Autonomous vehicle based in cooperative GPS and inertial systems

A system including Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and digital cartography is a good solution to carry out vehicle's,guidance. However, it has inconveniences like high sensibility to multipath and interference when the GPS signal is blocked by external agents. Another system is mandatory to avoid this error. This paper presents a cooperative system based on GPS and Inertial Navigation Systems (INS) for automated vehicle position. The control system includes a decision unit to choose which value is the correct. In case GPS is working at top precision, it takes the control. On the other part, GPS signal can be lost and inertial control system guides the car in this occasion. A third possibility is contemplated: we receive the signal from GPS but the accuracy is over one meter. Now, position value is obtained by means of both systems. Experimental results analyze two situations: guidance in an urban area where GPS signal can be occluded by buildings or trees during short time intervals and the possibility of loss of the signal in long time to simulate the circulation in tunnels. Good results have been observed in tests and it demonstrates how a cooperative system improves the automated vehicle guidance.