Map information correction device and map information correction system

Abstract

The present invention aims to enable judging a discrepancy on a map using an external recognition sensor of a traveling vehicle and self vehicle position estimation information based on existing map information and transmitting to a map server. The present invention is a map information correction device for correcting map information, characterized by comprising: a map holding section (102) that holds map information; a position estimation section (104) that estimates position information of a vehicle; at least one of a lane change information acquisition section (106) that acquires lane change information of whether or not a vehicle has changed a lane and a division line information acquisition section (105) that acquires category information of a division line of a road on which a vehicle is traveling; and a discrepancy judgment section (103) that generates correction information for correcting map information based on at least one of the position information and the lane change information and the category information of the division line.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to a map information correction device and a map information correction system. Background Technology

[0002] Patent Document 1 states the following: "When map data is corrected on the map database side based on the map data correction information sent, the map data correction information sent is limited to voice data. Moreover, even for the same map data correction information at the same location, there may be differences in subjective opinions, viewpoints, and operational actions due to different users. Therefore, the personnel on the map database site side who correct the map data have to go to the site to investigate and confirm the actual situation, which results in a lot of working hours required." Existing technical documents Patent documents

[0003] Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-341182 Summary of the Invention The problem the invention aims to solve

[0004] The purpose of this invention is to provide a map information correction device and a map information correction system. The map information correction device can use the external identification sensors of the driving vehicle and its own vehicle position inference information to determine the difference between the existing map information and the map information and send it to the map server. The map information correction system corrects the map information according to the difference in the map information. Technical means to solve the problem

[0005] The map information correction apparatus of the present invention, which solves the above-mentioned problems, is characterized by comprising: a map holding unit that holds map information including lane information of roads; a position inference unit that infers the position information of the vehicle; at least one of a lane change information acquisition unit and a lane marking information acquisition unit, wherein the lane change information acquisition unit acquires lane change information indicating whether the vehicle has changed lanes, and the lane marking information acquisition unit acquires the category information of the lane markings of the road on which the vehicle is traveling; and a generation unit that generates correction information for correcting the map information based on at least one of the position information, the lane change information, and the category information of the lane markings. The effects of the invention

[0006] According to the present invention, map corrections can be implemented with less man-hours, thereby making it easier to use highly reliable map information.

[0007] Further features of the present invention will become clear from the description and accompanying drawings. Furthermore, issues, configurations, and effects other than those described above will be clarified through the following description of embodiments. Attached Figure Description

[0008] Figure 1 This is a diagram showing the configuration of an in-vehicle terminal. Figure 2 This is a diagram showing the structure of a map server. Figure 3 This is a flowchart for the difference judgment section. Figure 4 This is a flowchart for the difference judgment section. Figure 5 This is a flowchart for the difference judgment section. Figure 6 This is a flowchart for the difference judgment section. Figure 7a An example of correcting information for a map. Figure 7b An example of correcting information for a map. Figure 7c shows an example of map correction information. Figure 8a An example of correcting information for a map. Figure 8b An example of correcting information for a map. Figure 8c An example of correcting information for a map. Figure 9 This is a flowchart for the map correction department. Figure 10 This is a flowchart for the map correction department. Figure 11 This is a flowchart for the map correction department. Figure 12a Here is an example of the corrected map information. Figure 12b Here is an example of the corrected map information. Figure 13a Here is an example of the corrected map information. Figure 13b Here is an example of the corrected map information. Figure 14a Here is an example of the corrected map information. Figure 14b Here is an example of the corrected map information. Detailed Implementation

[0009] Next, embodiments of the map information correction apparatus and map information correction system of the present invention will be described. In this embodiment, the configuration of the map information correction apparatus and map information correction system of the present invention applied to a system for transmitting and receiving map information between an in-vehicle terminal and a map server will be described.

[0010] The map information correction system consists of multiple vehicle-mounted terminals 100 installed in multiple vehicles and a map server 200 that transmits and receives map information with these vehicle-mounted terminals 100. Communication between the multiple vehicle-mounted terminals 100 and the map server 200 is conducted via wireless communication lines.

[0011] Figure 1 The structure of the vehicle-mounted terminal 100 is shown. The vehicle-mounted terminal 100 comprises hardware such as an ECU (Electronic Control Unit) with storage devices including a CPU (Central Processing Unit), ROM (Read Only Memory), RAM (Random Access Memory), and a hard disk, and software programs stored in the storage devices that can be executed by the CPU. The vehicle-mounted terminal 100 implements the communication unit 101, map holding unit 102, difference judgment unit 103, position inference unit 104, lane marking information acquisition unit 105, and lane change information acquisition unit 106 internally through the execution of the software program. The vehicle-mounted terminal 100 corresponds to the map information correction device in the claims of this invention.

[0012] The communication unit 101 communicates with the map server 200 and has the functions of acquiring correction information for updating the map information held in the map holding unit 102 and sending the correction information from the difference judgment unit 103 to the map server 200. The communication unit 101 corresponds to the vehicle-side transmitting unit and vehicle-side receiving unit in the claims of this invention. The map holding unit 102 holds map information such as road maps for vehicle travel and has the function of providing the map information it holds to other functions of the vehicle terminal 100. The map information held by the map holding unit 102 is, for example, a map used in an autonomous driving device, and includes information such as bifurcation points and road IDs by means of nodes and connecting lines. The position inference unit 104 infers the road on which its own vehicle is traveling based on the map information held by the map holding unit 102, vehicle status information such as vehicle tire speed and steering angle (not shown), and IMU and GNSS position information held by the position inference unit 104.

[0013] An external identification unit 107 is connected to the vehicle-mounted terminal 100. The external identification unit 107 may be installed inside a measuring device such as a camera or radar mounted in the vehicle. The external identification unit 107 can identify the external conditions, such as road conditions, around the vehicle based on the measured information. Alternatively, the external identification unit 107 may be installed in the vehicle-mounted terminal 100 instead of a measuring device.

[0014] The lane change information acquisition unit 106 determines whether the vehicle has changed lanes based on the recognition result of the external recognition unit 107. For example, when the camera detects that the vehicle has crossed the left or right lane markings, it can be determined that a lane change has been performed. In addition, the vehicle's turn signal operation information and steering angle operation information can also be added to the lane change determination factors.

[0015] The lane marking information acquisition unit 105 acquires information about the types of lane markings on the left and right sides of the vehicle based on the recognition results from the external recognition unit 107. This is predicated on displaying lane markings on the left and right sides of the vehicle's driving lane. Lane markings can be categorized by shape (solid lines, dotted lines, long dashed lines, etc.) and color (white lines, yellow lines, etc.), and their meaning varies depending on the legal system of each country. In this embodiment, the example is a case where the road is left-hand traffic, the lane markings indicating the left end of the road and the right center line are white and solid, and the lane markings between the left end of the road and the right center line are white and dashed.

[0016] The difference determination unit 103 generates correction information for correcting map information. The difference determination unit 103 corresponds to the generation unit in the claims of this invention. The difference determination unit 103 is equipped with multiple difference determination processes to determine whether there is a lane change before or after the fork, whether there is a change in line type, and the starting point of the lane for the fork. The difference determination unit 103 determines whether there is an error in the map information of the map holding unit 102 based on the vehicle's position (i.e., the vehicle's driving road) inferred by the position inference unit 104, the type of zoning line obtained by the zoning line information acquisition unit 105, the lane change information obtained by the lane change information acquisition unit 106, and the map information of the map holding unit 102. If there is an error, the error-related information is sent from the communication unit 101 to the map server 200 as correction information. The map server 200 communicates with the vehicle terminal 100 via the communication unit 101, and sends and receives map information and error-related information with the vehicle terminal 100. The map server 200 sends and receives information with multiple vehicle terminals 100 respectively.

[0017] Figure 3 An example of the action flow diagram for the difference judgment unit 103 is shown. The actions in this flowchart are executed periodically. When the difference judgment begins, multiple sending judgments are performed: sending judgment 1 (S301), sending judgment 2 (S302), and sending judgment 3 (S303). Subsequently, if any of the sending judgments 1 to 3 determines "to send" ("yes" in S304), the information is sent to the map server 200 (S305). If none of the sending judgments 1 to 3 determine "to send" ("no" in S304), no sending is performed. Furthermore, this embodiment uses the case of performing three sending judgments as an example, but it is sufficient to have at least one.

[0018] Figure 4 A flowchart showing the generation and transmission of information related to determining the shape of the bifurcation is presented as an example of the logic for transmission decision 1 (S301).

[0019] In the decision 1, it is determined whether the current driving state of the vehicle is driving at a fork in the road (S401). The fork in the road is the location where a branch road branches off from the main road begins, and is defined by the length of the fork in the road in the forward and backward directions based on the branch start position.

[0020] If, in S401, it is determined that the vehicle is not currently traveling at a fork (S401 is "No"), then it is determined whether the current vehicle position is within a specified distance X meters (m) from the fork (S402). If the distance from the vehicle to the fork is within the specified distance X meters (m), the road ID information of the road before the fork (near the fork) is saved (S403). Then, the current driving state of the vehicle is set to traveling at a fork (S404). Next, it is determined that no information will be sent (S405), and the determination process ends. If it is determined that the distance from the vehicle to the fork is greater than the specified distance X meters (m) (S402 is "No"), then it is determined that no information will be sent (S405), and the determination process ends.

[0021] If it is determined that the vehicle's current driving state is at a fork in the road ("Yes" in S401), then it is determined whether the vehicle's position on the road it is currently traveling on has passed the fork and moved more than a prescribed distance Y meters (m) away (S406). Then, if it is determined in S406 that the vehicle has not moved more than a prescribed distance Y meters (m) away ("No" in S406), that is, if the vehicle's position has passed the fork and is within a prescribed distance Y meters (m), then it is determined whether the vehicle has changed lanes at the fork (S407).

[0022] If the vehicle has not changed lanes (S407: "No"), determine that no information will be sent (S405) and end the determination process. If the vehicle has changed lanes (S407: "Yes"), save the lane change implementation information (S408), determine that no information will be sent (S405), and end the determination process. If the vehicle has traveled a specified distance Y meters (m) after passing the fork (S406), save the information after the fork (S409), set the current state to before the fork (S410), determine that information needs to be sent (S411), and end the determination process.

[0023] Figure 7a exhibit Figure 4 Here's an example of the information sent during the decision-making process. The sent information includes the road ID of the road before the fork (road ID before fork), the road ID of the road after the fork (road ID after fork), and a marker indicating the lane change status (lane change marker).

[0024] Figure 5 The flowchart showing the generation and transmission of lane information inconsistency information serves as an example of the logic for transmission determination 2 (S302). Figure 7b exhibit Figure 5 An example of information sent during the decision-making process.

[0025] In the sending determination 2, it is determined whether the road information of the currently traveling road contains a pattern representing the type of vehicle markings to the left and right of the currently identified vehicle (S501). If the marking type exists on the road, that is, if there is a matching pattern ("No" in S501), the marking type information before the inconsistency is saved (S502), and it is determined that no information will be sent (S503), ending the determination process. Here, an overwrite process is performed to use the information obtained during the previous program loop. On the other hand, if the marking type does not exist on the road, that is, if there is no matching pattern ("Yes" in S501), the marking type information and position information at the time of inconsistency are saved (S504), and it is determined that information will be sent (S505), ending the determination process. Here, when it is determined that the patterns are different, the marking type and position information are rewritten.

[0026] Figure 6 The flowchart shows the generation and transmission of lane addition location determination information, serving as an example of the logic for transmission determination 3 (S303).

[0027] In the sending determination 3, it is determined whether the information of the vehicle marking category of the left and right sides in the previous determination is a road end (S601). For example, in this embodiment, if the information of the vehicle marking category of the line on the left side of the driving lane in which the vehicle is driving is a solid white line, it is determined to be a road end ("Yes" in S601).

[0028] Next, it is determined whether a lane change has not been performed (S602). For example, if it is determined from an image captured by a camera that the vehicle is crossing lane markings, a lane change is determined to have been performed. Then, it is determined whether the vehicle lane marking category information is outside the road edge (S603). Then, it is determined from the map information stored in the map holding unit 102 whether there is no lane addition information in the map information of the currently traveling road (S604). If all the determinations in S601 to S604 are "yes", it is determined that information should be sent (S605). If even one of the determinations in S601 to S604 is "no", it is determined that information should not be sent (S606).

[0029] Figure 7c shows Figure 6 The flowchart shows an example of the information sent. The transmitted information includes details about the left and right boundary lines before and after the changes. Additionally, it stores the detected road IDs and latitude / longitude information.

[0030] Next, in Figure 2 The diagram shows the composition of map server 200. The map server 200 comprises hardware and software programs, and includes a communication unit 201, a map correction information holding unit 202, a map correction unit 203, and a map storage unit 204 as its internal functions. The communication unit 201 communicates with multiple vehicle-mounted terminals 100, for example, via a wireless communication network, sending map information from the map storage unit 204 to the vehicle-mounted terminals 100 and receiving map correction information from the vehicle-mounted terminals 100. The communication unit 201 corresponds to the server-side receiving unit and server-side sending unit as described in the claims of this invention. The map correction information holding unit 202 holds the map correction information sent from the vehicle-mounted terminals 100 and outputs it to the map correction unit 203. The map correction information holding unit 202 collects map correction information sent from the vehicle-mounted terminals 100 of multiple vehicles respectively. The map correction unit 203 uses the correction information from the map correction information holding unit 202 and the map information from the map storage unit 204 to correct the map information and saves it to the map storage unit 204. The map storage unit 204 stores map information and sends map information to the map correction unit 203 or to the vehicle terminal 100 via the communication unit 201.

[0031] The flowchart of map correction operation of map correction unit 203 is shown in the figure. Figure 9, Figure 10 , Figure 11 . Figure 9 It demonstrates the determination of the correction for the bifurcation shape of the road.

[0032] In road correction determination, extract Figure 8a The map includes map correction information before and after the evaluated bifurcation (S901). Next, a determination process is performed to classify the road IDs before and after the bifurcation as roads connected by a main road (S902), determining whether the connection between the road IDs is a main road or a bifurcation. Then, it is determined whether the shape is consistent with the shape of roads connected by a main road based on the map information (S903). Afterwards, it is determined whether the evaluation data is consistent with the map shape (S904). If consistent, no correction is made and the process ends; if inconsistent, the map is corrected (S905).

[0033] Figure 8a Display the obtained map correction information. Figure 12a Showing the map before the revision. Figure 12b Display the image of the revised map. Figure 8a The information shown in cases 1 to 3 is information extracted from map correction information sent by multiple vehicles, stored in the map correction information holding unit 202, indicating the location of the same location. According to... Figure 8a Regarding the map correction information, in case 1, the lane change marker is absent, so it is determined that road ID: AAAA and road ID: BBBB are connected as a main road. Furthermore, in case 2, the lane change marker is right, so it is determined that road ID: AAAA and road ID: CCCC are not connected as a main road. For example, in this case, the map information stored in the map storage unit 204 is like... Figure 12a In the case where road ID: BBBB is a branch lane from road ID: AAAA, like Figure 12b The information should be corrected as shown, so that Road ID: BBBB is the main road and connected to Road ID: AAAA.

[0034] Figure 10 It demonstrates the corrected determination of the location where a road fork lane occurs. First, the inconsistency location of the lane category is extracted (S1001), and it is determined whether the extracted inconsistency location has changed from the road end category to the road center category (S1002). Here, for example, it is determined whether the category of the lane marking has changed from a solid line representing the road end to a dashed line representing the road center. Next, map information is read from the map storage unit 204, and it is determined whether there is a fork in the road ahead of the vehicle's position (S1003). If both S1002 and S1003 are determined to be "yes", the map information is corrected (S1004); if at least one is determined to be "no", the map information is not corrected. Through this process, for example, if the location of the road fork in the lane stored in the map storage unit 204 is actually closer to the front, the road shape can be corrected to the correct road shape.

[0035] Figure 8b Display the obtained map correction information. Figure 13a This shows a map before the location of the road fork lanes was corrected. Figure 13b This image shows a map after corrections to the locations of road forks. According to... Figure 8b Lane category information and Figure 13a Based on map information, it was determined that the lane addition for the road branch started from the location of road ID: DDDD. Therefore, the location of the road branch lane was adjusted from... Figure 13a The position shown is corrected to Figure 13b The location shown is for the road ID: DDDD.

[0036] Figure 11 It demonstrates the determination of the correction of lane category information. When the determination begins, the location of the lane category inconsistency is extracted (S1101). Subsequently, the map information is corrected (S1102). As a result, the road shape information can be corrected to the correct road shape information.

[0037] Figure 8c Display the obtained map correction information. Figure 14a Showing the map before the revision. Figure 14b Showing the revised map. According to Figure 8c Changes in lane category information and Figure 14a Based on map information, the vehicle markings at the location of road ID: AAAA were determined to be solid lines, thus resembling... Figure 14b That would correct the map information.

[0038] According to the present invention, map accuracy can be improved using simple information such as vehicle location information, lane change information, or lane marking category information. Furthermore, even in cases where road connections remain unchanged but the road configuration or vehicle lane marking categories change, the above method can be used to identify and correct discrepancies between the real world and map information, thereby providing highly reliable map information. Moreover, corrections can be made even if the generated map information itself contains errors.

[0039] In this embodiment, the example described is that the difference between the information obtained by the lane marking information acquisition unit 105 and the lane change information acquisition unit 106 in the vehicle terminal 100 is used to determine the difference with the map information in the difference determination unit 103. However, it is also possible to determine the difference using only the information from either party. Furthermore, in this embodiment, a correction is performed as long as there is even one piece of difference information. However, the threshold for performing the correction may be changed to take into account the possibility of abnormalities in external sensors, and to perform the correction when the difference determination result reaches a certain amount.

[0040] The embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, but the present invention is not limited to the described embodiments, and various design changes can be made within the scope of the spirit of the invention as set forth in the claims. For example, the described embodiments are detailed descriptions made to illustrate the present invention in an easily understandable manner, and are not necessarily limited to having all the described configurations. Furthermore, a part of the configuration of one embodiment can be replaced with the configuration of another embodiment, and the configuration of one embodiment can be added to the configuration of another embodiment. Moreover, other configurations can be added, deleted, or replaced in a part of the configuration of each embodiment. Symbol Explanation

[0041] 100…Vehicle terminal, 102…Map holding unit, 103…Difference judgment unit (generation unit), 104…Location inference unit, 105…Boundary line information acquisition unit, 106…Lane change information acquisition unit, 107…External identification unit, 200…Map server, 202…Map correction information holding unit, 203…Map correction unit, 204…Map storage unit.

Claims

1. A vehicle-mounted map information correction device, which corrects map information, characterized in that, have: A map-keeping unit that retains the map information; The location inference unit infers the vehicle's location information; The lane change information acquisition unit acquires lane change information, which indicates whether the vehicle has changed lanes. The zoning information acquisition unit acquires the category information of the zoning lines on the road on which the vehicle is traveling; as well as The generation unit generates correction information for correcting the map information based on the location information, the lane change information, and the category information of the zoning lines.

2. The map information correction device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The generation unit determines whether there is a difference between the lane change information or the category information of the zoning line and the map information. If there is a difference, it considers the map information to be incorrect and generates the correction information.

3. The map information correction device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The correction information includes whether a lane change was performed when driving at a fork in the road.

4. The map information correction device according to claim 1, characterized in that, If the category of the zoning line is different from the category of the zoning line of the currently driving road stored in the map information, the generation unit generates the correction information.

5. The map information correction device according to claim 1, characterized in that, When the vehicle is in motion and no lane change is performed, and the type of the lane marking changes from lane marking indicating the end of the road to lane marking indicating the center of the road, the generation unit generates the correction information.

6. The map information correction device according to claim 1, characterized in that, If the previous determination indicated that the road's zoning line category represented the road end and no lane changes were implemented, and the current determination indicates that the road's zoning line category represents something other than the road end and there is no information about lane additions on the road, then the generation unit generates the correction information.

7. A map information correction system, comprising a map information correction device mounted in a vehicle for correcting map information and a map server for transmitting and receiving map information with the map information correction device, characterized in that, The map information correction device includes: A map-keeping unit that retains the map information; A location inference unit, which infers the location information of the vehicle; The lane change information acquisition unit acquires lane change information, which indicates whether the vehicle has changed lanes. The zoning information acquisition unit acquires the category information of the zoning lines on the road on which the vehicle is traveling; The generation unit generates correction information for correcting the map information based on the location information, the lane change information, and the category information of the zoning lines. as well as The vehicle-mounted transmitter sends the correction information to the map server. The map server has the following features: The map storage unit stores the map information; The server-side receiving unit receives the correction information from the map information correction device; as well as A map correction unit that corrects the map information based on the correction information.

8. The map information correction system according to claim 7, characterized in that, The map server is equipped with a server-side sending unit that sends the map information corrected by the map correction unit to the map information correction device. The map information correction device includes a vehicle-side receiving unit that receives corrected map information from the map server, and updates the map information held in the map holding unit based on the corrected map information received by the vehicle-side receiving unit.

9. The map information correction system according to claim 7, characterized in that, The map server has a map correction information retention unit, which obtains and retains road information before and after the road bifurcation and information on the presence or absence of lane changes at the bifurcation from the map information correction device. If the vehicle does not change lanes while passing through the fork, the map correction unit determines that the road after passing through the fork is the main road and determines whether it is consistent with the map information stored in the map storage unit. If they are inconsistent, the map information stored in the map storage unit is corrected.

10. The map information correction system according to claim 7, characterized in that, The map information correction device is installed in multiple vehicles. The map correction information holding unit of the map server collects multiple correction information messages sent by the map information correction devices of the multiple vehicles, respectively. The map correction unit corrects the map information using correction information for the same location based on the multiple correction information collected in the map correction information holding unit.

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