Patent ID: 6859726

Claim:
A navigation apparatus comprising: a present location detecting unit for detecting a present location information of a movable body in response to a user's request for an optimum travel route to a designated destination; a present link detecting unit for receiving the present location information from the present location detecting unit, and detecting a present link information corresponding to the present location from stored map data; a neighboring link detecting unit for receiving the present link information from the present link detecting unit, and detecting information of neighboring links of the present link from the stored map data; a neighboring link information storing unit for receiving and storing therein the detected results from the present link detecting unit and the neighboring link detecting unit; a selected link information storing unit for storing an optimum neighboring link information selected out of the information of the neighboring links stored in the neighboring link information storing unit; a route calculating unit for receiving the present link information and the information of the neighboring links from the neighboring link information storing unit, calculating a cumulative travel time from the present location of the movable body to each neighboring link using predetermined weighted values assigned to a traveling direction of each of the present link information and the information of the neighboring links, selecting an optimum neighboring link information, and storing the selected optimum neighboring link information in the selected link information storing unit; and an optimum route detecting unit for determining whether the selected link information storing unit stores the link information including a destination information, detecting the link information including the destination information from the selected link information storing unit and information of the neighboring links from a link including the destination to a departure point, and outputting an optimum travel route.