimetric feature of a kind in which a road-surface sign is hardly scraped in the area where the own-vehicle will travel hereafter as said planimetric feature to be recognized by said planimetric feature recognizing means.

5. The own-vehicle position measuring apparatus as claimed in one of claims 1 to 4, wherein said recognizing planimetric feature setting means sets a planimetric feature having a distance from a planimetric feature positioned ahead or behind longer than a predetermined distance in the area where the own-vehicle will travel hereafter as said planimetric feature to be recognized by said planimetric feature recognizing means.

6. The own-vehicle position measuring apparatus as claimed in one of claims 1 to 5, wherein said planimetric feature recognizing means recognizes a planimetric feature on the road based on an image taken by image-taking means for taking images around a vehicle.

7. The own-vehicle position measuring apparatus as claimed in one of claims 1 to 6, wherein said predetermined method is a method of detecting an own-vehicle position by using a GPS or a travel path of the own-vehicle.