Road sinuosity to enhance speed approximation in road navigation

• US 9,759,576 B2
• Filed: 12/14/2015
• Issued: 09/12/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kaplan, Philippe, Moll, Georges-Henri, Nodet, Xavier, Oudot, Olivier
• Primary Examiner(s): Ortiz, Angela
• Assistant Examiner(s): BERNS, MICHAEL ANDREW
• Application Number:
  US14/967,808
• Publication Number:
  US 20170167889A1
• Time in Patent Office: 638 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3676 Overview of the route on the road map
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3697 Output of additional, non-guidance related information, e.g. low fuel level G01C21/3679 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/39 the satellite radio beacon positioning system transmitting time-stamped messages, e.g. GPS [Global Positioning System], GLONASS [Global Orbiting Navigation Satellite System] or GALILEO

Abstract

A navigation system which includes a central processing unit; a nonvolatile storage for storing digitized map data; a road sinuosity S(R) of a route including a plurality of digitized road segments calculated from a starting point to a destination point to be traveled by a user by summing the rotation angle of each of the road segments divided by the distance of each of the road segments; a module to determine an estimated travel time of the route; a module to determine a corrected travel time using the road sinuosity S(R); and a display to display the corrected travel time.

Claims

1. A method for the determination of a time to travel a route using a navigation system comprising:

determining, at a navigation system comprising a central processing unit, a global positioning system receiver and a display, a road sinuosity of the route from a starting point provided by the global positioning system receiver to a destination point based on digitized map data comprising;

providing a digitized route from the digitized map data which comprises data coordinates at a plurality of discrete data points along the route;

determining a distance between each data point from the data coordinates of each data point to result in a plurality of distances;

summing the distances between all of the data points;

determining the value of rotation angles between route segments;

calculating the road sinuosity S(R) by summing the absolute value of all of the rotation angles and dividing by the sum of the distances between all of the data points;

determining by the central processing unit a time multiplier by a tabulated function in which the time multiplier is determined for various road sinuosities;

obtaining by the central processing unit an estimated travel time of the route from the navigation system; and

calculating by the central processing unit a corrected travel time by multiplying the estimated travel time by the time multiplier to result in a corrected travel time, and

displaying on the display the corrected travel time to a viewer of the display.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the value of the rotation angles is according to the following equation:

3. The method of claim 2 wherein calculating the road sinuosity S(R) is according to the following equation:

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising downloading the digitized map data from a source having the digitized map data.

5. A computer program product for the determination of a time to travel a route using a navigation system, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computing device to cause the computing device to perform a method comprising:

determining, at a navigation system comprising a central processing unit, a global positioning system receiver and a display, a road sinuosity of the route from a starting point provided by the global positioning system receiver to a destination point based on digitized map data comprising;

obtaining a digitized route which comprises data coordinates at a plurality of discrete data points along the route;

determining a distance between each data point from the data coordinates of each data point to result in a plurality of distances;

summing the distances between all of the data points;

determining the value of rotation angles between route segments;

calculating the road sinuosity S(R) by summing the absolute value of all of the rotation angles and dividing by the sum of the distances between all of the data points;

experimentally determining by the central processing unit a time multiplier by a tabulated function in which the time multiplier is determined for various road sinuosities;

obtaining by the central processing unit an estimated travel time of the route from the navigation system;

calculating by the central processing unit a corrected travel time by multiplying the estimated travel time by the time multiplier to result in a corrected travel time; and

displaying on the display the corrected travel time to a viewer of the display.

6. The computer program product of claim 5 wherein determining the value of the rotation angles is according to the following equation:

7. The computer program product of claim 6 wherein calculating the road sinuosity S(R) is according to the following equation:

8. The computer program product of claim 5 further comprising downloading the digitized map data from a source having the digitized map data.

9. A navigation system comprising:

a central processing unit;

a global positioning system receiver locating the navigation system;

a nonvolatile storage for storing digitized map data;

road sinuosity of a route to be traveled by a user calculated from a starting point provided by the global positioning system receiver to a destination point comprising;

a digitized route for the route to be traveled by the user obtained from the stored digitized map data, the digitized route comprising data coordinates at a plurality of discrete data points along the route;

a distance between each data point determined from the data coordinates of each data point to result in a plurality of distances;

the distances between all of the data points summed;

a value of rotation angles between route segments;

road sinuosity S(R) calculated by summing the absolute value of all of the rotation angles and dividing by the sum of the distances between all of the data points

the central processing unit programmed to determine an estimated travel time of the route;

the central processing unit programmed to determine a corrected travel time using the road sinuosity S(R); and

a display that displays the corrected travel time to a viewer of the display.

10. The navigation system of claim 9 wherein the central processing unit programmed to determine a corrected travel time comprises:

a time multiplier for each road sinuosity determined by a tabulated function in which the time multiplier is determined for various road sinuosities, the time multiplier being stored in the nonvolatile storage; and

the corrected travel time calculated by the time multiplier for the road sinuosity retrieved from the nonvolatile storage multiplied by the estimated travel time to result in a corrected travel time.

11. The navigation system of claim 9 wherein the value of the rotation angles is determined according to the following equation:

12. The navigation system of claim 11 wherein the road sinuosity S(R) is calculated according to the following equation:

13. The navigation system of claim 9 further comprising a communication capability.

14. The navigation system of claim 13 further comprising to download the digitized map data by the communication capability from a source having the digitized map data.

15. The navigation system of claim 13 further comprising the central processing unit programming the road sinuosity in cooperation with the communication capability to download the digitized map data from a source having the digitized map data.

16. The navigation system of claim 13 further comprising the central processing unit programming the corrected travel time in cooperation with the communication capability to download the digitized map data from a source having the digitized map data.