What is claimed is:
1. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle, comprising:
a storing section that stores therein a travel history of the vehicle which is made correspondent with a road map information;
a calculating section that calculates a degree of familiarity with one of predetermined regions for each of the predetermined regions in the road map information on the basis of the travel history of the vehicle and its corresponding road map information; and
an information producing section that produces the road map information in accordance with the degree of familiarity with the one of the predetermined regions calculated by the calculating section.
2. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the storing section stores the travel history for each of a plurality of road intervals into which a road included in the one of the predetermined regions of the road map information is partitioned by a predetermined interval and wherein the calculating section comprises: a distance calculating section that calculates an interval travel distance by which the vehicle has traveled for each of the road intervals on the basis of the travel history and the road map information; a distance accumulating section that accumulates the calculated interval travel distance for each of the predetermined regions in which the corresponding road interval is included to calculate a regional travel distance for each of the predetermined regions; and a degree of familiarity calculating section that retrieves a whole road length of a total sum of distances of the road included in the one of the predetermined regions determined on the basis of the road map information to calculate a ratio of the regional travel distance to the whole road length to calculate a degree of familiarity with the one of the predetermined regions for each of the predetermined regions.
3. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle as claimed in claim 2, wherein the travel history includes an information related to a number of times the vehicle has traveled through the one of the road intervals and wherein the distance calculating section calculates the interval travel distance in accordance with the number of times by which the vehicle has traveled through the one of the road intervals.
4. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle as claimed in claim 3, wherein the storing section stores a traveled number of times conversion table prescribing calculation equations to be applied to a calculation of the interval travel distance by the distance calculating section in accordance with the travel number of times the vehicle has traveled through the one of the road intervals and the distance calculating section refers to the travel number of times conversion table to apply one of the calculation equations in accordance with the number of times the vehicle has traveled through the one of the road intervals.
5. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle as claimed in claim 2, wherein the travel history includes an information related to an average vehicular velocity for each of the road intervals through which the vehicle has traveled and wherein the distance calculating section calculates the interval travel distance in accordance with the average vehicular velocity.
6. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle as claimed in claim 5, wherein the storing section stores an average velocity conversion table prescribing calculation equations to be applied to a calculation of the interval travel distance by the distance calculating section in accordance with the average velocity and the distance calculating section refers to the average velocity conversion table to apply one of the calculation equations to the calculation of the interval travel distance in accordance with the average velocity.
7. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle as claimed in claim 2, wherein the travel history includes an information related to a kind of road for each of the road intervals through which the vehicle has traveled and the distance calculating section calculates the interval travel distance in accordance with the kind of road.
8. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle as claimed in claim 7, wherein the storing section stores a road kind conversion table prescribing calculation equations to be applied to a calculation of the interval travel distance in accordance with the kind of the road constituted by the one of the road intervals and wherein the distance calculating section refers to the road kind conversion table to apply one of the calculation equations to the calculation of the interval travel distance in accordance with the kind of the road.
9. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle as claimed in claim 2, wherein the travel history includes an information related to a stopped number of times that the vehicle has stopped for each of the road intervals through which the vehicle has traveled and wherein the distance calculating section calculates the interval travel distance in accordance with the stopped number of times the vehicle has stopped.
10. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle as claimed in claim 9, wherein the storing section stores a stopped number of times conversion table prescribing calculation equations to be applied to a calculation of the interval travel distance in accordance with the stopped number of times and wherein the distance calculating section refers to the stopped number of times conversion table to apply one of the calculation equations to the calculation of the interval travel distance in accordance with the stopped number of times.
11. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle as claimed in claim 2, wherein any of the road intervals in the one of the predetermined regions which have a common characteristic of at least one of a position, a direction, and a distance to each other from among the road intervals included in the travel history and road map information are grouped into a common interval group, the respective road intervals belonging to the common interval group being divided into a representative road interval and other general road intervals which are replaceable with this representative road interval and each general road interval being made correspondent with the representative road interval, the distance calculating section comprises a determining section that determines that the vehicle has traveled one of the representative road intervals which is made correspondent to one of the general road intervals through which the vehicle has actually traveled when the vehicle has actually traveled through the one of the general road intervals and the distance calculating section calculates a representative road interval travel distance on the basis of the information on the representative road interval in place of the interval travel distance, the distance accumulating section calculates the regional travel distance for each of the common interval groups in which the one of the road intervals is included, and the familiarity degree calculating section calculates the ratio of the representative interval travel distance to the whole length of the representative road interval, and the familiarity degree calculating section retrieves the whole length of the representative road interval which is a total sum of the distances of the representative road intervals included in the respective common interval groups derived on the basis of the road map information.
12. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle as claimed in claim 2, wherein the road map information is stored to be made correspondent with a search condition including a name of the one of the predetermined regions, the information producing section comprises: a search section that searches for the road map information corresponding to the search condition on the basis of the search condition inputted by a user; and a search condition updating section that adds the name of the one of the predetermined regions in a form of an independent search condition of the road map information to update the road map information when the degree of familiarity of the predetermined region calculated by familiarity degree calculating section is in excess of a predetermined value.
13. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle as claimed in claim 2, wherein the road map information comprises an information related to a class of the road for each of the road intervals, the information producing section comprises a search section that accepts a search condition related to an object of a search from a user of the vehicle and searches the information related to the object positioned along any one of the road intervals, and the search section searches the information related to the object excluding the object which is positioned along a low class road in the road map information from the object of the search when the object belongs to the predetermined region having the degree of familiarity which is lower than a predetermined degree of familiarity.
14. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle, comprising:
a storing section that stores therein a travel history of the vehicle for each of users of the vehicle which is made correspondent with a road map information;
a calculating section that calculates a degree of familiarity of one of the users with one of predetermined regions for each of the predetermined regions in the road map information on the basis of the travel history of the one of the users of the vehicle and its corresponding road map information; and
an information producing section that produces the road map information in accordance with the degree of familiarity of the one of the users of the vehicle with the one of the predetermined regions calculated by the calculating section.
15. A navigation method for an automotive vehicle, comprising:
storing a travel history of the vehicle which is made correspondent with a road map information;
calculating a degree of familiarity with one of predetermined regions for each of the predetermined regions in the roadmap information on the basis of the travel history of the vehicle and its corresponding road map information; and
producing the road map information in accordance with the degree of familiarity with the one of the predetermined regions calculated by the calculating section.
16. A navigation method for an automotive vehicle as claimed in claim 15, wherein, when storing the travel history, the travel history for each of a plurality of road intervals into which a road included in the one of the predetermined regions of the road map information is partitioned by a predetermined interval is stored and wherein, when calculating the degree of familiarity, an interval travel distance by which the vehicle has traveled for each of the road intervals is calculated on the basis of the travel history and the road map information, the calculated interval travel distance for each of the predetermined regions in which the corresponding road interval is included is accumulated to calculate a regional travel distance for each of the predetermined regions, a whole road length of a total sum of distances of the road included in the one of the predetermined regions determined on the basis of the road map information is retrieved, and a ratio of the regional travel distance to the whole road length is calculated to derive the degree of familiarity with the one of the predetermined regions for each of the predetermined regions.
17. A navigation program for an automotive vehicle, comprising:
a storing function to store a travel history of the vehicle which is made correspondent with a road map information;
a calculating function to calculate a degree of familiarity with one of predetermined regions for each of the predetermined regions in the road map information on the basis of the travel history of the vehicle and its corresponding road map information; and
an information producing function to produce the road map information in accordance with the degree of familiarity with the one of the predetermined regions calculated by the calculating section.
18. A navigation system for an automotive vehicle, comprising:
storing means for storing therein a travel history of the vehicle which is made correspondent with a road map information;
calculating means for calculating a degree of familiarity with one of predetermined regions for each of the predetermined regions in the road map information on the basis of the travel history of the vehicle and its corresponding road map information; and
information producing means for producing the road map information in accordance with the degree of familiarity with the one of the predetermined regions calculated by the calculating means.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. An additive package for warm-mix asphalt formulations for the pavement of road surfaces, said additive package comprising
a) from about 20 to about 60 wt %, based on the total weight of the additive package of surfactant component, and
b) about 30 to about 80 wt % of the additive package of an asphalt rheology modifying component,
wherein said asphalt rheology modifying component comprises at least one wax component or at least one resin component,
wherein the surfactant component comprises at least one surfactant selected from the group consisting of amines, diamines, polyamines, ethoxylated amines, ethoxylated alkyl diamines, ethoxylated alkyl polyamines, amido amines, amidopolyamines, imidazolines, any of their corresponding organic or inorganic salts, and mixtures thereof,
wherein the wax component is selected from the group consisting of carnuba wax, beeswax, montan wax from coal, Fischer Tropsch wax from coal, petroleum or gas origin, amide waxes, fatty acids and soaps; fatty alcohols, hydrogenated fats, fatty esters, and mixtures thereof, and
wherein the resin component is selected from the group consisting of tall oil pitch, pine tar pitch, tall oil rosins, rosin acids, pine rosins, gum rosins, maleated rosins, fumarated rosins, resinous by-products from tall oil processing or the processing of gum rosins, petroleum resins, phenolic resins, and mixtures thereof.
2. The additive package of claim 1 wherein the surfactant component comprises at least one surfactant selected from
I. Amines
wherein R is a saturated or unsaturated, substituted or unsubstituted, optionally branched or cyclic, hydrocarbon group with 8-24 carbon atoms, R1 and R2 can be the same or different and are selected from hydrogen or hydrocarbon chain with 1-24 carbon atoms;
II. Diamines and Polyamines
R\u2014(NH\u2014R3)x\u2014NH2
where R has the same meaning as in I., above, and R3 represents a linear or branched hydrocarbon radical with 1-6 carbon atoms;
III. Ethoxylated andor Propoxylated Amines
where R has the same meaning as in I., above; and x and y are independently selected from 0, 1 or 2 and each R4 is independently selected from H or CH3;
IV. Ethoxylated andor Propoxylated alkyl Diamines and ethoxylated alkyl polyamines e.g.
wherein R and R3 have the same meaning as in II., above; x, y, and z are independently selected from 0, 1 or 2 and x+y+z<or=5, and each R4 is independently selected from H or CH3,
V. Amido amines
wherein R, R1, R2 and R3 has the same meaning as in I., above;
VI. Amidopolyamines and imidazolines
RCO\u2014(NH\u2014R3)x\u2014NH2
wherein R and R3 have the same meaning as in example I., above, and x=an integer of from 1 to 10.
3. The additive package of claim 1 wherein said surfactant component comprises at least one amine andor modified amine surfactant selected from ethoxylated tallow amines, fatty amines, fatty amine derivatives, tall oil amidoaminesimidazolines, bis hexamethylene triamine and higher oligomers of hexmethylediamine, alkyl amine surfactants with a hydrocarbon chain consisting of 8 to 22 carbon atoms and mixtures combinations thereof.
4. The additive package of claim 1 wherein said surfactant component is selected from tallow n-propylene diamine, tris-ethoxylated tallow N-propylene diamine, a mixture of imidazolines and amidopolyethylenepolyamines, a mixture of imidazolines and amidoamines, hydrogenated tallow propylene diamine, ethoxylated hydrogenated tallow propylene diamine, tallow dipropylene triamine, tallow tripropylene tetramine and derivatives thereof, and amides resulting from the condensation fatty acids with dimethylaminopropylamine.
5. The additive package of claim 1 wherein said asphalt rheology modifying component comprises at least one wax component and at least one resin component.
6. The additive package of claim 1 wherein said wax component is selected from paraffin wax, polyethylene wax, ethylene bis stearamide, stearyl amide, stearylstearamide; aluminum stearate, calcium stearate, fatty acids; fatty alcohols, hydrogenated fats, fatty esters and mixtures thereof.
7. The additive package of claim 6 wherein the congealing point of said wax is between 60\xb0 C. and 150\xb0 C. with s Brookfield viscosity at 135\xb0 C. in the range of 10-40 cPs.
8. The additive package of claim 1 wherein said resin component is selected from tall oil pitch, maleated tall oil pitch, rosin acids, tall oil heads, natural rubber, styrene butadiene rubber, polychlorprene, crumb rubber, asphaltenes, Gilsonite\u2122, Trinidad Lake Asphalt, by-products from the deasphalting of oils, oxidised asphalts, ROSE bottoms, zero penetration asphalts and mixtures thereof.
9. The additive package of claim 1 wherein said resin component has a Drop melt point >60\xb0 F. and a Penetration <50 at 25\xb0 C.
10. A warm mix asphalt formulation for the pavement of road surfaces, said formulation comprising a mixture of bitumen and aggregates, and from about 0.2 to 10% by weight of the additive package of claim 1, based on the weight of the asphalt.
11. The formulation of claim 10 wherein the temperature required to compact said asphalt is 15-60\xb0 F. lower than conventional hot mix asphalts.
12. The asphalt formulation of claim 10 wherein said asphalt and aggregates are mixed in a mixer, and wherein said additive package a) is blended into said asphalt binder before the aggregates are introduced to the mixer; or b) added to the aggregates, or portion of the aggregates before the asphalt is introduced to the mixer; or c) added to the mixer after the asphalt has been added to the aggregate in said mixer, or combinations of a)-c).
13. A method for lowering the compaction temperature of warm mix asphalt, said method comprising adding to said warm mix asphalt a compaction temperature lowering amount of the additive package of claim 1.
14. The method of claim 19 wherein from about 0.2 to 10% by weight of the additive package of claim 1, based on the weight of the asphalt, is added to said warm mix asphalt, and wherein the temperature required to compact said asphalt is at least 15-60\xb0 F. lower than conventional hot mix asphalts.
15. The warm mix asphalt of claim 10 wherein said additive package is added as a single package, or the individual components of said package are added separately to the warm mix asphalt.
16. The warm mix asphalt of claim 10 wherein the additive package, or individual components thereof, are added at various stages of the warm mix process.
17. The warm mix asphalt of claim 16 wherein the additive package, or individual components thereof are blended into the asphalt binder before the asphalt is introduced to the aggregate in the hot-mix plant, added to the aggregate, or a portion of the aggregate, before asphalt is added to the mixer, andor added to the mixer in the hot-mix plant after asphalt has been added to the aggregate.