Mobile Phone-Based Vehicle Positioning and Tracking and Its
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Mobile Phone‐based Vehicle Positioning and Tracking and Its Application in Urban Traffic State Estimation SHA TAO Licentiate Thesis KTH Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm, Sweden 2012 TRITA-ICT/MAP AVH Report 2012:01 KTH School of Information and ISSN 1653-7610 Communication Technology ISRN KTH/ ICT/ MAP/AVH-2012:01–SE SE-164 40 Kista ISBN 978-91-7501-204-9 SWEDEN Akademisk avhandling som med tillstånd av Kungl Tekniska högskolan framlägges till offentlig granskning för avläggande av teknologie licentiatexamen i Elektronik och Datorsystem onsdag den 18 Januari 2012 klockan 14.00 i Sal C2, Electrum 229, Kungl Tekniska Högskolan, Isafjordsgatan 26, Kista. © Sha Tao, January 2012 Tryck: Kista Snabbtryck AB iii Abstract Enabling the positioning and tracking of mobile phones has emerged as a key facility of existing and future generation mobile communication systems. This feature provides opportunities for many value added location-based services and systems. For instance, mobile phones are increasingly employed in traffic infor- mation systems and present several advantages over traditional sensor-based traffic systems. However, there are still plenty of aspects that must be investigated and addressed towards the fully operational deployment. The aim of the research per- formed in this thesis is to examine and propose solutions to two of the problems in the deployment of a mobile phone-based smart traffic information system. The first problem investigated is the mobile phone-based vehicle positioning and tracking. The investigation starts with a comprehensive study of mobile positioning with emphasis on existing standardizations. Based on the mobile location methods standardized in UMTS, possible hybrid solutions are proposed. In addition, a tool for simulating one of the UMTS mobile positioning methods (i.e., OTDOA) in vehicular environment is developed. A Kalman filter-based hybrid method, which can track the mobile phones traveling on-board vehicles, is then implemented. This method fuses two of the UMTS standard methods (i.e., OTDOA and A-GPS) loca- tion estimates at the state-vector level. Statistical simulation results demonstrate that the hybrid method can provide better position and velocity estimations than each individual method. The second problem addressed is the mobile phone-based urban traffic state estimation. A traffic simulation-based framework is proposed to emulate and evalu- ate the operation of urban traffic state estimation with A-GPS mobile phones as probes. Based on the emulated mobile phone probe data, algorithms of location data processing/filtering and average speed estimation are developed and then evaluated by comparing against “ground truth” data from the traffic simulation. Moreover, the estimated average speeds are classified to different traffic condition levels, which are prepared for displaying a traffic map on the mobile phone display. The achieved simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, which is fundamental for the subsequent development of a mobile phone-based smart traffic information system demonstrator. iv v Dedicated to the Ones I Love and the Ones Who Love Me vi vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Every story has its beginning; mine starts two years ago with a group, once called RaMSiS. At that time, there were six members in our group, our little ‘family’. Although the six of us are actually diverse in many ways: different origins, languages, backgrounds, personalities, etc., when we come together, the feeling is just so right. Maybe this is because family is such a place where everyone accepts you for who you are. Therefore, my first and foremost acknowledgment goes to the ones, who spent with me from the very beginning the past two years of my doctoral study: Assoc. Prof. Ana Rusu, Prof. Mohammed Ismail Elnaggar, Dr. Saul Rodriguez Duenas, Julian Marcos Garcia, and Vasileios Manolopoulos. Ana, my main advisor, you introduced me into this family and encouraged me stepping into a brand new field; you creates a fantastic ‘aura’ around that makes everyone can easily fit in and teaches me to be open minded to the thing which used to sounds ‘alien’ to me. You always correct our manuscripts word-by-word with your “magic red pen” (quoted from Eduard). Your door is always open to us; you are always there for us listening to our ideas (sometimes immature) and counseling us when we came across obstacles and felt depressed. You spoil us! However, you are far more than a good ‘profes- sor’; to me you are a real ‘educator’: you always want us to be not only an excellent student or researcher but also a better person and an independent thinker. Mohammed, my co-advisor, though has not been with us very often, you have been always supportive to my study and trying to give me suggestions. It was such a pleasure talking with you every time you came. Saul, my co-advisor, who was my master thesis supervisor and actually has been my supervisor since three years ago when I took a project course; you are the person I always go to for advices, both academically and daily life related. Thanks a lot for making my life easier. Julian, our senior PhD student, you are just perfect in many ways: the way you work (e.g., your attitude and passion), the way you speak/communicate (e.g., when you presenting and teaching), etc.; I admire you and I wish you all the best in your upcoming defense. Vasilis, my fellow student, my project teammate, the cool guy I shared the office with during these two years; of course not only the office, but there were many other things we have been sharing in our “little dark place” (quoted from Ana): discussions regarding our viii study and project, opinions and ideas about people we know and things happened, even the confusions we had. We have been through phases together in our PhD studies, and at this point, wish ourselves the best of luck. Once again, thank all of you for making me feel at home when working in the office; you guys are simply awesome! My appreciation also goes to our present and former (guest) group members: Maryam Olyaei, Jinxin Song, Ying Song, Cristina Marghescu, Rocco Luciano Grimaldi, Prof. Edu- ard Alarcon, Dr. Raul Onet, Dr. Fadi R. Shahroury, Babak Taghavi, and Milad Raz- zaghpour. I do enjoy the moments we shared, and I am really glad that you guys are/were around. Babak, you did a fantastic master thesis and you are so wholesome. I had a lot of fun discussing soccer with you. Milad, you are exceptionally gifted in doing research and you are born to be a “professor” (as Ana once joked about you). Meanwhile, you are so adorable and you are delightful to talk with: someone must be insane if he/she doesn’t feel enjoyable when chatting with you. Many thanks to professors of the postgraduate courses I took for my Licentiate: Assoc. Prof. Eilert Berglind, Prof. Gerald Maguire, Assoc. Prof. Lena Wosinska, and Prof. Elena Dubrova; especially Prof. Gerald Maguire for his valuable feedback in one part of the work included in this thesis. My thanks also go to Prof. Mikael Östling and Prof. Carl-Mikael Zetterling (Bellman), for their brilliant managing and organizing stills to keep our depart- ment running well. In addition, I would like to thank Gunilla Gabrielsson, our department administrator, for taking care of a variety of administrative issues. I would also like to thank the ICT IT-Service staffs for the support on computer-related issues. I gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) for funding my research under the TRAFFIC project. I also acknowledge the KTH transport platform for organizing meetings & events that provide us opportunities meeting people around who do related research. I am thankful to Assoc. Prof. Panos Papadimitratos for reviewing my Licentiate proposal and for all constructive comments that helped improve this thesis; to Prof. Anders Hallén for being the internal reviewer of this thesis. I am genuinely grateful to Dr. Wilco Burghout for accepting the role as opponent at my defense. Special thanks to my Chinese friends here in Electrum: Xingang Yu, Yu Xiang, Ye Tian, Tingsu Chen, Dr. Jiantong Li, Dr. Qing Lin, Dr. Jun Luo, Dr. Shun Yu, Yeyu Fang, and Chen Hu. Tianye and Tingsu, you have just started your PhD study and I wish you nothing but the best. Yeyu and Huchen, with whom I shared most of my happy lunch hours, I miss you already. Some of you guys may have left, but I treasure the great time we spent together during the past two years. My other friends, whether in Stockholm or Beijing, thank you all for being in my life. Finally, with all my heart, I would like to express my deepest love to my dearest ones. My boyfriend, who has always accompanied me during the past years and will be with me the rest of my life, I feel so blessed to have you. My life would suck without you. My family, in my sweet home Beijing, especially my mom and dad, my four grandparents, my uncle and aunt, you are my inspiration all the way and you are the reason who I am. You raise me up. ix CONTENTS Abstract iii Acknowledgements vii Contents ix Abbreviations and Acronyms xii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Background ................................................................................................. 2 1.1.1 The Use of Mobile Phones in ITS ........................................................ 2 1.1.2 Smart Traffic Information System: An Overview ............................... 2 1.2 Problem Formulation .................................................................................. 4 1.3 Thesis Outline and Contributions ............................................................... 5 2 Vehicle Location Using Mobile Phones: Survey and Prospects 7 2.1 Mobile Positioning and Its Performance Metrics ....................................... 8 2.1.1 Calls for Mobile Positioning ................................................................ 8 2.1.2 Vehicle Location: Requirements and Metrics .....................................