A New Vehicle Localization Scheme Based on Combined Optical Camera Communication and Photogrammetry

Abstract

The demand for autonomous vehicles is increasing gradually owing to their enormous potential benefits. However, several challenges, such as vehicle localization, are involved in the development of autonomous vehicles. A simple and secure algorithm for vehicle positioning is proposed herein without massively modifying the existing transportation infrastructure. For vehicle localization, vehicles on the road are classified into two categories: host vehicles (HVs) are the ones used to estimate other vehicles' positions and forwarding vehicles (FVs) are the ones that move in front of the HVs. The FV transmits modulated data from the tail (or back) light, and the camera of the HV receives that signal using optical camera communication (OCC). In addition, the streetlight (SL) data is considered to ensure the position accuracy of the HV. Determining the HV position minimizes the relative position variation between the HV and FV. Using photogrammetry, the distance between FV or SL and the camera of the HV is calculated by measuring the occupied image area on the image sensor. Comparing the change in distance between HV and SLs with the change in distance between HV and FV, the positions of FVs are determined. The performance of the proposed technique is analyzed, and the results indicate a significant improvement in performance. The experimental distance measurement validated the feasibility of the proposed scheme. Keywords-Vehicle localization, vehicle-to-vehicle communication, vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, optical camera communication, photogrammetry.

Wireless Sensor Networks Using Sub-Pixel Optical Camera Communications: Advances in Experimental Channel Evaluation

“…These systems take advantage of the high precision achievable, of the order of tens of centimeters, compared to satellite positioning systems that can be tens of meters. VLP systems are robust in enclosed spaces and have been explored in outdoor vehicular settings [ 25 ] where more precision than provided by satellite localization means is needed. Furthermore, positioning systems relate to another important application, intelligent transportation systems (ITS), which has been proposed as an application of VLC [ 23 , 26 , 27 , 28 ].…”

“…Although many kinds of sensors are being studied, camera equipment is considered fundamental for capturing information from the environment in most approaches. In [ 25 ], computer vision and OCC techniques are combined to determine the position of a vehicle with errors below 20 cm.…”

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