One of the global leaders in connected vehicle technology, Cohda Wireless, has launched a new positioning system, V2X-Locate, which it hopes has solved a major problem facing vehicle-to-everything (V2X) connected vehicles.
Accurate vehicle positioning is vital for connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs) and other V2X applications. However, in many important scenarios even advanced global positioning systems (GPS) fail. Typically, GNSS (global navigation satellite systems) suffers in areas such as ‘urban canyons’, tunnels, parking garages or any area with a compromised sky view.
Cohda’s V2X-Locate technology allows vehicles to be positioned with sub-meter accuracy, even when GNSS is not present or cannot be trusted. By using standard V2X transmissions, making use of the Australian company’s advanced wireless signal processing and positioning algorithms, Cohda has developed a product to provide accurate vehicle position irrespective of GNSS availability.
CAV requirements are quantified in several standards globally, such as the SAE specification that a 5ft (1.5m) requirement must be met 68% of the time. However, in many important use cases GNSS, even when assisted by dead-reckoning sensors and atmospheric corrections, fails to provide a reliable position, as dead reckoning relies on inertial sensors that drift with time and cannot be used for absolute positioning.
In V2X, vehicles communicate using wireless systems such as dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) or IEEE 1609 or ETSI ITS. In V2X deployments, vehicles are equipped with onboard units (OBU), while infrastructure is supported by roadside units (RSU), which are typically deployed by road authorities or third parties, such as parking operators or gas stations, at fixed locations, primarily to provide back-haul and/or locally managed services.
Cohda’s V2X-Locate uses ranging measurements to these fixed RSUs to enable enhanced positioning accuracy. Earlier this year, the company took its V2X-Locate system to the streets of New York City by deploying six of its low-latency RSUs along a six block stretch of Sixth Avenue, between 48th Street and 54th Street, near the Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan. V2X-Locate was able to deliver sub-meter accuracy in this tough urban-canyon environment where even advanced GPS systems had many meters of error.
“These real-world results with our V2X-Locate solution are a powerful demonstration,” said Cohda’s CTO, Paul Alexander. “V2X-Locate gives autonomous vehicles the ability to navigate through underground car parks just as easily as GPS-rich environments, providing the key to unlocking the full potential of CAVs.”
