Vehicle route searching apparatus

Claim 2

A vehicle-route computing apparatus according to Claim 1 further comprises: a destination-area determining means (14) for determining a destination area from a destination position toward which said vehicle is driven in place of said departure-area determining means (3); a destination-area route network storing means (15) for storing a plurality of destination-area route network data sets which are each associated with a destination area and obtained by calculating routes from a plurality of departure areas to said destination area in advance in place of said departure-area route network storing means (5); and a route-search processing means (7) for reading out one of said destination-area route network data sets associated with said destination area determined by said destination-area determining means (14) from said destination-area route network storing means (15), searching said read-out destination-area route network data set for a guidance route from a departure position to said destination position of said vehicle in said destination area to which said vehicle is running and presenting said guidance route.

Claim 3

A vehicle-route computing apparatus according to Claim 1 further comprises: a destination-area determining means (14) for determining a destination area from a destination position toward which said vehicle is driven; and a destination-area route network storing means (15) for storing a plurality of destination-area route network data sets which are each associated with a destination area and obtained by calculating routes from a plurality of departure areas to said destination area in advance, wherein said route-search processing means (7) reads out one of said departure-area route network data sets associated with said departure area determined by said departure-area determining means (3) from said departure-area route network storing means (5) and one of said destination-area route network data sets associated with said destination area determined by said destination-area determining means (14) from said destination-area route network storing means (15), searching said read-out departure-area route network data set and said read-out destination-area route network data set for a guidance route from a departure position of said vehicle in said departure area to said destination position of said vehicle in said destination area to which said vehicle is running and presenting said guidance route.

Claim 4

A vehicle-route computing apparatus according to Claim 1 or 3 wherein: said departure-area route network data sets stored in said departure-area route network storing means (5) is data of departure areas each classified into departure sub-areas at a plurality of hierarchical levels each assigned a predetermined area size whereby, for a small departure sub-area having a small area size at a low hierarchical level, data of routes from said small departure sub-area to a destination area in close proximity to said small departure sub-area is stored and, for a large departure sub-area having a large area size at a high hierarchical level, data of routes from said large departure sub-area to a destination area far away from said large departure sub-area is stored; and said route-search processing means (7) superimposes a plurality of said departure-area route network data sets of said small and large departure sub-areas stored in said departure-area route network storing means (5) in order to provide guidance routes from a small departure sub-area to a plurality of remote destination areas.

Claim 5

A vehicle-route computing apparatus according to Claim 2 or 3 wherein: said destination-area route network data sets stored in said destination-area route network storing means (15) is data of destination areas each classified into destination sub-areas at a plurality of hierarchical levels each having a predetermined area size whereby, for a small destination sub-area having a small area size at a low hierarchical level, data of routes from said small destination sub-area to a departure area in close proximity to said small destination sub-area is stored and, for a large destination sub-area having a large area size at a high hierarchical level, data of routes from said large destination sub-area to a departure area far away from said destination large sub-area is stored; and said route-search processing means (7) superimposes a plurality of said destination-area route network data sets of said small and large destination sub-areas stored in said destination-area route network storing means (15) in order to provide guidance routes from a small destination sub-area to a plurality of remote departure areas.

Claim 6

A vehicle-route computing apparatus according to any one of Claims 1 to 5 wherein data of road maps stored in said road-map storing means (4) comprises data of road maps at a low hierarchical level each comprehensively depicting detailed roads used as a guidance for said vehicle, and data of road maps at a high hierarchical level each created in advance through the steps of: finding inter-area main routes each connecting a departure area to a destination area using road maps thereof at a low hierarchical level for different combinations of departure and destination areas; and computing a logical sum of a plurality of said inter-area main routes found for said different combinations of departure and destination areas.

Claim 7

A vehicle-route computing apparatus according to any one of Claims 1, 3 and 4 wherein said departure-area route network data sets stored in said departure-area route network storing means (5) each have a tree-like shape obtained by calculating a logical sum of a plurality of routes from a departure area to a plurality of destination areas in advance.

Claim 8

A vehicle-route computing apparatus according to any one of Claims 2, 3 and 5 wherein said destination-area route network data sets stored in said destination-area route network storing means (15) each have a tree-like shape obtained by calculating a logical sum of a plurality of routes from a destination area to a plurality of departure areas in advance.

Claim 9

A vehicle-route computing apparatus according to any one of Claims 1 to 8 wherein said data of road maps stored in said road-map storing means (4) is attribute data of branch points and links on each of said road maps and said departure-area route network data sets stored in said departure-area route network storing means each comprise numbers appended to said branch points or said road segments and flags indicating whether or not said branch points or said road segments are usable.

Claim 10

A vehicle-route computing apparatus according to any one of Claims 1, 3, 4 and 7 wherein routes represented in each of said departure-area route network data sets stored in said departure-area route network storing means (5) are found in advance through the steps of: determining a destination area for destination positions; finding roads passing through all boundary points of said destination area; and providing a trimmed-road zone enclosing the environs of said destination area.

Claim 11

A vehicle-route computing apparatus according to any one of Claims 2, 3, 5 and 8 wherein routes represented in each of said destination-area route network data sets stored in said destination-area route network storing means (15) are found in advance through the steps of: determining a departure area for departure positions; finding roads passing through all boundary points of said departure area; and providing a trimmed-road zone enclosing the environs of said departure area.