Hardware and software platform for designing and evaluating vehicle-localization solutions
What Is Vehloc?
Vehloc is Leti’s localization solution designed to support the next generation of Intelligent Transport System (ITS)
applications and services. It includes:
- Ground truth: tactical-grade navigation unit with associated post-processing software providing centimeter-level accuracy.
- Dual-frequency RTK-GNSS receiver, Dual antenna for true heading and fusion with tactical grade IMU
- Position accuracy: 2 cm / attitude accuracy: 0.03 deg
- Target platform: a flexible embedded platform for vehicle localization that integrates:
- Standard and high-accuracy GNSS receivers
- Consumer and tactical grade IMU
- An impulse radio-ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) transceiver
- Localization algorithms: advanced navigation and localization algorithm libraries
- State-of-the-art GNSS-IMU loose & tight coupling fusion
- Cooperative algorithms, including GNSS, IMU and IR-UWB
Applications:Vehloc accelerates positioning and navigation-system product design from algorithm development to implementation, relying on highly flexible online/offline validation. It helps explore advanced cooperative or hybrid data-fusion systems suitable for harsh operating environments, such as:
- Assisted or autonomous driving
- Infrastructure requirements and associated algorithms for vulnerable road users’ (VRU) safety
- Localization and navigation resilience under GNSS outage (e.g., deep urban canyons)
Leti’s solution helps generate test vectors and databases for evaluation purposes with respect to “ground truth” and relative benchmarks of advanced fusion algorithms.
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What’s
new?
A complete vehicle test platform, including a ground-truth system
- Hardware comes with extensive know-how to carry out in-the-field performance tests and related metrology tasks. This includes database management, performance-indicator selection and automated algorithm optimization.
Flexibility and modularity of validation procedures
- Localization scenarios can be recorded in log files for consumer metrics and high-end components. Fusion algorithms can then be fine-tuned offline.
- Sensor choice and dimensioning may be selected based on application performance specifications and final product implementation constraints.
- Multiple levels of cooperative deployment are supported, from pure standalone to vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) in VANETs or even vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) (with various infrastructure densities).
Unique possibility to evaluate most innovative localization approaches and advanced technologies in a realistic vehicular context, such as:
- Accurate V2V/V2I IR-UWB ranging under representative mobility
- Context-aware multi-sensor fusion
- V2V/V2I cooperation
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What’s Next?
Future developments will include:
- Localization-oriented optimization of ITS messages and protocols, anticipating the emergence of new vehicular wireless communication standards
- Application of the most demanding location-based
features of autonomous driving (e.g., cooperative mapping, decentralized
fleet control and platoon/group coordination, trajectories
synchronization…)
- Extension to other emerging localization and navigation fields: smart road, drone and fleets of drones
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