High integrity IMM-EKF based road vehicle navigation with low cost GPS/INS.

User requirements for the performance of GlobaL Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-based road applications have been significantly increasing in recent years. Safety systems based on vehicle localization, electronic fee-collection systems, and traveler information services are just a few examples of interesting applications requiring onboard equipment (OBE) capable of offering a high available accurate position, even in unfriendly environments with low satellite visibility such as built-up areas or tunnels and at low cost. In addition to that, users and service providers demand from the OBEs not only accurate continuous positioning but integrity information of the reliability of this position as well. Specifically, in life-critical applications, high-integrity monitored positioning is absolutely required. This paper presents a solution based on the fusion of GNSS and inertial sensors (a Global Positioning System/Satellite-Based Augmentation System/Inertial Navigation System integrated system) running an extended Kalman filter combined with an interactive multimodel method (IMM-EKF). The solution developed in this paper supplies continuous positioning in marketable conditions and a meaningful trust level of the given solution. A set of tests performed in controlled and real scenarios proves the suitability of the proposed IMM-EKF implementation as compared with lowcost GNSS-based solutions, dead reckoning systems, single-model EKF, and other filtering approaches of the current literature.This work was supported in part by the Spanish Ministerio de Fomento under Grant FOM/3929/2005 and by the Galileo Joint Undertaking (GJU) under Grant GIROADS 332599. The Associate Editor for this paper was Y. Wang

A Low-Cost Hardware Architecture for EV Battery Cell Characterization Using an IoT-Based Platform

Since 1997, when the first hybrid vehicle was launched on the market, until today, the number of NIMH batteries that have been discarded due to their obsolescence has not stopped increasing, with an even faster rate more recently due to the progressive disappearance of thermal vehicles on the market. The battery technologies used are mostly NIMH for hybrid vehicles and Li ion for pure electric vehicles, making recycling difficult due to the hazardous materials they contain. For this reason, and with the aim of extending the life of the batteries, even including a second life within electric vehicle applications, this paper describes and evaluates a low-cost system to characterize individual cells of commercial electric vehicle batteries by identifying such abnormally performing cells that are out of use, minimizing regeneration costs in a more sustainable manner. A platform based on the IoT technology is developed, allowing the automation of charging and discharging cycles of each independent cell according to some parameters given by the user, and monitoring the real-time data of such battery cells. A case study based on a commercial Toyota Prius battery is also included in the paper. The results show the suitability of the proposed solution as an alternative way to characterize individual cells for subsequent electric vehicle applications, decreasing operating costs and providing an autonomous, flexible, and reliable system