Economical Methods for Accurate Vehicle Tracking

Accurate vehicle localization is frequently a requirement of tracking applications. Cost, however, often becomes a limiting factor rather than tolerable error in applications requiring better than 1 meter of accuracy. In this paper methods are proposed to provide accurate vehicle localization using off the shelf components, with the goal being accuracy down to 4 cm at 80 km/hr. The technologies proposed include the use of regular GPS, laser and ultrasonic rangefinders, optical mouse sensors, and accelerometers. Methods will also be discussed for calculating position from accelerometer data with a discussion of current results and future plans for combining GPS and accelerometer data.