Data mining in a digital map database to identify decreasing radius of curvature along roads and enabling precautionary actions in a vehicle

• US 10,627,240 B2
• Filed: 06/04/2018
• Issued: 04/21/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HERE Global B.V. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: HERE Global B.V. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Denaro, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Hung D
• Application Number:
  US15/996,656
• Publication Number:
  US 20180283879A1
• Time in Patent Office: 687 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/072 Curvature of the road
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 40/076 Slope angle of the road
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• 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: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases

Abstract

Disclosed is a feature for a vehicle that enables taking precautionary actions in response to conditions on the road network around or ahead of the vehicle, in particular, a curved portion of a road where the curvature increases between adjacent curved sections. A database that represents the road network is used to determine locations where curvature between adjacent curved sections increases. Then, precautionary action data is added to the database to indicate a location at which a precautionary action is to be taken about the location where curvature increases. A precautionary action system installed in a vehicle uses this database, or a database derived therefrom, in combination with a positioning system to determine when the vehicle is at a location that corresponds to the location of a precautionary action. When the vehicle is at such a location, a precautionary action is taken by a vehicle system as the vehicle is approaching a location where the curvature increases.

Claims

1. A database stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, wherein the database includes data that represents a road network in a geographic region, wherein the database comprises:

data records that represent road segments that make up the road network; and

data that indicates precautionary action locations, wherein a precautionary action location is associated with a location at which a combination of conditions exists, wherein the data that indicates precautionary action locations was formed by a process wherein data records that represent road segments, and which include data indicative of characteristics thereof, are selected from the database to determine those road segments whose characteristics satisfy the combination of conditions; and

wherein the characteristics comprise incline of the road segment and whether the road segment intersects with another road segment, wherein selection is based on the combination of an intersection being located at the bottom of a hill.

2. The database of claim 1 wherein characteristics comprise curvature and degree thereof of the road segment wherein the selection is based the combination of a curved road segment having a lesser degree of curvature than an adjacent curved road section in one direction of travel.

3. The database of claim 1 wherein the database is configured prior to operation of a vehicle.

4. The database of claim 1 wherein the combination of conditions further comprises a combination of two conditions which are satisfied together at a same location along the road segment of the road network, wherein the satisfaction of the two conditions is determined by evaluating other data, representative of geographic features located at the location, in the database to determine if a first of the two conditions is satisfied thereby at the location and, upon determining satisfaction of the first condition, evaluating data in the database that represent geographic features located at or around the location of the first condition to determine if a second of the two conditions is satisfied.

5. The database of claim 1 wherein at least one condition of the combination of conditions is undetectable by at least one sensor provided on a vehicle prior to approach of the associated location thereby.

6. A method for providing a precautionary action to an operator of a vehicle when the vehicle approaches a potentially hazardous location along a road of a road network, wherein the component comprises an augmented version of a database that represents the road network in a geographic region, the method comprising:

determining a type of hazardous condition to identify which may impair control of the vehicle, and, based thereon, identify a first condition and a second condition, the satisfaction thereof at a same location is indicative of the hazardous condition, wherein the first condition comprises existence of a first feature at a location represented in the database, that an attribute of the first feature exceeds a threshold or a combination thereof, and the second condition comprises existence of a second feature at or around the location, that an attribute of the second feature exceeds a threshold, or a combination thereof;

evaluating, prior to operation of the vehicle along a road of a road network, data contained in a first version of the database to identify locations along roads of the road network where the determined hazardous condition might exist, wherein the hazardous condition comprises a combination of the first condition and the second condition which are satisfied together at a same location along a road of the road network, wherein the step of evaluating further comprises;

evaluating a first type of data that represents geographic features of an identified location along the road of the road network to determine if the first condition is satisfied thereby, and upon determining that the first type of data that represent geographic features satisfies the first condition, evaluating a second type of data that represents geographic features which are geographically located around the identified location along the road of the road network at which the first condition is satisfied to determine if the second condition is satisfied at or around the identified location at which the first condition was satisfied; and

upon determining satisfaction of the second condition at or around the identified location at which the first condition was satisfied, adding precautionary action data to the first version of the database in association with the identified location to form the augmented version of database to indicate that a precautionary action is to be taken by the vehicle system when the vehicle is approaching the identified location along the road of the road network; and

wherein, upon determining that data representations of a part of the road of the road network stored in the augmented database includes precautionary action data, providing a precautionary action to the vehicle operator upon approach to the location associated therewith.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the first condition comprises a first feature existing at the location or an attribute thereof exceeding a threshold and the second condition comprising a second feature existing at the location or an attribute thereof exceeding a threshold.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the providing of the precautionary action further comprises notifying the operator of the vehicle to modify the operation thereof.