Cooperative Localization in VANETs: An Experimental Proof-of-Concept Combining GPS, IR-UWB Ranging and V2V Communications

Future applications of Cooperative - Intelligent Transportation Systems (C-ITS) will require accurate and reliable localization capabilities in a variety of harsh operating contexts. In this paper, we account for proof-of-concept field validations of a cooperative localization approach suitable to GPS-enabled Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs), which relies on Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communications (e.g., over ITS-G5) and Impulse Radio - Ultra Wideband (IR-UWB) V2V ranging measurements. First, we evaluate 1-D V2V ranging accuracy on a highway in real mobility conditions. Then, in the same environment, we evaluate the positive impact of cooperation on positioning (i.e., in comparison with standalone standard GPS) in the steady-state fusion regime. Finally, investigating the impact of erroneous initialization and full GPS denial conditions, we illustrate the resilience of the proposed solution, before discussing the limitations of the current evaluation setting.