High-precision lane-level road map building for vehicle navigation

Lane relative vehicle navigation and control requires accurate lane-relative positioning of the vehicle. This relative position can be computed by comparing the vehicle absolute position with analytic roadway maps, which requires both high-accuracy positioning of the vehicle and high-accuracy lane maps. Carrier Phase Differential GPS (CPDGPS) aided INS or CPDGPS aided encoders is capable of estimating vehicle absolute position (relative to earth center) with centimeter level accuracy; however, to the best of the author's knowledge, the accuracy of lane level maps is currently not sufficient. In this paper, we first consider the structure of lane level maps that are compatible with standard practices of GIS road modeling. Then, various analytic lane definition are discussed. We also present a method of building lane level maps from high-accuracy positioning data along the lane center. The data is segmented according to road intersections. Shape points (vertices) as a function of arclength are located based on changes in estimated curvature. For each segment, the parameters are estimated by least-square criteria and can be refined as new datasets become available. This process is shown by an example.