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The localization of a vehicle is an important task in the field of intelligent transportation systems. It is well known that sensor fusion helps to create more robust and accurate systems for autonomous vehicles. Standard approaches, like extended Kalman Filter or Particle Filter, are inefficient in case of highly non-linear data or have high computational cost, which complicates using them in embedded systems. Significant increase of precision, especially in case when GPS (Global Positioning System) is unavailable, may be achieved by using landmarks with known location — such as traffic signs, traffic lights, or SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) features. However, this approach may be inapplicable if a priori locations are unknown or not accurate enough. We suggest a new approach for refining coordinates of a vehicle by using landmarks, such as traffic signs. Core part of the suggested system is the Bayesian framework, which refines vehicle location using external data about the previous traffic signs detections, collected with crowdsourcing. This paper presents an approach that combines trajectories built using global coordinates from GPS and relative coordinates from Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) to produce a vehicle's trajectory in an unknown environment. In addition, we collected a new dataset, including from smartphone GPS and IMU sensors, video feed from windshield camera, which were recorded during 4 car rides on the same route. Also, we collected precise location data from Real Time Kinematic Global Navigation Satellite System (RTK-GNSS) device, which can be used for validation. This RTK-GNSS system was used to collect precise data about the traffic signs locations on the route as well. The results show that the Bayesian approach helps with the trajectory correction and gives better estimations with the increase of the amount of the prior information. The suggested method is efficient and requires, apart from the GPS/IMU measurements, only information about the vehicle locations during previous traffic signs detections.

The increased potential for jamming satellite navigation signals, which provide the highest positioning accuracy for moving objects, makes the development of alternative navigation systems comparable in accuracy but autonomous extremely important. One of the most effective such approaches is the integration of inertial and optical navigation systems (NS), as they are more resistant to artificial interference. Among NS data, one can distinguish systems that use a velocity field calculation method when processing optical flow, allowing the determination of the linear and angular velocity vectors of an object in the absence of terrain maps and reference points. However, a serious drawback of this method is the high computational cost of determining the velocity field (optical flow parameters), which is difficult to implement onboard an object. In this regard, the article considers an approach that allows for constructing a tightly coupled autonomous inertial-optical navigation scheme for objects moving along known (programmed) trajectories. This scheme utilizes a navigation algorithm that is easily implemented in onboard computers due to the discovered possibility of estimating the navigation vector without preliminary calculation of optical flow parameters, as well as by utilizing functional dependencies of navigation variables arising on analytical (orthodromic) trajectories. To illustrate the generality of the solution, cases of a rigidly mounted video camera on the object and its two-degree stabilization are studied. The navigation algorithm, providing a stochastic estimate of the full vector of linear and angular motion parameters based on measurements of an integrated tightly coupled inertial-optical NS, is built on the basis of an extended Kalman filter for correlated noise of the object and the observer. A numerical experiment illustrating the effectiveness of the proposed approach is conducted.