Route planning system

• US 6,611,754 B2
• Filed: 03/09/2001
• Issued: 08/26/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens VDO Automotive AG (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Klein, Bernhard
• Primary Examiner(s): Beaulieu, Yonel
• Application Number:
  US09/802,388
• Publication Number:
  US 20010025221A1
• Time in Patent Office: 900 Days
• Field of Search: 701/201, 701/202, 701/204, 701/207, 701/209, 701/25, 340/988, 342/357.01, 342/357.13
• US Class Current: 701/209
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096827 where the route is computed onboard
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096838 where the user preferences are taken into account or the user selects one route out of a plurality
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096888 where input information is obtained using learning systems, e.g. history databases
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096894 where input is assisted by the navigation device, i.e. the user does not type the complete name of the destination, e.g. using zip codes, telephone numbers, progressively selecting from initial letters

Abstract

A route planning system is provided with various interlinked facilities, including a user I/O facility, a route planning facility, a position determination facility, and a destination table facility. Under control of a set of start and/or destination requests from a user person a route plan to be traveled is generated. In particular, the system further includes a driving habit assessment facility for assessing a particular user person'"'"'s driving habits as additional input data for the route planning facility. On the basis of averaging the user person'"'"'s driving habits the route generation is influenced in the time domain and/or in the spatial domain.

Claims

1. A route planning system comprising:

various interlinked facilities, including a user I/O facility, a route planning facility, a position determination facility, and a destination table facility, for under control of a set of start and/or destination requests from a user person generating a route plan to be traveled;

a driving habit assessment facility for assessing a particular user person'"'"'s driving habits as including both static and temporal data with respect said driving as additional input data for said route planning facility for on the basis of averaging said user person'"'"'s driving habits selectively co-controlling said generating; and

wherein the route plan includes a set of spatial location indications pertaining to said route plan and one or more temporal indications each regarding a particular instant in time associated to an actual or expected presence of said user person at a location given by a particular one of said spatial location indications.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1 characterized in that said driving habits foremostly comprise actually measured traveling speeds on various routes and/or route categories.

3. A system as claimed in claim 1, characterized by recognizer means for recognizing a particular user person'"'"'s identity for selecting among stored driving habits associated to various different user persons.

5. A method as claimed in claim 3, characterized by furthermore a user person'"'"'s identity being recognized as additional selection input for selecting past assessed driving habits for a plurality of user persons.

6. A method as claimed in claim 3, characterized in that said assessing is used as a dynamic input with a short averaging interval for an actual route being planned.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein said assessing considers various external circumstances or situations as influencing said driving habits as well as regarding said planning activity for codetermining said route planning.

4. A method for operating a route planning system, said method comprising:

requesting a user person to enter a set of start and/or destination requests;

generating a route plan to be traveled through using various interlinked facilities, including a user I/O facility, a route planning facility, a position determination facility, and a destination table facility;

assessing a particular user person'"'"'s driving habits as additional input data for said route planning facility as including both static and temporal data with respect to said driving for subsequently on the basis of averaging said user person'"'"'s driving habits selectively co-controlling said generating; and

wherein the route plan includes a set of spatial location indications pertaining to said route plan and one or more temporal indications each regarding a particular instant in time associated to an actual or expected presence of said user person at a location given by a particular one of said spatial location indications.

8. The method of claim 4 wherein assessing driving habits includes measured traveling speeds on various particular routes as additional input data for said route planning facility.