Method for determining itinerary data

• US 6,216,088 B1
• Filed: 05/26/1999
• Issued: 04/10/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 11/27/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sirius XM Connected Vehicle Services Inc. (Liberty Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mannesmann AG (Vodafone Group PLC)
• Inventors: Albrecht, Uwe, Sievers, Christel, Schlottbom, Karlheinz, Schulz, Werner
• Primary Examiner(s): Gregory, Bernarr E.
• Application Number:
  US09/308,857
• Time in Patent Office: 685 Days
• Field of Search: 701/200, 701/207, 701/208-213, 701/117-119
• US Class Current: 701/209
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096811 where the route is computed offboard
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096827 where the route is computed onboard
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096844 where the complete route is dynamically recomputed based on new data

Abstract

A method for determing travel route data, especially within the framework of navigation of a vehicle, using a digital map which is kept in a central control station and in which static and dynamic parameters are stored by route section for the detected traffic routes, wherein the static parameters include at least structural features of the respective traffic route. The dynamic parameters include at least one conductance value and one load function of the respective section of the traffic route. The dynamic parameters are derived one time for the presetting of starting values from the structural features and, from that point, are continuously adapted to the real conditions of the respective sections of the traffic route with ensured availability of dynamic data independent from static parameters. The travel route data are determined on the basis of the relevant dynamic parameters.

Claims

1. A method for determining travel route data using a digital map which is kept in a central control station comprising the steps of:

measuring dynamic parameters for traffic routes;

storing static and the dynamic parameters in the digital map by route section for detected traffic routes, the static parameters including at least structural features of a respective traffic route, the dynamic parameters including at least one conductance value representing traffic flow and one load function representing capacity of a respective section of the traffic route;

deriving the dynamic parameters one time for presetting starting values from the structural features and, from that point, continuously adapting the dynamic parameters to real conditions of the respective sections of the traffic route with ensured availability of dynamic data independent from static parameters; and

determining the travel route data based on relevant ones of the dynamic parameters.

2. A method according to claim 1, including forming the guide value from an average speed of vehicles in the respective section of the traffic route, the load function describing a dependence of the conductance value on a quantity of vehicles on the respective route section.

3. A method according to claim 1, including describing the load function as an approximation function and assigning parameters of the approximation function to each route section.

4. A method according to claim 3, wherein the step of describing the load function as an approximation function includes describing the load function in polynomial representation.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of determining travel route data includes determining travel route data containing a route recommendation, and further including making a decision about the traffic routes along which every vehicle is guided to a destination at least primarily on the basis of the relevant dynamic parameters.

6. A method according to claim 5, further including determining alternate traffic routes for avoiding the respective traffic route and incorporating the alternate routes in an alternative parameter which is assigned to the respective traffic route in the digital map.

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein the alternative parameter includes at least the number of alternate traffic routes and their quality and length for forming a parameter list.

8. A method according to claim 6, including determining the alternative parameter at least for traffic routes whose traffic flow has repeatedly been subject to temporary restrictions.

9. A method according to claim 5, further including combining consecutive traffic routes with few branches to form traffic route complexes and taking the route complexes into account for navigation as one traffic route, and, depending on the traffic route and degree of branching of traffic flow at nodal points of successive traffic routes, assigning a complexity parameter to each of the successive traffic routes.

10. A method according to claim 9, further including evaluating alternative route suggestions during route planning based on the complexity parameter.

11. A method according to claim 10, wherein the step of evaluating alternate route suggestions includes evaluating based on the complexity parameter and additional criteria.

12. A method according to claim 11, wherein the additional criteria are travel time and travel distance.

13. A method according to claim 1, including using respective current dynamic parameters as the relevant dynamic parameters.

14. A method according to claim 1, further including scaling the dynamic parameters in predeterminable closed geographic areas.

15. A method according to claim 14, wherein the scaling step includes scaling based on standard presets from an empirical database in case of weather changes affecting traffic and events known beforehand.

16. A method according to claim 15, including predifferentiating the scaling according to at least one of:

day of week, time of day and weather.

17. A method according to claim 1, including adapting the dynamic parameters for purposes of a self-learning system, collecting current traffic data, checking compatibility of this data with the current dynamic parameters, and adapting the dynamic parameters where there are sufficiently large deviations.

18. A method according to claim 17, including gathering at least some of the traffic data by vehicles floating in the flow of traffic.

19. A method according to claim 18, wherein the step of gathering traffic data includes gathering up-to-date average speed in a route section.

20. A method according to claim 1, including one of deriving traffic prognoses on the basis of dynamic parameters for traffic route planning and prognosticating driving times for planned travel routes, and determining future guide values via the respective load function from load data which are one of extrapolated and taken from an empirical database.