NAVIGATION DEVICE HAVING DEAD RECKONING NAVIGATION FUNCTIONALITY AND METHOD THEREOF

• US 20140297177A1
• Filed: 07/05/2012
• Published: 10/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/05/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TomTom Navigation B.V (TomTom NV)
• Original Assignee: TomTom Navigation B.V (TomTom NV)
• Inventors: den Otter, Matthijs Willem
• Granted Patent: US 9,417,072 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/494
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/06 involving measuring of drift angle; involving correction for drift
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/12 executed aboard the object being navigated; Dead reckoning
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/166 Mechanical, construction or arrangement details of inertial navigation systems

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method of determining a heading of travel of a navigation device, comprising determining a reference heading for a roadway system and determining a current heading of navigation device travel, wherein the current heading is determined as an integer multiple of a predetermined lock angle in combination with the reference heading.

Claims

1. A navigation device, comprising:

a dead reckoning navigation (DRN) module arranged to determine a reference heading for a roadway system and to select a current heading of navigation device travel as an integer multiple of a predetermined lock angle in combination with the reference heading.

2. The navigation device of claim 1, wherein the reference heading is determined by the DRN module based on a direction of navigation device travel for a first distance.

3. The navigation device of claim 1, wherein the current heading of navigation device travel is selected in response to the DRN module determining that a change in heading over a second distance of travel is less than a threshold angle.

4. The navigation device of claim 1, wherein the reference heading is determined in response to the DRN module determining that a change in heading over the first distance is less than a threshold angle.

5. The navigation device of claim 1, wherein the current heading of navigation device travel is selected as the reference heading plus/minus the best matching integer multiple of the lock angle.

6. The navigation device of claim 1, wherein the lock angle is an integer division of 90°

.

7. The navigation device of claim 2, wherein the current heading of navigation device travel is not determined by the DRN module when the change in heading over the second distance of travel is greater than the threshold angle.

8. The navigation device of claim 1, wherein the DRN module is arranged to determine a current location of the navigation device based on the current heading and a distance travelled by the navigation device.

9. The navigation device of claim 1, wherein the DRN module is arranged to perform the method responsive to determining that a current location of the navigation device corresponds to a location having an internal roadway.

10. The navigation device of claim 9, wherein the location having the internal roadway is a parking structure.

11. A processing device implemented method of determining a heading of travel of a navigation device, comprising:

determining a reference heading for a roadway system; and

determining a current heading of navigation device travel, wherein the current heading is determined as an integer multiple of a predetermined lock angle in combination with the reference heading.

12. The method of claim 11, determining the reference heading based on a direction of navigation device travel for a first distance.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the current heading of navigation device travel is determined in response to a change in heading over a second distance of travel being less than a threshold angle.

14. The method of claim 11, comprising determining the reference heading in response to a change in heading over the first distance being less than a threshold angle.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein determining the current heading of navigation device (200) travel as the reference heading plus/minus the best matching integer multiple of the lock angle.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the lock angle is an integer division of 90°

.

17. The method of claim 11, comprising not determining the current heading of navigation device travel when the change in heading over the second distance of travel is greater than the threshold angle.

18. The method of claim 11, comprising determining a current location of the navigation device based on the current heading and a distance travelled by the navigation device.

19. The method of claim 11, comprising performing the method responsive to determining that a current location of the navigation device corresponds to a location having an internal roadway system.

21. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer software operable, when executed by a processor, to perform the method of claim 11.

20. (canceled)