GNSS GPS IMU INS Sensors – for ADAS and Autonomous Vehicles

Sensors are an indispensable part of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Autonomous Driving (AD) Technology. Sensors – like cameras, radar, lidar and ultrasonic are well known to all. These sensors are used to do external environmental perception around the vehicle and in some cases also to do in-vehicle perception.

GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System), GPS (Global Position System) together with INS (Inertial Navigation System) are used to find the location of the ego vehicle itself. These sensors are used for multiple applications in the ADAS and the AD industry. These applications include but are not limited to:

1. Localization of vehicles on the road

2. To generate ground truth data for sensor perception (radar, lidar, camera) validation

3. To generate ground truth data for sensor fusion validation

4. For validation of various ADAS functions in the deterministic test sites

5. For using the GNSS/GPS highly accurate time – as a reference clock to synchronize (using NTP, PTP or gPTP) multi-sensor systems for algorithm development.

6. In V2X (Vehicle to Other) and V2V (Vehicle to Vehicle) applications.

and many more…….

GNSS/GPS + INS sensors also have multiple applications in various non-automotive fields like Navigation with mobile phones and cars,  in Rail transport – to track locomotives, in aviation – for aircraft navigation from departure to landing, in marine – to track and navigate ships, in Port Automation, Precise Agriculture, Surface mining, Surveying, Drones, Smart Infrastructure application, etc

As GPS/GNSS alone cannot provide centimetre-level accuracy (which is necessary for ADAS and AD applications), various add-on technologies are used

1. DGNSS (Differential GNSS)

2. DGPS (Differential GPS)

3. SBAS (Satellite Based Augmentation System)

4. GBAS (Ground Based Augmentation System)

5. RTK (Real Time Kinematic)

6. PPP (Point Precision Positioning)

Moreover, Inertial Navigation Sensors – Accelerometer, Gyroscope and Magnetometer are also used with GPS /GNSS for better localization and accurate measurement, especially in situations where a GNSS signal is unavailable. This includes

1. Inertial Navigation systems (INS), 

2. GNSS-aided INS system,

3. AHRS (Attitude and Heading Reference System),

4. Dual GNSS (or GNSS compass) -aided INS system.

In this course, you will learn all of the above-stated technologies so that you will be able to use them in your work and/or projects. In addition, hands-on practice in measuring real-time GPS and IMU data using low-cost sensors with raspberry pi 4 and python3 is included.

Through this complete course which consists of 11 hours of videos, you will learn

• Basics of ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance systems) with some examples

• Basics of AD (Autonomous Driving) together with SAE levels of automation

• Brief understanding of various sensors like Radar, lidar, camera, and ultrasonic used in ADAS and AD.

• Lots of applications covering the usage of GNSS + INS sensors in ADAS and AD industry as well as non-automotive domains

• Various GNSS + INS devices available in the market (ranging from high cost to low cost)

• Deeply understanding GNSS technology, signal processing, pseudo-range calculation, trilateration, GNSS errors, different ways to overcome these errors

• Various types of coordinate systems and frames used in GNSS technology

• What are latitude and longitude? Different ways to represent them and their inter-conversions

• NMEA-0183 message structures for GPS measurement

• Real-time GPS measurement using a low-cost GPS device, raspberry pi 4 and python 3.

• Various Differential correction methods – DGNSS, DGPS, SBAS, GBAS, RTK, PPP

• Understanding IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) and then deep dive into the working of accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer

• Real-time IMU measurement using  a low-cost IMU with raspberry pi 4 and python 3

• Understanding INS (Inertial Navigation System) using a case study of pedestrian dead reckoning using INS

• Deep dive into AHRS (Attitude and Heading reference system), GNSS-aided INS technology and Dual GNSS-aided INS technology.

• Further case studies were taken from research papers to understand applications of GNSS and INS (along with other sensors) in ADAS, AD and robotics.

Note: This course focuses more on understanding the concepts and provides insights into various technologies in this domain hence programming is intentionally kept to a minimum.

Disclaimer: All the reference videos taken from various sources are only used for educational purposes and there is no intention to infringe copyright.

Who this course is for:

• Anyone interested to learn and understand GNSS INS based measurement technology use for position, speed, time and heading estimation
• People involved in ADAS and Autonomous vehicle development – it is highly recommended to do this course