Intelligent Navigation Systems - Incorporating Technology With Automobile And Traffic Systems

By Author: Jason john
Total Articles: 85
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Primitive people relied on natural signposts, landmarks, and position of heavenly bodies as a mean of navigation. The advent of technology paved the way for navigation to become popular among consumers. Nowadays, navigation relies on satellite communication, software and hardware systems, and other technological breakthroughs to deliver accurate and reliable information. It can be used on various fields like military, marine, and aerospace. One promising application of navigation is on automobiles and traffic systems.

The Role of Intelligent Navigation System in Modern Automobiles:
Without vehicle navigation, automobile drivers will only base their actions on cues. These cues can be physically present on the road such as trees, buildings, signposts, etc. It can also be a cue to be retrieved from their memory from the last time they travelled on the same road. The driver will then decide and control the car based on these cues. The absence of navigational aids caused the driver to depend on his cognitive map as a representation of the outside world he is travelling.

But with in-car navigation, drivers will ...
... have two inputs for planning and decision-making - their cognitive map and the navigation display as supported by the database and information sent from outside sources. Information from the navigation device has a real-time update based on its interaction with the environment. It can have pre-loaded electronic maps and database, or it can communicate with a satellite system to provide on-the-spot information to the driver. The presence of navigational aids can greatly reduce the dependency of the driver with his cognitive map while driving.

Integrating GPS and Dead Reckoning with a Car Navigation System:
GPS and dead reckoning are two of the most widely used navigation technique. Each has their own disadvantages, but combining them can compensate for the flaw of the other technique. In these techniques, external components like odometers, gyros, and transceivers are utilized to acquire real-time data. The physical road will be digitized, compiled, and stored in a memory for future use.

Dead reckoning will feed information to the navigation device in a recursive manner. However, its accuracy degrades for each recursion. This is where GPS will be used to compensate for the reduced accuracy of dead reckoning. It is important to note that GPS performance is also affected by environmental factors like rain, fog, and satellite orientation.

The combined information from dead reckoning and GPS will be processed by the intelligent navigation system. The driver will then be offered with different routes from his current location to his destination.

Intelligent Navigation Systems in the Modern World:
Sophisticated navigation devices have built-in digital signal processors to provide accurate information. It also introduces advanced techniques like error correction and recovery, position location and reporting system, etc. One of its many highlights is its capability to do image and video processing in acquiring map information. It can also provide collision detection and avoidance technique to lessen road accidents.

Intelligent navigation system has both software and hardware requirements. Majority of DSP processors for navigation runs at 20MHz, 32-bit CPU. They also have an AD converter that is capable of processing 512x512 RGB images. Among these many features, the processor also supports neural networks. Through the neural system, the intelligent navigation system can be trained on different environments and process dynamic information, giving the navigation system a dose of artificial intelligence.

There are various software programs suitable for intelligent navigation systems. These programs were written in different languages such as CORBA, JAVA, and ASP.net.