Vehicle Heading Estimation Using Coordinate Position from Magnetic Marker System and Dead Reckoning

Abstract

Vehicle localization is one of the key technical factors in autonomous driving vehicles, as the system relies on the information of where the vehicle is to perform basically all its tasks. In this paper, we focus on vehicle localization using magnetic road markers as a coordinate reference point. In our past work, we proposed a method of using a single magnetic sensor array and an IMU to estimate the vehicle position and vehicle heading. We validated its effectiveness using simulation. In this paper, we have implemented the localization method on actual sensor data taken from our test vehicle. The vehicle was equipped with magnetic sensor array, IMU, and GPS receiver. Data was taken by running on a course with sections where magnetic road markers are embedded. Results showed that vehicle localization using our proposed method is plausible. However, it also showed that more work needs to be done regarding vehicle heading estimation.