Data Mining in a Digital Map Database to Identify Decreasing Radius of Curvature Along Roads and Enabling Precautionary Actions in a Vehicle

• US 20180283879A1
• Filed: 06/04/2018
• Published: 10/04/2018
• 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
• Granted Patent: US 10,627,240 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• 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 non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon a database, wherein the database includes data that represents a road network in a geographic region and wherein the database is operable as a component of a system that provides warnings to an operator of a vehicle when approaching potentially hazardous locations, 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 it has been automatically determined that at least one geographic feature satisfies a first condition at the location and at least one geographic feature in a vicinity of the location satisfies a second condition such that the system need only perform a single evaluation to determine whether the precautionary data exists in the database to determine whether a warning is to be provided to the operator of the vehicle at or upon approach to the potentially hazardous location.

2. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein at least a portion of said data indicates that the precautionary action location has been validated by a human analyst, subsequent to the automatic determination of the satisfaction of the first and second conditions, as being associated with a location which is actually hazardous based on an inspection thereof.

3. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the warning is provided ahead of the potentially hazardous location.

4. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the warning is provided at the potentially hazardous location.

5. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the warning is provided by a system of the vehicle.

6. A computer implemented method of providing a precautionary action, the method comprising:

evaluating, by a computer processor, multiple data items already collected and present in a database that contains data items that represent features of a road network in a geographic area;

determining, by the computer processor, whether, when combined, the features represented by the multiple data items describe a condition of interest; and

upon determining that the features represented by the multiple data items when combined describe a condition of interest, facilitating, by the computer processor, a warning to an operator of a vehicle upon approach to a location of the features.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 6 wherein the condition of interest comprises a hazardous condition.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 6 wherein the warning is provided to the operator by a vehicle system coupled with the computer processor.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 6 wherein the warning is provided to the operator by a precautionary action application executed by the computer processor.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 6 further comprising validating that a location where the multiple data items when combined describe a condition of interest is actually characterized by the condition of interest based on an inspection thereof;

11. The computer implemented method of claim 6 further comprising:

storing, temporarily prior to the vehicle'"'"'s approach to the location where the combination of the multiple data items describe the condition of interest, precautionary action data in the database in association with the location; and

validating that the location where the combination of the multiple data items describe the condition of interest is actually characterized by the condition of interest based on an inspection thereof by a human analyst and if validated, storing the precautionary action data permanently in the database, and if not validated, removing the temporarily stored precautionary action data; and

where in the facilitating of the warning further comprises facilitating the warning based on the presence of the precautionary action data in association with the location.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 6 further comprising:

identifying, by the computer processor prior to the determining, the condition of interest as a hazardous condition which may impair control of the vehicle, and based thereon, further identifying features which may be represented by data in the database, which if combined would describe the condition on interest.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 6 wherein the warning is operative to cause the operator to maneuver the vehicle.

14. 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.

15. The database of claim 14 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.

16. The database of claim 14 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.

17. The database of claim 14 wherein the database is configured prior to operation of a vehicle.

18. The data base of claim 14 wherein the combination of conditions 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

19. The database of claim 14 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.

20. 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.

21. The method of claim 20 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.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein the providing of the precautionary action further comprises notifying the operator of the vehicle to modify the operation thereof.

23. A database configured prior to operation of a vehicle system to provide a precautionary action, the database stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium and operable as a component in a system that provides a precautionary action for vehicles approaching a potentially hazardous location along a road of a road network, wherein the database includes data that represents the road network in a geographic region, wherein the database comprises:

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

data associated with a location along a road segment of the road network, the data being operative to cause the system to provide a precautionary action for vehicles approaching the location along a road segment of the road network, the data having been associated with the location when it has been determined that the associated location is associated with a type of hazardous condition which may impair control of a vehicle where a combination of two conditions are satisfied together at a same location along the road segment of the road network each condition comprising existence of a feature at a location represented by data in the database, that an attribute of the feature exceeds a threshold or a combination thereof, 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; and

wherein the system, upon determining that data representations of a part of the road of the road network stored in the database includes data operative to cause the system to provide a precautionary action, provides a precautionary action for a vehicle approaching the location associated therewith.