Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Taro Ura

Kenichi Nakano

Kazuhiko Ikeda

Keiichi Zenmyo

Kenji Sakanashi

Kouta Okada

Takayoshi Murahashi

Tetsuya Matsuoka

The present invention relates to a navigation sppratus for finding a vehicle location by calculating on the basis of an output data of an acceleration detecting means for detecting a vehicle acceleration. The navigation apparatus provides at least one acceleration detecting means for detecting a vehicle acceleration and stop judge means for judging a vehicle stopping state from the output variation of the acceleration detecting means.

Navigation apparatus for a vehicle

A vehicle navigator for calculating a running distance of a vehicle from output data of an acceleration sensor, an increase of accumulated errors during the calculation of the vehicle running distance being suppressed. The vehicle navigator has an acceleration sensor for detecting an acceleration of the vehicle; a velocity calculator for calculating a first velocity of the vehicle on the basis of an acceleration detected by the acceleration sensor; a GPS receiver for receiving radio waves from artificial satellites and obtaining a second velocity; a velocity correcting unit for correcting the first velocity by using the second velocity; a running distance calculator for calculating the running distance of the vehicle from the velocity corrected by the velocity correcting unit; and a velocity limiter for setting a velocity limit value range relative to the first velocity if the second velocity cannot be obtained from the GPS receiver, in order to control the first velocity so that it does not exceed the velocity limit value range.

Vehicle navigator

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Kasuga, Japan

Taro Ura