RELATIVE VEHICULAR POSITIONING USING VEHICULAR COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20110112766A1
• Filed: 04/30/2009
• Published: 05/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Autotalks Ltd. (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Autotalks Ltd. (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Inventors: Haran, Onn
• Granted Patent: US 8,645,053 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/213
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 11/10 using Doppler effect
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/04 Position of source determined by a plurality of spaced direction-finders
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/161 Decentralised systems, e.g. inter-vehicle communication

Abstract

The relative position of one vehicle vs. another vehicle, both driving in a vehicular environment, is determined using vehicular communications based on the IEEE 802.11 standard. The relative position determination is performed in a measuring vehicle using data provided by a measured vehicle through IEEE 802.11 communications carried through beacons as well as GPS or other location data and local map information

Claims

1. A method for determining the position of one vehicle relative to another vehicle in a vehicular environment, comprising the steps of:

in a first vehicle;

a) receiving a IEEE 802.11 standard based communication from a second vehicle; and

b) determining the position of the second vehicle relative to the first vehicle based at least partially partly on the received communication.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of receiving a IEEE 802.11 standard based communication includes receiving a beacon with beacon data from the second vehicle and wherein the step of determining the position of the second vehicle based at least partially partly on the received communication includes measuring a frequency shift related to the beacon reception and determining the position based on at least the measured frequency shift and the beacon data.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the determining the position based on at least the measured frequency shift and the beacon data further includes using respective absolute GPS position and speed data of each vehicle.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the determining the position based on at least the measured frequency shift and the beacon data further includes using a Liπ

e-Of-Sight/Non-Line-Of-Sight (LOS/NLOS) indication.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the determining the position based on at least the measured frequency shift and the beacon data further includes unifying a timebase of the first and second vehicles.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the determining the position based on at least the measured frequency shift and the beacon data further includes comparing the measured frequency shift with a calculated frequency shift.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the using a Line-Of-Sight/Non-Line-Of-Sight (LOS/NLOS) indication includes using NLOS heuristics.

14. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of processing further includes using NLOS heuristics.

8. A method for determining the position of one vehicle relative to another vehicle in a vehicular environment, comprising the steps of:

in a first vehicle;

a) receiving IEEE 802.11 beacon data from a second vehicle;

b) measuring a frequency shift; and

b) processing the beacon data together with the frequency shift and vehicle location data to determine the position of the second vehicle relative to the first vehicle.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the vehicle location data includes GPS-based locations of both the first and second vehicle.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the vehicle location data includes non-GPS based locations of both the first and second vehicle.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of the step of processing includes comparing the measured frequency shift with a calculated frequency shift.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of processing includes unifying a timebase of the first and second vehicles.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of processing includes processing the beacon data together with the frequency shift, vehicle location data and a Line-Of-Sight/Non-Line-Of-Sight (LOS/NLOS) indication.

15. A system for determining the position of one vehicle relative to another vehicle in a vehicular environment, comprising a vehicular 802.11 communications and processing unit installed in a measuring vehicle, the communications and processing unit including a frequency shift measurement module and a short-preamble autocorrelation module used for a LOS/NLOS indication, the communications and processing unit used for receiving IEEE 802.11 beacon data from a measured vehicle, for measuring a frequency shift and for processing the beacon data together with the frequency shift and vehicle location data to determine the position of the measured vehicle relative to the measuring vehicle.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the communications and processing unit further includes a GPS receiver.