Parking lot type determination system

Abstract

To provide a parking lot type determination system which improves a possibility to identify whether attributes of a parking lot indicate an underground parking lot or a ground parking lot.SOLUTION: A parking lot type determination system comprises: an acquisition section for acquiring a parking lot polygon to which parking lot attributes are correspondent; and a determination section for determining whether or not a road link exists in an area of the acquired parking lot polygon. The determination section records the parking lot polygon as an underground parking lot in a recording section in a case where it is determined that a road link exists in the area of the parking lot polygon, and records the parking lot polygon as a ground parking lot in the recording section in a case where it is determined that no road link exists in the area of the parking lot polygon.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a parking lot type determination system. [Background technology]

[0002] Patent document 1 describes a configuration for determining the type of parking lot in which a vehicle is located based on parameters indicating the reception status of the GPS (Global Positioning System) (e.g., the reception strength of radio waves from GPS satellites, the elevation angle relative to the GPS satellites). [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Patent No. 4583451 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] As described above, the configuration described in Patent Document 1 determines the type of parking lot in which a vehicle is located based on the GPS reception status. Map information may include registered facilities whose attribute is "parking lot" but whose status is unclear as underground or aboveground. When a vehicle is located in such a facility, the technology described in Patent Document 1 estimates the vehicle's location as outdoors if the GPS reception status is good. Since the vehicle is outdoors in the parking lot, the vehicle's location may be determined to be on the roof of the parking lot. However, even if the attribute of the facility is "parking lot" in the map information, there are situations in which it is unclear whether the vehicle is underground or aboveground, such as when a road exists above the underground parking lot. Therefore, the technology described in Patent Document 1 may determine that the vehicle is parked on the roof when, in fact, the vehicle is parked on the road above the underground parking lot. This may result in an inaccurate determination of whether the parking lot is underground or aboveground.

[0005] The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-mentioned problems, and aims to provide a parking lot type determination system that increases the possibility of identifying whether a parking lot's attribute is an underground parking lot or an above-ground parking lot. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the parking lot type determination system includes an acquisition unit that acquires parking lot polygons associated with parking lot attributes, and a determination unit that determines whether or not a road link exists in the area of ​​the acquired parking lot polygon, and when the determination unit determines that the road link exists in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon, it records the parking lot polygon in the recording unit as an underground parking lot, and when it determines that the road link does not exist in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon, it records the parking lot polygon in the recording unit as an above-ground parking lot.

[0007] That is, the parking lot type determination system determines whether a road link is included in the area of ​​a parking lot polygon associated with a parking lot attribute as facility data. If it is determined that a road link is not included in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon, the parking lot polygon is recorded in the recording unit as an "above ground parking lot." On the other hand, if it is determined that a road link is included in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon, the parking lot polygon is recorded in the recording unit as an "underground parking lot." In this way, the parking lot type determination system can determine whether the parking lot attribute is an underground parking lot or an above ground parking lot by determining whether a road link is included in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0008] [Figure 1] 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a parking lot type determination system according to an embodiment of the present invention; [Figure 2] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example in which no road link exists within a parking lot polygon. [Figure 3]FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example in which a road link exists within a parking lot polygon. [Figure 4] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example in which a road link exists within a parking lot polygon and the road link is a road within the parking lot. [Figure 5] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example in which a road link exists within a parking lot polygon and the road link is an expressway. [Figure 6] 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing of the system according to the present embodiment. [Figure 7] 10 is a subroutine in the processing of the system in this embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0009] Here, the embodiments of the present invention will be described in the following order. (1) Parking lot type determination system configuration: (2) Flowchart: (3) Other embodiments:

[0010] (1) Parking lot type determination system configuration: 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a parking lot type determination system 10 according to this embodiment. The parking lot type determination system 10 is a server capable of communicating with a vehicle 100. Although not shown, the parking lot type determination system 10 is capable of communicating with a plurality of vehicles.

[0011] Vehicle 100 is a so-called probe car, and includes a communication unit 110 and a positioning unit 120. Vehicle 100 also includes a recording medium (not shown) that records map information 130 and driving history 140. Communication unit 110 is a wireless communication circuit for wirelessly communicating with parking lot type determination system 10. Positioning unit 120 includes positioning sensors such as a GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) receiver, a vehicle speed sensor, and a gyro sensor (none of which are shown).

[0012] The map information 130 includes node data indicating the positions of nodes set on the roads on which the vehicle travels, shape interpolation point data indicating the positions of shape interpolation points for identifying the shape of the roads between nodes, link data indicating the connections between nodes, and facility data indicating the positions of facilities on the roads and in their surrounding areas.

[0013] The facility data includes various types of information. The various types of information include, for example, polygon data that indicates the two-dimensional shape of the facility. Specifically, for example, a polygon that indicates the shape of the perimeter of the facility is divided into triangles, and information that indicates each triangle (for example, information that indicates vertices) is associated with the facility data as polygon data. Note that the polygon data may not be divided into triangles, and information that indicates each vertex of the polygon may be associated with the facility data. Note that the facility data is associated with the name of the facility.

[0014] The facility data may also include information indicating the attributes of the facility. In this embodiment, if the attribute of the facility is a parking lot, information indicating that the attribute of the facility is a parking lot is associated with the facility data. When an attribute indicating that the facility is a parking lot is associated with the facility data, it is expressed as having an attribute indicating a parking lot associated with the polygon, and such a polygon is defined as a "parking lot polygon." When the attribute of the facility is a parking lot, a name such as "XX Parking Lot" or "XX Park" is associated as the name of the facility.

[0015] The driving history 140 includes, as probe information, at least information regarding the parking of the vehicle 100. Specifically, the driving history 140 is associated with identification information of the vehicle 100, and includes information indicating the vehicle's driving trajectory over time (at regular intervals or regular times), and a reception history of GNSS signals at the GNSS receiver. In this embodiment, the driving history 140 is a single history from the start to the end of the driving of the vehicle 100, and the end point of the driving is the parking position. Each vehicle position is associated with information indicating whether map matching was performed. If map matching was performed, the vehicle's position is on a road, and if map matching was not performed, the vehicle is often located off the road (for example, in a facility such as a parking lot).

[0016] Here, the vehicle's travel trajectory will be described. The travel trajectory is information indicating the time-series transition of the vehicle's position, and is calculated by vehicle 100, which is a probe car. Specifically, as described above, vehicle 100 is equipped with a GNSS receiver, a vehicle speed sensor, and a gyro sensor as positioning sensors. The GNSS receiver receives radio waves from navigation satellites and outputs a signal for calculating the current location of the vehicle via an interface (not shown). The vehicle speed sensor outputs a signal corresponding to the rotation speed of the wheels equipped on the vehicle. The gyro sensor detects the angular acceleration of the vehicle when it turns in a horizontal plane, and outputs a signal corresponding to the orientation of the vehicle.

[0017] The vehicle 100 acquires the current location of the vehicle by a control unit (not shown) within a facility such as a parking lot (i.e., outside a road) based on a self-contained navigation trajectory, which is a trajectory of a position estimated based on signals output from a vehicle speed sensor and a gyro sensor, and on map information 130. If the target for acquiring the current location is a road, multiple possible comparison roads are set, and the comparison roads are narrowed down based on the error circle of the GNSS signal acquired by the GNSS receiver. The vehicle 100 then performs a map matching process with reference to the map information 130 to estimate that the road on which the vehicle is traveling is the road whose shape most closely matches the self-contained navigation trajectory among the narrowed down comparison roads, and acquires the current location of the vehicle on the road estimated by the map matching process. During the traveling process, the vehicle 100 executes a process for acquiring the current location of the vehicle based on output signals from the GNSS receiver, the vehicle speed sensor, and the gyro sensor at predetermined distance intervals or predetermined time intervals.

[0018] Then, the vehicle 100 acquires information indicating the history of the current location at predetermined intervals, i.e., information indicating changes in the current location, as a driving trajectory, and records the acquired driving trajectory in the driving history 140. Furthermore, the vehicle 100 transmits probe information including the driving history 140 to the parking lot type determination system 10 via the communication unit 110 at regular intervals. The transmitted probe information is recorded in the recording unit 30 in the parking lot type determination system 10.

[0019] Next, the parking lot type determination system 10 will be described. The parking lot type determination system 10 includes a control unit 20 equipped with a CPU, RAM, ROM, etc., a recording unit 30, and a communication unit 40. The recording unit 30 records various programs and various data. The communication unit 40 is a wireless communication circuit for wireless communication with the vehicle 100. The control unit 20 executes various programs stored in the recording unit 30 and ROM. As an example of this program, the control unit 20 can execute a parking lot type determination program 21. In this embodiment, the control unit 20 determines the type of parking lot based on the positional relationship between a parking lot polygon that indicates the shape of the parking lot and the road, and updates the map information with information indicating the determination result.

[0020] The recording unit 30 records map information 30a and driving history 30b. The map information 30a includes node data, shape interpolation point data, link data, facility data, etc. The map information 30a in the parking lot type determination system 10 may be updated based on the determination result of the parking lot type. The map information 30a may also be updated based on probe information from each probe car, including the vehicle 100. The driving history 30b records driving histories 140 transmitted from multiple vehicles 100 in association with the identification information of the vehicles 100. In other words, the driving history 30b records a large number of driving histories corresponding to the identification information of a large number of vehicles.

[0021] Here, the relationship between facility data and polygon data will be described. As described above, facility data may include polygon data that indicates the two-dimensional shape of a facility. However, because polygon data indicates two-dimensional shapes, for example, when parking data is included in a parking polygon area, it may be unclear whether the parking data indicates parking above ground or underground. In other words, while polygon data can determine where a vehicle is parked two-dimensionally, it may not be possible to determine where the vehicle is parked three-dimensionally (in other words, in the vertical direction). Therefore, in this embodiment, the control unit 20 associates information indicating whether the parking lot indicated by the parking polygon is an underground parking lot or an above ground parking lot with the facility data. When such information is associated with the facility data, the control unit 20 can use it, for example, to determine whether a vehicle parked within the parking polygon area is parked in an underground or above ground parking lot.

[0022] The control unit 20 can execute various programs stored in the recording unit 30 or ROM. The control unit 20 of this embodiment can execute, as an example of such a program, a parking lot type determination program 21. The parking lot type determination program 21 is a program that causes the control unit 20 to function as an acquisition unit 21a and a determination unit 21b. Note that, below, the processes described as being performed by the acquisition unit 21a and the determination unit 21b are processes that are realized by the control unit 20.

[0023] The acquisition unit 21a acquires parking lot polygons associated with parking lot attributes. Specifically, the acquisition unit 21a refers to facility data included in the map information 30a, identifies the attributes of the facilities associated with the polygon data, and acquires polygons whose attribute of the identified facilities is parking lot.

[0024] The determination unit 21b determines whether a road link exists in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon. Specifically, the determination unit 21b identifies the parking lot polygons acquired by the acquisition unit 21a, acquires the parking lot polygons to be determined one by one from the identified parking lot polygons, and performs a parking lot type determination process for each. Note that the determination unit 21b excludes parking lot polygons to which an above-ground or underground attribute has already been assigned from the determination targets. The determination unit 21b then determines whether a road link exists in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon to be determined. As described above, polygon data represents a two-dimensional shape, and therefore a three-dimensional shape cannot be identified. Therefore, it is unclear whether a vehicle parked in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon is parked above ground or underground. Therefore, the control unit 20 determines whether a road link exists in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon using the function of the determination unit 21b, and based on the determination result, determines whether the attribute of the parking lot polygon is underground or above ground. The determination of whether the attribute of the parking lot polygon is underground or above ground will be specifically described below.

[0025] The control unit 20 first determines whether or not a road link exists within a predetermined range from the parking lot polygon. For example, the control unit 20 calculates the coordinates of the center of gravity of the parking lot polygon, and calculates (or extracts) peripheral road links that exist within a predetermined range (for example, within a radius of 100 m) centered on the coordinates of the center of gravity. Specifically, the control unit 20 determines whether or not the position of the node at the start point of the road link and the position of the node at the end point of the road link are included within a predetermined range from the parking lot polygon. Note that the above-mentioned predetermined range may change depending on the size of the parking lot polygon. For example, the predetermined range may increase continuously or in stages as the size of the parking lot polygon increases.

[0026] In this embodiment, the control unit 20 may determine whether all road links exist in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon without determining whether a road link exists within a predetermined range from the parking lot polygon. However, in this case, the processing load on the control unit 20 may increase. In this embodiment, in order to reduce the processing load on the control unit 20, instead of determining whether all road links exist in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon, road links within a predetermined range from the parking lot polygon are extracted as a preliminary step. That is, the control unit 20 determines whether a road link exists within an approximate range from the parking lot polygon (the coordinates of the center of gravity of the parking lot polygon). This makes it possible to determine whether a road link exists in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon while reducing the processing load on the control unit 20. Then, when the control unit 20 determines that a road link exists within the predetermined range, it regards the peripheral road links existing within the predetermined range as road links to be determined whether they exist in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon. That is, the control unit 20 narrows down the targets for determining whether a road link exists in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon to peripheral road links existing within a predetermined range from the parking lot polygon, and determines whether a road link exists in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon from among the narrowed-down peripheral road links.

[0027] When the control unit 20 determines that no road link exists within a predetermined range from the parking lot polygon, it considers that no road link exists in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon. Then, the control unit 20 assigns "ground" out of "ground" and "underground" as an attribute of the parking lot polygon. Furthermore, the control unit 20 records information about the parking lot polygon in the recording unit 30. That is, the control unit 20 records information that the parking lot polygon is an "ground parking lot" in the map information 30a.

[0028] In this embodiment, "above ground parking" refers to a parking lot that exists at least above ground. Therefore, if there is a parking area above ground, there may also be a parking area underground. Furthermore, "underground parking," which will be described later, refers to a parking lot that does not have a parking area above ground, but only has a parking area underground. For example, a parking lot that only has a parking area under a station or under a road is considered.

[0029] On the other hand, if the control unit 20 determines that a road link exists within a predetermined range from the parking lot polygon, it determines whether at least one of the road links existing within the predetermined range exists in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon. Specifically, the control unit 20 refers to the map information 30a to narrow down the candidate roads within the predetermined range, identify the location of the road from the nodes and shape interpolation points of the narrowed down roads, identify the periphery of the polygon based on the polygon data, and determine whether a road exists inside the periphery of the polygon. In other words, the control unit 20 determines whether at least some of the straight lines and curves that specify the shape of the road are included in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon.

[0030] If the control unit 20 determines that all road links existing within a predetermined range are not present in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon, it assigns "ground" out of "ground" and "underground" as the attribute of the parking lot polygon. That is, the control unit 20 records information that the parking lot polygon is an "ground parking lot" in the map information 30a.

[0031] On the other hand, if the control unit 20 determines that at least one road link among the road links present within the predetermined range is present in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon, i.e., if the control unit 20 determines that at least some of the straight lines and curves specifying the shape of the road are included in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon, the control unit 20 determines whether the road type of the road link included in the parking lot polygon is a predetermined road type. Road types such as expressways, general roads, and intra-facility roads (e.g., parking lot roads) are pre-associated with road links. In this embodiment, the control unit 20 determines whether the road type of the road link included in the parking lot polygon is a "parking lot road" in which the road link is located within the parking lot, or an "expressway." That is, the control unit 20 refers to the map information 30a and determines whether the road type of the road link determined to be at least partially present in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon is a "parking lot road" or an "expressway." Note that an intra-facility road is assumed to be a road located within a multi-story parking lot in a large facility such as a shopping mall.

[0032] Then, when the control unit 20 determines that the road link included in the parking lot polygon is neither a road link associated with the road type of "road in parking lot" nor a road link associated with the road type of "expressway," it assigns "underground" as an attribute of the parking lot polygon, out of "above ground" and "underground." In other words, when the control unit 20 determines that a road link exists in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon, the control unit 20 estimates that the parking lot is underground and the road is above ground because the road and the parking lot are located at different positions in the vertical direction (height direction) and it is unlikely that the parking lot is located above the road, and therefore associates the attribute of "underground" with the parking lot. Then, the control unit 20 records information about the parking lot polygon in the recording unit 30. In other words, the control unit 20 records information that the parking lot polygon is an "underground parking lot" in the map information 30a.

[0033] On the other hand, when the control unit 20 determines that the road link included in the parking lot polygon is at least one of a road link associated with the road type "parking lot road" and a road link associated with the road type "expressway," it assigns "ground" of "ground" and "underground" as the attribute of the parking lot polygon. In other words, the control unit 20 determines that there is no road link in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon. That is, if the road type of the road link existing in the parking lot polygon is "parking lot road," the control unit 20 determines the attribute of the parking lot polygon to be "ground" because the parking lot polygon can be assumed to be, for example, a multi-story parking lot. Also, if the road type of the road link existing in the parking lot polygon is "expressway," the control unit 20 determines the attribute of the parking lot polygon to be "ground" because expressways are generally elevated. Then, the control unit 20 records information about the parking lot polygon in the recording unit 30. That is, the control unit 20 records information that the parking lot polygon is an "aboveground parking lot" in the map information 30a.

[0034] As described above, when a road link is included in the area of ​​a parking lot polygon and the road type of the road link is a "highway" or a "parking lot road," the control unit 20 assigns "ground" as the attribute of the parking lot. However, when a road link is included in the area of ​​a parking lot, the road link is typically a general road such as a national highway or a prefectural road, rather than a "highway" or a "parking lot road." These roads often exist on the ground. In this case, the control unit 20 assigns "underground" as the attribute of the parking lot polygon. In other words, when a road link is included in the area of ​​a parking lot polygon, the control unit 20 normally determines the attribute of the parking lot polygon as "underground." However, when the road type of a road link included in the area of ​​a parking lot polygon is a "highway" or a "parking lot road," the control unit 20 excludes the road link from the road links included in the parking lot polygon and exceptionally determines the attribute of the parking lot polygon as "ground."

[0035] Next, with reference to Figure 2, we will explain how to determine whether the attribute of the parking lot polygon is "underground" or "above ground." In Figure 2, polygon Po is a parking lot polygon to which parking lot attributes are associated as facility data. Also, roads R1, R2, and R3 exist around parking lot polygon Po, and road R1 is a road with intersections I1 and I2 as its endpoints (nodes). Also in Figure 2, dashed lines indicate road links connecting the nodes.

[0036] As described above, the control unit 20 determines whether or not a road link exists within a predetermined range from the parking lot polygon Po. In the example shown in Fig. 2, roads R1, R2, and R3 exist around the parking lot polygon Po. Here, it is assumed that these roads R1, R2, and R3 exist within a predetermined range from the parking lot polygon Po.

[0037] Next, the control unit 20 determines whether at least one of the road links of the roads R1, R2, and R3 that exist within the predetermined range exists in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon Po. In the example shown in FIG. 2, some of the road links are not included in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon Po, and therefore it can be determined that no road links exist in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon Po. Therefore, the control unit 20 assigns "above ground" of "above ground" and "underground" as an attribute of the parking lot polygon Po. Then, the control unit 20 records information that the parking lot polygon Po is an "above ground parking lot" in the recording unit 30.

[0038] On the other hand, in the example shown in FIG. 3, roads R4 and R5 exist within the area of ​​the parking lot polygon Po, meaning that the area of ​​the parking lot polygon Po includes road links. Note that roads R4 and R5 are general roads such as national highways. In other words, roads R4 and R5 are not "expressways" or "roads within the parking lot." Therefore, the control unit 20 assigns "underground" to the parking lot polygon Po as an attribute of "above ground" or "underground." The control unit 20 then records in the recording unit 30 information that the parking lot polygon Po is an "underground parking lot."

[0039] FIG. 4 shows an example in which an internal parking lot road R6 exists within the area of ​​the parking lot polygon Po, i.e., the area of ​​the parking lot polygon Po includes a road link. Therefore, the control unit 20 assigns "ground" as an attribute of the parking lot polygon Po, out of "ground" and "underground." The control unit 20 then records information that the parking lot polygon Po is an "above-ground parking lot" in the recording unit 30. Note that in this embodiment, if the internal parking lot road R6 exists within the parking lot polygon Po, it cannot be determined that the parking lot polygon Po is an underground parking lot, so the parking lot polygon Po is determined to be an above-ground parking lot. This configuration is one example, and other configurations, such as a configuration in which the attribute of a parking lot in which an internal parking lot road exists is unknown, may also be used.

[0040] FIG. 5 shows an example in which expressways R7 and R8 exist within the area of ​​the parking polygon Po, i.e., the area of ​​the parking polygon Po includes a road link. Therefore, the control unit 20 assigns "above ground" to the parking polygon Po as an attribute of the parking polygon Po. The control unit 20 then records information that the parking polygon Po is an "above ground parking lot" in the recording unit 30. Note that in this embodiment, if expressways R7 and R8 exist within the parking polygon Po, the parking polygon Po cannot be determined to be an underground parking lot, so the parking polygon Po is determined to be an above ground parking lot. This configuration is merely an example, and other configurations, such as a configuration in which the attribute of a parking lot where an expressway exists within the parking polygon Po is unknown, may also be used.

[0041] The parking lot type determination system 10 configured in this manner determines whether the attribute of a parking lot polygon is "underground" or "above ground," as described above. The processing executed by the parking lot type determination system 10 of this embodiment will be described below with reference to a flowchart.

[0042] (2) Flowchart: 6 is a flowchart showing an example of the parking lot type determination process executed by the control unit 20. In this embodiment, the parking lot type determination process is repeatedly executed at predetermined fixed intervals (for example, once a week, once a month, etc.). Specific control contents will be described below.

[0043] First, the control unit 20 reads information about a parking lot polygon associated with a parking lot attribute as facility data (step S1). That is, the control unit 20 references the map information 30a and acquires information indicating the parking lot polygon. In this embodiment, it is assumed that parking lot attributes may be associated with facility data having a polygon to which parking lot attributes were not associated until a certain point in time. Such a situation may occur, for example, when a facility with unknown attributes is identified as a parking lot based on the travel history 30b, or when facility data including a parking lot polygon is added to the map information 30a due to the construction of a new facility. Therefore, in step S1, the control unit 20 may be configured to acquire information indicating the parking lot polygon of facility data newly classified as a parking lot polygon after the previous parking lot type determination process is completed and before the current parking lot type determination process is started. Furthermore, in step S1, the control unit 20 may acquire parking lot polygons whose polygons are located around or overlap with newly constructed roads. The control unit 20 may not perform such processing, and may instead acquire information indicating all parking lot polygons included in the map information 30a in step S1.

[0044] Next, the control unit 20 excludes from the processing targets those parking lot polygons acquired in step S1 that have already been assigned the attribute of "above ground" or "underground" (step S2). The processing in Fig. 6 is for determining whether the parking lot type is "underground" or "above ground". Therefore, in step S2, the control unit 20 excludes from the processing targets for determination those parking lot polygons that have already been assigned the attribute (in other words, the parking lot type has been determined).

[0045] Next, the control unit 20 starts the following loop processing (steps S3 to S9) for the number of "parking lot polygons" to be processed for determination. That is, the control unit 20 extracts one of the parking lot polygons obtained based on steps S1 and S2 as a processing target and performs the loop processing, and sequentially performs the loop processing for all of the parking lot polygons obtained based on steps S1 and S2 until the loop processing is completed. Specifically, the control unit 20 calculates the barycentric coordinates of the parking lot polygon (step S3). Note that the calculation of the barycentric coordinates may be performed by a known method.

[0046] Next, the control unit 20 calculates the surrounding road links that exist within a predetermined range with the coordinates of the center of gravity of the parking lot polygon calculated in step S3 as the center (step S4). Specifically, the control unit 20 calculates the surrounding road links by referring to the map information 30a and determining whether the position of the node at the start point of the road link and the position of the node at the end point of the road link are included within a predetermined range from the parking lot polygon.

[0047] The control unit 20 then determines whether the number of peripheral road links calculated in step S4 is equal to or greater than "1" (step S5). That is, the control unit 20 references the map information 30a and determines whether there is at least one peripheral road link located within a predetermined range from the area of ​​the parking lot polygon. If the determination in step S5 is negative, i.e., if the number of peripheral road links is zero, the control unit 20 assigns "ground" to the "ground" and "underground" attributes of the parking lot polygon (step S6). That is, the control unit 20 determines that no road links exist in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon, in other words, that no road links exist on the same plane, and determines that the type of the parking lot polygon is an "above-ground parking lot." After assigning "ground" to the "underground" and "ground" attributes of the parking lot polygon, the control unit 20 starts loop processing for the next parking lot polygon to be processed.

[0048] On the other hand, if the answer to step S5 is affirmative, i.e., if the number of surrounding road links calculated in the processing of step S4 is determined to be "1" or more, the control unit 20 performs a "parking lot polygon corresponding road link determination processing" to determine the road links included in the parking lot polygon (step S7).

[0049] 7 shows a subroutine for "parking lot polygon corresponding road link determination processing" in step S7. When this processing is performed, the parking lot polygon has road links within a predetermined range from the parking lot polygon because the above-mentioned step S5 was determined to be affirmative. The control unit 20 starts the following loop processing (steps S70 to S71) for the number of surrounding road links.

[0050] First, the control unit 20 determines whether a portion of the road link is included in the parking lot polygon (step S70). That is, the control unit 20 extracts one of the peripheral road links as a processing target and determines whether at least a portion of the extracted peripheral road link is included in the parking lot polygon. Specifically, the control unit 20 refers to the map information 30a to narrow down candidate roads within a predetermined range, identifies the location of the road from the nodes and shape interpolation points of the narrowed down road, identifies the periphery of the polygon based on the polygon data, and determines whether a road exists inside the periphery of the polygon. If the determination in step S70 is affirmative, that is, if the control unit 20 determines that a portion of the road link is included in the parking lot polygon, the control unit 20 stores the peripheral road link as a "candidate road link" (step S71). That is, the control unit 20 records the peripheral road link as a candidate road link included in the parking lot polygon. Note that the process of storing the peripheral road link as a "candidate road link" in step S71 may be a temporary recording, since the road link is merely a candidate road link included in the parking lot polygon. Therefore, for example, after the process of step S76 described later is completed, the stored candidate road link may be deleted. After the process of step S71 is completed, the control unit 20 starts a loop process for the peripheral road link to be processed next.

[0051] On the other hand, if the determination in step S70 is negative, that is, if it is determined that all of the road links are not included in the parking lot polygon, the control unit 20 starts a loop process for the surrounding road link that is the next processing target.

[0052] Next, after the loop processing of steps S70 to S71 is completed for all the peripheral road links, the control unit 20 determines whether the number of candidate road links is "0" (step S72). That is, the control unit 20 determines whether the number of "candidate road links" stored in step S71 is "0". Note that if the processing of step S71 has been executed at least once, a negative determination is made in step S72. If a positive determination is made in step S72, that is, if it is determined that the number of candidate road links is "0", the control unit 20 ends the subroutine shown in FIG. 7 and proceeds to step S8 in FIG. 6. Note that step S8 will be described later.

[0053] On the other hand, if the determination in step S72 is negative, that is, if the number of candidate road links is not "0" (in other words, if the number of candidate road links is at least "1" or more), the control unit 20 sets the number of road links included in the parking lot polygon to "0" (step S73). This step S73 is a step of assigning "0" as the initial value of the number of road links included in the parking lot polygon.

[0054] Next, the control unit 20 starts the following loop processing (steps S74 to S76) for the number of candidate road links. Specifically, the control unit 20 extracts one of the road links stored as a "candidate link" in step S71, and determines whether the road type of the extracted road link is a parking lot road (step S74). As described above, road types such as expressways, general roads, or intra-facility roads (e.g., parking lot roads) are associated in advance with road links. In step S74, the control unit 20 determines whether the road type of the relevant road link included in the parking lot polygon is a "parking lot road" in which the road link is provided inside a parking lot such as a multi-story parking lot. That is, the control unit 20 refers to the map information 30a and determines whether there is a road link associated with the road type of a "parking lot road" in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon.

[0055] If the determination in step S74 is negative, that is, if the road type of the road link is determined to be a "road in a parking lot," the control unit 20 starts loop processing for the next candidate road link to be processed.

[0056] On the other hand, if the determination in step S74 is affirmative, i.e., if it is determined that the road type of the road link is not a "parking lot road," the control unit 20 determines whether the road type of the candidate road link is a "highway" (step S75). Specifically, the control unit 20 determines whether the road type of the road link included in the parking lot polygon is a "highway." That is, the control unit 20 refers to the map information 30a and determines whether there is a road link in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon to which the road type of "highway" is associated. Note that this step S75 and the above-mentioned step S74 may be executed simultaneously, or the order of steps S74 and S75 may be reversed.

[0057] If the determination in step S75 is negative, that is, if the road type of the candidate road link is determined to be "expressway," the control unit 20 starts loop processing for the candidate road link that is the next processing target.

[0058] On the other hand, if the determination in step S75 is affirmative, that is, if the road type of the road link is determined not to be "expressway," the control unit 20 sets the number of corresponding road links included in the parking lot polygon to "1" (step S76). After performing the process of step S76, the control unit 20 starts the loop process of steps S74 to S76 for the candidate road link that is the next processing target.

[0059] Then, when the control unit 20 has completed the loop process of steps S74 to S76 for all the candidate road links, the control unit 20 advances the process to step S8 in FIG.

[0060] In step S8, the control unit 20 determines whether the number of corresponding road links included in the parking lot polygon is "1" or more. That is, the control unit 20 determines whether at least one candidate road link is determined not to be a "parking lot road" or an "expressway" in the loop processing of the candidate road links. Therefore, if the determination in step S8 is affirmative, that is, if the determination is that the number of corresponding road links included in the parking lot polygon is "1" or more, the control unit 20 assigns "underground" to the "above ground" and "underground" attributes of the parking lot polygon (step S9). That is, the control unit 20 determines that a road link exists in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon, and determines the type of the parking lot polygon to be an "underground parking lot." Then, after assigning "underground" to the "above ground" and "above ground" attributes of the parking lot polygon, the control unit 20 starts loop processing for the parking lot polygon to be processed next.

[0061] On the other hand, if the determination in step S8 is negative, that is, if it is determined that the number of relevant road links included in the parking lot polygon is less than "1" (in other words, "0"), the control unit 20 assigns "ground" to the "ground" and "underground" attributes of the parking lot polygon (step S6). That is, the control unit 20 determines that no road links exist in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon, and determines that the type of the parking lot polygon is an "above-ground parking lot." Then, after the control unit 20 assigns "ground" to the "underground" and "ground" attributes of the parking lot polygon, it starts loop processing for the parking lot polygon that is the next processing target.

[0062] Then, when the control unit 20 has completed the loop processing of steps S3 to S9 for all of the "parking lot polygons" to be processed, it records the information of all of the "parking lot polygons" for which the judgment processing has been performed in the map information 30a and updates the information of the parking lot polygons (step S10).

[0063] Next, the effects of this embodiment will be described. As described above, in this embodiment, the control unit 20 determines whether a road link is included in the area of ​​a parking lot polygon associated with a parking lot attribute as facility data. If the control unit 20 determines that a road link is not included in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon, it assigns the attribute "above ground" to the parking lot polygon. That is, it determines that the parking lot polygon is an above ground parking lot. On the other hand, if the control unit 20 determines that a road link is included in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon, it assigns the attribute "underground" to the parking lot polygon. That is, it determines that the parking lot polygon is an underground parking lot. Note that if the control unit determines that a road link is included in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon and the road type of the road link is "parking lot road" or "expressway," it excludes the road link from the targets of road links included in the parking lot polygon. In this way, in this embodiment, the type of parking lot (underground or above ground) can be determined by determining whether a road link is included in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon. In other words, the parking lot type determination system 10 of this embodiment can increase the possibility of classifying parking lots into "underground" and "above ground." In this way, by being able to determine the type of parking lot, it becomes possible to improve the maintenance of parking lot data, and as a result, it is possible to improve the accuracy of parking data used in, for example, big data.

[0064] Furthermore, when facility data for a parking lot is classified as "underground" or "above ground" according to this embodiment, the accuracy of analyzing the parking location indicated by the probe information can be improved based on this classification. For example, if the probe information transmitted from the vehicle 100 indicates that the parking location is located in an area of ​​a parking lot polygon that has been assigned the above-mentioned "underground" classification, the control unit 20 tentatively determines that the parking location is "underground." The control unit 20 also associates information indicating that the parking location is "underground" with the probe information and adds the probe information to the driving history 30b. Furthermore, the control unit 20 references the reception history of the GNSS signal in the GNSS receiver associated with the probe information. If the control unit 20 determines, as a result of referring to the reception history, that the GNSS signal has been properly received, it determines that the parking data included in the probe information is data indicating that the vehicle is likely to have been parked above ground. In this case, the control unit 20 considers the parking location to be "above ground" (e.g., parked on the street) and updates the driving history 30b with information indicating that the parking location is "above ground." On the other hand, if the control unit 20 determines that the GNSS signal has not been received after referring to the GNSS signal reception history, it considers the parking location to be "underground" and does not update the driving history 30b. If there is no information indicating that the parking polygon is an underground parking lot and the GNSS signal is not received, it is difficult to estimate the reason for the GNSS signal not being received. In other words, if it is unclear whether the parking location may be underground, it is impossible to infer that the GNSS signal is not being received because the vehicle is located underground. However, by implementing this embodiment, if there is information indicating that the parking polygon is an underground parking lot and the parking location is located within a parking polygon that also has a road link, it is possible to estimate that the vehicle's parking location is underground.

[0065] Furthermore, in this embodiment, when identifying the road links included in the parking lot polygon, the control unit 20 determines whether or not the road links exist within a predetermined range from the parking lot polygon. That is, the control unit 20 first extracts peripheral road links that exist within a predetermined range from the parking lot polygon, sets the peripheral road links as candidates for the road links included in the parking lot polygon, and determines whether or not the road links are included in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon based on the candidates. This makes it possible to narrow down the number of road links to be subjected to the determination process compared to, for example, determining whether or not all road links exist in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon without extracting peripheral road links, thereby reducing the processing load on the control unit 20.

[0066] (3) Other embodiments: The above embodiment is one example for implementing the present invention, and various other embodiments are also possible. For example, at least some of the components constituting the parking lot type determination system 10 may be separated into multiple devices or systems. That is, at least some of the acquisition unit 21a and determination unit 21b constituting the parking lot type determination system 10 may be separated into multiple devices. Furthermore, some of the components of the above embodiment may be omitted, and the order of processing may be changed or omitted.

[0067] In the above embodiment, an "intra-parking lot road" was used as an example of an intra-facility road, but the intra-facility road is not limited to a parking lot road and may be a road located within another facility (e.g., a complex facility).

[0068] Furthermore, in the above-described embodiment, when calculating the surrounding road links existing within a predetermined range from the parking lot polygon, the control unit 20 is configured to calculate the centroid coordinates of the parking lot polygon and calculate the surrounding road links using the centroid coordinates as the center (i.e., reference), but the coordinates used as the reference are not limited to the centroid coordinates, and other coordinates that can serve as a reference may be used as the reference.

[0069] Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the control unit 20 determines whether or not a road link existing within a predetermined range from the parking lot polygon is included in the parking lot polygon, and after determining that the road link is included in the parking lot polygon, determines whether or not the road type of the road link is a "road in the parking lot" or an "expressway." However, the order of this processing may be reversed. That is, the control unit 20 may first determine the road type of a road link existing within a predetermined range from the parking lot polygon, and if the road type is not a "road in the parking lot" or an "expressway," determine whether or not the road link is included in the parking lot polygon.

[0070] In the above-described embodiment, in the processing of steps S74 and S75, the determination of whether the road type of the road link included in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon is either a "parking lot road" or an "expressway" is performed for all road links (candidate road links) included in the parking lot polygon. On the other hand, the processing of steps S74 and S75 is processing for determining whether the parking lot polygon has an attribute of "underground" or "above ground" based on the number of corresponding road links included in the parking lot polygon. Therefore, if it is determined that at least one road link is not a "parking lot road" or an "expressway," the control unit 20 may end the loop processing of steps S74 to S75. In other words, if it is determined that at least one road link is a corresponding road link included in the parking lot polygon, the control unit 20 does not need to execute the loop processing of steps S74 to S75 for all remaining candidate road links.

[0071] Furthermore, the present invention can also be applied as a program or method. The above-described systems, programs, and methods may be realized as standalone devices or may be realized using shared components, and include various other aspects. For example, it is possible to provide a method or program realized by the above-described system. Furthermore, it is possible to modify the invention as appropriate, for example, by making some parts software and some parts hardware. Furthermore, the invention can also be realized as a recording medium for a program that controls the device. Of course, the recording medium for the software may be a magnetic recording medium or a semiconductor memory, and any recording medium developed in the future can be considered in the same way. [Explanation of symbols]

[0072] 10...Parking lot type determination system, 20...Control unit, 21...Parking lot type determination program, 21a...Acquisition unit, 21b...Determination unit, 30...Recording unit, 30a...Map information, 30b...Parking history, 40...Communication unit, 100...Vehicle (probe car), 110...Communication unit, 120...Positioning unit, 130...Map information, 140...Parking history.

Claims

1. an acquisition unit for acquiring parking lot polygons associated with parking lot attributes; a determination unit that determines whether a road link exists in the area of ​​the acquired parking lot polygon, The determination unit When it is determined that the road link exists in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon, the parking lot polygon is recorded in a recording unit as an underground parking lot, and when it is determined that the road link does not exist in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon, the parking lot polygon is recorded in a recording unit as an above-ground parking lot. Parking lot type determination system.

2. the road link has a road type, the determination unit determines that the road link exists in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon when the road type of the road link is not a parking lot road in which the road link is provided within the parking lot or a highway. The parking lot type determination system according to claim 1 .

3. The above-ground parking lot is a parking lot that exists at least on the ground, The underground parking lot is a parking lot that does not exist on the ground but exists only underground, The parking lot type determination system according to claim 1 or 2.

4. The determination unit determining whether or not there is a peripheral road link located within a predetermined range from the area of ​​the parking lot polygon; When it is determined that the peripheral road link exists within the predetermined range, The peripheral road link is regarded as the road link to be determined whether it exists in the area of ​​the parking lot polygon. The parking lot type determination system according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

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