WO2008001493A1 - Position estimating device for vehicles, position estimating method for vehicles, and position estimating program for vehicles - Google Patents

Abstract

Vehicle-to-vehicle communicating means (101) acquires current position information from peripheral vehicles the current positions of which are identified. The relevant vehicle position correcting means (102) stores the current position information as relevant vehicle position. With this, a position estimating device for vehicles which can identify the relevant vehicle position with a precision less than the maximum reach distance of the vehicle-to-vehicle communication wave even in a situation where conventional relevant vehicle position identifying means does not effectively function can be provided.

Description

 Specification

 Vehicle position estimation device, vehicle position estimation method, and vehicle position estimation program

 Technical field

 TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a vehicle position estimation device or the like in a force navigation system, and more particularly to a vehicle position estimation device that functions effectively when vehicle position estimation by positioning means mounted on the vehicle is difficult. The present invention relates to a vehicle position estimation method and a vehicle position estimation program.

 Background art

 Conventionally, as a vehicle position estimation device in a traffic communication control system, the following methods are known.

 (A) Based on information from the Global Positioning System (GPS) (Patent Document 1).

 (B) By map matching (Patent Document 2).

 (C) An autonomous sensor such as a 3D gyro (Patent Document 3).

[0003] Among these, in the known technique (Patent Document 1) for determining the position of the vehicle based on the information of the global positioning system (GPS) of (A), positioning by GPS and FM multiplexing are performed. An apparatus for receiving an error signal and correcting the current position for DGPS (High-Precision Global Positioning System) is disclosed. In this case, DGPS is configured so that the vehicle position can be calculated with high accuracy when signals are received from a certain number of satellites.

[0004] In addition, in the known technology (Patent Document 2) for determining the position of the vehicle by map matching in (B), the vehicle position calculated by GPS is compared with the vehicle position calculated by GPS and the road map. If the position does not correspond to the road, a method of searching for a road that exists within the assumed range and correcting the vehicle position on the searched road is disclosed.

Furthermore, the position of the vehicle is determined by an autonomous sensor such as (C) 3D gyroscope. In the known technology (Patent Document 3) to be determined, there is disclosed a vehicle position positioning method in which positioning by GPS and positioning by an autonomous sensor are performed, and the positioning information obtained from each is multiplied by a reliability coefficient to obtain the current position. Yes.

 Patent Document 1: JP-A-11-304509

 Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003_97959

 Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent No. 3 1 94907

 Patent Document 4: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 07-1 1 4689

 Non-Patent Document 1: "Development of vehicle detection technology using edge pair feature space projection method", Vi i EW2005 Vision Technology Workshop (January 2, 2005, 8-9 Jan.) Japan Society for Precision Engineering

 Non-Patent Document 2: "Development of Stereo Image Recognition Device for Vehicle Front Monitoring", IEICE Technical Report, PRMU 200 1 —90 (The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers)

 Disclosure of the invention

 Problems to be solved by the invention

 [0005] However, all of the above three vehicle position estimation techniques may not function effectively. In other words, (1) In a situation where a sufficient number of GPS signals cannot be received by a nearby building, etc., (2) Drive other than the roads indicated in the map data, and (3) Position by autonomous sensor This is the situation when a steering wheel operation is performed that makes it difficult. A typical example of this situation is the use of multistory parking lots in urban areas.

 [0006] In such a situation, there is not much problem in the multilevel parking lot, but a big problem may occur when leaving the multilevel parking lot. In other words, if you leave the multistory parking lot while the accuracy of the vehicle position estimation technology has deteriorated, it will be determined that the vehicle will be located on a road that is completely different from the actual one, and then it will differ from the actual due to map matching. A situation may occur in which information is sent to the driver as if he were driving on a road.

[0007] In such a case, a few GPS signals can be received on the road after leaving the multistory parking lot. However, if it does not receive enough signals to Positioning results by matching are given priority, so in many cases it takes time to restore location information.

 On the other hand, vehicles that do not enter or leave the multistory parking lot but are simply traveling on the road to which the multistory parking lot exit is connected are likely to be able to identify their own vehicle location. In other words, there is a situation in which the current position of the own vehicle cannot be accurately grasped even though the surrounding vehicles can grasp the current position of the own vehicle.

 [0008] The present invention improves the inconvenience of such a conventional example, and in particular, a situation in which the surrounding vehicle is not able to grasp the position of the own vehicle even though the surrounding vehicle is able to grasp the position of the own vehicle. Therefore, a vehicle position estimation device, a vehicle position estimation method, and a vehicle position estimation program capable of correctly grasping the own vehicle position are provided.

 Means for solving the problem

 [0009] According to the present invention, there is provided a vehicle position estimation device in a vehicle navigation system, the vehicle-to-vehicle communication means capable of receiving information indicating the position of the surrounding vehicle transmitted by the surrounding vehicle, There is provided a vehicle position estimating device having own vehicle position correcting means for storing position information received by the communication means as current position information of the own vehicle.

 Therefore, according to this, the position of the surrounding vehicle obtained through the vehicle-to-vehicle communication means is stored and held as the vehicle position of the own vehicle by the own vehicle position correcting means. It is possible to specify and hold the position effectively and efficiently.

[0010] Here, when the vehicle-to-vehicle communication means described above receives a plurality of pieces of information indicating the position from a plurality of surrounding vehicles, the received radio wave selects the one having the maximum intensity among the received radio waves. It is good also as a structure provided with the selection function.

As a result, the reception radio wave selection function works effectively, and relatively clear and highly sensitive position information with little noise influence can be obtained from the surrounding vehicles, and the reliability of the apparatus can be further enhanced. [001 1] Further, the vehicle position estimation state determination means for determining whether or not the position of the vehicle can be grasped is added to the vehicle position correction means described above. The vehicle position correction means described above uses the position information obtained by the inter-vehicle communication as the vehicle position when it is determined by the vehicle position estimation state determination means that the position of the vehicle is not grasped. You may comprise so that it may memorize | store.

 For this reason, according to this, the vehicle position correction means described above is activated when any of the vehicle position determination devices using the GPS, autonomous sensor, or map matching method does not function. There is an advantage that energy saving can be achieved.

 [0012] In addition, the above-described vehicle position correcting means detects a surrounding vehicle existing around the vehicle as an information transmission vehicle by a sensor equipped in advance, and extracts a relative position relationship with the vehicle. A specific means is also provided. Then, the vehicle position correction means described above corrects the position information received from the information transmission vehicle based on the relative positional relationship between the extracted information transmission vehicle and the vehicle, and stores it as position information of the vehicle. You may comprise.

 [0013] By doing so, the position information of the own vehicle is corrected (corrected) based on the relative positional relationship with the own vehicle obtained by the surrounding vehicle specifying means, so that the accuracy of the position information of the own vehicle is further improved. It can be further enhanced.

 [0014] Here, the above-described surrounding vehicle specifying means may be configured to have a relative position specifying function for obtaining the relative positional relationship based on distance information obtained by the distance sensor, together with the sensor being a distance sensor. .

 The peripheral vehicle specifying means may be configured to have a relative position specifying function for obtaining the relative position relation based on position information obtained by the image sensor while using the sensor as an image sensor.

[0015] Further, the surrounding vehicle specifying means described above specifies the information transmitting vehicle that has transmitted the information indicating the position by the inter-vehicle communication when a plurality of surrounding vehicles are detected, and the specified information transmitting A relative position specifying function for obtaining the relative position relationship based on position information received from a vehicle is provided. Therefore, according to this, since the position of the own vehicle can be estimated based on the position information of a plurality of surrounding vehicles, the accuracy of the current position of the own vehicle can be further increased.

 [001 6] Here, the peripheral vehicle specifying means described above specifies the information transmission vehicle that has transmitted the information indicating the position by the inter-vehicle communication when a plurality of peripheral vehicles are detected, and the information transmission vehicle It is good also as a structure provided with the relative position specific function which calculates | requires the relative positional relationship between these based on the distance information obtained by the distance sensor as said sensor.

 Further, the surrounding vehicle specifying means described above specifies the information transmission vehicle that has transmitted the information indicating the position by the vehicle-to-vehicle communication when a plurality of surrounding vehicles are detected, and between the information transmission vehicles. It may be configured to have a relative position specifying function for obtaining the relative positional relationship based on distance information obtained by an image sensor as the sensor.

 [001 7] Further, when the vehicle-to-vehicle communication means described above receives information indicating positions from a plurality of surrounding vehicles, the vehicle position correction means includes a plurality of positions indicating the positions received by the vehicle-to-vehicle communication means. One of the information is selected as the position information from the information transmission vehicle, and the selected position information is corrected based on the relative positional relationship between the information transmission vehicle and the own vehicle, and this is corrected. It is memorized as a position.

 Therefore, according to this, even if there are a plurality of surrounding vehicles, the position information can be acquired and corrected as in the case of a single surrounding vehicle, and the position information can be processed quickly. There are advantages.

[0018] Here, when the vehicle-to-vehicle communication unit described above receives information indicating the position from a plurality of surrounding vehicles, the vehicle position correction unit includes the information indicating the position received by the vehicle-to-vehicle communication unit. A plurality of information is selected and used as position information from the information transmission vehicle, and the position information from the selected information transmission vehicle is corrected based on the relative positional relationship between the plurality of information transmission vehicles and the host vehicle. You may comprise so that it may memorize | store as the positional information on the own vehicle. Here, the vehicle position estimation state determination means described above may be configured to have a state determination function that determines that the vehicle position cannot be grasped only when the GPS signal cannot be received for a certain period of time. Further, the vehicle position estimation situation determination means may have a situation determination function that determines that the vehicle position cannot be grasped only when a predetermined steering operation is performed within a predetermined time. Further, the vehicle position estimation situation determination means described above determines that the vehicle position cannot be grasped only when a GPS signal is not received for a certain period of time and a predetermined steering operation is performed within a certain period of time. It may be configured to have a situation judgment function.

 [001 9] Further, the vehicle-to-vehicle communication means described above has a surrounding vehicle information receiving function for receiving information indicating the position of the surrounding vehicle transmitted by the surrounding vehicle and information indicating the attribute of the surrounding vehicle. An attribute of the information transmission vehicle from an image acquired by an imaging unit equipped in advance with a vehicle identification unit transmitting position information indicating the position of the surrounding vehicle and attribute information indicating an attribute of the surrounding vehicle. It is also possible to adopt a configuration having a transmission vehicle specifying function for specifying by finding a vehicle that matches the vehicle.

 Therefore, according to this, since the vehicle that matches the attribute of the information transmission vehicle is found in the image acquired by the imaging means, it is easy to confirm the position of the surrounding vehicle. There is an advantage that can be identified more accurately.

[0020] In order to achieve the above object, in the vehicle position estimation method according to the present invention, an inter-vehicle communication step of receiving information indicating the position of the peripheral vehicle transmitted by a peripheral vehicle, and the inter-vehicle communication step receive And a vehicle position correction step for storing the position information as the vehicle position of the vehicle.

 Therefore, according to this, the position of the surrounding vehicle obtained in the inter-vehicle communication process is memorized and held as the vehicle position of the own vehicle in the vehicle position correction process, so the vehicle position can be surely maintained within a certain error range. Can be identified and retained.

[0021] Here, in the inter-vehicle communication process described above, the position is indicated from a plurality of surrounding vehicles. When information is received, the radio wave with the highest intensity among the received radio waves may be selected. This makes it possible to obtain relatively clear position information that is less affected by noise from surrounding vehicles.

 Further, prior to the execution of the vehicle position correction step described above, a vehicle position estimation situation determination step for determining whether or not the position of the vehicle can be grasped is set, and in the vehicle position correction step, The information obtained by the inter-vehicle communication may be stored as the own vehicle position only when it is determined that the position of the own vehicle cannot be grasped in the own vehicle position estimation situation determination step. In this way, energy saving of the entire device can be achieved.

 [0022] Further, prior to the execution of the above-described vehicle position correction step, a surrounding vehicle specifying step of detecting a peripheral vehicle existing around the vehicle as an information transmission vehicle by a sensor and extracting a relative positional relationship with the vehicle. In the vehicle position correction step, the position information received from the information transmission vehicle is corrected based on the relative positional relationship between the information transmission vehicle and the vehicle extracted in the surrounding vehicle identification step. You may comprise so that it may memorize | store as vehicle position information.

 [0023] Here, in the above-described peripheral vehicle specifying step, a distance sensor may be used as the sensor, and the relative positional relationship may be obtained based on distance information obtained by the distance sensor.

 In the above-described peripheral vehicle specifying step, an image sensor may be used as the sensor, and the relative positional relationship may be obtained based on image information obtained by the image sensor.

[0024] Further, in the above-described surrounding vehicle specifying step, when a plurality of surrounding vehicles are detected, the information transmitting vehicle that transmits the information indicating the position by the inter-vehicle communication is specified, and from the specified information transmitting vehicle You may comprise so that the relative positional relationship of the said information transmission vehicle and the own vehicle may be calculated | required based on the received positional information. In this way, it is possible to estimate the position of the own vehicle based on the position information of a plurality of surrounding vehicles, so that the accuracy of the current position of the own vehicle can be further increased. [0025] Here, in the peripheral vehicle specifying step described above, the information transmission vehicle that transmits the information indicating the position by the inter-vehicle communication when a plurality of peripheral vehicles are detected is identified, and the information transmission vehicle The relative positional relationship between the two may be obtained based on distance information obtained using a distance sensor as the sensor.

 Further, in the peripheral vehicle specifying step described above, when a plurality of peripheral vehicles are detected, the information transmitting vehicle that transmits the information indicating the position by the inter-vehicle communication is specified, and the relative position with respect to the information transmitting vehicle is determined. The relationship may be obtained based on image information obtained using an image sensor as the sensor.

[0026] Further, when the information indicating the position is received from a plurality of surrounding vehicles in the vehicle-to-vehicle communication process, the vehicle position correction process includes the information indicating the position received in the vehicle-to-vehicle communication process. In addition to selecting one to be information from the information transmission vehicle, the positional information received from the information transmission vehicle is corrected based on the relative positional relationship between the information transmission vehicle and the vehicle, and the position information of the vehicle May be stored as. In this way, even if there are a plurality of surrounding vehicles, the position information can be acquired and corrected in the same manner as in the case of a single surrounding vehicle, and there is an advantage that the position information can be processed quickly. .

 [0027] Further, when the information indicating the position is received from a plurality of surrounding vehicles in the vehicle-to-vehicle communication process described above, the vehicle position correction process includes the information indicating the position received in the vehicle-to-vehicle communication process. In addition to selecting a plurality of information as information from the information transmission vehicle, the position information received from the plurality of information transmission vehicles is corrected based on the relative positional relationship between the information transmission vehicle and the own vehicle. You may make it memorize as.

 [0028] Here, in the vehicle position estimation situation determination step described above, it may be determined that the vehicle position cannot be grasped only when the GPS signal cannot be received for a certain time.

In addition, this vehicle position estimation situation determination step is performed in a predetermined time within a predetermined time. Only when the dollar operation is performed, it may be determined that the vehicle position is not grasped.

 Furthermore, in the vehicle position estimation situation determination process described above, it is determined that the vehicle position cannot be grasped only when the GPS signal is not received for a certain period of time and a predetermined steering operation is performed within the certain period of time. You may do it.

 [0029] Further, in the vehicle-to-vehicle communication step described above, the information indicating the position of the surrounding vehicle and the information indicating the attribute of the surrounding vehicle transmitted from the surrounding vehicle are received, and in the surrounding vehicle specifying step, Information that sent the location information and attribute information of the surrounding vehicle. The surrounding vehicle that found the vehicle that matched the attribute from the image acquired by the imaging means equipped in advance and sent the location information and attribute information. You may comprise so that it may specify. In this way, since the information transmission vehicle is specified based on the attribute information, the information transmission vehicle can be specified with high accuracy and speed, and the correction accuracy of the position information can be improved.

 [0030] Here, in each of the inventions related to the vehicle position estimation method described above, the execution contents (various information processing portions) of each process, which is a component, are programmed and executed by a computer. Also good. Even in this case, the above-described object of the present invention can be effectively achieved, and the vehicle position of the own vehicle can be effectively specified within a certain error range.

 The invention's effect

 [0031] Since the present invention is configured and functions as described above, according to this, none of the vehicle position locating devices using the GPS, the autonomous sensor, or the map matching method is functioning effectively. Even if it is in a situation, or even if these devices are not equipped, the current position information is obtained from the surrounding vehicle by inter-vehicle communication, and the current position information of the surrounding vehicle is automatically acquired. Since the vehicle position is stored and held, the vehicle position estimation device, the position estimation method, and the position estimation program can be effectively identified with a certain error range. Can be provided.

Brief Description of Drawings [0032] The above-described object and other objects, features, and advantages will become more apparent from the preferred embodiments described below and the accompanying drawings.

 FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

 FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation in the first embodiment.

 FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

 FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation in the second embodiment.

 FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a third embodiment of the present invention.

 FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation in the third embodiment.

 FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing a situation where information is received from a plurality of surrounding vehicles.

 FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the operation in the third embodiment.

 FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the operation in the third embodiment.

 FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing a situation in which the vehicle position is estimated based on information from a plurality of surrounding vehicles.

 BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

 Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

 (First embodiment)

 1 and 2 show a vehicle position estimation apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The vehicle position estimation apparatus shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 includes vehicle-to-vehicle communication means 10 0 1 for direct communication between the vehicle and the surrounding vehicles, and the vehicle acquired by the vehicle-to-vehicle communication means 1 0 1. And vehicle position correction means 10 0 2 for correcting the position of the vehicle.

 [0034] In this case, a vehicle equipped with this vehicle position estimation device often includes at least one of the vehicle position specifying device using GPS, an autonomous sensor, or a map matching method. . In the present embodiment, a case will be described in which a vehicle equipped with one of these other vehicle position specifying devices is equipped with the vehicle position estimation device in the present embodiment.

[0035] The vehicle-to-vehicle communication means 1 0 1 described above directly communicates between the vehicle and the surrounding vehicle. It is possible to make a system that can communicate ad hoc without going through a base station like a mobile phone. In this case, the information to be communicated is the current position information of surrounding vehicles.

 Examples of ad hoc communication methods between cars include “IE E 8 0 2.1 1 b” and “U W B (U I tra Wi de Band)”.

An example of a specific configuration of the vehicle-to-vehicle communication means 101 will be described with reference to FIG.

 The vehicle-to-vehicle communication means 100 shown in FIG. 1 includes a wireless antenna 11 A, a radio wave intensity measuring unit 11, a data receiving unit 12, and a communication control unit 13. The intensity of the radio wave received by the radio antenna 11 A is measured by the radio field intensity measurement unit 11. The data receiver 1 2 demodulates the radio signal and converts it to data. At this time, the radio field intensity data measured by the radio field intensity measuring unit 11 is also received. The data receiving unit 12 outputs both the current position information of the surrounding vehicle, which is the received data, and the radio wave intensity data to the own vehicle position correcting means 100.

[0037] The own vehicle position correcting means 10 0 2 has a function of correcting the current position of the own vehicle based on the current position information of the surrounding vehicles input from the inter-vehicle communication means 1 0 1.

 As shown in FIG. 1, the vehicle position correcting means 10 2 includes a data storage unit 2 1, a data transmission unit 2 2, and a data processing control unit 23. The data storage unit 21 includes an interface for storing data input from the vehicle-to-vehicle communication means 101 and providing the data to a device other than the device (vehicle position estimation device) in the present embodiment. ing. All of these operations are controlled by the data processing control unit 23.

 The data processing control unit 23 also includes an interface that enables information exchange with an external device other than the present device (vehicle position estimation device).

Here, an example of the operation of the vehicle position correction means 102 described above will be described in detail with reference to the front chart of FIG. First, when the power supply ACC is turned on (S 1 1 1), the timer 1 is set (S 1 1 2). This timer 1 is pre-installed in the data processing control unit 23 described above.

 Next, a radio wave including vehicle position information of the vehicle is received from the surrounding vehicle (S 1 1 3: inter-vehicle communication process). At this time, the received signal strength I is measured by the signal strength measurement unit 11. It is determined whether or not the measured radio field intensity is greater than or equal to a preset threshold value I sh (S 1 1 4).

[0039] Here, if the measured radio field intensity is equal to or greater than the threshold value I sh, the timer T 1 set when the power supply AC C is on is within the preset threshold time T sh (S 1 1 5) The vehicle position information based on the received radio wave is set as the vehicle position (S 1 1 6, S 1 1 8).

 -On the other hand, if no signal exceeding the preset signal strength threshold I sh is received within a certain time T sh (S 1 1 7, S 1 1 8), location information is not stored. .

 In this embodiment, the vehicle position information of the surrounding vehicle is received. However, DGPs correction signal information possessed by the surrounding vehicle may also be used.

 Next, the overall operation of the first embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

 FIG. 2 (A) is a flowchart showing an example of processing steps performed by the vehicle position estimation apparatus according to the first embodiment.

[0041] First, the vehicle-to-vehicle communication means 101 receives vehicle position information transmitted by surrounding vehicles (step S001: vehicle-to-vehicle communication step). The own vehicle position correcting means 102 stores the vehicle position information received by the inter-vehicle communication means 101 as the current position of the own vehicle (step S002: own vehicle position correcting step). As a specific example, if the vehicle position information acquired in step S001 is (latitude I, longitude), for example, the point of (latitude I, longitude) is stored as the vehicle position in step SO02. Specifically, the vehicle position information received by the vehicle-to-vehicle communication means 101 is replaced with the information on the own vehicle position prepared in advance, and the vehicle position is corrected. Is taken in as location information.

 In addition, the vehicle position information acquired in step S 0 0 1 originally indicates the current position of the surrounding vehicle on the side that transmitted the radio wave, but if the maximum reach of the radio wave is d (m), the error d ( m) This can be specified as position information related to the vehicle position with the following accuracy.

[0042] As described above, even when the own vehicle cannot identify the position of the own vehicle by the conventional own vehicle position specifying means, the current position information is obtained by the inter-vehicle communication from the neighboring vehicle specifying the current position, By using this as the position of the host vehicle, the host vehicle position can be specified with accuracy with the maximum error of the inter-vehicle communication radio wave as the maximum error.

 [0043] The vehicle position estimation apparatus according to the present embodiment may be mounted on a device equipped with a positioning method such as GPS, 3D gyro, and map matching.

 In this case, the next step S 0 02 is executed only when the position information can be acquired in step S 0 0 1. If radio waves from surrounding vehicles are not received, the vehicle position is corrected by the autonomous sensor (the sensor provided in the vehicle) with the vehicle position stored in step S 0 0 2 as the initial value. It can be done every moment.

 Further, in the first embodiment, the case where the coordinates of the latitude and longitude of the surrounding vehicles are received as the vehicle position information is shown. However, as the position information, in addition to this, the road that is running is shown. It may include the name and direction of the road on which it is traveling. The direction of the road is expressed as “from south to north”, and the direction of travel of the vehicle is expressed as an angle when the north is 0 degrees, the east is 90 degrees, the south is 180 degrees, etc. Also good.

Furthermore, in the first embodiment, the vehicle-to-vehicle communication means 10 0 1 is configured to receive the vehicle position information transmitted from the surrounding vehicle force (SOO 1) force However, if the radio waves received from nearby vehicles are below a certain preset strength, it is not necessary to use them. On the other hand, when a plurality of radio waves having a certain intensity or higher are received, only vehicle position information obtained from the maximum intensity may be used. [0046] (Second Embodiment)

 Next, a second embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. Here, the same reference numerals are used for the same components as those of the first embodiment described above.

 First, in FIG. 3, the vehicle position estimation apparatus according to the second embodiment includes vehicle-to-vehicle communication means 1 0 1 that directly communicates between the vehicle and surrounding vehicles, and this vehicle-to-vehicle communication 1 0. And vehicle position correction means 1 0 2 for correcting the position of the vehicle acquired by 1. In this vehicle position correction means 100, whether the conventional vehicle position measurement system (positioning system) such as GPS, autonomous sensor, or map matching that the vehicle is equipped with is operating normally. An own vehicle position estimation status judging means 1 0 3 for judging whether or not is provided.

 Of these, the specific configurations of the vehicle-to-vehicle communication means 101 and the vehicle position correcting means 102 are the same as those described with reference to FIG.

 On the other hand, the vehicle position estimation status determination means 10 03 installed in the vehicle position correction means 10 2 functions effectively with a conventional positioning system using GPS, autonomous sensors, or map matching. A function that verifies the likelihood of the vehicle position by checking whether it is in a state, and outputs the judgment result of whether it is better to acquire position information from another vehicle to the vehicle position correction means 1 0 2 Judgment function is provided.

 Here, an example of a specific configuration of the own vehicle position estimation state determination means 10 3 will be described with reference to FIG. 3 (B).

The vehicle position estimation situation determination means 10 3 shown in FIG. 3 (B) includes a vehicle speed sensor 3 1, a steering angle sensor 3 2, and an acceleration sensor 3 3, which are autonomous sensors. 3, 0 3 Lost detection unit 3 5, DGPS reception detection unit 3 6, position estimation accuracy deterioration determination unit 3 7, and overall control unit 3 8. Reference numeral 3 7 7 represents the FM receiver, and reference numeral 3 7 7 A represents the antenna of the FM receiver 3 7 7. Reference numeral 3 8 8 denotes a GPS receiver, and reference numeral 3 8 8 A denotes an antenna of the GPS receiver 3 8 8. [0050] In this case, the original data (basic data) for estimating the vehicle position includes external signal information such as GPS signals and DGPS signals, acceleration sensors, vehicle speed sensors, Two types are used: output information from the rotation angle obtained by calculating the rotation angle of the vehicle based on information from the autonomous sensor mounted on the vehicle such as a steering angle sensor. Then, the position estimation accuracy deterioration determination unit 37 determines whether or not the position estimation of the vehicle is reliable as will be described later (see FIG. 4 (B)). Is output to the vehicle position correcting means 1 0 2 described above.

 [0051] Here, an example of the operation of the vehicle position estimation situation determination means 10 3 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 4 (B).

 First, it is determined whether or not the vehicle position estimation accuracy by GPS in the position estimation accuracy degradation determination unit 37 is degraded. Judgment whether the estimated accuracy of the position of the vehicle by GPS has deteriorated is made based on the reception status from the GPS satellite, that is, the position and number of the captured satellites. For example, if no signal from a GPS satellite can be received, it is judged as degraded, and if it is two, it is judged as degraded because 3D accuracy cannot be secured (S 2 1 1) .

 [0052] Subsequently, the rotation angle of the vehicle is calculated using the information from the autonomous sensor described above (S 2 1 2). After it is determined that the GPS accuracy is degraded, the rotation angle of the vehicle is calculated using the autonomous sensor. In this case, for example, when the rotation angle exceeds a preset threshold value R sh (S 2 13), it is determined that the position estimation accuracy of the own vehicle has deteriorated (S 2 14).

 When it is determined that the position estimation accuracy of the own vehicle has deteriorated, the position information of the surrounding vehicle is received and set as the position information of the own vehicle.

In the second embodiment, the vehicle position information of the surrounding vehicle is received. However, as in the case of the first embodiment described above, the correction signal for DGPS that the surrounding vehicle has. Information may be received. Next, the operation of the entire apparatus according to the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 4 (A).

 First, the vehicle position estimation status determination means 10 3 described above checks whether the conventional vehicle position estimation device using GPS, autonomous sensor, or map matching is functioning effectively. The current certainty of the vehicle is verified, it is determined whether or not it is better to acquire the position information from the surrounding vehicle, and the result is output to the vehicle position correcting means 1 0 2 (Step S 2 0 1: Vehicle position estimation status judgment process).

[0055] Here, the verification of the current position of the vehicle position, which is performed in the vehicle position estimation situation determination step, is performed in this embodiment only when the vehicle position cannot be received for a certain period of time. It is set in advance so that it can be determined that it cannot be grasped.

 In this case, it may be determined that the position of the vehicle cannot be grasped only when a predetermined steering operation is performed within a certain period of time, in addition to the determination of the GPS signal reception timing.

 Alternatively, it may be determined that the vehicle position cannot be grasped only when a GPS signal cannot be received for a certain period of time and a predetermined handle operation is performed within a certain period of time.

 [0056] Subsequently, the own vehicle position correcting means 1 0 2 determines whether or not the own vehicle position estimation status judging means 1 0 3 should obtain position information from the surrounding vehicles (the position of the own vehicle is Is checked (step S 2 0 2). And if it is determined that it is better to acquire location information from the surrounding vehicle (when it is determined that the location of the vehicle is not known), the surrounding vehicle acquired by the inter-vehicle communication means 1 0 1 The current position information (step S 2 0 3) is stored as the own vehicle position (step S 2 0 4: own vehicle position correction step).

[0057] On the other hand, if it is determined that it is not necessary to acquire information from the surrounding vehicle, step S 2 0 1 is executed again. Here, the vehicle-to-vehicle communication means 10 0 1 performs vehicle-to-vehicle communication only when there is a position information acquisition request from the own vehicle position correction means 1 0 2. By performing vehicle-to-vehicle communication only when this location information acquisition request is made, the amount of vehicle-to-vehicle communication can be reduced, the load on the vehicle-to-vehicle communication means can be reduced, and the durability of the entire device can be improved and the power supply can be saved. Can be planned.

 Here, in the second embodiment, when the surrounding vehicle that transmits the position information is determined that the vehicle position can be grasped by the own vehicle position estimation status judging means 103 mounted on the surrounding vehicle. Information may only be sent via inter-vehicle communication. By doing so, it is possible to prevent the propagation of uncertain information to the surroundings.

[0058] (Third embodiment)

 Next, a third embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.

 As shown in FIG. 5 (A), the vehicle position estimation apparatus according to the third embodiment includes vehicle-to-vehicle communication means 1 01 that directly communicates between the vehicle and surrounding vehicles, and this vehicle-to-vehicle communication. 1 Own vehicle position correction means 1 02 for correcting the position of the own vehicle acquired by 01, and further newly provided own vehicle position estimation status judgment means 1 03 and surrounding vehicle identification means 1 04 Become.

 Of these, the vehicle-to-vehicle communication means 101 and the own vehicle position estimation status judgment means 103 are the same as those in the second embodiment described above.

[0059] The peripheral vehicle specifying means 104 described above has a function of detecting a vehicle existing in the vicinity using a sensor previously mounted on the host vehicle and extracting the relative positional relationship.

For example, in the case of using one imaging device as a sensor, the literature “Development of vehicle detection technology using edge pair feature space projection method”, Vi EW2005 vision technology Koichi Workshop (January 2, 8-9, 2005) Preliminary Lecture Collection: p p. 1 60 to 1 65 (by the Japan Society for Precision Engineering) Also good. In addition, as a method of performing stereo vision using two cameras, the literature “Development of a stereo image recognition device for vehicle front monitoring”, IEICE Technical Report, PRMU 200 1 -90, p. 37-42 ((Company) Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers) The

 [0060] Further, in extracting the relative positional relationship, a distance measuring sensor other than the one using the imaging device as described above may be used. For example, by measuring the distance between each other using a distance sensor such as a millimeter wave sensor, a laser sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, and a necessary processing device corresponding to the distance sensor, it is possible to Can be obtained.

 [0061] Here, as described above, the vehicle position correction means 1 0 2 described above is used when the vehicle position estimation situation determination means 1 0 3 determines that it is better to acquire position information from the surrounding vehicle. The vehicle has a function of storing the position information of the surrounding vehicle acquired from the inter-vehicle communication means 101 (value corrected by the relative position information extracted by the surrounding vehicle specifying means 104) as the position of the own vehicle.

 Next, the overall operation of the third embodiment will be described based on FIG. 6 (B).

 First, the vehicle position estimation status judgment means 10 3 checks whether the conventional vehicle position estimation device using GPS, autonomous sensors, map matching, etc. is functioning effectively, and confirms the vehicle position. Verify the authenticity and output the judgment result of whether or not it is better to acquire position information from the surrounding vehicle (whether or not the vehicle position is known) to the vehicle position correction means 1 0 2 (Step S 3 0 1).

[0063] Subsequently, the vehicle position correction means 1 0 2 should preferably acquire the position information from the surrounding vehicle by the vehicle position estimation situation determination means 1 0 3 described above (the vehicle position is not grasped). Is checked (step S 3 0 2). Then, if it is determined that it is better to acquire the position information from the surrounding vehicle, the inter-vehicle communication means 10 0 1 captures the current position information from the surrounding vehicle (step S 3 0 3), The vehicle position correction means 102 described above detects the relative position relationship between the surrounding vehicle and the image from the image obtained by the imaging means (image sensor) as a sensor equipped in advance (Step S 3 0 4: (Peripheral vehicle specifying step), the current position information obtained from the peripheral vehicle is corrected based on the relative position information, and stored as the own vehicle position (step S300: own vehicle position correcting step). In this case, a distance sensor may be used as the sensor, and the relative positional relationship may be obtained based on distance information obtained by the distance sensor.

 [0064] Here, an example of specific correction of the surrounding vehicle information by the relative position information will be described. Now, from the surrounding vehicle, its existence position "North latitude H 1 degree, East longitude T 1 degree", Traveling direction "Northward" Is received. Furthermore, if the relative position of the surrounding vehicle extracted by the surrounding vehicle specifying means 10 4 is “H 2 degrees north and T 2 degrees west”, the vehicle position correcting means 1 0 2 is “north latitude H 1 _ H 2 degrees, east longitude T 1 + T 2 degrees "is stored as the location of the vehicle.

 In addition, when the relative positional relationship is indicated by a coordinate system centered on the in-vehicle camera of the own vehicle, the above information is calculated using information such as the direction of the optical axis of the own vehicle camera, internal parameters, and the radius of the earth. The

 As described above, according to the above-described embodiment, the position of the host vehicle can be specified in more detail based on the position information of the surrounding vehicles.

 [0066] [Processing when there are multiple surrounding vehicles (Part 1)]

 Next, in each of the above-described embodiments, the case where only one vehicle is detected as the surrounding vehicle has been described. However, the position information of the surrounding vehicle received by the inter-vehicle communication means 1001 is one. Regardless, the processing when the surrounding vehicle specifying means 10 04 detects a plurality of vehicles will be described.

 In this case, the inter-vehicle communication means 1 0 1 receives not only the position information of the surrounding vehicle but also the attribute information of the surrounding vehicle. Here, the attribute information refers to a vehicle registration number, a vehicle type, a vehicle body color, and an appearance image.

[0068] Peripheral vehicle specifying means 1 0 4 detects a vehicle that matches the received attribute information from the image. As a vehicle registration number recognition method, for example, the method described in “Vehicle registration number recognition method” of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 0 7-1 1 4 6 8 9 can be used. ) Various surrounding vehicles themselves as shown in And a summary of images viewed from various directions. After the vehicle that sent the information is identified by these methods (peripheral vehicle identification process), the process can be performed in the same way as when only one peripheral vehicle is detected.

 [0069] As shown in Fig. 5 (B), the surrounding vehicle specifying means 1 0 4 described above includes a vehicle attribute storage unit 41, an image sensor 4 2, an image storage unit 4 3, a vehicle attribute search unit 4 4, A position calculation unit 45 and a control unit 46 are provided.

 In this case, information about the attributes of the vehicle is simultaneously received from the neighboring vehicles communicated by the vehicle-to-vehicle communication means 101 and stored in the vehicle attribute storage unit 41. As described above, the vehicle attributes indicate the vehicle registration number, the vehicle type, the vehicle body color, and the appearance image.

 [0070] Subsequently, the image sensor 4 2 is used to capture an image of the surroundings of the host vehicle and store it in the image storage unit 4 3. The image sensor 42 may be a visible light power camera or an infrared camera. The vehicle attribute search unit (attribute matching vehicle specifying unit) 44 extracts a vehicle that matches the attribute information in the vehicle attribute storage unit 41 from the image stored in the image storage unit. Then, if the vehicle is extracted, the relative position of the vehicle with respect to the own vehicle is calculated by the relative position calculation unit 45 (peripheral vehicle specifying step). Subsequently, the relative position calculation result is sent to the vehicle position correcting means 1 0 2. After the vehicle for information transmission is specified, the vehicle position correction means 102 operates and the same processing is performed as when only one peripheral vehicle has been detected. Reference numeral 46 denotes an operation control unit. The operation control unit 46 controls the operation of each component.

 [0071] [Processing when there are multiple surrounding vehicles (part 2)]

 Next, processing when a plurality of vehicles are present in the vicinity and the vehicle-to-vehicle communication means 1001 receives position information from a plurality of vehicles will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 7 to FIG.

 [0072] In FIG. 7, a plurality of peripheral vehicles 1 4 0 1, 1 4 0 2,

1 4 0 3 exists, and position information 1 4 0 1 a, 1 4 0 2 a, and 1 4 0 3 a are received from them. In this case, the peripheral vehicle specifying means 1 0 4 An example is shown in Figure 8.

 In FIG. 8, first, when inter-vehicle communication means 1 0 1 receives a plurality of position information 1 4 0 1 a, 1 4 0 2 a, 1 4 0 3 a from a plurality of surrounding vehicles (step S 5 0 1: Peripheral vehicle identification process), Peripheral vehicle identification means 1 0 4 selects position information 1 4 0 1 a to 1 4 0 3 a from the vehicle considered to be the most useful (step) S500), the peripheral vehicle position and the relative positional relationship that match the attribute information received from the selected vehicle are specified, and processing is performed assuming that only this information has been received (step S500).

 In this case, as a method for selecting useful information, in each of the above embodiments, when a plurality of surrounding vehicles are detected, the vehicle having the strongest reception strength and the vehicle received at the earliest time are selected and set as the reference vehicle. Is done. Then, based on the positional information received from the identified information transmitting vehicle, the relative positional relationship between the information transmitting vehicle and the own vehicle is the same as in the case where there is one peripheral vehicle in the second embodiment described above. Calculations are based on information obtained using distance sensors or image sensors.

 FIG. 9 shows another example of the operation of the surrounding vehicle specifying means 104 described above. In the operation example shown in FIG. 9, first, when inter-vehicle communication means 1 0 1 receives position information 1 4 0 1 a, 1 4 0 2 a, 1 4 0 3 a from a plurality of surrounding vehicles (step 1 S 6 0 1), peripheral vehicle specifying means 1 0 4 force position information 1 4 0 1 a to 1 4 0 3 a A case where a plurality of pieces of information considered to be useful are selected is shown. When multiple pieces of information are selected (step S 6 0 2), the relative positional relationship is extracted for each piece of information by identifying the surrounding vehicle that sent the information (step S 6 0 3: Vehicle identification process).

FIG. 10 shows own vehicle estimated positions 1 7 0 1 to 1 7 0 3 calculated based on each information. In FIG. 10, reference numeral 1 70 4 indicates the corrected current position of the final vehicle obtained by weighted averaging according to the reliability of each of the plurality of pieces of information described above (step S 6 0 Four ) . In this case, if reliability is unknown, it should be corrected by weighting equally. [0074] Here, in the above-described example, the own vehicle estimated position 1 7 0 1 to 1 7 0 3 is weighted and averaged to obtain the final vehicle position 1 7 0 4, but by the least square approximation or the like, The final vehicle position may be obtained.

 [0075] As described above, by estimating the position of the vehicle using information received from a plurality of vehicles, position errors based on various factors are compared with the case of using information from one vehicle. Are averaged, which gives a more accurate position.

 Here, with respect to each process executed in the explanation of the operation in each of the above-described embodiments, the information processing contents that are the execution contents may be programmed and the computer may execute them.

 [0077] As described above, in each of the above-described embodiments, a situation where none of the own vehicle position specifying devices using the GPS, the autonomous sensor, or the map matching method functions effectively. Even if these devices are not equipped, the current position information is obtained from the surrounding vehicle by inter-vehicle communication, and the current position information of the surrounding vehicle is obtained from the vehicle position. As a result, the vehicle position can be effectively identified within a certain error range.

 [0078] In addition, by performing inter-vehicle communication only when the own vehicle position cannot be specified, the number of times of acquiring the current position information of the surrounding vehicle can be reduced, and thereby the inter-vehicle communication means 1 0 Has the effect of reducing the load on 1.

 Furthermore, the vehicle position can be estimated with higher accuracy by further providing peripheral vehicle specifying means 104. The reason is that the current position of the vehicle can be calculated by correcting the current position information of the surrounding vehicle received from the surrounding vehicle based on the relative positional relationship between the vehicle that sent the information and the vehicle. That's it.

[0079] Also, the relative position between the vehicle that specified the vehicle that transmitted the information from the surrounding vehicles and the current position information of the surrounding vehicle received from the surrounding vehicles and the vehicle that transmitted the information. In addition, if there are multiple vehicles that have transmitted information, it is possible to estimate the vehicle position by combining the information obtained from each vehicle. Even if there are multiple vehicles, the vehicle position can be estimated with high accuracy.

 This application claims priority based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2 0 0 6 _ 1 8 1 6 7 4 filed on Jun. 30, 2000, the entire disclosure of which is here Into.

Claims

The scope of the claims  [1] Vehicle-to-vehicle communication means capable of receiving information indicating the position of the surrounding vehicle transmitted by the surrounding vehicle, and the own vehicle storing the position information received by the vehicle-to-vehicle communication means as the current position information of the own vehicle Position correction means,  The own vehicle position correcting means is provided with a correction storage function for storing the position information received by the inter-vehicle communication means as correction information instead of the position information of the own vehicle stored in advance. Vehicle position estimation device. [2] In the vehicle position estimation device according to claim 1,  When the vehicle-to-vehicle communication means receives a plurality of pieces of information indicating positions from a plurality of surrounding vehicles, the vehicle-to-vehicle communication means has a received radio wave selection function that selects a received radio wave having the maximum intensity. A vehicle position estimation device characterized by the above. [3] In the vehicle position estimation device according to claim 1 or 2,  The vehicle position correction means includes a vehicle position estimation status determination means for determining whether or not the position of the vehicle can be grasped,  The own vehicle position correcting means stores the position information obtained by inter-vehicle communication as the own vehicle position when it is determined by the own vehicle position estimation state judging means that the position of the own vehicle is not grasped. Vehicle position estimation device characterized by  [4] In the vehicle position estimation device according to claim 3,  The vehicle position correcting means is provided with a surrounding vehicle specifying means for detecting a surrounding vehicle existing around the vehicle as an information transmission vehicle by a sensor equipped in advance and extracting a relative position relationship with the vehicle,  The own vehicle position correcting means corrects the position information received from the information transmitting vehicle based on the relative positional relationship between the extracted information transmitting vehicle and the own vehicle, and stores this as position information of the own vehicle. A vehicle position estimation device comprising a position information correction storage function. [5] In the vehicle position estimation device according to claim 4, The peripheral vehicle specifying means uses the sensor as a distance sensor and the distance. A vehicle position estimation device comprising a relative position specifying function for obtaining the relative positional relationship based on distance information obtained by a sensor.  [6] In the vehicle position estimation device according to claim 4,  The vehicle position estimation device characterized in that the surrounding vehicle specifying means has a relative position specifying function for obtaining the relative positional relationship based on position information obtained by the image sensor while using the sensor as an image sensor. .  [7] The vehicle position estimation device according to any one of claims 4 to 6, wherein the surrounding vehicle specifying means includes information indicating a position by the inter-vehicle communication when a plurality of surrounding vehicles are detected. A vehicle position estimating device characterized by having a relative position specifying function for specifying the transmitted information transmitting vehicle and obtaining the relative position relationship based on the positional information received from the specified information transmitting vehicle. .  [8] In the vehicle position estimation device according to claim 7,  The surrounding vehicle specifying means specifies the information transmitting vehicle that has transmitted the information indicating the position by the inter-vehicle communication when a plurality of surrounding vehicles are detected, and determines a relative positional relationship with the information transmitting vehicle. A vehicle position estimation device having a relative position specifying function obtained based on distance information obtained by a distance sensor as the sensor.  [9] In the vehicle position estimation device according to claim 7,  The surrounding vehicle specifying means specifies the information transmitting vehicle that has transmitted the information indicating the position by the inter-vehicle communication when a plurality of surrounding vehicles are detected, and determines a relative positional relationship with the information transmitting vehicle. A vehicle position estimation device having a relative position specifying function obtained based on distance information obtained by an image sensor as the sensor. [10] In the vehicle position estimation device according to any one of claims 7 to 9, when the inter-vehicle communication unit receives information indicating a position from a plurality of surrounding vehicles, the own vehicle position correction unit includes: Selecting one of a plurality of pieces of information indicating the position received by the vehicle-to-vehicle communication means as position information from the information transmission vehicle; A vehicle position estimation device characterized in that the selected position information is corrected based on a relative positional relationship between the information transmission vehicle and the host vehicle, and is stored as the position of the host vehicle.  [1 1] In the vehicle position estimation device according to any one of claims 7 to 9, when the inter-vehicle communication means receives information indicating positions from a plurality of surrounding vehicles, the own vehicle position correction means Selects a plurality of pieces of information indicating the position received by the vehicle-to-vehicle communication means and uses them as position information from the information transmission vehicle, as well as a plurality of pieces of position information from the selected information transmission vehicle. A vehicle position estimation device which is corrected based on a relative positional relationship between the information transmission vehicle and the own vehicle and stored as position information of the own vehicle.  [12] The vehicle position estimation apparatus according to any one of claims 3 to 11, wherein the vehicle position estimation state determination means is not capable of receiving a signal of a global positioning system (GPS) for a certain period of time. A vehicle position estimation device characterized by having a situation determination function that determines that the vehicle position cannot be grasped at the time.  [13] The vehicle position estimation apparatus according to any one of claims 3 to 11, wherein the own vehicle position estimation status determination means is configured to perform an automatic operation when a predetermined steering operation is performed within a predetermined time. A vehicle position estimation device having a situation determination function for determining that the vehicle position cannot be grasped.  [14] The vehicle position estimation apparatus according to any one of claims 3 to 11, wherein the vehicle position estimation status determination means is not capable of receiving a GPS signal for a certain period of time and is within a certain period of time. A vehicle position estimation device having a situation determination function for determining that the vehicle position cannot be grasped when a predetermined steering operation is performed. [15] The vehicle position estimation device according to any one of claims 4 to 11, wherein the inter-vehicle communication means includes information indicating a position of the surrounding vehicle transmitted by the surrounding vehicle and an attribute of the surrounding vehicle. A vehicle that has received a vehicle information reception function for receiving the vehicle information, and the vehicle vehicle identification means transmits position information indicating a position of the vehicle surrounding and attribute information indicating an attribute of each vehicle surrounding the vehicle. Imaging hand equipped separately beforehand A vehicle position estimation apparatus comprising a transmission vehicle specifying function for specifying a vehicle that matches an attribute of the information transmission vehicle from an image acquired by a step.  [16] A vehicle-to-vehicle communication step for receiving information indicating the position of the surrounding vehicle transmitted by the surrounding vehicle, and a vehicle position correcting step for storing the position information received in the vehicle-to-vehicle communication step as the vehicle position of the vehicle And  The vehicle position estimation method, wherein the vehicle position correction step stores position information received by inter-vehicle communication in place of pre-stored position information of the vehicle as correction information. [1 7] In the vehicle position estimation method according to claim 16,  In the vehicle-to-vehicle communication step, the vehicle position estimation method is characterized in that, when information indicating a position is received from a plurality of surrounding vehicles, a vehicle having the maximum intensity of the received radio wave is selected. [18] In the vehicle position estimation method according to claim 16 or 17,  Prior to the execution of the vehicle position correction step, a vehicle position estimation situation determination step for determining whether or not the position of the vehicle can be grasped is provided.  In the vehicle position correction step, the information obtained by the inter-vehicle communication is stored as the vehicle position only when it is determined by the vehicle position estimation state determination step that the position of the vehicle is not grasped. A vehicle position estimation method characterized by the above.  [1 9] In the vehicle position estimation method according to claim 18,  Prior to the execution of the vehicle position correction step, a surrounding vehicle identification step is provided in which a surrounding vehicle existing around the vehicle is detected by a sensor as an information transmission vehicle and a relative positional relationship with the vehicle is extracted. In the vehicle position correction step, the position information received from the information transmission vehicle is corrected based on the relative positional relationship between the information transmission vehicle and the vehicle extracted in the surrounding vehicle specifying step, and stored as the position of the vehicle. A vehicle position estimation method characterized by: [20] In the vehicle position estimation method according to claim 19,  The vehicle position estimation method characterized in that, in the peripheral vehicle identification step, a distance sensor is used as the sensor and the relative positional relationship is obtained based on distance information obtained by the distance sensor. [21] In the vehicle position estimation method according to claim 19,  In the surrounding vehicle specifying step, an image sensor is used as the sensor, and the relative positional relationship is obtained based on image information obtained by the image sensor. [22] The vehicle position estimation method according to any one of claims 19 to 21, wherein, in the peripheral vehicle specifying step, information indicating a position by inter-vehicle communication when a plurality of peripheral vehicles are detected. The vehicle for transmitting the information is specified and the relative positional relationship between the vehicle for transmitting the information and the vehicle is determined based on the positional information received from the specified information transmitting vehicle. Position estimation method.  [23] In the vehicle position estimation method according to claim 22,  In the surrounding vehicle specifying step, when a plurality of surrounding vehicles are detected, the information transmitting vehicle that transmits the information indicating the position by inter-vehicle communication is specified, and the relative positional relationship with the information transmitting vehicle is A vehicle position estimation method characterized in that it is obtained based on distance information obtained using a distance sensor as the sensor. [24] In the vehicle position estimation method according to claim 22,  In the surrounding vehicle specifying step, when a plurality of surrounding vehicles are detected, the information transmitting vehicle that transmits the information indicating the position by inter-vehicle communication is specified, and the relative positional relationship with the information transmitting vehicle is A vehicle position estimation method characterized in that it is obtained based on image information obtained using an image sensor as the sensor. [25] The vehicle position estimation method according to any one of claims 2 2 to 24, wherein information indicating positions is received from a plurality of surrounding vehicles in the inter-vehicle communication step. In the vehicle position correction step, one of the information indicating the position received in the inter-vehicle communication step is selected as information from the information transmission vehicle, and the position information received from the information transmission vehicle. Is corrected based on the relative positional relationship between the information transmission vehicle and the host vehicle and stored as position information of the host vehicle.  26. The vehicle position estimation method according to any one of claims 2 2 to 24, wherein when the vehicle position information is received from a plurality of surrounding vehicles in the inter-vehicle communication step, the vehicle position correction is performed. In the process, a plurality of pieces of information indicating the position received in the inter-vehicle communication step are selected as information from the information transmission vehicle, and the position information received from the plurality of information transmission vehicles is used as the information transmission vehicle. The vehicle position estimation method is characterized in that the vehicle position is corrected based on the relative positional relationship between the vehicle and the vehicle and stored as the vehicle position.  [27] In the vehicle position estimation method according to any one of claims 18 to 26, in the vehicle position estimation state determination step, the vehicle position only when GPS signals cannot be received for a certain period of time. The vehicle position estimation method is characterized in that it is determined that the vehicle cannot be grasped. [28] The vehicle position estimation method according to any one of claims 18 to 26, wherein, in the vehicle position estimation situation determination step, only when a predetermined steering operation is performed within a predetermined time period. A vehicle position estimation method characterized in that it is determined that the vehicle position cannot be grasped. [29] The vehicle position estimation method according to any one of claims 18 to 26, wherein in the vehicle position estimation state determination step, the GPS signal cannot be received for a certain period of time and is determined in advance within a certain period of time. The vehicle position estimation method is characterized in that it is determined that the vehicle position cannot be grasped only when the steering wheel is operated. [30] In the vehicle position estimation method according to any one of claims 19 to 26, in the inter-vehicle communication step, information indicating a position of the surrounding vehicle transmitted by the surrounding vehicle and the surrounding vehicle And receiving information indicating attributes, In the peripheral vehicle specifying step, an information transmission vehicle that transmits the positional information and attribute information of the peripheral vehicle is found from an image acquired by an imaging unit equipped in advance and the vehicle that matches the attribute is detected as the position information. A vehicle position estimation method characterized in that information and attribute information are identified as surrounding vehicles.  [31] Vehicle-to-vehicle communication information processing that, when information indicating the position of the surrounding vehicle transmitted by the surrounding vehicle is received, processes the position information into a state in which content analysis is possible,  The vehicle position correction processing for acquiring and storing the received position information as the current position information of the vehicle,  In addition, the vehicle position correction process includes storing the position information received and processed in the inter-vehicle communication process as correction information instead of the position information of the vehicle stored in advance.  A vehicle position estimation program characterized by causing a computer to execute these. [32] In the vehicle position estimation program according to claim 31,  In the vehicle-to-vehicle communication information processing, when each position information is received from a plurality of surrounding vehicles, a radio wave selection process for selecting a radio wave having the maximum intensity among the received radio waves is executed on the computer. A vehicle position estimation program characterized by the fact that  [33] In the vehicle position estimation program according to claim 31 or 32, a process preceding the host vehicle position correction process, that is, an auto-determination for determining whether position information of the host vehicle is grasped. Vehicle position estimation status determination processing is provided, and the vehicle position correction processing is obtained by inter-vehicle communication only when it is determined by the vehicle position estimation status determination processing that the position of the vehicle is not grasped. A vehicle position estimation program characterized in that a process for specifying and storing the obtained position information as the position information of the own vehicle is provided and executed by a computer. [34] In the vehicle position estimation program according to claim 33, A process preceding the own vehicle position correcting process, that is, a surrounding vehicle specifying process for detecting a surrounding vehicle existing around the own vehicle as an information transmission vehicle by a sensor and extracting a relative positional relationship with the own vehicle;  In the vehicle position correction process, the position information received from the information transmission vehicle is corrected based on the relative position relationship between the information transmission vehicle and the vehicle extracted in the surrounding vehicle specifying process, and stored as the position of the vehicle. To provide a process to  A vehicle position estimation program characterized by causing a computer to execute these.  [35] In the vehicle position estimation program according to claim 34,  In the surrounding vehicle specifying process, a vehicle is used to execute a process of using a distance sensor as the sensor and obtaining the relative positional relationship based on distance information obtained by the distance sensor. For position estimation program. [36] In the vehicle position estimation program according to claim 34,  In the peripheral vehicle specifying process, the image sensor is used as the sensor, and the process of obtaining the relative positional relationship based on image information obtained by the image sensor is executed by a computer. For position estimation program. [37] In the vehicle position estimation program according to any one of claims 34 to 36,  In the surrounding vehicle specifying process, when a plurality of surrounding vehicles are detected, a process of specifying the information transmitting vehicle that transmits information indicating a position by inter-vehicle communication, and position information received from the specified information transmitting vehicle A vehicle position estimation program that causes a computer to execute a process for obtaining a relative positional relationship between the information transmission vehicle and the vehicle based on the information. [38] In the vehicle position estimation program according to claim 37, In the surrounding vehicle specifying process, the information transmitting vehicle that transmits the information indicating the position by the inter-vehicle communication when the information of a plurality of surrounding vehicles is input. And a computer that executes a process for determining a relative positional relationship with the specified information transmission vehicle based on distance information obtained using a distance sensor as the sensor. A vehicle position estimation program characterized by  [39] In the vehicle position estimation program according to claim 37,  In the surrounding vehicle specifying process, when information on a plurality of surrounding vehicles is input, a process for identifying the information transmitting vehicle that transmits information indicating a position by inter-vehicle communication, and the specified information transmitting vehicle A vehicle position estimation program characterized by causing a computer to execute a process for obtaining a relative positional relationship between and based on image information obtained using an image sensor as the sensor.  [40] In the vehicle position estimation program according to any one of claims 37 to 39,  When receiving information indicating positions from a plurality of surrounding vehicles in the inter-vehicle communication process, the vehicle position correcting process selects one of the plurality of position information received and processed in the inter-vehicle communication process. And processing the position information from the information transmission vehicle, and the position information received from the information transmission vehicle is corrected based on the relative positional relationship between the information transmission vehicle and the host vehicle and stored as the position information of the host vehicle. A vehicle position estimation program characterized by causing a computer to execute processing.  [41] In the vehicle position estimation program according to any one of claims 37 to 39, When information indicating positions from a plurality of surrounding vehicles is received in the inter-vehicle communication process, a plurality of pieces of position information received and processed in the inter-vehicle communication process are selected in the own vehicle position correction process. A process for obtaining position information from the sending vehicle, and a process for correcting the position information received from the plurality of information sending vehicles based on the relative positional relationship between the information sending vehicle and the own vehicle, and storing it as the position of the own vehicle; The vehicle position estimation program is characterized in that it is executed by a computer. Program.  [42] In the vehicle position estimation program according to any one of claims 33 to 41,  In the vehicle position estimation situation determination process, the computer is caused to execute a situation determination process for determining that the vehicle position cannot be grasped only when the GPS signal cannot be received for a certain period of time. Vehicle position estimation program.  [43] In the vehicle position estimation program according to any one of claims 33 to 41,  In the vehicle position estimation situation determination process, the computer executes the situation determination process for determining that the vehicle position cannot be grasped only when a predetermined steering operation is performed within a predetermined time. A vehicle position estimation program.  [44] In the vehicle position estimation program according to any one of claims 33 to 41,  In the vehicle position estimation situation determination process, the situation determination process determines that the vehicle position cannot be grasped only when a GPS signal is not received for a certain period of time and a predetermined steering operation is performed within a certain period of time. A vehicle position estimation program characterized by causing a computer to execute. [45] In the vehicle position estimation program according to any one of claims 34 to 41,  In the vehicle-to-vehicle communication process, information indicating the position of the surrounding vehicle transmitted by the surrounding vehicle and information indicating the attribute of the surrounding vehicle are received and processed.  In the peripheral vehicle specifying process, an information transmission vehicle that transmits the positional information and attribute information of the peripheral vehicle is found in an image acquired by an imaging unit equipped in advance and the vehicle that matches the attribute is detected as the position information. A vehicle position estimation program characterized by causing a computer to execute a vehicle identification process for identifying a peripheral vehicle that has transmitted information and attribute information.