Patent ID: 8260325

Claim:
A location estimation system, comprising: a position measurement unit that receives position measurement signals from a plurality of sources of emission, and calculates position information that includes a first position of a first mobile object and an error estimate of the first position; a distance measurement unit that measures a distance from the first mobile object and to a second mobile object that is different from the first mobile object; a distinctive feature recognition unit that recognizes a distinctive feature of the second mobile object; a transmission unit that transmits the position measurement signals and the position information; a relationship determination unit that acquires relative position of the second mobile object with respect to the first mobile object based upon the distance, determines presence or absence of a relationship between the first mobile object and the second mobile object based upon the relative position, and, in case of the presence of the relationship, selects position measurement signals, among the position measurement signals received by the second mobile object, from sources of emission that are different from the sources of emission of the position measurement signals received by the first mobile object; a calculation unit that calculates a second position for the first mobile object based upon the position measurement signals received by the first mobile object and the position measurement signals selected by the relationship determination unit, and calculates position correction information based upon the first position and the second position; a reception unit that receives the position correction information; a position correction information storage unit that stores the position correction information received by the reception unit; and a position correction unit that corrects the first position based upon the position correction information stored by the position correction information storage unit.