A Redundant Configuration of Four Low-Cost GNSS-RTK Receivers for Reliable Estimation of Vehicular Position and Posture

Abstract

This paper proposes a low-cost sensor system composed of four GNSS-RTK receivers to obtain accurate position and posture estimations for a vehicle in real-time. The four antennas of the receivers are placed so that every three-antennas combination is optimal to get the most precise 3D coordinates with respect to a global reference system. The redundancy provided by the fourth receiver allows to improve estimations even more and to maintain accuracy when one of the receivers fails. A mini computer with the Robotic Operating System is responsible for merging all the available measurements reliably. Successful experiments have been carried out with a ground rover on irregular terrain. Angular estimates similar to those of a high-performance IMU have been achieved in dynamic tests.

Advances in Intelligent Vehicle Control

“…Smart sensors: development of advanced strategies using future smart sensor technology and intelligent sensor fusion for the measurement and estimation of vehicle states, tire and road conditions, situation awareness assessment, environment mapping, fault diagnosis, and driving conditions [3][4][5][6].…”

“…The article, titled "A Redundant Configuration of Four Low-Cost GNSS-RTK Receivers for Reliable Estimation of Vehicular Position and Posture" [5], proposed a low-cost sensor system composed of four GNSS-RTK receivers to obtain accurate position and posture estimations for a vehicle in real time. The four receiver antennas are positioned so that each combination of three antennas is optimal for obtaining the most accurate 3D coordinates with respect to a global reference system.…”