The impact of GPS cleaning techniques on vehicle dynamics calculations

An investigation was performed to determine the impact of GPS cleaning techniques on vehicle dynamics calculations. GPS data is commonly used in vehicle dynamics problems and investigations however this data is not always accurate and a preprocessing or cleaning of the data will usually be performed to identify and remove erroneous points. Logical, statistical and elevation cleaning were used on the data and the results were compared to a truthful data source obtained from an on-board diagnostics device and a barometer. The results show the cleaning techniques used with the GPS speed data had a marginal benefit and are not necessary with some cases causing the cleaned data to be less accurate than the raw GPS data. The elevation cleaning had a significant impact on the final vehicle dynamics results and caused improvement to both the power and energy calculations. Future recommendations are to look at the impact of cleaning techniques with less accurate GPS data.