A method for guiding a terrestrial vehicle along a desired path can include receiving a position signal from a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) antenna and a gyro signal from a gyro sensor that is indicative of: (i) at least one of a pitch and a roll of the terrestrial vehicle, and (ii) a gyro-based heading direction. A position of a point of interest of the terrestrial vehicle at a location different than the GNSS antenna can be determined based on the position signal, the gyro signal, and a positional relationship between the first location and the second location. A position-based heading direction of the point of interest of the terrestrial vehicle can be determined based on the determined position of the point of interest and at least one previously determined position of the point of interest.

In one embodiment, a method includes at a mapping server receiving from a plurality of regional servers a plurality of regional magnetic data sets; at the mapping server updating a geomagnetic map with one or more of the regional magnetic data sets, wherein the geomagnetic map comprises one or more of the geographic regions; and from the mapping server communicating one or more portions of the geomagnetic map as updated to one or more of the regional servers for distribution as geomagnetic map information to one or more of the magnetic navigation devices for localization or navigation.

In a method of calibrating a gyro sensor mounted on a vehicle for measuring an angular velocity in a rotating direction generated about an axis of a vertical direction, a lateral shift amount detection process of detecting lateral shift amounts of the vehicle with respect to magnetic markers laid in a road, an azimuth estimation process of estimating, when the vehicle passes over a laying location where two magnetic markers are laid, an azimuth of the vehicle by a calculation process with the lateral shift amounts with respect to the two magnetic markers taken as input values, and a calibration process of calibrating the gyro sensor by using the azimuth of the vehicle estimated by the azimuth estimation process, are performed.

An automobile has a system for navigating using a vehicle speed sensor reading rotation data from a wheel and a gyroscopic sensor. For each of a plurality of error parameter values, a distance traveled for each of a plurality of directions of travel. The system also includes selecting the error parameter value that maximizes the distance traveled in one or more of the directions of travel, applying the selected error parameter value to data from the gyroscopic sensor, and navigating using dead reckoning based on data from the vehicle speed sensor and data from the gyroscopic sensor with the applied error parameter value.

An automobile has a system for navigating using a vehicle speed sensor reading rotation data from a wheel and a gyroscopic sensor. For each of a plurality of error parameter values, a distance traveled for each of a plurality of directions of travel. The system also includes selecting the error parameter value that maximizes the distance traveled in one or more of the directions of travel, applying the selected error parameter value to data from the gyroscopic sensor, and navigating using dead reckoning based on data from the vehicle speed sensor and data from the gyroscopic sensor with the applied error parameter value.

A vehicle navigation device includes a detection portion detecting a position and a travel direction of a vehicle, an arithmetic processing portion specifying the position and the travel direction of the vehicle, a display portion, and a control portion controlling the display portion to display vehicle mark on road map in normal display style. The arithmetic processing portion performs zero point correction to set zero point for an output from a gyro sensor. The control portion switches the display style from the normal display style to a correction-oriented display style in which display information is limited in response to the startup of the vehicle navigation device, and maintains the correction-oriented display style during a zero point correction period that is elapsed from the startup of the vehicle navigation device to a completion of the zero point correction.

A vehicle navigation device includes a detection portion detecting a position and a travel direction of a vehicle, an arithmetic processing portion specifying the position and the travel direction of the vehicle, a display portion, and a control portion controlling the display portion to display vehicle mark on road map in normal display style. The arithmetic processing portion performs zero point correction to set zero point for an output from a gyro sensor. The control portion switches the display style from the normal display style to a correction-oriented display style in which display information is limited in response to the startup of the vehicle navigation device, and maintains the correction-oriented display style during a zero point correction period that is elapsed from the startup of the vehicle navigation device to a completion of the zero point correction.

A method and system for combining data obtained by sensors, having particular application in the field of navigation systems, are disclosed. The techniques provide significant improvement over state-of-the-art Markovian methods that use statistical noise filters such as Kalman filters to filter data by comparing instantaneous data with the corresponding instantaneous estimates from a model. In contrast, the techniques disclosed herein use multiple time periods of various lengths to process multiple sensor data streams, in order to combine sensor measurements with motion models at a given time epoch with greater confidence and accuracy than is possible with traditional “single epoch” methods. The techniques provide particular benefit when the first and/or second sensors are low-cost sensors (for example as seen in smart phones) which are typically of low quality and have large inherent biases.

The invention relates to an observation device having a location determination functionality for the high-accuracy determination of the spatial location and thus the position and orientation (for example, Euler angles: azimuth, elevation angle, and roll angle) of the observation device by analysis of a recorded camera image of the terrain surrounding the camera by means of the three-dimensional map information of a digital terrain model (DTM). For this purpose, the observation device comprises a camera having an objective lens and a camera sensor, a data memory, a sensor system, an analysis unit, and a display screen.

The invention relates to an observation device having a location determination functionality for the high-accuracy determination of the spatial location and thus the position and orientation (for example, Euler angles: azimuth, elevation angle, and roll angle) of the observation device by analysis of a recorded camera image of the terrain surrounding the camera by means of the three-dimensional map information of a digital terrain model (DTM). For this purpose, the observation device comprises a camera having an objective lens and a camera sensor, a data memory, a sensor system, an analysis unit, and a display screen.