Patent ID: 7099772

Claim:
A route calculation method allowing an optimised route to be drawn up by means of a calculator as a function of at least one criterion CO between a starting point α and a destination point β, comprising the use of digitised data from at least a first and a second source stored on at least one storage medium and comprising a set of common nodes, the second source differing from the first by at least one characteristic K, each of the at least first and second sources comprising geographical data, the method comprising the following steps: a) searching, from the starting point alpha and from geographical data in said first source, a plurality of alpha nodes (Nα), substantially adjacent said starting point alpha, referenced in both the first and the second sources, and calculating, using a route calculation algorithm, from the starting point alpha, an optimisation value for each of the nodes as a function of the data from the first source and the given criterion CO; b) searching, from the destination point beta and from geographical data in a third source, a plurality of beta nodes (Nβ), substantially adjacent said destination point beta, referenced in both the third and the second sources, and calculating, using a route calculation algorithm, an optimisation value for each of the beta nodes as a function of the data from the third source and the given criterion CO; c) calculating, using a route calculation algorithm, from the data from the second source and the given criterion CO, for all the pairs of nodes Nα and Nβ, an optimisation value for each of the pairs of nodes (Nα, Nβ); and d) determining, solely by calculation on the basis of the optimisation values from steps a, b, and c, the optimum nodes establishing an optimised overall route from the starting point alpha to the destination point beta, wherein the entire optimised overall route between the starting point and the destination point is calculated during step d.