Patent ID: 8041472

Claim:
A positioning device that detects a position of a mobile body with a radio navigation positioning unit, comprising: first and second autonomous sensors configured to obtain, respectively, first and second behavioral information on the mobile body; a position detecting unit configured to obtain an estimated position of the mobile body by updating a detection result from the radio navigation positioning unit based on the first behavioral information obtained by the first autonomous sensor; a map data positioning unit configured to refer to a map data storage unit based on the estimated position obtained by the position detecting unit and thereby to obtain a map data linked position that is a predetermined distance away from a link corresponding to the estimated position; a most probable position estimating unit configured to estimate the position of the mobile body from the estimated position and the map data linked position by applying an observation equation to a Kalman filter which couples the first behavioral information obtained by the first autonomous sensor with the second behavioral information obtained by the second autonomous sensor; and a direction detecting unit configured to obtain a cumulative estimated direction by updating the detection result from the radio navigation positioning unit based on the second behavioral information obtained by the second autonomous sensor, wherein the position detecting unit is further configured to estimate a direction of the mobile body based on the first behavioral information, and the most probable position estimating unit is configured to estimate the position of the mobile body from the estimated position, the map data linked position, the estimated direction, and the cumulative estimated direction by applying the observation equation to the Kalman filter.