Automated Vehicle Location (AVL) Using Global Positioning System (GPS)

—Generally vehicular networks are considered to contain two types of nodes; vehicles and roadside stations. Vehicular communications is usually developed as a part of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) that seeks to achieve safety and productivity through intelligent transportation which integrates communication between mobile and fixed nodes. The majority of today's automated vehicle location (AVL) systems use Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. Each satellite has its individual code (waveform) which contains the required data to calculate the position of the receiver. GPS receivers have been miniaturized to just a few integrated circuits and so are becoming very economical and can easily be fitted inside vehicles. Low-cost Differential GPS (DGPS) receivers, which have a positioning accuracy of approximate 2–3 m, have become available. It is now possible to perform AVL down to specific roadway lanes. In this paper, a vehicle-lane-determining system is described, consisting of an onboard DGPS receiver that is connected with a wireless communications channel, a unique lane-level digital roadway database, a developed lane-matching algorithm, and a real-time vehicle location display. Surveyed map data based on more than 100 000 s, it has correctly determined the lane 97% of the time.