Multi-sensor Data Fusion for Future Telematics Application

In this paper, we present multi-sensor data fusion for telematics application. Successful telematics can be realized through the integration of navigation and spatial information. The well-determined acquisition of vehicle’s position plays a vital role in application service. The development of GPS is used to provide the navigation data, but the performance is limited in areas where poor satellite visibility environment exists. Hence, multi-sensor fusion including IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit), GPS (Global Positioning System), and DMI (Distance Measurement Indicator) is required to provide the vehicle’s position to service provider and driver behind the wheel. The multi-sensor fusion is implemented via algorithm based on Kalman filtering technique. Navigation accuracy can be enhanced using this filtering approach. For the verification of fusion approach, land vehicle test was performed and the results were discussed. Results showed that the horizontal position errors were suppressed around 1 meter level accuracy under simulated non-GPS availability environment. Under normal GPS environment, the horizontal position errors were under 40 cm in curve trajectory and 27cm in linear trajectory, which are definitely depending on vehicular dynamics.