Next Generation Smart Navigation Technology – From Systems to Smart Agents

信息和通信技术的最新进展要求发展可靠的定位和导航（POS/NAV）系统。无线定位技术包括全球导航卫星系统（GNSS），如露天GPS和室内无线局域网（WLAN），目前广泛用于POS/NAV应用。然而，在一些具有挑战性的环境中，它们仍然存在信号阻塞、干扰和多径等缺点。GNSS/ wlan与其他传感器（如加速度计、陀螺仪和磁力计）的集成可以弥补这种具有挑战性环境中的精度差距。然而，目前集成的POS/NAV系统仍然依赖于传统的方法（如卡尔曼或粒子滤波）。这些方法在集成其他复杂的信息源（如数字地图、知识库、地理信息系统、图像库和其他传感器，如视觉和激光扫描仪）方面受到很大的限制。这种差距要求对传统的导航概念进行范式转变。新概念必须将POS/NAV技术从单个和孤立的特定应用系统的传统观点转变为智能导航代理的概念，可以阅读，处理，解释，推断，学习，适应，沟通和集成广泛的信息和传感器测量。本研究的长期战略目标是建立和实现一个可靠、准确的POS/NAV平台，可针对多种应用进行定制，以提高安全性、安全性和生活质量。为了实现这一目标，该项目旨在将GNSS/WLAN技术与许多新兴的传感器/系统集成在一起，这些传感器/系统尚未充分探索用于POS/NAV目的。集成越来越多的传感器/技术是一个挑战，仅使用卡尔曼或粒子滤波等传统方法无法解决。因此，本研究旨在设计一个基于现代软计算技术的高效POS/NAV集成框架。该框架将引导开发导航代理，这些代理可以智能地管理和协调这些异构的传感器/技术集，使其成为一致、准确和健壮的智能导航系统。此外，本项目的目标是利用计算能力的最新进展以及上述传感器和信息源的可用性，在不同的移动平台上实现和部署开发的智能导航代理。该项目为多传感器组合导航领域提供了一个根本性的概念变革。POS/NAV系统可以在室外和室内环境以及不同的移动平台上无缝工作，有可能成为许多应用中无处不在的支持技术。这项研究的意义在于它为提高许多领域的生活质量提供了机会。例如，残疾人和行动不便的人将享有更大的自主权和安全性。汽车行业将受益于POS/NAV系统，它可以提高驾驶效率，增强驾驶员的体验和安全性。广泛用于国防和采矿业的无人驾驶车辆也将受益于拟议的POS/NAV技术。此外，获得上述技术知识的学生和研究人员将成为加拿大学术界和工业界的巨大财富。

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.