Route search device and route search method

Abstract

To provide a route search device and a route search method that search for a guide route according to division line information and occupant characteristics.SOLUTION: A user terminal 23 as a route search device includes: an occupant characteristics information acquisition unit 83 for acquiring occupant characteristics information on characteristics of an occupant on a vehicle; a terminal management unit 85 for setting a travel link cost for a road, including a safe link cost for the road which is set on the basis of a result of image recognition on a division line on the road; and a route search unit 86 for searching for a route on the basis of the travel link cost set by the terminal management unit 85. The terminal management unit 85 controls a ratio that the safe link cost accounts for in the travel link cost on the basis of the occupant characteristics information.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a route search device and a route search method. [Background technology]

[0002] There is a route search device that detects road risk factors such as traffic signs, vehicles, people, fallen objects or accident vehicles on the road, road construction or potholes from objects in an image as road feature elements, and when searching for a route from a departure point to a destination, excludes roads with risk factors (Patent Document 1).

[0003] This technology allows drivers to choose routes that avoid risk factors, thereby preventing traffic accidents. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2018-185414 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] However, the road risk factors in Patent Document 1 vary in degree of danger, and may include low-risk risk factors that are not problematic depending on the driver's driving skills, etc. In such cases, avoiding all risk factors, including those with low risks, may result in problems such as excessively long travel times.

[0006] The present invention has been made in consideration of such problems, and its purpose is to provide a route search device and a route search method that search for a guide route based on information about lane markings and the characteristics of the occupants. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] A route search device according to one aspect of the present invention comprises an occupant characteristic information acquisition unit that acquires occupant characteristic information relating to the characteristics of vehicle occupants, a terminal management unit that sets road driving link costs, including road safety link costs that are set based on the results of image recognition of road dividing lines, and a route search unit that searches for routes based on the driving link costs set by the terminal management unit, and the terminal management unit controls the proportion of the safety link costs in the driving link costs based on the occupant characteristic information.

[0008] A route search method according to one aspect of the present invention is a route search method for searching for a route from a departure point of a vehicle to a destination, and includes an occupant characteristic information acquisition step for acquiring occupant characteristic information relating to the characteristics of the vehicle's occupants, a terminal management step for setting road driving link costs including road safety link costs that are set based on the recognition results of image recognition of road dividing lines, and a route search step for searching for a route based on the driving link costs set by the terminal management step, and the terminal management step controls the proportion of the safety link costs in the driving link costs based on the occupant characteristic information. [Effects of the Invention]

[0009] According to the present invention, a route can be searched for based on information about lane markings and the characteristics of the occupants. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0010] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the general configuration of a navigation system 1. As shown in FIG. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the server 12. As shown in FIG. [Figure 3] FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the user terminal 23. As shown in FIG. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the safe link cost setting process. [Figure 5] FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the safety route search process. [Figure 6]FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the user terminal 101. [Figure 7] FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the user terminal 121. As shown in FIG. [Figure 8] FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the server 141. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0011] [One embodiment] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the configuration of a navigation system 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0012] The vehicle 11 has a vehicle motion control device 21 and an on-board camera 22. The vehicle motion control device 21 recognizes lane markings from images of the vehicle's surroundings captured by the on-board camera 22, and performs lane keep assist control and lane departure alert control.

[0013] The vehicle 11 is equipped with a user terminal 23 as a route search device. The user terminal 23 performs navigation such as providing route guidance for the occupant of the vehicle by using information acquired by communicating with the server 12 via the network 13. The user terminal 23 may be an in-vehicle device or a portable device carried by the occupant.

[0014] (Server 12 configuration) 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the server 12. The server 12 includes a server communication unit 31, a server storage unit 32, and a server control unit 33.

[0015] The server communication unit 31 communicates with the user terminal 23 and vehicles, user terminals, cameras, etc. (not shown) via the network 13 .

[0016] The server storage unit 32 is an information recording device configured with a magnetic recording medium (e.g., a flexible disk, a magnetic tape, a hard disk drive), a magneto-optical recording medium (e.g., a magneto-optical disk), a semiconductor memory (e.g., an EPROM (Erasable PROM), a flash ROM, a RAM (Random Access Memory)), etc. The server storage unit 32 stores an OS (Operating System) for controlling the overall operation of the server 12, various programs, and server map information 41.

[0017] The server map information 41 is information on roads that vehicles can travel on, and is information consisting of, for example, link information and node information. Links are sections of various roads, and nodes are road connections such as intersections, branching points, and merging points. Each road connecting each node is a road link (also called a road section).

[0018] The link information for each road link will now be described. The link information for each road link includes, for example, the link length, road width, road name, road type, toll if it is a toll road, and road link identifier. The node information for each node includes, for example, coordinate information such as the latitude and longitude of each node, and information such as intersection names.

[0019] The link information for each road link includes a link cost for each road link that is set according to the link length, road width, road type, etc. The link cost for each road link includes a distance link cost according to the link length, a width link cost according to the road width, a toll link cost if the road type is a toll road, and a safety link cost according to the safety of the link. For example, the longer the link length, the higher the distance link cost is set.

[0020] The server control unit 33 is configured with an arithmetic circuit such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and a storage circuit such as a RAM. By reading and executing the information processing program stored in the server storage unit 32, the server control unit 33 functions as an image acquisition unit 51, a lane line recognition unit 52, a safety link cost calculation unit 53, and a server management unit 54, as shown in Fig. 2, and executes a safety link cost setting process described later.

[0021] The image acquisition unit 51 acquires road image information including road images supplied from devices connectable to the server 12 via the network 13. The road image information includes, for example, images captured by the on-board camera 22 of the vehicle 11, images captured by on-board cameras of other vehicles (not shown), and images captured by surveillance cameras, as well as information indicating the image capture locations and image capture dates and times.

[0022] The lane marking recognition unit 52 analyzes the road image included in the road image information and executes processing to recognize lane markings. The image analysis by the lane marking recognition unit 52 can utilize conventional image analysis technology, such as edge detection technology or image recognition technology using AI (Artificial Intelligence), to recognize objects and object types included in the road image.

[0023] The safety link cost calculation unit 53 calculates the safety link cost for each road link based on the recognition processing result by the lane marking recognition unit 52. The safety link cost is information related to the safety of the road link, and in this example, is a value indicating the state of the lane markings of the road link. Specifically, the safety link cost is set to a value of 0 when lane markings are recognized well over the entire road link, and a value of 1 when lane markings are not recognized at all over the road link, with the value falling between 0 and 1 depending on the recognized length and the accuracy of the recognition (hereinafter also referred to as the degree of blurring).

[0024] The server management unit 54 updates the information about facilities and roads stored in the server map information 41. The server management unit 54 sets the safety link cost calculated by the safety link cost calculation unit 53 in the server map information 41 for each road link.

[0025] (Configuration of user terminal 23) 3 is a block diagram showing an example configuration of the user terminal 23. The user terminal 23 includes a display unit 61, an input operation unit 62, a terminal position detection unit 63, a vehicle information input unit 64, a terminal communication unit 65, a terminal storage unit 66, and a terminal control unit 67.

[0026] The display unit 61 is, for example, a liquid crystal or organic EL (Electroluminescence) display device. The display unit 61 displays, for example, the search results supplied from the terminal control unit 67 together with the current position of the user terminal 23 detected by the terminal position detection unit 63.

[0027] The input operation unit 62 is, for example, a touch panel formed integrally with the display unit 61, and accepts input operations of various information from the user. The user interface may use known techniques such as a touch panel, buttons, or acquisition via communication.

[0028] The terminal position detection unit 63 detects the position of the user terminal 23 based on, for example, signals received from a GPS (Global Positioning System) satellite, which is an example of a satellite positioning system GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System).

[0029] The vehicle information input unit 64 acquires vehicle information through an in-vehicle network such as the vehicle's CAN (Controller Area Network). The vehicle information includes ignition switch on / off information, vehicle speed information, brake operation information, and usage history information for lane keep assist control and lane departure alert control.

[0030] The terminal communication unit 65 communicates with the server 12 via the network 13. A user vehicle ID (identification) is assigned to the user terminal 23, and when the user terminal 23 transmits information to the server 12, the user vehicle ID is also transmitted.

[0031] The terminal storage unit 66 is an information recording device configured with a magnetic recording medium (e.g., a flexible disk, a magnetic tape, a hard disk drive), a magneto-optical recording medium (e.g., a magneto-optical disk), a semiconductor memory (e.g., an EPROM, a flash ROM, a RAM), etc. The terminal storage unit 66 stores an OS and various programs for controlling the overall operation of the server 12, and terminal map information 71.

[0032] The terminal map information 71 is information about roads that vehicles can travel on, and is composed of, for example, link information and node information, similar to the server map information 41. At least the safety link cost of each road link included in the link information is supplied from the server 12.

[0033] The terminal control unit 67 is configured with an arithmetic circuit such as a CPU and a storage circuit such as a RAM. By reading and executing the information processing program stored in the terminal storage unit 66, the terminal control unit 67 functions as a current position information acquisition unit 81, a destination information acquisition unit 82, a terminal management unit 85, an occupant characteristic information acquisition unit 83, a safety degree determination unit 84, and a route search unit 86, as shown in Fig. 3, and executes a safety response search process described below.

[0034] The current location information acquisition unit 81 acquires current location information of the vehicle 11 using the terminal location detection unit 63. The current location information acquisition unit 81 may be configured to include the terminal location detection unit 63, or may be an input unit that acquires current location information output by the terminal location detection unit 63. The current location information may be a value expressed in latitude and longitude, and may include information such as an address and altitude information. The current location information acquisition unit 81 outputs the acquired current location information to the route search unit 86.

[0035] The destination information acquisition unit 82 acquires location information of the destination via, for example, the input operation unit 62. The destination information acquisition unit 82 may also acquire information searched for by facility name, address, etc., with reference to the terminal map information 71. The destination information may be a value expressed in latitude and longitude, and may include information such as address and altitude information. The destination information acquisition unit 82 outputs the acquired destination information to the route search unit 86.

[0036] The occupant characteristic information acquisition unit 83 acquires occupant characteristic information, which is characteristic information of the vehicle occupant, from the vehicle information input unit 64. The occupant characteristic information is, for example, a usage history of at least one of lane keep assist control and lane departure alert control. The occupant characteristic information is also information on the results of an evaluation of the driving skill of the vehicle occupant, derived from the frequency of sudden braking and sudden acceleration, etc. The occupant characteristic information may be information obtained by inputting information, such as how often the vehicle occupant drives the vehicle, the number of days since obtaining a driver's license, and the vehicle occupant's self-reported level of vehicle driving proficiency, into an input unit (not shown). The occupant characteristic information may be information indicating whether the vehicle occupant is unfamiliar with driving a vehicle.

[0037] The safety level determination unit 84 determines the degree of safety of vehicle driving based on the occupant characteristic information acquired by the occupant characteristic information acquisition unit 83. Here, the degree of safety of vehicle driving refers to the degree of safety estimated when the driver drives the vehicle. For example, if the usage history of at least one of the lane keep assist control and the lane departure alert control included in the occupant characteristic information indicates that these controls have been used at a predetermined frequency or more, the degree of safety of vehicle driving is determined to be low. If the usage history of at least one of the lane keep assist control and the lane departure alert control included in the occupant characteristic information indicates that the vehicle occupant often relies on these driving assistance systems to drive the vehicle, it can be assumed that the degree of safety of vehicle driving in environments where the lane keep assist control or the lane departure alert control cannot be used is relatively low. Furthermore, if the evaluation result using a known driving skill evaluation technology based on the frequency of sudden braking and sudden acceleration is below a predetermined score, the degree of safety of vehicle driving is determined to be low.

[0038] The terminal management unit 85 updates the information about facilities and roads stored in the terminal map information 71. In addition, the terminal management unit 85 sets a link cost for each road link according to the link length, road width, road type, etc., and sets the link cost in the terminal map information 71.

[0039] The terminal management unit 85 acquires the safety link cost from the server 12 and sets it in the terminal map information 71.

[0040] The terminal management unit 85 also assigns weights to link costs. For example, the user can select, via the input operation unit 62, a distance-priority search mode that prioritizes searching for routes with a short distance to the destination, or a time-priority search mode that prioritizes searching for routes with a short arrival time to the destination, i.e., a short travel time. The terminal management unit 85 assigns weights to each of the above-mentioned types of link costs according to the selected mode. Hereinafter, the link costs weighted according to the selected mode will be referred to as travel link costs, as appropriate.

[0041] Furthermore, the terminal management unit 85 controls the proportion of the safety link cost in the traveling link cost based on the occupant characteristic information acquired by the occupant characteristic information acquisition unit 83. Specifically, when the safety degree determination unit 84 determines that the degree of safety of vehicle driving is low, the terminal management unit 85 increases the weight of the safety link cost in the traveling link cost by a predetermined amount, thereby increasing the proportion of the safety link cost in the traveling link cost.

[0042] The route search unit 86 searches for an appropriate route from the current location to the destination based on the current location information and destination information of the vehicle 11 described above, while referring to the terminal map information 71. For example, cost calculation using the Dijkstra algorithm may be used to search for the route. The route search unit 86 performs cost calculation using the travel link costs weighted by the terminal management unit 85, and searches for a route with the lowest link cost from the departure point to the destination.

[0043] (Safety link cost setting process) FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the safe link cost setting process of the server 12.

[0044] In step S11, the lane marking recognition unit 52 of the server 12 analyzes road images from a plurality of vehicles acquired by the image acquisition unit 51 to recognize lane markings.

[0045] In step S12 , the safety link cost calculation unit 53 calculates the safety link cost of each road link based on the result of the lane marking recognition by the lane marking recognition unit 52 .

[0046] In step S13, the server management unit 54 sets the safety link cost calculated by the safety link cost calculation unit 53 in the server map information 41 for each road link.

[0047] The process then ends.

[0048] (Safety response search process) FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the safety route search process of the user terminal 23.

[0049] When a user performs a predetermined operation on the input operation unit 62 of the user terminal 23 to request a route search, in step S21, the current location information acquisition unit 81 acquires the current location information of the vehicle using the terminal location detection unit 63. Then, the destination information acquisition unit 82 acquires the location information of the destination set in the input operation unit 62.

[0050] Next, in step S22, the terminal management unit 85 weights the link costs based on the search mode designated by the user, and sets the travel link cost.

[0051] Next, in step S23, the occupant characteristic information acquisition unit 83 acquires occupant characteristic information, which in this example is usage history information of the lane keep assist control and the lane departure alert control.

[0052] Next, in step S24, the safety degree determination unit 84 determines the safety degree of driving the vehicle based on the occupant characteristic information, and if it is determined that the safety degree of driving the vehicle is not low (step S24: No), the process proceeds to step S26.

[0053] If it is determined in step S24 that the safety level of vehicle driving is low (step S24: Yes), in step S25, the terminal management unit 85 increases the weight of the safety link cost by a predetermined amount relative to the driving link cost set in step S22, and then proceeds to step S26.

[0054] In step S26, the route search unit 86 searches for a route based on the travel link cost. The route search unit 86 searches for an appropriate route from the current location to the destination by preferentially selecting road links with low link costs by referring to the road link information stored in the terminal map information 71. That is, in step S25, if the weight of the safety link cost increases by a predetermined amount and the proportion of the safety link cost in the travel link cost increases, the link cost of a road link with a high safety link cost, that is, an unsafe road link, becomes high, and the road link becomes less likely to be selected.

[0055] In step S27, the route search unit 86 displays the search results on the display unit 61.

[0056] The process then ends.

[0057] [Other Examples] (Another example of safety link cost: Images used for lane marking recognition) To calculate the safety link cost based on the blurring of the lane markings, many road images are required. Therefore, in the above-described embodiment, the safety link cost calculation unit 53 of the server 12, which can acquire many road images, calculates the safety link cost based on road images supplied from on-board cameras installed in multiple vehicles. The terminal management unit 85 of the user terminal 23 then acquires the safety link cost from the server 12 and sets it in the terminal map information 71.

[0058] However, the method of image recognition of lane markings differs for each vehicle depending on the installation location of the onboard camera and the performance and characteristics of the onboard camera's image recognition. Therefore, for a vehicle receiving route guidance, it may be preferable to calculate the safety link cost based on road images captured by the vehicle's onboard camera.

[0059] Therefore, the user terminal 23 calculates the safety link cost of the road link based on the image captured by the in-vehicle camera 22, and even if there is a safety link cost obtained from the server 12 for that road link, the user terminal 23 can preferentially use the safety link cost calculated by itself.

[0060] This will be described in detail with reference to Fig. 6. Fig. 6 is a block diagram showing an example configuration of the user terminal 101. The user terminal 101 further includes an image acquisition unit 111, a lane line recognition unit 112, and a safety link cost calculation unit 113 in addition to the configuration of the user terminal 23 shown in Fig. 3.

[0061] The image acquisition unit 111 acquires road image information including road images captured by an in-vehicle camera 22 installed on the vehicle.

[0062] The lane marking recognition unit 112 analyzes the road image included in the road image information acquired by the image acquisition unit 111, and executes processing to recognize lane markings.

[0063] The safety link cost calculation unit 113 calculates the safety link cost for each road link based on the recognition processing result by the lane marking recognition unit 112.

[0064] The terminal management unit 85 acquires the safety link cost (hereinafter, appropriately referred to as the first safety link cost) calculated by the safety link cost calculation unit 113 and the safety link cost (hereinafter, appropriately referred to as the second safety link cost) acquired from the server 12. Furthermore, for a road link where both the first safety link cost and the second safety link cost exist, the terminal management unit 85 sets the first safety link cost in the terminal map information 71.

[0065] With this configuration, the safety link cost obtained from the image of the vehicle-mounted camera can be used as the driving link cost, so that a more appropriate route can be selected and guidance can be provided.

[0066] Note that the installation position of the onboard camera and the performance and characteristics of the image recognition of the onboard camera may be the same for vehicles of the same model. Therefore, the server 12 can separate the safety link costs by the model of the vehicle that provided the image used when calculating the safety link costs, and when providing the safety link costs to the user terminal, it can also provide the guidance-requesting vehicle with the safety link costs based on images provided by a vehicle of the same model as the vehicle in which the user terminal is installed (hereinafter referred to as the guidance-requesting vehicle).

[0067] (Another example of safety level determination: based on driving environment information other than occupant characteristic information) In the above-described embodiment, the terminal management unit 85 of the user terminal 23 controlled the proportion of the safety link cost in the driving link cost based on the occupant characteristic information regarding the driver's driving skill acquired by the occupant characteristic information acquisition unit 83.

[0068] However, apart from the driver's skill, the driving environment, such as rain, nighttime, or backlighting, can also reduce the safety of driving.

[0069] Therefore, the user terminal 23 may further control the proportion of the safe link cost in the traveling link cost based on the traveling environment of the vehicle. When the traveling environment of the vehicle indicates that the degree of driving safety is low, below a predetermined value, the user terminal 23 increases the proportion of the safe link cost in the traveling link cost by a predetermined amount, thereby increasing the link cost of a road link with a high safe link cost, i.e., an unsafe road link, and making that road link less likely to be selected.

[0070] A specific description will be given with reference to Fig. 7. Fig. 7 is a block diagram showing an example configuration of the user terminal 121. The user terminal 121 further includes a driving environment information acquisition unit 131 in addition to the configuration of the user terminal 23 shown in Fig. 3. The driving environment information acquisition unit 131 acquires information on weather along the route, the time of day when the vehicle is traveling, and ambient illuminance as driving environment information. The driving environment information acquisition unit 131 can acquire driving environment information from information distributed by road information distribution organizations such as FM stations, information distributed over the Internet, and information input by the user via the input operation unit 62.

[0071] The safety level determination unit 84 further uses the driving environment information acquired by the driving environment information acquisition unit 131 to determine the safety level of driving the vehicle.

[0072] (Another example of safety assessment: based on information other than driving safety information) In the above-described embodiment, the terminal management unit 85 of the user terminal 23 controlled the proportion of the safety link cost in the driving link cost based on the occupant characteristic information regarding the driver's driving skill acquired by the occupant characteristic information acquisition unit 83 and the driving environment information that directly affects driving acquired by the driving environment information acquisition unit 131.

[0073] However, if there are passengers, or if the passengers are children, it may be better to take a safer route.

[0074] Therefore, the user terminal 23 may further control the proportion of the safety link cost in the traveling link cost based on the occupant characteristic information, such as the presence or absence of a passenger and whether the passenger is a child. When there is a passenger in the vehicle or the passenger is a child, the user terminal 23 increases the proportion of the safety link cost in the traveling link cost by a predetermined amount, thereby increasing the link cost of a road link with a high safety link cost, that is, an unsafe road link, and making such a road link less likely to be selected.

[0075] (Another example of safety link cost calculation method: Taking external information into account) In the above-described embodiment, the safety link cost calculation unit 53 (FIG. 2) of the server 12 and the safety link cost calculation unit 113 (FIG. 6) of the user terminal 23 calculated the safety link cost of each road link based on the image recognition results of the lane markings.

[0076] However, in addition to the condition of the lane markings, the risk of being unable to travel safely is also thought to increase if road markings are unclear, there are a large number of large vehicles, there has been damage such as landslides caused by disasters, or there are a large number of puddles.

[0077] Therefore, external information such as the degree of unclearness of road markings, the number of large vehicles, information on damage caused by disasters, the number of puddles, etc. may be acquired, and the safety link cost of a road link may be calculated based on the external information. When road markings are unclear, when there are many large vehicles, when there is damage such as a landslide caused by a disaster, or when there are many puddles, the user terminal 23 increases the proportion of the safety link cost in the traveling link cost by a predetermined amount, thereby increasing the link cost of road links with high safety link costs, i.e., unsafe road links, and making those road links less likely to be selected.

[0078] A specific description will be given with reference to Fig. 8. Fig. 8 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of server 141. Server 141 further includes an external information acquisition unit 151 in addition to the configuration of server 12 shown in Fig. 2.

[0079] The external information acquisition unit 151 acquires external information from distribution by road information distribution organizations such as FM stations and distribution on the Internet.

[0080] The safety link cost calculation unit 53 then calculates the safety link cost of each road link based on not only the state of the lane markings but also the external information acquired by the external information acquisition unit 151 .

[0081] In addition, the server 12 can classify the safety link costs according to the type of external information used when calculating them, and when supplying the safety link costs to a user terminal, it can also provide the guidance-requesting vehicle with a safety link cost based on the same external environment as the current external environment of the guidance-requesting vehicle in which the user terminal is installed.

[0082] (Another example of Navigation System 1) In the above-described embodiment, the server 12 includes the image acquisition unit 51 to the server management unit 54, but the in-vehicle camera 22 or the user terminal 23 may include some or all of these units. In other words, the user terminal 23 may be an in-vehicle device or a mobile device that includes some or all of the functions of the server storage unit 32 and the server control unit 33. For example, the lane marking recognition unit 52 may be mounted on the in-vehicle camera 22, analyze the road images included in the road image information, execute processing to recognize lane marks, and transmit the execution results to the server 12 via the network 13.

[0083] In the above-described embodiment, the user terminal 23 has the current position information acquisition unit 81 to the route search unit 86, but the vehicle-mounted camera 22 or the server 12 may have some or all of these units.

[0084] The server map information 41 and the terminal map information 71 may be stored in another external server and may be a database accessed by a communication unit (not shown) that the navigation system 1 has.

[0085] [Supplementary explanation of the embodiment] The above-described embodiments each show a preferred specific example of the present invention. The numerical values, components, arrangement positions and connection order of components, processing order in flowcharts, etc. shown in the following embodiments are merely examples and are not intended to limit the present invention. Furthermore, each figure is not necessarily a strict illustration.

[0086] Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the above embodiments merely illustrate some of the application examples of the present invention, and it is not intended that the technical scope of the present invention be limited to the specific configurations of the above embodiments.

[0087] The above-described series of processes can be executed by hardware or software. When the series of processes is executed by software, the program constituting the software is installed from a program recording medium into a computer incorporated in dedicated hardware, or into, for example, a general-purpose personal computer that can execute various functions by installing various programs.

[0088] The program executed by the computer may be a program that processes in chronological order according to the order described in this specification, or may be a program that processes in parallel or at the required timing, such as when called. [Note] The contents of the above-described embodiments can be understood, for example, as follows.

[0089] (1) The above-mentioned user terminal 23 is an occupant characteristic information acquisition unit 83 that acquires occupant characteristic information relating to the characteristics of an occupant of the vehicle; a terminal management unit 85 that sets road travel link costs, including road safety link costs, based on the recognition results of image recognition of road division lines; a route search unit 86 that searches for a route based on the travel link cost set by the terminal management unit 85; Equipped with The terminal management unit 85 controls the ratio of the safety link cost to the traveling link cost based on the occupant characteristic information.

[0090] With this configuration, if the occupant characteristic information indicates that the degree of safety in driving the vehicle is low, increasing the ratio of the safety link cost to the driving link cost increases the driving link cost including roads with poor road markings, thereby reducing the possibility of selecting a road with poor road markings. Therefore, it is possible to guide the driver to a route that more reliably performs lane keep assist control or lane departure alert control, for example.

[0091] (2) Use of usage history of lane keep assist, etc. The occupant characteristic information may be usage history information of at least one of lane keep assist control and lane departure alert control of the vehicle.

[0092] Frequent use of lane keep assist control or lane departure alert control may indicate that the driver of the vehicle has poor driving skills. Therefore, by controlling the proportion of safety link costs in the driving link costs based on usage history information of lane departure alert control, etc., it is possible to select and guide an appropriate route for a driver with poor driving skills.

[0093] (3) Priority given to vehicle recognition results The user terminal 23 an image acquisition unit 111 that acquires an image of the surroundings of the vehicle; a lane marking recognition unit 112 that recognizes lane markings on a road from the image acquired by the image acquisition unit 111; a safety link cost calculation unit 113 that calculates a safety link cost based on the recognition result by the lane marking recognition unit 112; Furthermore, The terminal management unit 85 Obtaining a first safety link cost from the safety link cost calculation unit 113; obtaining a second secure link cost from the server; On a road where both a first safety link cost and a second safety link cost exist, the first safety link cost can be set in the terminal map information 71.

[0094] With this configuration, the safety link cost obtained from the image of the vehicle-mounted camera can be used as the driving link cost, so that a more appropriate route can be selected and guidance can be provided.

[0095] (4) Utilizing weather conditions, etc. The user terminal 23 a driving environment information acquisition unit 131 that acquires driving environment information of the vehicle, including at least one of information on the weather around the vehicle and information on the illuminance around the vehicle; Furthermore, The terminal management unit 85 can further control the proportion of the safety link cost in the traveling link cost based on the traveling environment information.

[0096] With this configuration, even if the occupant characteristic information does not indicate that the degree of safety of driving the vehicle is low, if the driving environment information indicates that the driving safety is low due to the driving environment, for example, rain, by increasing the proportion of the safety link cost in the driving link cost, the driving link cost including roads with poor driving environments will increase, thereby reducing the possibility that a road with poor driving environments will be selected. [Explanation of symbols]

[0097] 1. Navigation system 11 vehicles 12,141 servers 13 Network 21 Vehicle motion control device 22 In-vehicle camera 23,101,121 user terminals 31 Server Communication Department 32 Server storage unit 33 Server control unit 41 Server Map Information 51,111 Image acquisition unit 52,112 Lane line recognition unit 53,113 Safety Link Cost Calculation Unit 54 Server Management Department 61 Display section 62 Input operation section 63 Terminal location detection unit 64 Vehicle information input section 65 Terminal communication unit 66 Terminal memory section 67 Terminal control unit 71 Terminal map information 81 Current location information acquisition unit 82 Destination information acquisition section 83 Occupant characteristic information acquisition unit 84 Safety Degree Judgment Unit 85 Terminal Management Department 86 Route Search Unit 131 Driving environment information acquisition unit 151 External Information Acquisition Department

Claims

1. A route search device that searches for a route from a departure point to a destination of a vehicle, an occupant characteristic information acquisition unit that acquires occupant characteristic information relating to characteristics of an occupant of the vehicle; a terminal management unit that sets a travel link cost of the road, including a safety link cost of the road, which is set based on a recognition result obtained by image recognition of a lane marking of the road; a route search unit that searches for the route based on the travel link cost set by the terminal management unit; Equipped with The terminal management unit controls a ratio of the safety link cost to the traveling link cost based on the occupant characteristic information. A route search device characterized by:

2. 2. The route search device according to claim 1, The occupant characteristic information is usage history information of at least one of lane keep assist control and lane departure alert control of the vehicle. A route search device characterized by:

3. 3. The route search device according to claim 1 or 2, an image acquisition unit that acquires an image of the surroundings of the vehicle; a lane marking recognition unit that recognizes the lane markings of the road from the image acquired by the image acquisition unit; a safety link cost calculation unit that calculates the safety link cost based on a recognition result by the lane marking recognition unit; Furthermore, The terminal management unit obtaining a first safety link cost from a safety link cost calculation unit; obtaining a second said secure link cost from an external device; For the road where both the first safety link cost and the second safety link cost exist, the first safety link cost can be set in the terminal map information. A route search device characterized by:

4. 3. The route search device according to claim 1 or 2, a driving environment acquisition unit that acquires driving environment information of the vehicle, including at least one of information on the weather around the vehicle and information on the illuminance around the vehicle; Furthermore, The terminal management unit further controls the ratio of the safety link cost based on the driving environment information. A route search device characterized by:

5. A route search method for searching for a route from a departure point to a destination of a vehicle, comprising: an occupant characteristic information acquisition step of acquiring occupant characteristic information relating to characteristics of an occupant of the vehicle; a terminal management step of setting a travel link cost of the road, including a safety link cost of the road, which is set based on a recognition result obtained by image recognition of a lane marking of the road; a route search step of searching for the route based on the travel link cost set by the terminal management step; Including, The terminal management step controls a ratio of the safety link cost to the traveling link cost based on the occupant characteristic information. A route search method comprising:

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