Lane-level positioning for in-vehicle navigation and automated vehicle location (AVL) systems

The majority of today's in-vehicle navigation systems as well as automated vehicle location (AVL) systems use GPS (global positioning system) technology that can provide position information with an accuracy of approximately 10-20 meters. Recently, low cost differential GPS receivers have now become available which have positioning accuracy of approximate 1-3 meters. We describe a real-time DGPS system coupled with a developed map-matching algorithm, which is capable of performing lane-determination on today's roadways. Lane-level positioning opens up the door for a number of new applications such as better fleet management, lane-based traffic measurements from probe vehicles, and lane-level navigation. The developed low-cost system has been tested on a number of roadways and has performed very well when used with accurately surveyed map data.