Positioning Accuracy of Vehicle Trajectories for Road Applications

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) has become a kind of positioning standard due to the high penetration rate of this technology on mass market ITS applications. However, this positioning technique remains a real challenge for very demanding services. This paper reports on a practical and methodological approach for the evaluation of the GNSS positioning and attitude of vehicles in real life conditions. Test scenarios have been set up with several positioning sensors mounted on a vehicle for the collection of raw data on different road sections. The measurement of a high quality reference trajectory allowed to estimate position accuracy under different environmental conditions. We will show in detail the results and identify some typical situations where the quality of GNSS-only positioning is reduced and may impact the level of ITS services, e.g. road user charging or safety applications.