Apparatus for displaying travel path

• US 5,016,007 A
• Filed: 11/29/1988
• Issued: 05/14/1991
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/1985
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Nakamura, Yukinobu, Iihoshi, Akira
• Primary Examiner(s): Orsino, Joseph A.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Swarthout, Brent A.
• Application Number:
  US07/277,417
• Time in Patent Office: 896 Days
• Field of Search: 340/988, 340/989, 340/990, 340/994, 340/995, 364/449, 364/444, 364/443, 364/424, 364/460, 353/12, 358/103, 73/178 R, 342/58, 342/119
• US Class Current: 340/995.22
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/30 Map- or contour-matching
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 29/106 using electronic means

Abstract

An apparatus for displaying a travel path of a running body, such as a vehicle in which a constantly changing location of the running body is successively computed and the current location of said running body is displayed successively, in accordance with the data thus computed, on a display screen having a map previously displayed thereon, which comprises means for dividing patterns of roads on said map and the path of travel of the running body into line segments to effect pattern recognition according to the polygonal approximation and means for producing a display of the travel path in accordance with the line segments of the road to which the matching of the pattern recognition has been attained.

Claims

1. An apparatus for displaying a travel path of a moving body in which locations of the moving body for every unit of travel distance on X-Y coordinates imposed on a road map are successively decided by computer processing, on the basis of outputs of a distance sensor for detecting a travel distance of the moving body and a direction sensor for detecting a direction of said travel, by means of a signal processing device and current locations of the moving body are renewably displayed on a display screen on which line segments of roads on the road map have been previously displayed, on the basis of data of the locations as decided above, comprising:

means for effecting polygonal approximation of the travel path of the moving body by line segments of said travel path, said travel path being obtained by storing the data of the locations of the moving body as decided by the above-mentioned computer processing according to a process previously programmed in said signal processing device;

selecting means for selecting proposed line segments of a road approximating the line segments of said travel path from the above-mentioned line segments of the roads on the road map in which data concerning the locations on the X-Y coordinates of the respective line segments of said travel path which have been previously approximated by polygonal approximation are stored in a memory, said selecting means including a comparing means for comparing characteristic amounts concerning positional relation between (1) the line segment of the travel path decided by the computer processing and (2) the line segment of the road to determine if the amounts fall within an allowable range;

means for effecting matching of a first pattern of the proposed line segments of the road on the road map as selected and a second pattern of the line segments of said travel path including comparing said first and second patterns and selecting a first pattern that is similar to the second pattern; and

means for making the travel path coincide with said selected first pattern of the proposed line segments of the road on the road map to which the matching of the pattern has been effected.

2. An apparatus for displaying a travel path of a moving body according to claim 1, wherein the means for effecting matching of the pattern of the selected proposed line segments of the road and the pattern of the line segments of the travel path comprises (1) a pattern recognitions technique of a relaxation method and (2) a continuous pattern matching effected on the basis of interconnection between a line segment to which the matching has been previously attained and a line segment which is under processing.

3. An apparatus for displaying a travel path of a moving body according to claim 1 in which the characteristic amount is a difference in length between each line segment of the travel path and each line segment of the road.

4. An apparatus for displaying a travel path of a moving body according to claim 1 in which the characteristic amount is a difference in gradient between each line segment of the travel path and each line segment of the road.

5. An apparatus for displaying a travel path of a moving body according to claim 1 in which the characteristic amount is a difference between a starting point and an ending point of the respective line segments of the travel path and the road.

6. An apparatus for displaying a travel path of a moving body in which locations of the moving body for every unit travel distances on X-Y coordinates imposed on a road map are successively decided by computer processing, on the basis of outputs of a distance sensor for detecting a travel distance of the moving body and a direction sensor for detecting a direction of said travel, by means of a signal processing device and a current location of the moving body is renewably displayed on a display screen, on which line segments of roads on the road map have been previously displayed, on the basis of the locations as decided above, comprising:

means for effecting polygonal approximation of the travel path of the moving body by line segments, said travel path being obtained by storing the data of the locations of the moving body as decided by the above-mentioned computer processing according to a process previously programmed in said signal processing device;

selecting means for selecting proposed line segments of a road approximating the line segments of said travel path from the above-mentioned line segments of the roads on the road map in which data concerning the locations on the X-Y coordinates of the respective line segments of said travel path which have been previously approximated by polygonal approximation are stored in a memory, said selecting means including a comparing means for comparing characteristic amounts concerning positional relation between (1) the line segment of the travel path decided by the computer processing and (2) the line segment of the road to determine if the amounts fall within a predetermined allowable range;

means for deciding upon a proposed line segment on a virtual road, which does not correspond to a road on the road map, but which has interconnections with the proposed line segment of a road previously selected and the line segment of a road to be selected by the succeeding processing;

means for effecting matching of a pattern of the line segments of said travel path to a pattern of the line segments of the roads on the road map or of the virtual road; and

means for making the travel path coincide with the proposed line segments of the road on the road map or of the virtual road to which the matching has been effected.

7. An apparatus for displaying a travel path of a moving body according to claim 6, wherein the means for effecting matching of the pattern of the selected proposed line segments of the road to the pattern of the line segments of the travel path comprises (1) a pattern recognitions technique of a relaxation method and (2) a continuous pattern matching effected on the basis of interconnection between a line segment to which the matching has been previously attained and a line segment which is under processing.

8. An apparatus for displaying a travel path of moving body according to claim 6 in which the characteristic amount is a difference in length between each line segment of the travel path and each line segment of the road.

9. An apparatus for displaying a travel path of a moving body according to claim 6 in which the characteristic amount is a difference in gradient between each line segment of the travel path and each line segment of the road.

10. An apparatus for displaying a travel path of a moving body according to claim 6 in which the characteristic amount is a distance between a starting point and an ending point of the respective line segments of the travel path and the road.

11. An apparatus for displaying a travel path of a moving body in which locations of the moving body on X-Y coordinates on a road map are successively decided by computer processing, on the basis of outputs of a distance sensor for detecting a travel distance of the moving body and a direction sensor for detecting a direction of said travel, by means of a signal processing device and a current location of the moving body is renewably displayed on a display screen, on which a road map has been previously displayed, on the basis of data of the locations as decided above, comprising:

means for dividing into line segments the travel path of the moving body obtained by storing the data of the locations of the moving body as decided by the above-mentioned computer processing according to a process previously programmed in said signal processing device and for obtaining data concerning position of the respective line segments on the X-Y coordinates on the road map;

means for effecting matching of a pattern of the line segments of a road on the road map to a pattern of line segments of the travel path; and

means for making the travel path coincide with the pattern of the line segments of the road on the road map to which the pattern matching has been effected.

12. An apparatus for displaying a travel path of a moving body according to claim 11, wherein the data concerning the positions on the X-Y coordinates of the respective line segments of the travel path of the moving body and the road on the road map are data of starting positions and terminating positions of the respective line segments.

13. An apparatus for displaying a travel path of a moving body according to claim 11, wherein the respective line segments of the road on the road map have connections with each other.

14. An method for displaying a travel path of a moving body in which locations of the moving body on X-Y coordinates on a road map are successively decided by computer processing, on the basis of outputs of a distance sensor for detecting a travel distance of the moving body and a direction sensor for detecting a direction of said travel, by means of a signal processing device and a current location of the moving body is renewably displayed on a display screen, on which a road map has been previously displayed, on the basis of data of the locations as decided above, comprising the steps of:

dividing into line segments the travel path of the moving body obtained by storing the data of the locations of the moving body as decided by the above-mentioned computer processing according to a process previously programmed in said signal processing device and for obtaining data concerning position of the respective line segments on the X-Y coordinates on the road map;

effecting matching of a pattern of the line segments of a road on the road map to a pattern of line segments of the travel path; and

making the travel path coincide with the pattern of the line segments of the road on the road map to which the pattern matching has been effected.