NavitestNRW
New and innovative recording, managing and conversion processes
Partners EFTAS, GEOsat,
LOGIBALL and VCS have taken up the challenge to set new benchmarks in
navigation and geo-information fields of application within a defined test
area, in line with the motto “Let’s use NavitestNRW to create an environment
for new ideas”. The partners are taking advantage of the test area on the one
hand to try out new and efficient methods of recording data, and on the other
to put to use directly the data ascertained in the development of new services
and navigation maps.
The new generation of modern and efficient recording of navigation data
Expanding metropolitan areas together with the desire to live in surroundings little affected by pollution poses great demands on big cities. New services can offer support in meeting the challenges of tomorrow’s expectations. The navigation data currently available on the market is by far inadequate for developing intelligent driver information systems or navigation systems for lorries or pedestrians, etc. A new generation of navigation data is what is needed. In a confined test area, the project NavitestNRW has been making prototype recordings of such navigation data. From motorways to inner-city pedestrian walkways, from traffic facilities to building entrances, through to the recording of restaurants and their opening hours – a wealth of information has been established which up to now did not exist. And the result is not only modern and efficient recording methods but also a location accuracy of as great as two centimeters.
Various innovative ways of recording data have been developed within this project. Specialized methods enable satellite pictures to be evaluated, such as for example an extensive improvement of navigation data with land cover information. Aerial photograph information allows services to be recorded and updated, for example with regard to road markings and verification of street information. The recording of data by means of a mini-flight robot – a quadrocopter – delivers oblique images from a very low height and hence offers even more new options for recording data, for example automatic image evaluation and object recognition of zebra crossings and street signs. This gives rise to a greater depth of detail.
Mobile map engineering: A mobile laboratory equipped with a flight robot and high-performance processing technology creates high precision navigation maps
Mobile Map Engineering is a flexible technology designed to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing or indeed not previously recorded street and path network. The purpose of the service is to record extremely detailed data at the relevant location itself and process it directly into a navigation map. By doing so, the recording and processing of data, two processes which are normally separate from one another and each demand effort, are efficiently brought together at one location, saving both time and money.
Behind the idea lies a mobile laboratory in the form of a vehicle which is equipped with high-performance recording, measuring and processing technology. Companies from various branches open their own doors to a whole range of fields of application: from oblique and vertical aerial photography through to high precision individual location measurements, on to the recording of the complete infrastructure of the company’s premises, driving test areas or research facilities. The resulting database is absolutely up-to-the-minute because it portrays the actual and real data situation and does not have to rely on external data providers. Mobile mapping is therefore suitable for any service where testing and putting into practice necessitate specific navigation maps which are not available as such on the market. This mobile and high precision recording of navigation data with an accuracy of up to twenty centimeters and the subsequent processing directly on-site allows companies and research institutions to be much more flexible and supports them in developing new time-to-market services.
High precision, exhaustive and routable navigation maps for specific applications
The high accuracy data ascertained in the NavitestNRW project provide the user with individual, interesting reference maps covering an area with actual traffic activity and the most varied structural characteristics – from a reference map of the entire test area through to the more greatly detailed characteristics of motor vehicle traffic areas, pedestrian navigation or cycle tours or nature conservation networks. And all these enjoy a location accuracy of up to two centimeters. The maps include all contents relevant to traffic and location-based services for the different user groups and can be used not only in a support capacity for development work but also offer use of the area as an actual test ground and can be made available in all technical standard formats. It is the first time that a benchmark has been provided for a comprehensive comparison of the quality of databases.
The Quality Grid developed in the project enables the visualization and analysis of the quality and the depth of information from the most varied data sources. This tool is therefore able to support companies in selecting the appropriate database for whatever their planned application from the many public, commercial or free data sources available.
Conceptual development and an ideal example of surface-based pedestrian navigation implementation
Whether a world cup or simply a top league football match, there is always the question as to how to get a great number of people safely from A to B. The demands pedestrians have on a navigation system are quite complex. A reduction to one-dimensionality, similar to the case of vehicle navigation, however leads to a considerable loss of information. This is where the NavitestNRW project comes in with its development of a prototype for a movement and surface-based pedestrian navigation in the Herne-Baukau, Germany test area.
The test area covering three km² is characterized by its particular structure featuring both aspects: a much frequented, inner-city area as well as a rural recreation area. All the contents necessary for a navigation system, such as type of route, sign posting, traffic lights, zebra crossing, points of interest, etc. are systematically recorded, thus creating a high precision reference map for pedestrian routing. In order to determine the actual route and, not least, the amount of time required, the surface-based approach follows an algorithm based on resistance – a new approach involving the modelling of the movement behaviour of pedestrians in a much more realistic way than all the solutions to date. The principle behind it is really quite simple: the greater the resistance (contact and transfer resistance), the greater the reservations about selecting this route and vice versa. In order to ascertain the geometric course of the path, use is made of splitting down the surface area into its smallest unit (triangles - Delaunay-triangulation). These form the basis for setting up a routable graph based on a surface which fulfils the demands of a complex pedestrian routing system.
