A team of researchers from the University of California, Riverside, has created a new method of processing data from a Global Positioning System (GPS), leading to an increased level of location accuracy that works from the meter-level all the way down to a few centimeters. The new optimization will be integrated into the development of autonomous vehicles, aviation and naval navigation systems and precision technologies. Furthermore, it will allow users to access location data that is accurate down to the centimeter through their mobile devices without increasing processing power demand.
The new technology is based around the reformulation of a series of equations that are the core of the process used to determine a GPS receiver's position, which resulted in a lower level of required computational effort in combination with a higher level of accuracy. The driving force behind the research was the need for increased GPS accuracy for applications such as autonomous vehicles and precision farming, which can't rely on meter-level accuracy.
"To fulfill both the automation and safety needs of driverless cars, some applications need to know not only which lane a car is in, but also where it is in that lane-and need to know it continuously at high rates and high bandwidth for the duration of the trip," Jay Farrell, who led the research, said in a press release.
In order to achieve these needs, Farrell and his team combined GPS measurements with data from an inertial measurement unit (IMU) using an internal navigation system (INS). With this combined system, users have access to a higher level of accuracy as well as higher bandwidth.
"Achieving this level of accuracy with computational loads that are suitable for real-time applications on low-power processors will not only advance the capabilities of highly specialized navigation systems, like those used in driverless cars and precision agriculture, but it will also improve location services accessed through mobile phones and other personal devices, without increasing their cost," Farrell said.
The findings were published in the Dec. 8 issue of IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology.
