CURRENT POSITION INFORMATION REPORTING SYSTEM, INFORMATION CENTER APPARATUS, AND METHOD THEREOF

• US 20090088977A1
• Filed: 09/25/2008
• Published: 04/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: NAKAMURA, Yasuhisa, OHSUGI, Masayuki, HASHIMOTO, Takuya, NAKATA, Daisuke, YASUHARA, Shinji, UEDA, Maki, WATANABE, Tsuneyuki, KONDO, Yasunori
• Granted Patent: US 8,155,883 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/217
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/005 including pedestrian guidance indicator

Abstract

An information center apparatus has a communication section, a motion information calculating section, a communication delay time calculating section, a communication cycle waiting time calculating section, an error estimating section and a correcting section. The communication section acquires reported current position information of a first moving body apparatus and reports a corrected current position information to a second moving body apparatus. The error estimating section estimate an error in the reported current position information with respect to an actual current position of the first moving body apparatus based on motion information calculated by the motion information calculating section, communication delay times calculated by the communication delay time calculating section, and a communication cycle waiting time calculated by the communication cycle waiting time calculating section. The correcting section corrects the reported current position information using the error estimated by the error estimating section to obtain the corrected current position information.

Claims

1. A current position information reporting system comprising:

a first moving body apparatus possessed by a first moving body;

a second moving body apparatus possessed by a second moving body that is different from the first moving body; and

an information center apparatus configured to acquire reported current position information of the first moving body apparatus via a first wireless communication with the first moving body apparatus and to report a corrected current position information via a second wireless communication to the second moving body apparatus,

the information center apparatus including

a motion information calculating section configured to calculate motion information of the first moving body apparatus,

a communication delay time calculating section configured to calculate a first communication delay time that occurs during the first wireless communication between the first moving body apparatus and the information center apparatus and a second communication delay time that occurs during the second wireless communication between the information center apparatus and the second moving body apparatus,

a communication cycle waiting time calculating section configured to calculate a communication cycle waiting time associated with transmitting the reported current position information from the first moving body apparatus to the information center apparatus,

an error estimating section configured to estimate an error in the reported current position information with respect to an actual current position of the first moving body apparatus based on the motion information calculated by the motion information calculating section, the first and second communication delay times calculated by the communication delay time calculating section, and the communication cycle waiting time calculated by the communication cycle waiting time calculating section, and

a correcting section configured to correct the reported current position information acquired from the first moving body apparatus via the first wireless communication using the error estimated by the error estimating section to obtain the corrected current position information.

2. The current position information reporting system as recited in claim 1, wherein

the motion information calculating section is further configured to calculate a momentary motion vector based on at least two points where the first moving body apparatus existed, calculate a motion vector by calculating an average value of a plurality of momentary motion vectors spanning from a past point in time to a current point in time, and set the motion vector as the motion information.

3. The current position information reporting system as recited in claim 2, wherein

the motion information calculating section is further configured to identify a change in a motion state of the first moving body apparatus based on a change amount of a momentary motion vector and calculate the motion vector by calculating an average value of the momentary motion vectors spanning from a past point in time to a current point in time after weighting the momentary motion vectors in accordance with the identified change in motion state.

4. The current position information reporting system as recited in claim 1, wherein

the communication delay time calculating section is further configured to calculate a communication delay time that occurs during a wireless communication between the first moving body apparatus and the information center based on a difference between a transmission time at which current position information is transmitted from the first moving body apparatus and a time at which the information center receives the current position information.

5. The current position information reporting system as recited in claim 1, wherein

the communication delay time calculating section is further configured to calculate a communication delay time that occurs during a wireless communication between the information center and the second moving body apparatus based on a difference between a transmission time at which current position information is transmitted to the second moving body apparatus and a time at which the second moving body apparatus receives the current position information.

6. The current position information reporting system as recited in claim 1, wherein

the communication cycle waiting time calculating section is configured to calculate the communication cycle waiting time based on a difference between a current time and a time when current position information transmitted from the first moving body apparatus was received.

7. An information center apparatus comprising:

a communication section configured to acquire reported current position information of a first moving body apparatus by a first wireless communication with the first moving body apparatus and report a corrected current position information to a second moving body apparatus that is different from the first moving body apparatus;

a motion information calculating section configured to calculate motion information of the first moving body apparatus;

a communication delay time calculating section configured to calculate a first communication delay time that occurs during the first wireless communication between the first moving body apparatus and the information center apparatus and a second communication delay time that occurs during the second wireless communication between the information center apparatus and the second moving body apparatus;

a communication cycle waiting time calculating section configured to calculate a communication cycle waiting time associated with transmitting the reported current position information from the first moving body apparatus to the information center apparatus;

an error estimating section configured to estimate an error in the reported current position information with respect to an actual current position of the first moving body apparatus based on the motion information calculated by the motion information calculating section, the first and second communication delay times calculated by the communication delay time calculating section, and the communication cycle waiting time calculated by the communication cycle waiting time calculating section; and

a correcting section configured to correct the reported current position information acquired from the first moving body apparatus via the first wireless communication using the error estimated by the error estimating section to obtain the corrected current position information.

8. A current position information reporting method comprising:

calculating a first communication delay time that occurs during a first wireless communication between a first moving body apparatus and an information center apparatus;

calculating a second communication delay time that occurs during a second wireless communication between the information center apparatus and a second moving body apparatus that is different from the first moving body;

calculating a communication cycle waiting time associated with transmitting a reported current position information from the first moving body apparatus to the information center apparatus;

estimating an error in the reported current position information with respect to an actual current position of the first moving body apparatus based on the motion information of the first moving body apparatus, the communication delay times, and the communication cycle waiting time; and

correcting the reported current position information acquired via the first wireless communication with the first moving body apparatus; and

reporting corrected current position information from the information center apparatus to the second moving body apparatus.

9. A current position information reporting system comprising:

first moving body means for performing a first wireless communication;

second moving body means for performing a second communication; and

information center means for acquiring reported current position information of the first moving body means, and for reporting a corrected current position information to the second moving body means, in which information center means includes performing functions of

calculating motion information of the first moving body means;

calculating a first communication delay time that occurs during the first wireless communication between the first moving body means and the information center means,

calculating a second communication delay time that occurs during the second wireless communication between the information center means and the second moving body means;

calculating a communication cycle waiting time associated with transmitting the reported current position information from the first moving body means to the information center means;

estimating an error in the reported current position information with respect to an actual current position of the first moving body means based on the motion information, the first and second communication delay times, and the communication cycle waiting time; and

correcting the reported current position information acquired from the first moving body means via the first wireless communication using the error estimated to obtain the corrected current position information.