Simulative analysis of accuracy demands of co-operative localization in the COVEL project

Accurate and reliable vehicle localization is a challenging task. As the sensor budget of a vehicle is limited, new approaches to improve the positioning accuracy have to be exploited. One cost-efficient option is to incorporate digital maps to perform some kind of map matching. Furthermore, vehicle-to-vehicle communication can be used to exchange information about the relative position of the vehicles, which in turn can also be used to improve the ego positioning. The described approach is elaborated in the European Project COVEL. This paper aims to evaluate the influence of the accuracy of the relative position information as well as the number of communicating vehicles to the accuracy of a position estimated from this information. To do so, a simulation environment using data from a real test drive has been created. The algorithmic results were compared to Ground Truth data from a high-accuracy and high-availability GPS/INS reference system.