MOBILE OBJECT POSITIONING DEVICE AND NAVIGATION APPARATUS

• US 20120109517A1
• Filed: 10/19/2011
• Published: 05/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: WATANABE, Yuusuke
• Granted Patent: US 8,442,760 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/431
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/28 with correlation of data from several navigational instruments
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/30 Map- or contour-matching
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/34 Power consumption
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/49 whereby the further system is an inertial position system, e.g. loosely-coupled

Abstract

A GPS receiver is used to receive a signal from GPS satellites, and a current vehicle position is detected based on the received signal. A control unit estimates the current vehicle position based on a travel speed of a vehicle from a vehicle speed sensor and a travel direction of the vehicle from a direction sensor. After correcting the estimated current vehicle position based on the current vehicle position from the GPS receiver, a power supply to the GPS receiver is turned off, and thereafter an error of the estimated current vehicle position is calculated based on an error accumulated for a certain time period regarding the speed and the direction. When the error of the estimated current vehicle position exceeds an error tolerance, the power supply for the GPS receiver is restarted to correct the estimated current vehicle position.

Claims

1. A mobile object positioning device comprising:

a GNSS receiver installed on a mobile object for receiving a signal transmitted from a GNSS satellite and for detecting a current position of the mobile object based on the received signal;

a speed detector for detecting a travel speed of the mobile object;

a direction detector for detecting a travel direction of the mobile object;

a position estimation unit for estimating a current position of the mobile object based on the travel speed of the mobile object detected by the speed detector and travel direction of the mobile object detected by the direction detector;

an error calculation unit for calculating an error of the estimated current position of the mobile object based on a time-wise accumulation of at least one of the error of the travel speed of the mobile object and the error of travel direction of the mobile object;

a control unit for repeating (i) turning off a power supply for the GNSS receiver after correcting the estimated current position of the mobile object estimated by the position estimation unit based on the current position of the mobile object detected by the GNSS receiver, (ii) determining whether the error of the estimated current position of the mobile object, calculation of which is started at a time of turning off of the GNSS receiver, is within a predetermined error tolerance, and (iii) turning on the power supply for the GNSS receiver to correct the estimated current position of the mobile object from the position estimation unit based on the detected current position from the GNSS receiver.

2. The mobile object positioning device of claim 1, wherein the GNSS receiver includes:

a reception antenna for an electric wave from the GNSS satellite;

a front end unit for converting the electric wave received by the reception antenna to an output signal of a frequency that is suitable for signal processing and for outputting the output signal;

a base-band unit for performing signal processing for the output signal from the front end unit and for outputting the processed signal as data;

a positioning unit for performing a positioning process based on the data output from the base-band unit;

a first clock signal generation unit for generating a front end clock signal for operating the front end unit;

a second clock signal generation unit for generating a real-time clock signal for reducing a standby electric current of the positioning unit and for reducing a positioning time of the positioning unit; and

a third clock signal generation unit for generating a standard clock signal that has a higher frequency than the real-time clock signal for operating the positioning unit, and

wherein when the power supply for the GNSS receiver is turned off, the control unit turns off the power supply for the front end unit, the base-band unit, the first clock signal generation unit to stop the front end clock signal, and the second clock signal generation unit to stop the real-time clock signal.

3. A vehicle navigation apparatus comprising:

a mobile object positioning device installed in a vehicle that serves as a mobile object including

a GNSS receiver installed on the mobile object for receiving a signal transmitted from a GNSS satellite and for detecting a current position of the mobile object based on the received signal;

a speed detector for detecting a travel speed of the mobile object;

a direction detector for detecting a travel direction of the mobile object;

a position estimation unit for estimating a current position of the mobile object based on the travel speed of the mobile object detected by the speed detector and travel direction of the mobile object detected by the direction detector;

an error calculation unit for calculating an error of the estimated current position of the mobile object based on a time-wise accumulation of at least one of the error of the travel speed of the mobile object and the error of travel direction of the mobile object;

a control unit for repeating (i) turning off a power supply for the GNSS receiver after correcting the estimated current position of the mobile object estimated by the position estimation unit based on the current position of the mobile object detected by the GNSS receiver, (ii) determining whether the error of the estimated current position of the mobile object, calculation of which is started at a time of turning off of the GNSS receiver, is within a predetermined error tolerance, and (iii) turning on the power supply for the GNSS receiver to correct the estimated current position of the mobile object from the position estimation unit based on the detected current position from the GNSS receiver,

a display unit for displaying an image;

a destination setting unit for setting a destination of a travel of the vehicle according to a user operation;

a map data storage for storing map data of a map that is used for a route guidance of the vehicle;

a route guidance unit for performing the route guidance toward the destination set by the destination setting unit based on the current position of the vehicle from the mobile object positioning device and the map data;

a display control unit for displaying the current position of the vehicle during the route guidance toward the destination performed by the route guidance unit, as an image of the map data on the display unit after reading the data from the map data storage, in a manner that superposes the current position of the vehicle on the map.

4. The vehicle navigation apparatus of claim 3, wherein the GNSS receiver includes:

a reception antenna for an electric wave from the GNSS satellite;

a front end unit for converting the electric wave received by the reception antenna to an output signal of a frequency that is suitable for signal processing and for outputting the output signal;

a base-band unit for performing signal processing for the output signal from the front end unit and for outputting the processed signal as data;

a positioning unit for performing a positioning process based on the data output from the base-band unit;

a first clock signal generation unit for generating a front end clock signal for operating the front end unit;

a second clock signal generation unit for generating a real-time clock signal for reducing a standby electric current of the positioning unit and for reducing a positioning time of the positioning unit; and

a third clock signal generation unit for generating a standard clock signal that has a higher frequency than the real-time clock signal for operating the positioning unit, and

wherein when the power supply for the GNSS receiver is turned off, the control unit turns off the power supply for the front end unit, the base-band unit, the first clock signal generation unit to stop the front end clock signal, and the second clock signal generation unit to stop the real-time clock signal.

5. The vehicle navigation apparatus of claim 3, wherein

the display control unit displays the current position of the vehicle from the mobile object positioning device on the map of the map data stored in the map data storage in a map matching manner, and

the control unit of the mobile object positioning device has a plurality of predetermined error tolerances that the error of the estimated current position of the vehicle must be within,

wherein after calculating an alternative position probability indicating the probability that the after-correction current position of the vehicle exists on multiple roads, the control unit selects an error tolerance that requires minimal error in the estimate current position of the vehicle when the alternative position probability is high indicating that the estimated current position of the vehicle is close to multiple roads that are in close proximity to each other.