Performance analysis of a scalable navigation solution using vehicle safety sensors

GPS receiver performance can suffer in difficult environments such as urban canyons and heavy foliage. Inertial sensors provide information between GPS updates and can enhance the position solution in a GPS/INS architecture. Additional information from safety sensors already on the vehicle, such as lane departure warning (LDW) sensors, can enhance the navigation solution further by constraining inertial errors even in the presence of GPS errors. This paper outlines a scalable navigation solution that can use a combination of GPS, reduced inertial sensors, full inertial data, vehicle CAN data, and vision sensors, depending on what data is available in difficult environments. Data was collected in Detroit, Michigan in a diverse mix of environments that includes heavy foliage, highway, and downtown areas, in proportions representative of what is expected in typical driving. Validation of the approach consists of both a qualitative analysis of the resulting trajectories overlaid on a map of the area and quantitative comparison of the trajectories produced by the proposed system and the reference system.