LiDAR aided GNSS/IMU positioning algorithm based on improved point cloud registration in urban environment

Due to the complexity of urban environments, simple global navigation satellite system/inertial measurement unit (GNSS/IMU) cannot meet the positioning demand in urban environments. Light detection and ranging(LiDAR) can perceive the surrounding environment in real-time, and its cost has been continuously decreasing in recent years. Due to the good complementary characteristics, GNSS/IMU/LiDAR has been widely studied. An improved point cloud registration LiDAR assisted GNSS/IMU integrated navigation method is proposed. GNSS quality control is done by the algorithm by adding error terms in LiDAR registration, creating local point clouds, developing double difference feature quantities to evaluate satellite signals thoroughly, and achieving GNSS signal weighting for various signal qualities. Experimental results show that in urban environments, the proposed algorithm achieves a 49.33% improvement in horizontal position accuracy and a 48.31% improvement in 3D position accuracy compared to traditional GNSS/IMU algorithms. Compared to traditional GNSS/IMU/LiDAR algorithms, the horizontal 3D position accuracy has been improved by 40.33% and 37.60%, respectively.