Low-latency GNSS multipath simulation and building wall detection in urban environments

authored by: Marcus O’Connor, Tobias Kersten, Christian Skupin, Fabian Ruwisch, Le Ren, Temmo Wübbena, Steffen Schön
Abstract: Precise navigation for fully autonomous driving—especially in dense urban areas—requires periodic precise position estimates. Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technology has the potential to provide absolute positioning accuracy at a centimeter level. However, buildings in urban environments cause signal distortions and signal reflections—the so-called multipath—which are the most challenging parts in the GNSS error budget. Hence, we developed a scalable real-time multipath simulator for mitigating potential multipath receptions. The simulator uses three-dimensional (3D) building information, satellite, and user positions. The key drivers of latency are the calculation of reflection, diffraction, and line-of-sight, as well as the response time of the 3D building model database. The memory manager of the graphic processing units (GPUs) in combination with a dedicated load balancer enables fast and efficient multipath analysis. Selected case studies demonstrate the simulator’s potential to significantly improve the position accuracy of the processing engine. The use of the multipath simulator reduces the error in 61% of the error measurements in a stress test scenario to less than half of the non-multipath processing. The scalability of the simulator is demonstrated by combining the multipath simulator with a traffic simulator. Furthermore, we present a novel methodology for the detection of walls using GNSS signals to better account for incomplete or erroneous 3D building information in GNSS signal processing.
Organisation(s): Institute of Geodesy
Leibniz Research Centre FZ:GEO
External Organisation(s): Geo++ GmbH
Robert Bosch GmbH
Type: Article
Journal: Simulation
Volume: 100
Pages: 71-89
No. of pages: 19
ISSN: 0037-5497
Publication date: 01.2024
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Software, Modelling and Simulation, Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1177/00375497221145601 (Access: Closed)
: Details in the research portal "Research@Leibniz University"

BibTeX

@article{ac9f572b35b3492bb11c722dd0279f83,
title = "Low-latency GNSS multipath simulation and building wall detection in urban environments",
abstract = "Precise navigation for fully autonomous driving—especially in dense urban areas—requires periodic precise position estimates. Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technology has the potential to provide absolute positioning accuracy at a centimeter level. However, buildings in urban environments cause signal distortions and signal reflections—the so-called multipath—which are the most challenging parts in the GNSS error budget. Hence, we developed a scalable real-time multipath simulator for mitigating potential multipath receptions. The simulator uses three-dimensional (3D) building information, satellite, and user positions. The key drivers of latency are the calculation of reflection, diffraction, and line-of-sight, as well as the response time of the 3D building model database. The memory manager of the graphic processing units (GPUs) in combination with a dedicated load balancer enables fast and efficient multipath analysis. Selected case studies demonstrate the simulator{\textquoteright}s potential to significantly improve the position accuracy of the processing engine. The use of the multipath simulator reduces the error in 61% of the error measurements in a stress test scenario to less than half of the non-multipath processing. The scalability of the simulator is demonstrated by combining the multipath simulator with a traffic simulator. Furthermore, we present a novel methodology for the detection of walls using GNSS signals to better account for incomplete or erroneous 3D building information in GNSS signal processing.",
keywords = "GPGPU, Real-time simulation, city GML, multipath, ray tracing, urban GNSS positioning",
author = "Marcus O{\textquoteright}Connor and Tobias Kersten and Christian Skupin and Fabian Ruwisch and Le Ren and Temmo W{\"u}bbena and Steffen Sch{\"o}n",
note = "Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This project was funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) based on a resolution of the German Bundestag and supervised by T{\"U}V-Rheinland (PT-T{\"U}V) under the grants 19A20002A-C. ",
year = "2024",
month = jan,
doi = "10.1177/00375497221145601",
language = "English",
volume = "100",
pages = "71--89",
journal = "Simulation",
issn = "0037-5497",
publisher = "SAGE Publications Ltd",
number = "1",
}