A Method of Position and Heading Measurement Using Corner Cubes on Road Side

Abstract

This paper proposes a method to measure the position and heading of a vehicle on the road by use of the laser and corner cubes. The method uses the laser transmitter and receiver on the vehicle and a line of the retroreflecting targets on a side of the course. The on-board computer calculates the position and heading from the time data when the laser beams hits the corner cube. Each laser beam is set with a certain angle and an offset distance. Then, the time data when the laser beams return to the transmitter vary according to the position and heading of the moving vehicle. After corner cubes are detected by retroreflected laser beam, position and heading are calculated easily. The measured data will be used as the information for compensation of autonomous position computing system as well as for the alert of sleeping to the driver of the automobile.