Next Generation Smart Navigation Technology – From Systems to Smart Agents

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The recent advances in information and communication technologies necessitate the development of reliable positioning and navigation (POS/NAV) systems. Wireless positioning technologies including Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) like GPS in open sky and wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) indoors are presently widely used for POS/NAV applications. However, they still suffer from several shortcomings such as signal blockage, interference and multipath in some challenging environments. Integration of GNSS/WLANs with other sensors (like accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers) can bridge the accuracy gaps in such challenging environments. However, current integrated POS/NAV systems still depend on traditional methods (like Kalman or particle filtering). These methods suffer from significant limitations in integrating other sophisticated sources of information such as digital maps, knowledge bases, geographical information systems, image bases, and other sensors like vision and laser scanners. This gap calls for a paradigm shift in the traditional concept of navigation. The new concept has to transform the POS/NAV technology from the traditional view of individual and isolated application-specific systems toward the concept of smart navigation agents that can read, process, interpret, infer, learn from, adapt to, communicate and integrate a wide range of information and sensors measurements. The strategic long-term goal of this research is to establish and realize a reliable and accurate POS/NAV platform customizable to several applications to enhance the safety, security and quality of life. To achieve this goal, this project targets integrating GNSS/WLAN technologies with number of emerging sensors/systems that have not been sufficiently explored for POS/NAV purposes. The integration of such growing number of sensors/technologies is a challenge that cannot be addressed using only traditional methods like Kalman or particle filtering. Therefore, this research aims at designing an efficient framework for integrated POS/NAV based on modern soft computing techniques. This framework will lead to developing navigation agents that can smartly manage and coordinate this heterogeneous set of sensors/technologies into a consistent, accurate, and robust smart navigation system. Moreover, this project targets the realization and the deployment of the developed smart navigation agents in different mobile platforms for several applications utilizing the recent advances in computation capabilities and the availability of the above-mentioned sensors and sources of information. This project offers a fundamental conceptual change in the filed of multi-sensor integrated navigation. A POS/NAV system that can work seamlessly on both outdoor and indoor environments and on different mobile platforms has the potential to become a ubiquitous and enabling technology for many applications. The significance of this research is in the opportunities it opens to enhance quality of life in many areas. For instance, people with disabilities and limited mobility will enjoy an enhanced autonomy and safety. Car industry will benefit from a POS/NAV system that increases driving efficiency and enhances both driver’s experience and safety. Unmanned vehicles widely used in national defence and mining industry seeking meter level accuracy will also benefit from the proposed POS/NAV technology. Furthermore, students and researchers acquiring knowledge in the above technologies will be a great asset to the academia and industry in Canada.