Following five years of research and development, Racelogic has launched the VBox Indoor Positioning System (VIPS), which according to the company is a highly accurate way of measuring speed, position and attitude in areas where GPS is not available, with accuracy of ±2cm.
The system is designed for use in high dynamic vehicle test and validation procedures which are usually performed outdoors using GPS. This means that the same positioning test equipment that is usually limited to outdoor use, can be used anywhere – including areas with limited or no satellite coverage – making VIPS suitable for a wide range of applications as it can fill gaps in GPS coverage. Common use cases include braking, handling, crash testing and ADAS sensor validation, with typical environments where users might benefit from using VIPS including tunnels, urban canyons, indoor test facilities and areas with heavy tree cover.
The VIPS system consists of a network of beacons that are placed around the test area, which communicate with a small receiver mounted on the roof of the test vehicle, using Ultra Wideband (UWB). The receiver features an integrated VBox IMU with Kalman Filter, which connects directly to a VBox 3i data logger, enabling users to capture data from a vehicle’s CAN bus, along with position, velocity and attitude angles. Racelogic says that the IMU helps reduce noise and dynamic errors in measurements, while the GPS-enabled VBOX 3i connectivity can create a seamless transition between indoor and outdoor environments.
The VIPS hardware
To celebrate the launch of VIPS, Racelogic is hosting an event at the Bicester Heritage site in the UK on Wednesday 23rd and Thursday 24th October 2019, offering live demonstrations alongside a Q&A session with the engineers and developers behind the system. Attendees will be able to see the system in operation inside a large hangar (often used for TV and films), with a live demo of a vehicle being driven by a steering robot following a set course. If you would like to attend the launch event, you can register your place here.
