Two-Dimensional Position and Heading Measurement for Vehicle Using Corner Cubes

Abstract

This paper proposes a method for measuring the position and heading of the vehicle by use of laser and corner cubes. The vehicle has dead reckoning system. The method uses the laser transmitter and receiver on the vehicle and retroreflecting targets on a side of the course. The on-board computer calculates the position and heading from the dead reckoning data when the laser beams hit the corner cube. Each laser beam is set with a certain angle and an offset distance. And the dead reckoning data are stored in memories when the laser beams return to the transmitter. After corner cubes are detected by retroreflected laser beam, position and heading are calculated. The measured data are used for compensating the autonomous position determination.