A facile approach to GPS navigation in unmanned ground vehicles

Global Positioning System (GPS) is extensively used for navigation in unmanned ground vehicles (UGV). The challenging part in using GPS for navigation is to utilize minimal number of sensors on-board, thus, making the system cost effective and simple to design. In this paper, we propose a Position-Based Direction Control (PBDC) algorithm, wherein, we apply geometrical concepts on the GPS coordinates to predict and control the direction of the UGV's motion, irrespective of its initial orientation. The proposed concept was tested and verified on an UGV using simulations and field tests. This novel algorithm makes use of only a GPS receiver.