Analog Devices and Renesas Electronics Corporation are collaborating on a system-level 77/79-GHz radar sensor demonstrator to improve advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) applications and enable autonomous driving vehicles.
The new demonstrator combines the RH850/V1R-M micro-controller from the Renesas autonomy Platform and ADI’s Drive360 28nm CMOS RF-to-bits technology.
The system-level operation of these two technologies will enable earlier detection of smaller and faster moving objects at greater distances, according to the companies. It will also lower radar system integration efforts and reduce evaluation risks, development cost and time to market for automotive OEMs and Tier One suppliers, the companies said.
Analog Devices Drive360 28nm CMOS RADAR technology platform builds on the company’s established ADAS, MEMS, and radar portfolio to enhance sensor performance for ADAS applications with the world’s first automotive radar technology based on advanced 28nm CMOS with RF performance for target identification and classification. High output power enables greater range and identification of smaller objects, while lowest phase noise enables best unambiguous detection of smaller objects in the presence of large objects.
Renesas offer automotive end-to-end solutions from secure cloud connectivity and sensing to autonomous control. Renesas autonomy Platform is an open platform for ADAS and automated driving, supported by Renesas’ sustainable and scalable SoC and MCU roadmaps. The RH850/V1R-M MCU was specifically designed for use in radr applications.
The Analog Devices Drive360 28nm CMOS RADAR technology platform builds on the company’s established ADAS, MEMS and radar technology portfolio widely used throughout the automotive industry for the past 20 years.
ADI’s high-performance radar solution enables earlier detection of smaller and faster moving objects. High-output power enables greater range and identification of smaller objects, while low phase noise enables unambiguous detection of smaller objects in the presence of large objects. See Analog Devices’ Drive360 video here.
The new Renesas autonomy platform is an open, innovative and trusted platform for ADAS and automated driving, supported by Renesas’ sustainable and scalable SoC and MCU roadmaps, the company said.
The RH850/V1R-M MCU was specifically designed for use in RADAR applications as part of the sustainable and scalable portfolio. The new MCU includes optimized programmable digital signal processing, dual CPU cores each operating at 320 megahertz with high-speed flash of 2 MB and 2 MB internal RAM, while meeting industry temperature requirements.
Swift Navigation is teaming up with Carnegie Robotics LLC to develop a line of navigation products for autonomous vehicles, outdoor robotics and machine control. The first navigation product will be announced May 8 at the AUVSI XPONENTIAL event in Dallas, Texas.
Swift Navigation is a San Francisco-based startup building centimeter-accurate GPS technology for autonomous vehicles, and Carnegie Robotics LLC (CRL), the industry leader in reliable robotic components and systems.
Swift Navigation solutions use real-time kinematics (RTK) technology, providing location solutions that are 100 times more accurate than traditional GPS. In 2016, Swift shipped the Piksi Multi, a multi-band, multi-constellation high-precision GNSS receiver, suitable for autonomous vehicles.
The Piksi Multi.
The Piksi Multi offers advanced precision GNSS capabilities for the mass market. The robotics market, through this partnership with Carnegie Robotics, stands to benefit from Piksi Multi’s improved localization and control, the companies said.
Carnegie Robotics supplies rugged, reliable robotic systems for real-world work. The team at Carnegie Robotics has decades of experience successfully transitioning state-of-the-art technologies from early design into commercial use in precision agriculture, machine control, autonomous vehicles and industrial and military robots. This process requires both a deep knowledge of robotics and best-in-class engineering, but it cannot succeed without also addressing the business case, the needs of the end-user, reliability, maintenance, safety, certifications and the dozens of other essential factors necessary for a product to succeed in the real world.
“Swift’s technology is perfectly suited for the world of robotics, and we couldn’t do better than working with the renowned industry leaders at Carnegie Robotics,” said Timothy Harris, CEO of Swift Navigation. “From their robotics technology expertise to their inertial intellectual property, Carnegie is an ideal partner for Swift. We are looking forward to developing an exciting line of products and making more joint announcements in the near future.”
“Thanks to its focus on high-accuracy and low-cost, Swift Navigation has established itself as a leader and innovator in the world of high-precision GNSS,” said Steve DiAntonio, CEO of Carnegie Robotics. “Swift is an ideal partner to work with us on rapid development of robots and autonomous systems. We’re designing our joint line of products specifically for outdoor robots and autonomous vehicles with the appropriate physical, electrical and software interfaces to enable rapid deployment of precision GNSS and other mission-critical sensors.”
More information about the partnership and the unveiling of this duo’s first joint product will take place at AUVSI XPONENTIAL. Visit the joint Swift Navigation and Carnegie Robotics booth #506 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.
Qualcomm Technologies Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, is working with TomTom on using the Qualcomm Drive Data Platform for high-definition (HD) map crowdsourcing for autonomous driving.
Qualcomm Drive Data Platform collects and analyzes data from different vehicle sensors, supporting smarter vehicles to determine their location, monitor and learn driving patterns, perceive their surroundings, and share this perception with the rest of the world reliably and accurately.
TomTom’s HD Map, including RoadDNA, is a highly accurate, digital map-based product that assists automated vehicles to precisely locate themselves on the road and help determine which way to maneuver, even when traveling at high speeds.
Traditional development of maps requires deploying dedicated fleets of vehicles equipped with professional-grade sensors to collect location, raw imagery, lidar and other data, which is then transferred, stored and processed in data centers. Now that cars are increasingly connected and equipped with a range of sensors, new and complimentary approaches become possible.
Using the precise positioning, on-device machine learning, heterogeneous compute and connectivity capabilities of the Qualcomm Drive Data Platform, which features the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820Am automotive processor, TomTom and Qualcomm Technologies aim to facilitate adding an improved, scalable and cost-efficient crowdsourcing approach to the mix of sources for HD mapmaking.
The new concept is designed to allow massive numbers of connected cars to see and understand their environment, traffic and road conditions, and support real-time input for map and road condition updates.
“Feature-rich, highly accurate and frequently updated HD maps are critical to support some of the most advanced applications envisioned in the automotive industry, especially for autonomous driving,” said Willem Strijbosch, head of autonomous driving, TomTom. “We are building the cloud-based platform to make and maintain HD maps using a range of input sources, including crowdsourced data from swarms of intelligent connected vehicles. We’re excited to explore the connectivity and compute capabilities of the Qualcomm Drive Data Platform to help map the world for the future of driving.”
“Qualcomm Technologies is demonstrating today that an affordable and easy-to-integrate mapping solution for autonomous vehicles is realizable,” said Nakul Duggal, vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “The Qualcomm Drive Data Platform is designed to integrate key technologies into a cost-effective edge compute solution required to support safer, highly connected and smarter transportation, and we are pleased to offer this technology for HD Map providers such as TomTom as well as automakers, shared mobility service providers and automotive industry at large.”
For more information about the Qualcomm Drive Data Platform, visit the Qualcomm booth at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Feb. 27–March 2, Hall 3, Stand 3E10, or go to www.qualcomm.com/automotive.
A team of researchers at the University of California, Riverside has developed a highly reliable and accurate navigation system that exploits existing environmental signals such as cellular and Wi-Fi, rather than GPS.
The technology can be used as a standalone alternative to GPS, or complement current GPS-based systems to enable highly reliable, consistent, and tamper-proof navigation. The technology could be used to develop navigation systems that meet the stringent requirements of fully autonomous vehicles, such as driverless cars and unmanned drones.
Led by Zak Kassas, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering in UCR’s Bourns College of Engineering, the team presented its research at the 2016 Institute of Navigation Global Navigation Satellite System Conference (ION GNSS+), in Portland, Ore., in September. The two studies, “Signals of Opportunity Aided Inertial Navigation” and “Performance Characterization of Positioning in LTE Systems,” both won best paper presentation awards.
Most navigation systems in cars and portable electronics use the space-based GNSS. For precision technologies, such as aerospace and missiles, navigation systems typically combine GPS with a high-quality on-board inertial navigation system (INS), which delivers a high level of short-term accuracy but eventually drifts when it loses touch with external signals.
Despite advances in this technology, current GPS/INS systems will not meet the demands of future autonomous vehicles for several reasons: First, GPS signals alone are extremely weak and unusable in certain environments like deep canyons; second, GPS signals are susceptible to intentional and unintentional jamming and interference; and third, civilian GPS signals are unencrypted, unauthenticated and specified in publicly available documents, making them spoofable. Current trends in autonomous vehicle navigation systems therefore rely not only on GPS/INS, but a suite of other sensor-based technologies such as cameras, lasers and sonar.
“By adding more and more sensors, researchers are throwing ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ to prepare autonomous vehicle navigation systems for the inevitable scenario that GPS signals become unavailable. We took a different approach, which is to exploit signals that are already out there in the environment,” Kassas said.
A dense reference network facilitates low-cost carrier-phase differential GNSS positioning with rapid integer-ambiguity resolution. This could enable precise lane-keeping for automated vehicles in all weather conditions.
Strong demand for low-cost precise positioning exists in the mass market. Carrier-phase differential GNSS (CDGNSS) positioning, accurate to within a few centimeters even on a moving platform, would satisfy this demand were its cost significantly reduced. Low-cost CDGNSS would be a key enabler for many demanding consumer applications.
Centimeter-accurate positioning by CDGNSS has been perfected over the past two decades for applications in geodesy, precision agriculture, surveying and machine control. But mass-market adoption of this technology will demand much lower user cost — by a factor of 10 to 100 — yet still require rapid and accurate position fixing. To reduce cost, mass-market CDGNSS-capable receivers will have to make do with inexpensive, low-quality antennas whose multipath rejection and phase center stability are inferior to those of antennas typically used for CDGNSS.
Moreover, there will be a strong incentive to use single-frequency receivers, whereas almost all receivers used for CDGNSS in surveying and similar applications are multi-frequency. Despite these user-side disadvantages, mass-market precise positioning will be expected to demonstrate convergence and accuracy performance rivaling that of the most demanding current precise positioning applications: Users will be dissatisfied with techniques requiring more than a few tens of seconds to converge to a reliable sub-decimeter solution.
Meeting this challenge calls for innovation targeting both the rover (user) equipment and the reference network. Here we examine the challenge from the point of view of the reference network and offer demonstration results for a low-cost end-to-end system.
The recent trend in precise satellite-based positioning has been toward precise point positioning (PPP), whose primary virtue is the sparsity of its reference network. But standard PPP requires several tens of minutes or more to converge to a sub-10-centimeter 95 percent horizontal accuracy. Faster convergence can be achieved by recasting the PPP problem as one of relative positioning, thereby exposing integer ambiguities to the end user.
This technique, known as PPP-RTK or PPP-AR, is mathematically similar to traditional network real-time kinematic (NRTK) positioning. As the network density is increased, sub-minute or even instantaneous convergence is possible with dual-frequency high-quality receivers. Even single-frequency PPP-RTK is possible, with convergence times of approximately 5 minutes for a 40-kilometer network spacing.
For PPP-RTK and NRTK, convergence time is synonymous with the time required to resolve the integer ambiguities that arise in double-difference (DD) carrier-phase measurements, referred to here as time to ambiguity resolution, or TAR. As reference networks become denser, they can better compensate for spatially-correlated variations in signal delay introduced by irregularities in the ionosphere and, to a lesser extent, in the neutral atmosphere. Improvement is manifest as reduced uncertainty in the atmospheric corrections that the network sends to the user. Reduced uncertainty in the atmospheric corrections is key to reducing TAR.
Prior work has established an analytical connection between uncertainty in the ionospheric corrections (denoted σi ) and TAR. The existing literature does not, however, offer a satisfactory model for the dependence of σι on network density.
The prevailing model is based on single-baseline CDGNSS, which is inapt for PPP-RTK and NRTK. Moreover, prior work does not address the effect of network-side multipath on the accuracy of the corrections data, which becomes increasingly important as low-cost and poorly-sited reference stations are used to densify the network.
Here, we examine the relationship between ionospheric uncertainty and probability of correct ambiguity resolution, and present the results of an empirical investigation of the relationship between network density and the total uncertainty in network correction data. We developed a simple analytical model relating error variance in network corrections to network density. Our analysis and experiments indicate that for rapid TAR in challenging urban environments with low-cost receivers, network density must be significantly increased. We report on the design and deployment of a dense network in Austin, Texas, and demonstrate a new system that taps into the network to provide reliable vehicle lane-departure warning.
AMBIGUITY RESOLUTION
Reducing the ionospheric uncertainty σι allows a strong prior constraint to be applied in the ionosphere-weighted model, thereby increasing P( = z), the probability that the estimated and true integer ambiguity vectors are equivalent. It is instructive to consider single-epoch ambiguity resolution (AR), for two reasons.
First, for stationary users with low-cost equipment, multipath errors dominate in the carrier-phase measurement and are strongly correlated over 100 seconds or more. Thus, if single-epoch AR fails then a static user may have to wait an unacceptably long time for multipath errors to decorrelate enough to permit AR. In any case, singe-epoch performance is a strong predictor of multi-epoch performance over an interval short enough (a few tens of seconds) to satisfy impatient mass-market users.
Second, a convenient and accurate analytical model (by Dennis Odijk and PJG Teunissen) for single-epoch AR reveals the dependency of P( = z) on scenario parameters of practical interest: the standard deviation of ionospheric correction errors, the number of visible satellites, the standard deviation of undifferenced carrier- and code-phase measurement errors (including multipath-induced errors), a satellite geometry factor, the number p of free parameters to be estimated (p=3 for negligible tropospheric error, p=4 to estimate a single additional tropospheric parameter), and the number of carrier frequencies broadcast by each of the satellites (1, 2 or 3) along with each carrier’s wavelength.
The model is highly accurate for single-epoch AR, but only approximate for multiple epochs, with accuracy degrading as the data interval lengthens. The model’s inaccuracy results from its assumption that overhead satellites remain static from epoch to epoch, which yields pessimistic results for even fairly short data capture intervals (for example, 30 seconds). Fully accounting for satellite motion in an analytical model for P( = z) is an open problem, which is why studies that wish to account for satellite motion resort to simulation.
Figures 1 and 2 show single-epoch, single-frequency results from the analytical P( = z) model for parameters approximately reflecting the mass-market use case. The most important conclusion to draw from these figures is that for single-epoch, single-frequency AR to be even moderately reliable (PT⩾0.9) over the next few years, the ionospheric uncertainty σι must be held under 2 millimeters. This will relax somewhat as more Galileo and MEO BeiDou satellites come online, but signal blockage in built-up areas will raise the effective elevation mask angle significantly above the 15 degrees assumed here, reducing the number of available satellites. Thus, sub-2-mm ionospheric uncertainty remains desirable for urban environments even as GNSS constellations become fully populated.
Figure 1. Single-epoch single-frequency ambiguity fixing. Blue traces (left axis) indicate the probability P(z^=z) of correctly resolving all integer ambiguities with a single epoch of data as a function of the number of satellites m. Each trace represents P(z^=z) for a different value of ionospheric uncertainty σι. Green bars (right axis) represent the probability mass function P(m) for the number of satellites above an elevation mask angle of 15 degrees, assuming 31 GPS, 14 Galileo, and 3 WAAS satellites (projected mid 2017). Each blue trace is marked with the total probability of correct integer resolution PT, a function of both the trace itself and P(m). Other parameters of the scenario: geometry factor fg=2.5, standard deviation of undifferenced phase measurements σϕ=3mm, standard deviation of undifferenced pseudorange measurements σρ=50cm, and number of estimated parameters p=3.Figure 2 . Total probability of a correct fix for the scenario of Figure 1 as a function of ionospheric uncertainty σι.
Figures 3 and 4 offer results for a dual-frequency (L1-L2) single-epoch scenario. All other scenario parameters are held as for the single-frequency scenario except that, in an attempt to be somewhat more pessimistic, P(m) is based only on GPS satellites. It is assumed that from each satellite the user can extract dual-frequency measurements. As with the single-frequency case, it is evident that dual-frequency PT is strongly dependent on σι. The dual-frequency case is more forgiving, but substantial performance improvement can still be had by reducing σι to under 2 mm.
Figure 3. As Figure 1 except for dual-frequency (L1-L2) measurements and the probability mass function P(m) corresponds only to a constellation of 31 GPS satellites. The elevation mask angle is again taken to be 15 degrees. It is assumed that dual-frequency measurements can be obtained from every GPS satellite.Figure 4. Total probability of a correct fix for the scenario of Figure 3 as a function of ionospheric uncertainty σι.
Corrections Uncertainty and Network Density. A key question arises in connection with σi: How is related to reference network density? One expects to decrease with increased network density, but what is the exact relationship?
Dennis Odijk’s work adopts a linear relationship between σi and the distance l between the user and the nearest reference station:
σi = βl, 0.3 ≤ β ≤ 3 mm/km
Parameter β depends on ionospheric activity; Odijk recommends determining β empirically. Similarly, his other work adopts a linear relation, with β = mm/km. But there appears to be no justification for applying this linear model to ionospheric corrections provided to a user by a network of reference receivers. The linear trend corresponds to individual single-baseline solutions involving a single master reference station without network aiding; it is not representative of how σi varies for a rover within a reference network.
Instead of determining how σi varies throughout a reference network, it will be more useful to consider the spatial variation in the variance of aggregate error in network-provided corrections. The aggregate error variance, denoted , can be modeled as the sum of variances associated with (1) residual ionospheric delay error, (2) residual neutral atmospheric (hereafter tropospheric) error, and (3) error due to carrier-phase multipath at the reference network stations:
This model assumes that precise orbital ephemerides are used to eliminate spatially-correlated errors due to satellite ephemeris errors and that the contribution to from reference station carrier-phase thermal noise is negligible compared to reference station carrier-phase multipath error.
Focusing therefore on σv , consider its relationship to reference network density γ, expressed in stations per unit area. This relationship depends on the assumed model for the DD ionospheric and tropospheric delays. Let a denote the master reference station and let S = {s1, s2, …, sN} denote the set of all secondary stations available in the network. Then, for pivot satellite i and alternate satellite j , suppose that the true combined DD atmospheric delay at secondary station s∈S can be accurately modeled as follows, where xs, ys, and zs represent the secondary station’s east, north, and up displacement from the master: (1)
Dai et al. refer to this model as a linear interpolation model or first-order surface model. The quantities and are the model parameters for the satellite pair i, j.
Map showing trends in σv across a simulated reference network assuming a linear model for combined DD ionospheric and tropospheric delays and independent errors due to multipath at each station. The master station is marked in black; secondary reference stations are marked in white. Blue denotes low σv. Red denotes high σv.
For the linear model in (1), one can show that if stations are sufficiently uniformly distributed (i.e., no station clumping), then the average value of σv across a network, denoted , is approximately related to the network density γ by (3)
where q is a parameter related to the variance of the uncorrelated errors , s∈S. This approximation becomes highly accurate as γ increases. [See full paper for details.]
It is clear from (3) that, for the linear model (1),can be driven to an arbitrarily small value by increasing the network density γ, and this is true despite the presence of multipath in the reference station carrier-phase measurements. Whether (3) applies in practice depends on whether (1) can be considered an accurate model for , at least over a compact region. The following section examines this question empirically. It further seeks to identify, for an example dense reference network, the density γ beyond which further reduction inno longer matters (would no longer improve ) because rover multipath dominates.
ANALYSIS OF A DENSE REFERENCE NETWORK
We examined σι as a function of network density using data from several organizations providing GNSS reference station observations: National Geodetic Survey Continuously Operating Reference Stations, UNAVCO, and the California Real Time Network. This combination allowed analysis of a hypothetical reference network of 23 high-quality GNSS receivers with an overall network density of approximately 8 nodes/1,000 km2, or an average inter-station spacing of 14 km. The relative positions of the sites selected to comprise this reference network, located between Los Angeles and Pomona, California, are depicted graphically below.
Depiction of the placement of the 23 GNSS reference stations. Horizontal positions are relative to the master station, LONG of CRTN, in kilometers. The color map indicates the height of each station above the WGS 84 geoid in meters.
DD carrier-phase observations from GPS L1 C/A signals spanning GPS weeks 1850 through 1859 were used for the analysis. A minimum satellite elevation mask was enforced at 20 degrees. Any satellite not above the elevation mask and providing carrier-phase observations at both the beginning and end of each processing window was excluded. A step size of 10 minutes was used. The longest available sub-window, meeting the above requirements and providing a minimum of 6 satellite vehicles (1 pivot satellite and 5 others), was selected for processing.
To facilitate batch processing, integer ambiguities were assumed to be resolved correctly when the mean standard deviation of carrier-phase residuals for that solution was less than one quarter wavelength of the GPS L1 frequency. In application, this constraint resulted in rejecting only 0.6 percent of all solutions.
Network Corrections Estimation. Estimation of network corrections made use of least-squares estimation applied to carrier-phase residuals measured between master station LONG, denoted a hereafter, and secondary reference stations s∈S, where S is now taken to be the set of all stations other than LONG. Consider the following model for the DD carrier-phase measurement, expressed in meters, between master station a, secondary station s∈S, pivot satellite i, and alternate satellite j:
(4)
Here, λ is the carrier wavelength; is the DD carrier-phase measurement, in cycles; is the DD range; is the DD integer ambiguity; is the DD combined atmospheric delay, which includes tropospheric and ionospheric delays; and is the DD carrier-phase measurement error, which is dominated by carrier-phase multipath error at a and s.
Experimental analysis ofas a function of network density proceeded as follows. A subset of secondary stations Sk ⊂S was chosen, together with a, to act as the kth test network. A large number K of subsets Sk of various geographic size and density were analyzed. Let {S\Sk} denote the set of secondary stations not in the kth test network. For each Sk, k = 1, 2,…, K, all secondary stations in {S\Sk} were designated, one at a time, to act as a test station, or rover. Atmospheric delays estimated by the kth network for test station s∈{S\Sk} were then differenced from actual delays measured by s to evaluate the quality of the atmospheric delay estimates.
Details of the atmospheric delay estimation procedure for the kth test network are as follows. For each s∈Sk, a DD measurement residual was formed for each pivot satellite i and alternate satellite j as
(5)
where was assumed known to sub-millimeter accuracy and was assumed to have been resolved correctly. The true DD atmospheric error contributing to (5) was assumed to vary linearly with geometry over sufficiently short baselines as modeled in (2). The DD multipath error term was assumed to be zero mean, and the component due solely to s was assumed to be uncorrelated with all corresponding components .
Under these assumptions, can readily be estimated via least squares. Let be the vector containing the residuals for |Sk|x1. This residuals vector can be modeled as
(6)
where H is an |Sk|x4 matrix whose rows are of the form [xs ys zs1]. The 4 x 1 vector contains the parameters of the hyper-plane to be estimated at each epoch. The |Sk|x1 vector wijcontains DD measurement errors.
An estimate from a least-squares solution of (6) was used to produce a network correction for a test secondary station s∈{S\Sk}, acting as rover, at location xs, ys, zs :
(7)
The subscript l on the atmospheric correction indicates that the correction is based on a linear model for DD atmospheric errors; it is used to distinguish the correction from those produced by a quadratic model later on. The correction was applied at test station s∈{S\Sk} to produce a corrected DD phase measurement
This procedure was repeated at each epoch for each satellite pair i, j visible to each test station s∈{S\Sk} of the kth test network, k = 1, 2,…K.
If the assumed models hold, then in the limit as the network density increases, can be modeled as
(8)
where is DD phase measurement error due only to multipath at s. In other words, as network density increases, application of the network correction eliminates not onlybut also , the component of the DD phase measurement error due to multipath at the master.
Linear least-squares compared to quadratic-least squares estimation. To evaluate the assumption that DD tropospheric and ionospheric errors vary proportional to relative position, c1 was estimated with the full set of secondary stations S for single epochs at 300 second intervals. The probability distributions of the contributions of those parameters (e.g., cxlxs and not simply cxl) are shown below. For comparison, equivalent values are calculated for a quadratic least-squares estimate of the following form:
(9)
Here, the subscript q of denotes a quadratic model for DD atmospheric delays. The distributions of comparable terms from (9) are also shown in the next two figures. These data represent the collection of all satellites above the elevation mask angle. It is noted that when all satellites are considered together, the expected value of these terms is very near zero.
Probability densities of the terms estimated at the station location for SPMS of UNAVCO. As indicated by the legend, the linear components are shown for a linear least-squares estimation as well as the linear components for a quadratic least-squares estimation. These data represent the probability densities for all GPS satellites combined.
Probability densities of the terms calculated at the station location for SPMS of UNAVCO.
The next two figures show the same data as the two above, but with each GPS satellite plotted separately. It is noted that the linear parameters, when considering only a particular satellite, are not necessarily zero-mean. This is hypothesized to be a manifestation of the satellite orbit reflected in the tropospheric and ionospheric errors. It is interesting to note that the quadratic terms shown in the second figure below largely exhibit zero mean behavior despite non-zero mean for the associated linear terms.
Probability densities of the terms for every GPS satellite observed, calculated at the station location for SPMS of UNAVCO, where each plot line represents a different GPS satellite. This figure is intended to qualitatively illustrate the non-zero mean nature of these linear terms when considered for individual satellites.
Probability densities of the terms for every GPS satellite observed, calculated at the station location for SPMS of UNAVCO, where each plot line represents a different GPS satellite. This figure is included to qualitatively illustrate the largely zero mean nature of these quadratic terms when considered for individual satellites.Probability densities of the difference between linear least-squares and quadratic least-squares network correction estimates for representative reference stations. The red vertical lines denote boundaries between which 68.27% of the probability distribution is contained; displayed as a comparative proxy to lσ of the Gaussian-distribution (these distributions are non-Gaussian). Recall that CGDM has a distance to the master station of 15.1km, BGIS is at 21.6km, and LORS is at 23.1km.
The figure above shows the probability distributions of the difference between (7) and (9) (i.e., ) at three representative reference station positions. It can be noticed that despite the increasing baseline distance of LORS and BGIS as compared to CGDM, there is no apparent correlation in these estimation errors. Notice that CGDM and LORS have very similar distributions despite their difference in baselines. BGIS and LORS, with similar baselines, exhibit very different distributions. There is no apparent correlation found between reference station positions and these error terms. Additionally, these distributions are zero-mean for all s∈S (to within 0.5 mm in each case) with 68.27% boundaries positioned between 1.5-5.5 mm. Because these errors appear indistinguishable from multipath, it is concluded, for this specific network and time period, that linear least-squares estimation is sufficient for estimating tropospheric and ionospheric errors. This is fortunate, because the linear model for atmospheric DD delays provides an averaging effect on multipath present at the reference stations which minimizes the introduction of multipath errors into the estimates produced.
Uncorrected carrier-phase residuals. The figure below shows the expected values for DD carrier-phase residual standard deviations for all s∈S through use of uncorrected observations. These data were produced by averaging the standard deviation of the DD carrier-phase residuals calculated at each epoch across all satellites present in the solution. The fitted curve indicates a linear growth of DD carrier-phase residuals with β = 0.62 mm/km. Additionally, the mm-level scatter of these data points suggest that position biases of the resolved reference station positions are also mm-level. If the linear fit is shifted down by approximately 4 mm (e.g., taking the minimum data points as those with very little position bias) and extrapolated to 0 km, one can consider this as providing a rough estimate of DD multipath at the reference stations; 4.7 mm (DD) or 3.3 mm (single-difference equivalent).
Standard deviation of uncorrected DD carrier-phase residuals versus baseline distance between each of the 22 reference stations and the master reference station.
Uncorrected Carrier-Phase Residuals. Figure 5 shows the expected values for DD carrier-phase residual standard deviations for all secondary stations, based on observations that were not corrected for atmospheric delay. These data were produced by averaging the standard deviation of the DD carrier-phase residuals calculated at each epoch across all satellites present in the solution. The fitted curve indicates a linear growth of DD carrier-phase residuals with distance to the master. The mm-level scatter of these data points suggest that biases of the resolved reference station positions are also mm-level.
Figure 5. Standard deviation of uncorrected DD carrier-phase residuals versus baseline distance between each of the 22 reference stations and the master reference station.
Network-Corrected Residuals. Figure 6 displays similar data to Figure 5, except that the carrier-phase residuals are those that remain after network corrections are applied. Each data point corresponds to a particular subset of secondary stations together with the master, and a particular rover selected at random from the remaining stations. Both the size and specific selection of secondary stations comprising each subset were randomly selected. In all, 70 different network configurations and more than 3.67 million NRTK solutions were analyzed.
Figure 6. Standard deviation of carrier-phase residual remainders (the carrier-phase residuals which remain after application of network corrections) versus average network density. The fitted curve is simply a polynomial fit of these data; it is not based on any theoretically anticipated behavior.
Figure 6 shows that carrier-phase residuals after application of network corrections are considerably reduced compared to those original magnitudes seen in Figure 5. With increasing network density, the DD residuals’ deviation asymptotically approaches a minimum value of about 4 mm, which corresponds to an undifferenced deviation of 2 mm. This floor is due to multipath at the rover. Deviations in excess of this floor are caused by residual ionospheric errors and, to a lesser extent, neutral atmospheric errors.Attributing the excess deviation entirely to residual ionospheric errors, and assuming these are uncorrelated with multipath, one can estimate from Figure 6 the undifferenced ionospheric uncertainty. For example, for a 50-km inter-station distance, σι=(℘(142 – 42))/2=6.7mm. To achieve the σι<2 mm recommended earlier for fast and reliable AR, station separation should be no more than 22 km, which we round down to a recommended value of 20 km to provide a margin of station redundancy.
NETWORK DEPLOYMENT
We have developed and deployed a low-cost reference network testbed in Austin, Texas, with site hosting courtesy of the Texas Department of Transportation. The Longhorn Reference Network boasts a dozen stations, with plans for 20 (Figure 7). The network’s average inter-station spacing is far shorter than the 20-km spacing recommended earlier. The tighter spacing provides redundancy and flexibility of experimentation. The low-cost reference stations are deployed in environments with greater multipath and signal blockage than those of the high-quality stations studied earlier. Such non-ideal signal environments are to be expected in a dense low-cost reference network, for which choice of station siting is driven largely by opportunity.
Figure 7. Overview of the planned Austin area reference network (Google Maps).
The reference station design, pictured in Figure 8 and diagrammed in Figure 9, is novel. Each station is a self-contained, solar-powered node supporting a software-defined dual-frequency, dual-antenna GNSS receiver with an always-on cellular connection to university servers for data collection and software maintenance.
Figure 8. Low-cost reference station in the Longhorn Reference Network.Figure 9. Reference station components.
Live Vehicle Demonstration. In partnership with Radiosense, an Austin-based precise positioning startup, we have developed and demonstrated a low-cost vehicle lane departure warning system that receives corrections from our dense reference network. The system takes in lane widths from an external database and infers a safe driving corridor within each lane by analyzing the behavior of human drivers on the same road. A vehicle’s proximity to the lane boundary is displayed in real time to the driver and passengers.
For robustness against cycle slips and to provide a baseline against which to compare future improvements, the system currently employs single-epoch CDGNSS positioning without aiding from additional sensors. In choosing a single-epoch approach, the system naively discards information regarding the underlying integer ambiguities at the beginning of each measurement epoch. Still, the system performs well with the typical number of overhead signals in a light urban environment: correct and internally-validated solutions were available in over 92 percent of measurement epochs. When a second rover antenna is included to combat multipath with spatial diversity, this percentage improves to 96. Such good single-epoch performance suggests that, when armed with additional sensor aiding and proper integer ambiguity persistence, reliable and accurate vehicle positioning can be maintained in more challenging environments.
Demonstration setup. The live demonstration followed a predetermined route in the vicinity of the University of Texas campus. The 1-mile route (Figure 10) passed through both open-sky and partially-blocked environments.
Figure 10. Demonstration route.
Prior to the demonstration, the vehicle was driven several times on the same route collecting GNSS measurements to precisely map typical driving trajectories on the route. The ensemble of trajectories was used to build a centimeter-accurate model of the lane center along the route. The sensing equipment employed during this mapping phase is no different than that used during the demonstration, making feasible eventual crowd-sourcing, wherein end-user vehicles generate and update the centerline models.
The demonstration vehicle was outfitted with two dual-frequency GNSS antennas mounted with magnetic bases onto the roof. The first antenna, designated primary, operated as the rover in a single-baseline CDGNSS solution against the master reference station of the Longhorn Reference Network, as illustrated in Figure 11. This baseline provided the geo-referenced, centimeter-accurate vehicle position. The other antenna, designated secondary, was paired with the primary antenna to produce a constrained-baseline CDGNSS solution providing sub-degree-accurate vehicle heading. The secondary antenna also served as a backup when the primary antenna produced a result that did not pass the precise positioning engine’s internal validity testing.
Figure 11. GNSS antenna configuration. A single-baseline precise position solution between the primary antenna and the master reference station provides precise vehicle position. A constrained-baseline 2D attitude solution between the primary and secondary antennas provides heading.
The GNSS antennas were connected to a low-cost, dual-frequency front-end in the trunk of the vehicle (FIGURE 12)which downconverted and digitized the incoming signals and subsequently fed them to a low-cost single-board computer running the precise positioning engine. A cellular modem received real-time measurements from the master reference station, while a WiFi router streamed real-time solutions to several Android devices in the vehicle for real-time visualization of precise within-lane position.
Figure 12. Low-cost, dual-frequency rover system in the trunk of the vehicle.
Demonstration Results. Figures 13, 14 and 15 show snapshots of the Android application and a still frame of the side of the vehicle in three different scenarios. The large rectangle indicates vehicle position with respect to the modeled lane center, changing color from green, when the vehicle is within the safe driving corridor, to yellow as the vehicle nears the edge of the lane, and finally to red if the vehicle breaks the lane boundary. One could imagine wrapping a control loop around these signals to enable last-moment lane-keeping.
Figure 13. Vehicle position relative to lane edge (left) synchronized in time with video still frame (right), centered safely within the lane, as depicted by green rectangle.Figure 14. Vehicle nearing lane edge, as depicted by yellow rectangle.Figure 15. Vehicle crossing lane edge, as depicted by red rectangle.
Figure 16 reveals the precision with which the positioning engine was able to locate the vehicle’s driver-side antenna in four repeated passes along the test route. The variation between the four yellow traces is primarily due to driver non-repeatability; actual measurement precision is at the centimeter scale. A small bias in the traces’ registration to the picture is present because Google Earth imagery is only registered to the International Terrestrial Reference Frame with meter-level accuracy.
Figure 16. Four repeated traces of driver’s side antenna as vehicle made a turn.
Figure 17 shows a time history of the vertical deviation from the route mean, in meters. The zoomed view of the vertical deviation shown in Figure 18 allows one to appreciate the precision of the positioning engine: the vertical trajectory is smooth at the centimeter level. Figure 19 shows the DD residuals in carrier phase and pseudorange for GPS PRN 30 during the four loops in Figure 17. One-sigma undifferenced phase and pseudorange deviations are 3.4 mm and 42 cm, respectively.
Figure 17. Time history of the vertical deviation from the route mean, in meters.Figure 18. Zoomed view of the time history of the vertical deviation from the route mean, showing the centimeter-level precision in the 3.3 Hz positioning data.Figure 19. Double-difference carrier phase (top) and pseudorange (bottom) residuals for GPS satellite 30 at frequency L1 over the full time interval shown in Figure 17.
The figures demonstrate that the precise positioning engine fed by reference data from the Longhorn Reference Network maintained centimeter-accurate knowledge of the vehicle’s position during almost the entire trajectory, despite passing between a large football stadium and parking garage, each of which introduced significant signal blockage and multipath.
For the data shown in Figure 17, 96 percent of the 3.3-Hz measurement epochs resulted in a correct and internally-validated positioning solution. The majority of the remaining solutions were correct but did not pass internal validation. For only 0.6 percent of solutions were the carrier-phase integer ambiguities resolved incorrectly, but all of these incorrect solutions were caught and excluded by the validation algorithm.
Furthermore, the number of overhead signals during the time in which this particular dataset (set A) was taken was average, as seen in the upper plot of Figure 20. 16 signals above 15 degrees elevation were available during this time. In contrast, the number of overhead signals for a second dataset taken 8 days prior (set B) was much worse, with only 12 signals above 15 degrees elevation, as seen in the lower plot.
Figure 20. The number of signals above a 15-degree elevation mask. Each plot spans an entire day. The black arrows denote the time of day in which two different datasets, A and B, were taken. The dashed red line represents the mean number of signals above the mask over both days. Dataset A was taken during a nominal time when 16 signals were available, while dataset B was taken during a worst-case time when only 12 signals were available.
For insight into the performance of the positioning engine as a function of the number of overhead satellites, Table 1 details the performance of these two datasets (as well as a third dataset) in terms of the percentage of epochs that passed the positioning engine’s internal validation testing, based on a ratio test with a fixed threshold of 2.0. Results are shown for single- and dual-antenna positioning solutions and for dual-antenna vehicle heading solutions.
Table 1. The performance of each dataset in terms of the percentage of solutions that passed validation testing.
A large drop-off in positioning performance occurs when the number of overhead signals is reduced below 16, while the constrained-baseline heading determination performance remains good throughout. Fortunately, it will not be long until even more signals are available. Within the next 8 months, the Galileo constellation will add six fully operational satellites. These will bring the number of GPS L1, GPS L2C, Galileo E1, and SBAS signals that are above 15 degrees elevation to 16 or more 95 percent of the time, enabling high-reliability single-epoch CDGNSS positioning.
CONCLUSIONS
For a sufficiently dense reference network, linear least squares estimation can be applied to the task of reducing uncertainties due to tropospheric and ionospheric delays for the purposes of providing improved positioning accuracy as well as faster time to ambiguity resolution for carrier-phase differential positioning. High network density allows use of a strong linear model for atmospheric delays, which has the virtue of suppressing network-side multipath errors in the provided corrections.
A network of 23 high-quality reference stations in the vicinity of Los Angeles, California, was studied to determine what network density is sufficient to make all network-side error sources negligible compared to rover receiver multipath. A density of three stations per 1,000km2, or an average inter-station spacing of 20 km, was found to drive network-side ionospheric, tropospheric, and multipath errors well below rover receiver multipath.
These findings motivate a significant densification of permanent reference networks, at least in built-up areas where signal blockage and multipath are common, to support mass-market applications for which low user (rover receiver) cost and rapid convergence to a reliable sub-decimeter position are a priority. In a light urban setting, and with the kind of satellite coverage that will soon become the norm, we demonstrated vehicle lane departure warning in a field test that produced highly reliable instantaneous sub-decimeter positioning.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported in part by Samsung Research America, by the Data-Supported Transportation Operations and Planning Center (D-STOP), a Tier 1 USDOT University Transportation Center, and by the Texas Department of Transportation under the Connected Vehicle Problems, Challenges and Major Technologies project.
Savari Inc., a V2X (vehicle-to-everything) communication and safety technology company, is showcasing its advanced V2X safety communications solutions at TU-Automotive Detroit, taking place June 8-9 in Novi, Michigan.
At the show, Savari will be hosted by Qualcomm Technologies and will offer live demonstrations in Qualcomm booth #C69. The live demonstrations simulate real-life automotive traffic scenarios and how in-car V2X applications make driving safer and more efficient. It will feature predictive applications such as intersection movement assist (IMA), forward collision warning (FCW), blind-spot warning (BSW) and lane-change warning (LCW).
Savari’s and Qualcomm’s V2X technology delivers superior reliability compared to other solutions, eliminating the need for cameras that require line of sight, and ensuring lane level accuracy up to 0.6 mile/1 kilometer of communication range. These capabilities make V2X suitable for for future transportation initiatives, including self-driving cars.
A pioneer in V2X safety communications technologies, Savari delivers a suite of solutions that enable connected vehicles to interact with other vehicles, roadside infrastructure, smartphones and pedestrians, the company said.
Savari has achieved more 400,000 hours of public testing of its on-board units, covering more than 15 million miles traveled. Savari is also an active participant in major public U.S. smart city testbeds, with more than 90 percent of currently installed road-side-units, covering 130 public square miles.
Recent progress with Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) brings connected cars or V2X — connectivity between vehicles, infrastructure and all road users — closer to reality than ever before. If all goes well, an NHTSA mandate on DSRC in new light vehicles is expected to start around 2020 as a phase-in plan, with completion around 2025.
Regulations for aftermarket devices are expected to come soon after. The mandate is expected to leave auto OEMs to choose the applications and human-machine interface (HMI). This will be the culmination of more than a decade of technology development and standardization by U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), automotive OEMs and other industry partners.
Significance of V2X. According to USDOT, V2X technology can positively impact more than 80% of non-impaired vehicle crash types that result in over 30,000 deaths in the U.S. alone. A report by the Federal Highway Administration to Congress states that V2X technology is ready to be deployed in the near future and is expected to yield significant safety and efficiency benefits.
From a consumer’s perspective, V2X will be a part of a vehicle ADAS (Active Safety Driver Assistance System). Initial systems will provide information only, and these systems are expected to evolve into warning and control capabilities. In a future vehicle, information from multiple sensors including V2X will be combined/fused to generate a view of the surrounding environment. Figure 1 gives an example of such sensors including long- and short-range radar, lidar, cameras and V2X. V2X offers unique advantages over other sensors that depend on direct line-of-sight. Information can be received from vehicles not visible to other sensors, giving a much larger field of view. V2X can transmit information directly from traffic control devices, instead of inferring information from camera observations.
Figure 1. Example of a vehicle sensor configuration.
Figure 2 depicts the sensor fusion screen from an ADAS development platform by Renesas Electronics America. Such a platform offers the flexibility to implement an ADAS using all available sensors, for example blind-spot warning from radar, forward collision warnings from combined radar, camera and V2X, surround object detection from combined radar, lidar, vision and V2X, with information presented via an OEM-specific HMI.
Figure 2. Renesas ADAS development platform.
GNSS role and challenges
V2X is built on the assumption that vehicles, infrastructure elements, and other road users are location-aware and can communicate critical information to others around them. As seen in Figure 3, the system will position all communicating V2X entities with respect to the host vehicle and security interface, which validates all relevant DSRC messages. A control area network (CAN) or a similar interface will be needed for direct access to vehicle information such as brake and turn-light status and odometer. Interfaces to long-range connectivity such as cellular networks and other data sources such as maps may also be included. The system will connect to an HMI to display information, and future systems will likely evolve to vehicle control functions.
Figure 3. Components of a V2X system.
Looking at the components of an over-the-air (OTA) V2X basic safety message (BSM), this includes a UTC-based time marker, WGS84-based position, and an estimated position error — all critical data that primarily depend on GNSS. RTCM-formatted data may also be sent as optional attachments. A BSM-like personal safety message (PSM) is also defined for pedestrians with V2X-enabled devices.
As per current Minimum Performance Requirements (MPR), a UTC time source with better than 1 millisecond accuracy is required in a V2X device. While almost all current prototypes use GNSS as source of time, others, such as NTP, may also be used. Accurate time reference is a critical prerequisite for basic DSRC functionality. MPR requires time-marked position estimates with 2D and elevation accuracy of 1.5 and 3 meters or better (1 sigma) under open-sky conditions. The automotive industry has opted to define open sky as unobstructed sky view above 5-degree elevation with seven or more satellites visible with HDOP and VDOP limits. The industry expectation is to use this criteria to select GNSS devices that could eventually support lane-level applications (better than 1.5-meter accuracy).
MPR does not put any requirements on the accuracy of the position error estimate in the BSM. It does require that a vehicle stop transmitting BSM whenever the aforementioned time and position accuracy requirements are not met. This implies that a V2X-enabled vehicle may disappear from the V2X view of others in a dense urban canyon or similar environments, leaving at least two questions for system designers from a GNSS perspective alone. First, how to reliably declare that the system cannot meet time and position accuracy requirements, and second, how to deal with the vehicle itself and other V2X entities that may cease to function or broadcast due to GNSS or other limitations. V2X systems are assumed to include inertial and vehicle sensor integration.
Road Ahead. Starting in 2017, connected vehicle pilots (CVP) in New York, Tampa, Florida, and Wyoming will be the next major milestone for V2X. These deployments will be limited to commercial fleets (taxis, public transit, city/road crews and delivery trucks) and some limited road-user categories.
Among the automotive OEMs, Toyota was the first to offer V2X-based driver-assistance technology as ITS Connect in Japan in 2015. General Motors is the first to announce a V2X technology offering in a passenger vehicle in the U.S. with an initial rollout in select 2017 models. The first phase of V2X deployments will only provide driver assistance information while subsequent iterations are expected to bring in safety-focused functions leading to control capabilities.
There is a growing interest in the cellular industry to support V2X-like communication in an upcoming release of the 3GPP standards commonly referenced as 5G. This would enable low latency, peer-to-peer communication with the advantage of an existing device provisioning/authentication infrastructure, something that needs to be built up for DSRC. However, 5G is still a concept, and judging by the lifecycle of LTE, a 5G deployment will take several years to start and several more years to fully deploy while still leaving some rural areas with legacy technology. A framework to manage commercial traffic vs. likely free safety traffic will also be required. These raise the question as to how 5G alone can support vehicle safety applications nationwide.
The FCC has recently proposed a rule to potentially open up the DSRC band for unlicensed Wi-Fi devices, provided Wi-Fi users do not interfere with the primary safety use. Automotive and wireless industry and other stakeholders are investigating the feasibility of possible co-existence in the future. Among the proposed solutions are the rechannelization of DSRC to use a smaller bandwidth and a mechanism for Wi-Fi devices to Detect-and-Vacate the DSRC band when a safety user is detected.
From a technology point of view, V2X has reached a significant milestone with R&D in various technology areas converging and critical standards being adopted recently. With Toyota V2X offering in Japan and GM V2X commitment in the U.S., customers will have V2X as an option this year, further proof that V2X will be on the roads soon. However, significant further work is needed to address the GNSS accuracy and reliability needed for next-generation systems and to address GNSS-specific vulnerabilities such as jamming or spoofing. The New York CVP, which includes deep urban canyons, will probably be a great opportunity for GNSS and V2X communicates to work together on some of these limitations.
Europe has leapt forward in the ragged advance toward autonomous road travel. The Declaration of Amsterdam, “Cooperation in the field of connected and automated driving,” signed April 14 by the 28 transport ministers of the European Union member states, lays out a strong vision of road future. The language shows some pretty steely resolve to see a driverless ground transport infrastructure materialize, and soon.
Overall, the ministers and the considerable might of assembled European government foresee “the development of mobility as a service.” Not as something that individuals undertake for themselves, but something that society (or corporations in society’s service) provides. Whether paid for by use or by taxes, travel may soon resemble healthcare.
All the usual compelling reasons are cited — safety, efficiency, reduced congestion — but the declaration offers a few more that aren’t heard as frequently:
The transition towards a zero-emissions society and the circular economy.
Benefit to the aging population (something everyone can relate to since we’re all headed that direction).
Improved mobility in rural areas.
The ministers acknowledge that ahead lie challenges aplenty, and not just the technological sort. “There are important questions to be answered regarding security, social inclusion, use of data, privacy, liability, ethics, public support and” — here’s the thorniest of all, in my view — “the co-existence of connected and automated vehicles with manually controlled vehicles.”
Three thoughts lifted from conversation with Jane Macfarlane, chief scientist at HERE:
The ecosystem hasn’t formed yet and nobody exactly knows what it looks like.
The map is critical to that vision. We have to go much deeper into the representation of sensor data and the environment. GNSS is at the absolute core of that.
Trust is key in a vehicle that’s controlling itself.
Whatever the new ecosystem turns out to be, this little red number may be an endangered species there. Alternately, networks or reserves for private driving may develop, much like civil aviation in the shadow of modern airline transport.
Down the road a piece, a brave new world awaits us.
Context-dependent scan matching for aided navigation
By Jyh-Ching Juang, Shang-Lin Yu and Shun-Hung Chen
Context-dependent scan matching for aided navigation — finding the rotation and translation that best align two consecutive scans — provides laser-ranging data that can be blended into a GNSS navigation system. A quality index based on analysis of intra-frame point clouds assesses the scan context, accounting for variations in feature richness, to yield a robust aided navigation solution.
For robust and autonomous navigation, many different sensors have been incorporated and, indeed, fused to form a navigation suite that typically includes a GNSS receiver, inertial measurement unit, vision sensor, laser rangefinder, odometer and others. Recently, driven by the goal to achieve autonomous driving, laser range data and image data have been widely adopted in the establishment of vehicle safety and autonomy functions. Laser range data can facilitate navigation and guidance. Through the use of scan matching, vehicle motion can be detected and used in dead reckoning. The surroundings of a vehicle can also be built based on point clouds, so that a feasible path can be generated for obstacle avoidance and vehicle guidance. To some extent, the image data can also be exploited in a similar manner. The use of a visual odometry technique attempts to estimate the relative motion between two consecutive images for dead-reckoning navigation.
This article addresses a limitation in scan matching for vehicular navigation and proposes a context-dependent scheme to account for the variation of the richness of features in scan-matching-based navigation. Environmental context in terms of the richness of features is known to affect the quality of the resulting navigation performance. Thus, in scan matching, we seek to establish a quality index to quantify the quality of the resulting estimates on rotation and translation. In this manner, after fusion with other sensors, a robust positioning solution can be obtained.
Here, we briefly review the scan-matching technique and discuss the aforementioned limitation using a real-world example. We then investigate a context-dependent weighting concept, and the entropy of a scan is used to quantify the richness of its features. We find that a scan with low entropy may be prone to improper registration and an erroneous navigation result. Thus, a weighting is assigned to the scan-matching result for integrated navigation processing. To verify and demonstrate the proposed context-dependent weighting approach, the method is implemented and tested in a vehicle. The result verifies that the proposed scheme can indeed avoid improper registration and lead to robust navigation performance.
Scan Matching
Scan matching is an enabling technique in vehicle navigation, map building and obstacle avoidance, produced by laser ranging devices. Scan matching finds the rotation and translation that best align two consecutive scans. Given two point sets {pn, n = 1,2,K,N} and {qm, m = 1,2,K,M} at two consecutive instants, the scan-matching problem is to determine a correspondence n → m(n) for the registration of two scans and a rotation matrix R and translation (shift) vector s such that the objective function is minimized:
(1)
Once the mapping m(n) is determined, the optimization of (1) can be solved analytically. The determination of the mapping from n to m(n) is typically accomplished by using an iterative method. This class of methods is termed as iterative closest point (ICP), in which the mapping m(n) is determined by searching for the closest point in the target point cloud. There have been many different variations to the ICP by using a different objective function for minimization, a point-to-plane matching, the removal of boundary and/or low-quality correspondences, and so forth. By repeating the scan-matching process, the rotation matrices and translation vectors can be determined and used in the dead-reckoning navigation process to estimate the position and attitude of the vehicle. In robotics and autonomous vehicles, the scan matching is typically integrated with the map-building process for simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM).
Figure 1 depicts a representative result when the scan-matching technique is used in the SLAM. In the figure, the vehicle moves from the bottom to the top. As the vehicle moves, the laser rangefinder collects measurements for the determination of the vehicle and the mapping of the environment. The location of the vehicle can be estimated (in green) and the environment can be mapped (in blue) by using the scan-matching and filtering techniques. However, as also depicted in the figure, as the vehicle moves to the end of the corridor the point clouds that are obtained from the laser rangefinder (in red) are constrained, and the change of the pose of the vehicle cannot be accurately determined.
Figure 1. Representative SLAM result.
Figure 2 shows the original scans at two consecutive instants (in blue and gray, respectively) and the matched scan after the scan-matching process (in red) when the vehicle moves along the corridor.
Figure 2. Scan-matching result 1.
At this point, the laser rangefinder obtains measurements that are rich in context. The rotation and translation of the vehicle can be estimated with an acceptable level of accuracy, and the vehicle can be located. In this example, the translation vector is found to be s = [11.07 0.50 –0.58]T mm and the minimal error of the objective function is 3.47. When the vehicle moves to the end of the corridor, the scans at two consecutive instants, together with the matched scan, are depicted in Figure 3.
Figure 3. Scan-matching result 2.
In this case, only the end wall is observed by the laser scanner, and the determination of the rotation and translation based on scan matching is subject to errors due to the lack of features. Indeed, by applying the scan-matching technique, the translation vector is found to be s = [9.18 –2.84 13.22]T , which is obviously incorrect in the z axis component. Also, the minimal error of the objective function is 3.20, which is smaller than the error in Figure 2. Thus, the error may not provide a fair assessment of the scan matching due primarily to the fact that the error in registration is not taken into account in the objective function (1). In short, lack of features in the environment may induce improper registration and lead to navigation error.
To account for the aforementioned limitation, several methods can be adopted. One can resort to some variations of the scan-matching techniques by, for example, using feature extraction and matching. Blending with other sensors can be employed. In this case, the vehicle can be equipped with gyros to give information on the change of attitude so that the change of translation can be better estimated. This research project addressed this issue by using a context-dependent weighting to quantify the scan-matching results.
Context-Dependent Weighting
Scan matching attempts to investigate the relationship between two consecutive scans to explore the inter-frame characteristics. However, as discussed, the quality of the scan-matching result depends on the richness of features in the scan, which is revealed by examining the intra-frame characteristic. Given a scan in 2D or 3D, some quality indices can be established to assess its characteristic. For example, principal component analysis (PCA) is a widely applied technique to quantify a scan and to obtain normal vector in a polygon environment. For vehicle navigation in an outdoor environment, the PCA approach may be limited. Here, we propose the use of entropy to assess the complexity of the environment of a scan (or image).
Given a set of K random variables, the entropy is defined as
,(2)
where pk stands for the probability of the k-th random variable. The entropy is a measure that can be used to probe the randomness of a set of random variables. As each probability is bounded by 1, the entropy in (2) ranges between 0 and log2 K.
To assess the entropy of a scan, which is characterized in terms of a combination of angle and range, the scan is converted through a kernel function to become a density-based map. Several different kernel functions can be used. With the density-based scan, the histogram can be formed to obtain an estimate of the probabilities and, consequently, (2) is used to evaluate the entropy.
Figure 4 and Figure 5 represent the original scan and the density-based scan, respectively. The entropy of the sacn in Figure 4 is evaluated to be 1.17. In contrast, the scan in Figure 6 is found to have an entropy of 0.86. Note that Figure 6 is limited in terms of its features, leading to a smaller entropy.
Figure 4. A representative laser range measurement.Figure 5. A density-based scan.Figure 6. Another scan.
By evaluating the entropy of the scan, the scan-matching result can be quantified. A weighting can indeed be assigned as a function of the entropy for integration with other sensors in the integrated navigation system. A limitation of using laser scan data for the assessment of entropy is the need of the conversion to its corresponding density-based map. In vehicular navigation, a camera is often mounted together with a laser rangefinder. As a result, it is possible to use the image data from the camera for the assessment of entropy.
Figure 7 depicts the navigation system design when the context-dependent weighting is used. The navigation suite uses laser rangefinder, camera and other navigation sensors to estimate the position, velocity and attitude of the vehicle. In this approach, the reference scan is matched with the current reading scan based on the scan-matching technique to produce estimates on the rotation and translation. In the meantime, the current scan is overlaid on the image that is obtained from the camera. The region of interest, which is the image that covers the scan points, is extracted. With respect to the region of interest of the image, the entropy is evaluated. The entropy then serves as an indicator in adjusting the weighting of the rotation and translation. The use of image data is the saving in computational complexity. A potential limitation is that the entropy may be sensitive to the variation of gray scale, or RGB values may affect the result.
Figure 7. Integrated navigation with context-dependent weighting.
Experiments
To verify the applicability of the context-dependent weighting, an experiment is conducted. The vehicle is equipped with the following navigation sensors for the determination of position, velocity and attitude.
laser rangefinder
camera
IMU
GPS receiver
odometer
In addition, a GPS real-time kinematic (RTK) receiver provides ground truth. The RTK solution is only used in the evaluation process. Figure 8 depicts the location of the sensors after installation in the test vehicle Luxgen U7.
Figure 8. Test vehicle and the locations of sensors.
The experiment was conducted at a test track of the Automotive Research and Test Center (ARTC), Taiwan, and Figure 9 depicts the track as well as the RTK result. The starting point is at the right upper corner of the track, and the vehicle moves in a counter-clockwise direction.
Figure 9. Test track at ARTC, Taiwan.
The proposed context-dependent weighting approach is evaluated. To assess the significance of the context-dependent weighting, the navigation system processes the laser rangefinder, IMU and encoder data only as these data are obtained from dead-reckoning sensors. More exactly, the GPS receiver data is not used in the processing to better quantify the contrition of the proposed approach. In practice, the GPS receiver data can be used to account for dead-reckoning sensor errors.
Figure 10 depicts the comparison of the estimated trajectory. In the figure, the RTK result is used as a reference, and the dead-reckoning results with and without the context-dependent weighting are shown. Note that when the context-dependent weighting is not used, the estimated trajectory (in red) is subject to two erroneous turns at the lower left corner and upper right corner, respectively.
Figure 10. Estimated trajectories.
The entropy as a function of time is evaluated and shown in Figure 11. Note that the entropies are relatively low at 240 seconds and 1960 seconds, respectively. These two instants correspond to the moments when the vehicle is at the aforementioned corners. Through the use of entropy-based context-dependent weighting in the dead-reckoning process, the navigation error is significantly reduced, as shown in the estimated trajectory (in blue). Thus, the effectiveness of the proposed scheme is verified.
Figure 11. Entropy as a function of time.
Conclusion
For autonomous vehicle applications, knowledge of the current state (such as position, velocity and attitude) of the host vehicle are needed. For robust and autonomous navigation, many different sensors have been incorporated and fused to form a navigation suite. In fusing different sensor data for better accuracy and integrity, the quality of sensors must be considered. We investigated the use of a scan-matching technique for aided navigation. The context of the environment in terms of the richness of features may affect the quality of the resulting navigation system.
To address the context-dependent issue, we used a context-dependent entropy measure to assess the quality in scan matching. In addition to the increments in translation and rotation, the corresponding quality indices are obtained to better blend the scan-matching result into the navigation system. As a result, anomalous navigation results due to lack of features and improper registration can be better dealt with. The proposed scheme is experimentally verified.
Acknowledgments
The work is supported by the joint NCKU-ARTC research project, Taiwan.
JYH-CHING JUANG received a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He was with Lockheed Aeronautical System Company, Burbank, before joining the faculty of the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan. His research interests include sensor networks, GNSS signal processing and software-based receivers.
SHANG-LIN YU is an M.S. student in the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University.
SHUN-HUNG CHEN received a Ph.D. from the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University. He is with the Electronic Control Technology Group, Research & Development Division, Automotive Research & Testing Center in Taiwan. His research interests include vehicle navigation and autonomous driving.
A man took a video of his 70-year-old mother’s reaction to a Tesla Model S on Autopilot. Sitting in the driver’s seat, the woman screams, pleading with her son to put her back in control of the vehicle.
KVH Industries is developing a fiber optic gyro (FOG)-based, low-cost inertial sensor for self-driving cars.
The company also released a Developer’s Kit to assist design engineers with integrating FOG technology into driverless car control systems.
KVH’s high-precision FOG is key to a driverless car’s performance. In this photo, the red illumination represents light moving through the FOG’s optical circuit of coiled fiber; this circuit is the FOG’s sensing unit — it is mounted with power and processing electronics within a driverless car to provide precise data for the car’s navigation systems.
FOGs and FOG-based inertial measurement units (IMUs) are key parts of the sensor mechanisms that are essential for highly accurate autonomous car performance, KVH said. For example, FOGs provide precise azimuth measurements that an autonomous car’s logic processing unit and control systems need to determine motion through a curve.
An IMU — which includes FOGs and accelerometers in one compact package — also provides highly accurate 6-degrees-of-freedom angular rate and acceleration data to precisely track the position and orientation of the car even when GPS is unavailable, helping the car stay on course.
As a manufacturer of high-performance sensors and integrated inertial systems for defense and commercial guidance and stabilization applications, KVH Industries has experience in autonomous vehicle prototype programs and unmanned applications.
“Extremely precise heading based on fiber-optic gyro technology is absolutely essential for autonomous vehicle performance,” said Martin Kits van Heyningen, KVH’s chief executive officer. “This is something we learned from having been involved with more than a dozen driverless car development programs over the years.”
“What we are seeing now is that each driverless vehicle concept in development around the world is being designed in a unique way,” said Kits van Heyningen. “With so many different possibilities, developers can accelerate their progress by working with a proven technology such as KVH’s FOGs and FOG-based IMUs and leveraging our experience to ensure their success.”
Developer’s Kit. The new Developer’s Kit includes the user interface software and all components needed to connect a KVH FOG or FOG-based IMU to a computer to configure, analyze and test a unit. “The kit is designed to help engineers get up and running in minutes, making it easier to run diagnostics and accelerate their system development,” said Roger Ward, KVH’s director of FOG product development.
Driverless cars represent one of the fastest areas of autonomous-systems development. Transportation experts, automotive manufacturers and engineers alike predict that driverless cars will be commonplace soon.
An updated policy concerning automated vehicles will soon be published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation. “The rapid development of emerging automation technologies means that partially and fully automated vehicles are nearing the point at which widespread deployment is feasible,” NHTSA said.
“We have successfully produced more than 90,000 fiber-optic gyros for an extensive range of unmanned applications, in part because of our ability to tailor size, performance, and cost to meet different design needs,” said Jeff Brunner, KVH’s vice president for FOG operations. “Controlling the entire FOG design and manufacturing process gives us that advantage, and makes it possible to produce a low-cost sensor when driverless cars enter full-scale production.”
KVH’s FOGs and FOG-based IMUs are in use in prototype programs not only for autonomous cars, but also for production programs for underwater unmanned vehicle navigation and rail/track geometry measurement systems, to name just a few.
The KVH 1750 IMU.
In addition, KVH’s inertial products have been widely adopted for commercial applications such as land-based street mapping platforms, unmanned aerial systems, camera stabilization systems and remotely operated subsea systems.
As more and more programs and platforms use KVH’s inertial products, they are becoming the reference standards of the unmanned world. For example, KVH’s 1750 IMU was an integral part of 11 of the 23 humanoid robot finalists in last year’s DARPA Robotics finals, a competition designed to showcase robots capable of intervening for and even replacing humans in high-risk situations such as fires, earthquakes, and other natural disasters.
“Our IMUs and inertial sensors have already been used in a wide range of products and applications, and we know that it’s just the beginning,” said Kits van Heyningen. “We are thrilled to play a role in these exciting developments and emerging applications that are literally changing everyday life.”
Advanced Scientific Concepts (ASC), supplier of 3D flash lidar vision systems for terrestrial, aerial and space applications, is creating of Advanced Scientific Concepts LLC, following the sale of its ASCar division to Continental AG.
With the acquisition of ASCar, Continental plans to mass produce flash lidars at an affordable price to support the commercial automotive industry.
Advanced Scientific Concepts LLC will continue to focus on providing 3D flash lidar custom and standard product solutions for space, manned airborne and underwater applications. This includes also providing UAS, autonomous vehicle and 3D mapping solutions for the domestic and international military markets.
“ASC’s product line for military and aerospace has matured over the past couple years to a high technology readiness level (TRL) through rigorous design and development,” said Jim Curriden, president of ASC LLC. “ASC LLC will now be entirely focused and well positioned to provide affordable solutions for the military and aerospace community by providing either off the shelf or tailored products to meet a user’s unique requirements.”
Advanced Scientific Concepts LLC is aimed at concentrating on the key markets at the foundation of their technology, ready to invest in the future advancement of 3D flash lidar.