Navigation applications

Academic Year 2007/08

Master of Science in Computer Engineering,
Environmental and Land Planning Engineering

Car navigation

Car navigation
It is possible to distinguish
the two lines of march

Train path reconstruction

(different accuracy)

Car navigation
GPS 597 - eBonTek

TomTom portable car navigator

BluTooth
connection
Palmtop PC
GIS (es. ArcPad)
WebGIS (map server)

Traffic control
In addition to the navigation of the single vehicle, the navigation
information can be exploited to control the car traffic (and in
general the road transportation, ITS).
Interdisciplinary subject:
numerical cartography (GIS)
telematics
operative research (to optimize paths, etc.)

Pedestrian
navigation
Conventional GPS only used
for OUTDOOR applications
The INDOOR use of GPS
(when it works), or in the
presence of many obstacles,
does not assure a sufficient
accuracy.
Auxilary sensors are needed

RFID
It is a presence/transit detector.

Main advantages as compared to

bar codes:
it can be detected even if it is
not visible

identification and check are

done in 10/100 of seconds

RFID scanner

RFID tag

Pseudolites
The PSEUDOLITE (pseudo-satellite) is a GPS transmitter that is installed on
ground in a stable way.
The signal emitted by pseudolites emulates the one emitted by satellites, thus
allowing an accurate and reliable localization in difficult environments, such
as urban canyons or indoor environments.

Geodetic navigation
The goal of geodetic navigation is NOT the navigation
itself (position, velocity and attitude of a vehicle)
BUT the vehicle is used as a moving geodetic platform for
other sensors, which are then geo-referenced.
The real-time processing is sometimes useful, but it is not
essential as in the case of vehicle control.
The a-posteriori processing allows to compute the optimal
trajectory.

Mobile mapping
Multi-sensor systems that lodge (integrate) on a single
platform a navigation/positioning system with various
data-acquisition systems
Structural components
Positioning system: GPS, Inertial Unit, Odometer, etc.
Sensors: cameras (B/W, RGB, IR); laser scanner; sensors to
measure the pollution level, the resistance of road pavement, etc.
Systems for data acquisition, storage and synchronization.

mobile platform
navigation
sensors

image/signal
sensors

cts
u
d
o
r
p

digital
maps

GIS
data

images,
videos

Mobile mapping
Platforms:
- Road vehicles, typically vans
- Railway vehicles
- Aircrafts (airplanes and helicopters)

Motivations behind MM development

- GPS diffusion, falling in price of INS
- GIS diffusion

Perspectives: autonomous vehicles navigation

Mobile mapping
GPS / INS

Odometer:
Basically it is a revolution
counter to compute the
covered distance

Mobile mapping

Mobile mapping
City navigation:
- road cadastre, large-scale cartography
- structure localization / street furniture / etc.
Pavement control

2007 Applanix Corp., All Rights Reserved

Mobile mapping
Railway applications: tunnel control, level crossing check, railway traffic
management, etc.
Optical system
for rail survey

2007 Applanix Corp., All Rights Reserved

Mobile mapping
Marine applications: bathymetry, pipe control, oil explorations

Bathymetry obtained by
sonar (Los Angeles)

2007 Applanix Corp., All Rights Reserved

Mobile mapping
Aircraft applications: laser scanning (LIDAR), aerial photogrammetry,
radar altimetry, SAR

LIDAR
It is a distance-meter system mounted on an airplane/helicopter or on a
ground vehicle or placed in a motionless location.

Typically, mobile mapping

by LIDAR is referred only to
surveys on ground level;
however its principle can be
applied in general sense.

LIDAR
Multiple reflection
For a flying height of the order of 800 m,
the vertical accuracy is about of 15 cm,
while in planimetry it is about 30 cm.

It can be used for

- DTM / DSM separation
- recognition of objects on ground

Earths gravitation field

determination from satellite
A satellite orbiting the Earth can be considered as a proof-mass
under the action of the Earths gravitational field.
If the satellite orbit is known, from this orbit it is possible to derive
the Earths gravitational potential.
Problems:
the satellite can be tracked from ground for short time-periods
on board GPS for orbit determination
the effect of the gravity is more significant at low altitude, where
the atmospheric drag is higher.
on board accelerometers to measure friction forces

Earths gravitation field

determination from satellite
With the development of GPS receivers dedicated to geodetic satellites
and of accelerometers with very high precision (~10-11 m/s2), three
satellite missions have been designed: CHAMP / GRACE / GOCE

Navigation and guidance

Geodetic navigation positioning and orientation of a sensor
on board a moving vehicle
Classic navigation real time control of the trajectory and
vehicle guidance
Civil aviation:
e.g. automatic pilot

Military aviation:
e.g. missile guidance

Navigation and robotics

The autonomous navigation is closely related to robotics, in the
sense that, apart from positioning and real-time guidance, concepts
of artificial intelligence (e.g. computer vision) and mechanical
engineering are required.
The Grand Challenge is a competition organized by
Darpa (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)
among various research centres and universities for the
development of unmanned vehicles.
The navigation of the winner
vehicle was based on six laserscanner (others were based on
digital cameras), GPS systems,
odometers, etc.
Stanford Volkswagen Tuareg Stanley

Navigation and robotics

A project has been studied for the development of a navigation
software for an automatic lawn-mower for a golf course.