Multi-modal sensor fusion for highly accurate vehicle motion state estimation

In the context of autonomous driving in urban environments accurate and reliable information about the vehicle motion is crucial. This article presents a multi-modal sensor fusion scheme that, based on standard production car sensors and an inertial measurement unit, estimates the three-dimensional vehicle velocity and attitude angles (pitch and roll). Moreover, in order to enhance the estimation accuracy, the scheme simultaneously estimates the gyroscope and accelerometer biases. The approach relies on a state-affine representation of a kinematic model with an additional measurement equation based on a single-track model. The sensor fusion scheme is built upon a recently proposed adaptive estimator, which allows a direct consideration of model uncertainties and sensor noise. In order to provide accurate estimates during collision avoidance manoeuvres, a measurement covariance adaptation is introduced, which reduces the influence of the single-track model when its information is superfluous. A validation using experimental data demonstrates the effectiveness of the method during both regular urban drives and collision avoidance manoeuvres.