GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) chipsets currently used in automotive are able to provide real time internal solution, in terms of estimated position for each observation epoch (i.e. 1 Hz), on the basis of measured receiver-satellites pseudoranges (i.e. code observations).
The current accuracy well satisfies infotainment and route navigation application requirements, but it is not able to support the emerging automotive applications. In particular, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), Autonomous Driving (AD) and Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) applications need higher accuracies.
Despite the many successful applications in mobility and logistic, no single positioning technology is enough to support automated driving, because individual methods lack the necessary accuracy and robustness for safety critical applications. Positioning in Autonomous Driving is being then developed on the basis of several independent methods: telecom network positioning, car sensors and HD-map positioning, satellite positioning and inertial positioning.
Moreover, even the combination of several technologies is enough to support the applications that require less than one meter a precision.
The proposed research project aims to develop an innovative GNSS based high accuracy positioning approach for vehicles able to provide Position, Velocity and Time (PVT) estimation, overcoming the limitations of the current approaches.
The proposed innovative solution, called GNSS POWER (POsition and Variometric Velocities Estimation in Real time), has the goal to demonstrate the effectiveness of a reliable solution able to fulfil the precision requirements for automotive applications. This issue is a totally open challenge and, considering the volume of the market, a hot topic in research and development.
Innovation is one of the strengths of the proposed research project. The research projected is focused on the proposal of a new strategy for GNSS based real-time precise PVT estimation, willing to overcome the limitations of other approaches currently under investigation for the emerging automotive applications. Furthermore, one of the pillars of GNSS POWER is the exploitation of the VADASE patent (Sapienza portfolio) and the deposit of a specific new patent is one of the foreseen results of the project. The ambitious goal is to demonstrate the effectiveness of a reliable solution able to fulfil the precision requirements for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), Autonomous Driving (AD) and Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) applications. This issue is a totally open challenge and, considering the volume of the market, a hot topic in research and development.
This need for accuracy means that a robotic car requires additional senses that have to be fused in order to provide a real-time high-resolution image of the car¿s environment. Radar, ultrasonic sensors, and stereo cameras are important ¿feelers¿ of a car¿s immediate surroundings. In addition to high-precision localization, vehicle-to-infra-structure and vehicle-to-vehicle communication provides further information that enhances the reach of perception of the surrounding environment to up to 1km.
By imagining millions of cars acting as connected, mobile detection devices, with information hubs collecting sensor data and providing these to cloud solutions, creativity for new business models will be stimulated.
Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) of the latest premium car generation already allow a self-driving experience on high-ways for a few seconds. This kind of feature is based on optical and radar sensors that are able to scan the near-car environment. The results are input to steering, accelerating, and breaking actuators that permit automated driving in situations with low complexity. This is the first step toward autonomous driving. When transferred into urban traffic situations, the information from these sensors is insufficient to enable fully autonomous driving. Additional input such as the exact location, speed, and direction of the car, as well as the current traffic situation and the behavior of other traffic participants, is required.
The project aims also to improve the current technical knowledge in GNSS kinematic applications. In fact, currently the standard format used to broadcast GNSS positions and velocity information is the NMEA (National Marine Electronics Association) 0183. In this standard, composed by several messages type, the velocity information, independently on the way it is estimated, is broadcasted only as scalar value. The project will demonstrate that is possible to directly estimate precise three-dimensional velocities (to be conservative, at the level of one centimetre/second) and to broadcast them in the NMEA standard in a specific new message.
The project will lead to at least two main publications: One focused on the model of GNSS POWER in highly impacted GNSS journals (like 'GPS Solutions' with IF 4.727 where the proponent has already published researches related to other GNSS topics), the other related to the innovation of the research in the ITS.
The results of the project will be presented at the Institute Of Navigation (ION) GNSS annual conference and shared within the Task Force of the European GNSS Agency working on raw data from mass-market devices (The Geodesy and Geomatics Division of Sapienza is the only Italian academic representative in the Task Force).