Relative vehicular positioning using vehicular communications

• US 8,868,324 B2
• Filed: 11/26/2013
• Issued: 10/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Autotalks Ltd. (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Autotalks Ltd. (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Inventors: Haran, Onn
• Primary Examiner(s): Tarcza, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): GOLDMAN, RICHARD A
• Application Number:
  US14/089,781
• Publication Number:
  US 20140129128A1
• Time in Patent Office: 329 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 701/300
• 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 a first moving vehicle relative to a second moving vehicle in a vehicular environment, comprising the steps of:

in the first moving vehicle;

a) receiving each of a plurality of IEEE 802.11 standard based communications from the second moving vehicle, each said receiving including receiving a packet with packet data, from the second moving vehicle, that includes an absolute position and an absolute speed vector of said second moving vehicle; and

b) determining the position of the first moving vehicle relative to the second moving vehicle based on information including IEEE 802.11 standard based communications received from only the second moving vehicle, by steps including;

i) computing a preliminary relative position of the first moving vehicle relative to the second moving vehicle according to said absolute position and said absolute speed vector of said second moving vehicle, and

ii) correcting said preliminary relative position in accordance with said receiving of said plurality of IEEE 802.11 standard based communications.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said computing of said preliminary relative position is also according to an absolute position and an absolute speed vector of said first moving vehicle.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said correcting includes Angle-Of-Arrival triangulation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said respective absolute position and speed vector of each moving vehicle include respective absolute Global Navigation Satellite System position and speed data of each moving vehicle.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the position of the first moving vehicle relative to the second moving vehicle further includes using Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) heuristics.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the position of the first moving vehicle relative to the second moving vehicle further includes using a Line-Of-Sight (LOS)/Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) indication.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the using a Line-Of-Sight (LOS)/Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) indication includes using NLOS heuristics.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the position of the first moving vehicle relative to the second moving vehicle further includes unifying a timebase of the first and second moving vehicles.

9. A method for determining the position of a first moving vehicle relative to a second moving vehicle in a vehicular environment, comprising the steps of:

in the first moving vehicle;

a) receiving a plurality of packets of IEEE 802.11 packet data from the second moving vehicle, said packet data including absolute position and speed vector data of the second moving vehicle; and

b) processing the packet data of only the packets received from the second moving vehicle together with absolute position and speed vector data of the first moving vehicle to determine the position of the second moving vehicle relative to the first moving vehicle, by steps including;

i) computing a preliminary relative position of the first moving vehicle relative to the second moving vehicle according to said absolute position and speed vector data of the moving vehicles, and

ii) correcting said preliminary relative position in accordance with said receiving of said plurality of packets of IEEE 802.11 packet data.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said correcting includes Angle-Of-Arrival triangulation.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the absolute position data includes Global-Navigation-Satellite-System-based locations of both the first and second moving vehicle.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the absolute position data includes non-Global-Navigation-Satellite-System based locations of both the first and second moving vehicle.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of processing includes unifying a timebase of the first and second moving vehicles.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of processing includes processing the packet data together with the vehicle location data and a Line-Of-Sight (LOS)/Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) indication.

15. A system for determining the position of a measuring moving vehicle relative to a measured moving vehicle in a vehicular environment, comprising a vehicular 802.11 communications and processing unit installed in the measuring moving vehicle, the communications and processing unit including a short-preamble autocorrelation module used for a LOS/NLOS indication, the communications and processing unit used for receiving a plurality of packets of IEEE 802.11 packet data, from the measured moving vehicle, said packet data including absolute position and speed vector data of the measured moving vehicle, for processing the packet data of only the packets received from the measured moving vehicle together with absolute position and speed vector data of the measuring moving vehicle to determine the position of the measured moving vehicle relative to the measuring moving vehicle, said processing including:

i) computing a preliminary relative position of the measuring moving vehicle relative to the measured moving vehicle according to said absolute position and speed data of the moving vehicles, and

ii) correcting said preliminary relative position in accordance with the receiving of said plurality of packets of IEEE 802.11 packet data.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein said correcting includes Angle-Of-Arrival triangulation.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the communications and processing unit further includes a Global Navigation Satellite System receiver.