Improved Vehicle Localization Using On-Board Sensors and Vehicle Lateral Velocity

Vehicle localization is essential for intelligent and autonomous vehicles. To improve the accuracy of vehicle stand-alone localization in highly dynamic driving conditions during GNSS (Global Navigation Satellites Systems) outages, this paper proposes a vehicle localization system based on vehicle chassis sensors considering vehicle lateral velocity. Firstly, a GNSS/On-board sensors fusion localization framework is established, which could estimate vehicle states such as attitude, velocity, and position. Secondly, when the vehicle has a large lateral motion, nonholonomic constraint in the lateral direction loses fidelity. Instead of using nonholonomic constraint, we propose a vehicle dynamics/kinematics fusion lateral velocity estimation algorithm, which combines the advantage of vehicle dynamic model in low dynamic driving conditions and the advantage of kinematic model in highly dynamic driving conditions. Thirdly, vehicle longitudinal velocity estimated by WSS (Wheel Speed Sensor) and lateral velocity estimated by proposed method are as measurements for the localization system. All information is fused by an adaptive Kalman filter. Finally, vehicle experiments in U-turn maneuver and left-turn maneuver at a traffic intersection are conducted to verify the proposed method. Four different methods are compared in the experiments, and the results show that the estimated position accuracy of our method is below half a meter during a 5s GNSS outage and could keep a sub-meter-level during a 20s GNSS outage while the vehicle has a relatively large lateral motion.