Estimation of Road Centerline Curvature from Raw GPS Data

Development and wide use of route guidance systems lead to the need for suitable digital maps that can be used for some advanced applications. Sufficient accuracy of road geometry with emphasis on road centerline positions and curvature is crucial. In this paper is presented a method for finding road centerline curvature from raw GPS data. The approach consists of a few processing steps. First, it is necessary to fit raw data of each road section using B-splines, and generate equidistant vertices of polyline of the fitted curve. Next is the application of stereographic projection of chosen polyline segments onto the unit sphere. Using the least square method, the plane that best fits the points on the unit sphere is found and the circle that is the intersection of the plane and the unit sphere. Stereographic projection of this circle back to the equatorial plane gives the corresponding circular arc and curvature. The method is also applicable in higher dimensions. The 3D case is numerically presented and results show that the proposed procedure is efficient and yields accurate results.