Using Routino as a free offline route planner

The idea behind a route planner is to calculate a suitable route between two geographical points, the start and the end point. The basis for a route planner consists of a database populated with data about specific routes and their relevant characteristics.

Ideally, searching the database should occur with minimal compute time and result in the most efficient route that is also the shortest or fastest. There may be additional search criteria to consider, such as mode of transportation, route characteristics, type and condition of route, plus specifics about the time of day and the season of the year when the route is to be used.

All of the providers who offer maps and navigational systems also offer matching online services and software. Frequently, there are also accompanying apps for smartphones. The providers offering these products and services include Falk, ViaMichelin, TomTom, Nokia/Map24, and Google Maps, among others. As it turns out, free route planners compete nicely with commercial providers in terms of variety and quality. In some instances, the free planners actually perform even better.

The online tools OpenStreetMap [1], Open Source Routing Machine (OSRM) [2], GraphHopper [3], and BBBike [4] have created an excellent reputation for themselves. There are also offline programs that let the user navigate independently of the Internet and therefore without access to data from a server (see the "Everything Online" box). These programs include Navit [5], OsmAnd [6], OpenStreetMap for Android [7], and Routino [8].

Routino

The project describes Routino as software that specializes in finding routes between locations on the basis of topographical information contained in the OpenStreetMap (OSM) project. The software calculates the shortest or the quickest path. For its calculations, Routino uses a specially adapted database that divides individual parts of a path into segments, which are then grouped together according to similar characteristics.

After setting up the program (see the "Installation" box), you will still need map content as OSM data. The Geofabrik [9] website is ideal for browsing for this kind of content. Once you have loaded the content you want, use planetsplitter to process the maps. This tool comes as part of the Routino package.

We have chosen the map content for the Western US, which you can find on Geofabrik in the us-west-latest.osm.bz2 file. Use the prefix usw with planetsplitter to be able to differentiate the files you have chosen from any future maps you'll use:

$ planetsplitter --prefix=usw us-west-latest.osm.bz2

This will take awhile, maybe hours, but when it is done, you will be rewarded with four files: usw-nodes.mem , usw-relations.mem , usw-segments.mem , and usw-ways.mem . This shrinks the original 2GB of compressed data to about 1.5MB. Figure 1 shows an excerpt of the extensive output during processing.

Figure 1: You can use the Planetsplitter tool to prepare the OSM data so that Routino can use it to calculate the path.

This is sufficient for calculating routes via the command line. If instead you use the application via the web interface, then, as administrator, you should copy the four files that are created to the /var/lib/routino/data/ directory. With Debian and Ubuntu, it is important to make sure that individual files get copied [10] without a prefix. The simplest approach is to rename the four files once they are in the target directory.

Routino calculates routes for all of the main modes of transportation. Obvious variants available for the profiles include automobile, pedestrian traffic, bicycle, motorcycle, and truck. In addition, you will also find variants like horse, wheelchair, and local public transport.

You can also specify a preferred roadway type. Moreover, the program takes the presence of one-way streets into account, limits on loads and the size of a vehicle, barriers, and restrictions on turning directions. The same goes for other characteristics like the roadway conditions and speed limits.

On the Command Line

You should use the call from Listing 1 if you want to calculate the shortest path between two points. The --dir parameter is used for naming the directory with the routing data and the --transport parameter for the selected means of transport. The --shortest button is used to indicate that you want the software to find the shortest route.

$ routino-router --dir=/var/lib/routino/data --transport=motorcar --shortest --lon1=-121.923498 --lat1=36.623598 --lon2=-121.850284 --lat2=36.587442
--language=en --output-html
Loaded Files: nodes, segments, ways & relations
Found Closest Point: Waypoint 1
Waypoint 1 is segment 6482339 (node 5640986 -> 5641028): -121.923410 36.623722 = 0.015 km
Found Closest Point: Waypoint 2
Waypoint 2 is node 5974815: -121.850554 36.587151 = 0.040 km
Routing from waypoint 1 to waypoint 2
Found Start Route: Nodes checked = 3
Found Finish Route: Nodes checked = 4
Found Middle Route: Super-Nodes checked = 4071
Found Combined Route: Nodes = 133
Routed OK
Generated Result Outputs

Routino also requires two pairs of coordinates for latitude and longitude, lon1 /lat1 and lon2 /lat2 .

The --language parameter determines the language that is used to describe the route. If no language has been indicated, the output will be generated in English. Specifying --output-html generates a file by the name of shortest.html . Figure 2 shows the recommendation together with a map where the route is outlined. In this case, we are looking at the route between 108 Lighthouse Avenue in Pacific Grove, Monterey, and Monterey Airport.

Figure 2: The software can output the calculated route as an HTML page that is simple to open in the browser. There you can review the data and the map.