Vehicle positioning systems in tunnel environments: a review

Abstract

Real-time, accurate, and robust positioning system plays a crucial role in many vehicular applications for automatic driving system and Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET). In the tunnel, the positioning accuracy of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) decreases due to blocked satellite signals. In order to estimate the exact location of vehicles in tunnel environments, many positioning systems have been presented. However, there is a lack of effort in systematically comparing, organizing and analyzing these existing positioning systems, and identifying the strengths and weaknesses of different technologies and applicable scenarios. Therefore, this paper undertakes a thorough investigation into current vehicle localization technologies and methods for tunnel scenarios. The analysis starts with discussing various application scenarios for vehicle positioning system. Then, various vehicle positioning technologies are investigated, the advantages and drawbacks of each technology are illustrated. Thereafter, we discuss some widely used positioning methods in terms of range-based localization method, range-free localization method, multi-sensor fusion localization method, and cooperative positioning (CP) method. Finally, we discuss some challenges faced in vehicle positioning for tunnel environments, and propose some potential research topics for future research work.