Development of Vehicle Navigation Technology in Underground Parking Lot using Smartphone

Abstract

This paper introduces the technology of vehicle navigation using BLE beacons in indoor underground parking lots where GNSS does not work. Currently, the vehicle navigation service operates outdoors only. Demand for vehicle navigation in underground parking lots has been steady since long ago, but it has not been tried because there is no suitable indoor navigation technology and profit model. However, a fee payment service for underground parking lots has recently been available, and if there is a payment service that provides navigation services in underground parking lots, users could be encouraged to use the service. In addition, large shopping malls and department stores have a large underground parking lot where hundreds of vehicles can be parked, making it difficult for first-time visitors to locate their current location. If navigation is possible from the underground parking lot, you can guide them to the nearest stairway to the destination or to an empty parking lot near the elevator, and after shopping, you can return to the parking lot. In addition, users can experience real seamless navigation by providing continuous navigation while moving from outdoors to indoor again. In this paper, a vehicle navigation test was conducted in the underground parking lot of the department store to confirm the validity of the technology. For navigation, three battery-operated BLE beacons were installed in the underground parking lot. This means that it costs little to set up infrastructure for navigation. Surface correction (SC) technology was applied for location estimation. The SC accumulates RF signals and compares them with DB. After placing a smartphone in a vehicle, we conducted the experiments and this results showed that it was able to achieve a location result of 5 to 10 meters.