Navigation apparatus
US5902349A · kind A · utility
Assignees
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 16, 1996 |
| Grant date | May 11, 1999 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Oct 16, 2016 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01C21/3415
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A navigation apparatus is provided which can search out, even if a vehicle goes off of a guide route, a route which allows the vehicle to return to the guide route so that the travel distance to a destination may be comparatively short. A guide route control unit calculates, when the vehicle is in an off-route condition, rectilinear distances from a vehicle position to nodes on the guide route and route distances from the nodes to the destination along the guide route. The control unit modifies the rectilinear distances and the route distances using first and second weighting coefficients, respectively, which are set so that the second weighting coefficient is greater than the first weighting coefficient, and calculates sums of the rectilinear and route distances modified with the first and second weighting coefficients, respectively. The control unit then determines one of the nodes which exhibits the lowest one of the sums as a return point, and searches for a route from the vehicle position to the return point. The navigation apparatus guides the vehicle to the return point along the route thus searched out.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.