Integration of Electronic Scanning Radars with Inertial Technology for Seamless Positioning in challenging GNSS Environments

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) has always been used as the leading positioning systems in land vehicles for decades. The satellite-based localization system provides an accurate solution most of the time except in denied environments like tunnels, urban canyons, and closed parking areas. Such issues were traditionally mitigated by the aid of other sensors. Inertial Navigation Systems (INS) tackle the GNSS drawbacks in challenging environments. However, the INS can't stand for an extended period without substantial drift in the localization output. Despite the availability of advanced inertial solution as Reduced Inertial Sensors Systems (RISS), the GNSS/RISS integration still suffers from the same error sources. Recently, several perceptual sensors are included in most of the cars for autonomy purposes. The proposed solution utilizes electronic scanning radar, which exists in vehicles from level 1 of autonomy and higher. The methodology presented shows the ESR ability to determine the vehicle's forward from static objects. Moreover, the acquired frontal speed is used to produce an unique ESR odometry. The obtained ESR/RISS solution aids the 3D-RISS using an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) in GNSS outages. The system was examined in real challenging scenarios in Indoor parking and downtown areas in Toronto.