Map matching and heuristic elimination of gyro drift for personal navigation systems in GPS-denied conditions

This paper introduces a method for the substantial reduction of heading errors in inertial navigation systems used under GPS-denied conditions. Presumably, the method is applicable for both vehicle-based and personal navigation systems, but experiments were performed only with a personal navigation system called “Personal Dead Reckoning” (PDR). In order to work under GPS-denied conditions, the PDR system uses a foot-mounted Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU). However, gyro drift in this IMU can cause large heading errors after just a few minutes of walking. To reduce these errors, the Map-matched Heuristic Drift Elimination (MAPHDE) method was developed, which estimates gyro drift errors by comparing IMU-derived heading to the direction of the nearest street segment in a database of street maps. A heuristic component in this method provides tolerance to short deviations from walking along the street, such as when crossing streets or intersections. MAPHDE keeps heading errors almost at zero, and, as a result, position errors are dramatically reduced. In this paper, MAPHDE was used in a variety of outdoor walks, without any use of GPS. This paper explains the MAPHDE method in details and presents experimental results.