Ultra-tightly coupled GPS/vehicle sensor integration for land vehicle navigation

With the increasing demand for location dependent applications in land vehicles, modern vehicle systems are often equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers and vehicle sensors to provide position, velocity, and attitude information. This paper investigates an ultra-tight integration strategy to fuse GPS and a vehicle sensor configuration consisting of two horizontal accelerometers, a single vertical gyroscope, and wheel speed sensors. Data from a field test is analyzed in the tracking and navigation domains to verify the feasibility of implementing the proposed system. Results demonstrate that the ultra-tight approach is still beneficial under typical driving conditions even with a limited vehicle sensor configuration that cannot measure the full motion of the body.