Robot Navigation Using a DR/GPS Data Fusion

Dead Reckoning (DR) is one of the frequently used navigation system for a mobile robot. It provides short term navigation information but its error can accumulate over time without limit. The Global Positioning System (GPS) can be used for localization and navigation outdoors wherein the removal of the SA Policy improved the accuracy of the GPS for civilian use but the error is still quite large. Standard Differential GPS (DGPS) can be used to achieve an error of less than one meter but the costs are prohibitive in terms of commercializing it into the mass market. In this research study, a cheap GPS receiver was used for the navigation system of a mobile robot outdoors in which a new Kalman-filter based DR/GPS data fusion method was utilized. This proposed method is based on the characteristics of the GPS receiver. Fusing the data from the GPS receiver and the DR system provided precise navigation information for the mobile robot. Simulation was performed to check and validate the effectiveness of the proposed fusion method and good results showed its potential for mobile robot navigation outdoors.