METHODOLOGY AND SYSTEM FOR ROUTING OPTIMIZATION IN GPS-BASED NAVIGATION, COMBINING DYNAMIC TRAFFIC DATA

摘要

We have devised a methodology and appropriate systems realizing it, related to the collection, by means of a GPS-based Personal Navigation Assistant (PNA) and aggregation, central processing and distribution (by means of a Central System) of dynamic information related to the road traffic flow (i.e., the traveling speed of a vehicle for every road segment it travels through, correlated with other vehicular and road parameters), thereby augmenting the existing static navigation map data with dynamic ones and providing improved routing and navigation capabilities to current PNAs. Proper software, interacting with typical PNA hardware, will record characteristics and parameters associated with each road segment of the travelled path (e.g. The time or speed it takes to go through that road segment, the current time and date, the weather conditions, the vehicle type, whether it is a work-day or some holiday, etc.). After the offline uploading and post-processing of the users' trace data by a Central Server System, this data will be incorporated in a "global map" (consisting of a segmented, special purpose and distributed, spatial database). The PNA users will thereafter be able to obtain, store within their PNAs and use any part of the "global map", combined with the available static maps of their device, in order to obtain improved routing decisions, based on : a) dynamic (space/time-dependent) traffic data, i.e. the combination of time-of-the-day, day-of-the-week, season-of-the-year, type-of- vehicle, type-of-weather, road-conditions, and type-of-holiday, and b) decision criteria, such as, shortest travelling time, less cost, or a combination thereof, as desired by the user/driver.