Wednesday, July 6, 2016

DLR Drivemark Landmark navigation System uses Satellite SAR to aid automated driving

Copernicus Masters

Landmark Navigation - With Radar Fix Points from Satellites

With quality interferometric high resolution SAR images, special processing to remove atmospheric propagation refraction, geodetic registered electronic maps can be extracted for use by autonomous vehicles. Technique requires low noise, sharp, artifact free images and is probably not effective in dense urban environment with many multipath and high clutter.

Data in Use

Radar images from TerraSAR-X or Sentinel-1, as well as precise weather data to compute the tropospheric delay that appeared during the SAR image data extraction; sensor data from the vehicle.

Service summary

The idea is for a new vehicle navigation system that works independently of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). It will navigate by landmarks that are easily visible from the road, whose positions will be derived precisely from radar remote-sensing satellites and stored in a database in the vehicle. Modern cars have a variety of sensors on board that could be used to detect these landmarks and determine their own position.

Customer Benefit

The combination of this technique with GNSS will lead to higher system integrity and reliability, which is important in applications requiring a high level of safety (e.g. autonomous cars). It can be used in ships, road and off-road vehicles, and planes.

Contact

German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Hartmut Runge
hartmut.runge@dlr.de
www.dlr.de

DLR - Technologiemarketing - Helmholtz Validierungsprojekt DriveMark® - Die Revolution auf der Straße

Fullpaper Format - ITS16_Paper_EU-TP0348__Runge.pdf

The revolution on our roads - Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren
Navigation systems get us from A to B reliably and without difficulty. The coordinates do not need to be accurate to the nearest centimetre in order for us to get directions, but this could be a problem in the not-too-distant future, namely when cars are autonomous and driverless, and every centimetre is vital. Hartmut Runge and his team from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have developed DriveMark – a project with high market potential that was funded by the Helmholtz Validation Fund.
Landmark navigation for highly automated driving wins Copernicus Masters 2013 | Telematics Wire
Highly automated vehicles require highly precise and redundant positioning and navigation systems in order to stay on track. With an innovative approach designed to meet this need through landmark-based navigation, Hartmut Runge from the Earth Observation Center (EOC) of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) has been named the overall winner of this year’s Copernicus Masters, as well as of the competition’s BMW ConnectedDrive Challenge. DLR’s navigation method incorporates street lights, crash barrier posts, bridge railings, and other roadside features that are easily visible for both vehicles and Earth Observation satellites. With modern radar satellites, a comprehensive inventory of such landmarks can be compiled with centimetre-level accuracy and applied to digital roadmaps. A vehicle’s optical or radar based system can thus constantly determine its current position based on triangulation of these points.

This idea was submitted to the competition by Hartmut Runge, from the Remote Sensing Technology Institute (IMF) of the EOC, DLR who was presented with the EUR 20,000 grand prize by Prof Dr Volker Liebig, Director of Earth Observation Programmes and Head of ESRIN, ESA during the Copernicus Masters awards ceremony at Alte Kongresshalle München (Germany).

“The interdisciplinary idea utilises Earth observation methods to provide a solution for a challenge the automobile industry really faces,” states Benjamin Krebs from innovation management BMW ConnectedDrive at BMW Group Research and Technology. “We’re excited by the high level of innovation evident in this vision and are looking forward to evaluating the next concrete steps here at BMW Group together with Mr Runge.”
Read more at http://telematicswire.net/landmark-navigation-for-highly-automated-driving-wins-copernicus-masters-2013/#ARzjre7KXe3dGVlh.99

DriveMark provides Ground Control Points (GCPs) with coordinates via remote sensing data with an accuracy within the cm / inch level. Benefits are cost reduction, high area coverage and process simplicity for new navigation applications. Key activity is the development of efficient methods for the generation of ortho rectified aerial images as base for new digital maps for highly automated
and autonomous driving –which comprises the initial data generation towards refinements and current updates. The innovation character is the intelligent combination of optical images and radar satellite measurements.
DriveMark contains the ongoing validation of the method as well as the software processor development. The innovation project co-funded by German Helmholtz Association has been started at German Aerospace Center (DLR) in 2014. It is aiming for high precision (“geodetic”) mapping of the road network with its functional objects as a core activity within EO4Car®. Performing corrections for atmospheric and ionospheric path delay as well as solid Earth tides we come to a similar range of geolocation accuracy, as with GNSS techniques. DriveMark enables our business partners to produce digital road maps with satellite remote sensing and Earth observation (EO) data; it is not necessary anymore to perform in-situ measurements

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