Location tracking to the nearest centimeter: Bosch enables safe automated driving

• Precise location tracking for automated vehicles is critical to safety.
• Bosch’s vehicle motion and position sensor reliably determines the vehicle’s exact position.
• Bosch’s combined solutions of hardware, software and services are advancing automated vehicle tracking technology.

Bosch is developing integrated solutions combining hardware, software and services to speed autonomous vehicles to UK roads. Services are just as important to automated vehicle technology development as hardware and software such as sensors, computing power and control units. This is particularly true with regards to location tracking, as self-driving vehicles can only drive safely if they know their location down to the nearest centimeter.

Hardware: Bosch develops new motion and position sensor

Bosch has developed a new sensor that allows automated vehicles to precisely determine their position: the vehicle motion and position sensor.

An essential element of this is a high-performance receiver unit for global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). This allows automated vehicles to determine their absolute position. However, as GNSS satellites orbit the earth at a distance of 25,000 kilometers and at speeds of 4,000 meters per second, their signals have to pass through the ionosphere and layers of cloud in the troposphere, which disperse the signals and introduce errors. While the signals are still accurate enough for today’s navigation systems, they do not meet the needs of automated driving.

Bosch is tackling this issue using correction data supplied by various providers, and set up the Sapcorda joint venture in 2017 to this end. These providers can correct the GNSS positioning information with the help of a network of terrestrial reference stations whose positions are precisely known. They can then transmit this correction data to the vehicle via the cloud or geostationary satellites.

Wheel-speed and steering-angle sensors are also used to monitor a vehicle’s position. As these are akin to the human sense of touch, the sensors can know where the car is headed and how fast when combined with integrated inertial sensors.

Software: smart Bosch algorithms determine the vehicle’s position

The vehicle motion and position sensor brings together the GNSS position signals, the correction data, and the information from the inertial sensors, the wheel-speed sensors, and the steering-angle sensor. However, this information alone is not sufficient for the exact location tracking of automated vehicles.

The data is then processed using intelligent software to enable precise positioning, used as the basis for automated driving decisions. This is important in case the GNSS satellite connection is lost, for example in a tunnel. By calculating the vehicle’s position relative to the last known point, the vehicle motion and position sensor can continue to determine the vehicle’s position for several seconds. If the GNSS signal is interrupted for a longer period, the automated vehicle can refer to the Bosch road signature for location tracking information.

Services: Bosch road signature is based on surround sensors

The Bosch road signature is a location tracking service based on the data collected by smart vehicles.

In-vehicle video and radar sensors detect stationary features on and by the road (such as lane markings, traffic signs and guardrails). Unlike cameras, radar sensors can detect road features even in the dark, or when visibility is poor. A communication module in the car sends this data to the cloud. There, the features are used to generate an independent map level, which is added to the Bosch map-based tracking service.

The Bosch service is highly accurate, thanks to constant updates. Automated vehicles are always comparing the road features they detect around them and those recorded on the map, so that the cars can determine their position in the lane – relative to the highly accurate map – down to the nearest centimeter. The accuracy of this service allows Bosch vehicles to meet very high safety requirements.

Bosch at CES 2019:

• PRESS CONFERENCE: In Ballrooms B, C, and D, Mandalay Bay Hotel, Las Vegas South Convention Center, Level 2, from 9:00 to 9:45 a.m. local time on Monday, January 7, 2019.

• BOOTH: Tuesday to Friday, January 8–11, 2019, in the Central Hall, booth #14020

• FOLLOW the Bosch CES 2019 highlights on Twitter: #BoschCES

Heather Butcher
Heather.Butcher@uk.bosch.com
Phone: +44 1895 83-8610

Bosch team at Good Relations
bosch@goodrelations.co.uk