Design of an Accurate Yet Low-Cost Distributed Module for Vehicular Relative Positioning: Hardware Prototype Design and Algorithms

Abstract

In this paper, we design a modular prototype to provide relative position and orientation (RPO), with higher accuracy yet low-cost implementations. First, we design the hardware module as two distributed sub-modules: the beacon module and the receiver module. The beacon module is designed to have the rotational laser-emitting function and the wireless-broadcasting function, and the receiver module can receive both the laser signals and wireless broadcasting. Then, with these functions, we design the unique operating mechanisms for the whole module. Finally, we provide the event-triggered algorithms for the RPO measurements, which are tightly incorporated with the hardware design. Compared via experiments with other related methods, our design has more measurement capabilities, higher accuracy, and low-cost implementations on both hardware and computations. This module has potential vehicular applications, e.g., in a factory for tasks assistance.