Making regular GPS ultra-precise

Summary

Making regular GPS ultra-precise Self-driving cars need to know exactly where on the road they are located at all times. A new invention could revolutionize the development of driverless vehicles – and give us more accurate GPS on our mobile phones and fitness watches too. Denne saken er også tilgjengelig på norsk We mostly take it for granted that the position shown by our GPS is correct. But if we are in a new city and use the map app on our phone to find our way back to the hotel, it can often look like we are jumping around from one point to another – even though we are actually walking perfectly normally on the same pavement the whole time. “Cities are brutal for satellite navigation,” explained Ardeshir Mohamadi. He is a doctoral student at NTNU and is working on how to make affordable GPS receivers (like the one in your mobile phone or your fitness watch) much more accurate without having to use costly additional services. Having an accurate GPS position is especially important for cars that are designed to operate without a driver – so-called autonomous or self-driving vehicles. FACTS: GPS – or rather GNSSGNSS is a collective term for satellite-based systems for navigation and positioning with global coverage. There are four established systems: the American GPS, the Russian GLONASS, the Chinese BeiDou, and the European Galileo. Urban canyons Mohamadi and his colleagues at NTNU have now developed a new system to help autonomous vehicles navigate safely within cities. Ardeshir Mohamadi researches how affordable GPS receivers (like the ones we have in mobile phones or sports watches) can be made much more accurate without the need for expensive additional services. Photo: Omar Alexander Lein SHOW MORE “In cities, glass and concrete make satellite signals bounce back and forth. Tall buildings block the view, and what works perfectly on an open motorway is not so good when you enter a built-up area,” said Mohamadi. The problem is that signals are reflected betwe...