Navigation for Autonomous Vehicle

Hello everyone. I’m an undergraduate student doing a final project. My final project is making a system for Autonomous Golf Cart. I plan to buy Reach RS+ for making the navigation system. I’m going to use single board computer (SBC) with Python as the programming language. In order to make sure, I want to ask some questions :

  1. Do I really need two Reach RS+ for a good navigation ?
  2. Does it still work if I only use Reach RS+ ?
  3. Do I need any accessory for Reach RS+ (like damping platform or cable) ?
  4. Could Python access the position of the rover continously (real time) ?

Thank you for your answer and support.

I don’t know much about the integration with your systems, but it seems to me like you could use an M+ or better yet wait for the M2 (mobile receiver) and Tallysman antenna?

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Thank you for your answer.
So, you suggest me to use one Reach RS+ as a base and one Reach M+/M2 as a rover instead of two Reach RS+ ?

That would be my guess depending on the end goal. Maybe an M+/M2 as the base as well.

Great. I can reduce the navigation cost. Thank you for your suggestion

Just remember that might indeed save on the initial cost of purchase, but given the M+ Solution is a diy kit in terms of components, you might have to spend some time of tweaking it. Tweaking that is already done to the RS+/RS2.
So you may end up spending just as much money in time, as you saved on the initial purchase.

What about Navio?

Hi Fadillah,

Sorry for the delayed response!

To obtain centimeter accuracy, you need to receive corrections from the base. It can be either a local Reach RS+ base or a remote NTRIP station.

The standalone receiver provides an accuracy of several meters only. For centimeter accuracy, as I’ve mentioned above, your rover needs to receive corrections. In case of the NTRIP connection via the Internet, you don’t need another unit set as a base.

That will solely depend on your working process and the way you place the receivers. For example, if you plan to set up a local base, you’d definitely need a tripod for it. Could you provide more information about it?

The data can be transferred in the industry-standard NMEA format. You can output the position from the rover to your SBC in real-time via serial, BT or TCP and then process it with any suitable means.

Would you mind sharing more details on your project? Maybe, as Michael mentioned, other receivers would be more appropriate for you.

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Thank you very much for your answer. Sorry for late response.

I want to use reach RS+ / M+ in order to determine position, acceleration, angular rate, and orientation of a golf car. I’ve decided that I will use RS+ as the base. But, I don’t know yet, which one (RS+ or M+) should be used as the rover.

For addition, the rover will be placed inside the golf car. Of course there will be noise and disturbance such as vibration. So, could you recommend me, which one I should use as the rover ? Thank you.

The only Con I would have against the M+ is that because everything is so compact that they have a tendency to get hot with extended use. You would probably want some kind of a weather resistant cover/box for it, but it will still need good airflow so maybe a small computer fan… Mount it under the roof then it would be easy to stay close to the antenna. This is how I have seen GPS-enabled golf carts in our area.

What about RS+ ? Do we still need a weather resistant cover and a heatsink/fan ?

You shouldn’t as long as the cart and receiver aren’t left outdoors. The M+ has open ports so it would need a little weather/dust protection. I would recommend a solid mounting system with dampening on the RS+ though. Because of the extra weight and the 1/4" mounting hole they are easy to damage in a case like this.

Hi!

Looks like a Project with a lot of fun! I would opt for a Reach RS+ as a base station. It will be more comfortable to use it, since it is a calibrated setup. With M+ you will have to build your own ground plate, find a powerbank and so on. You can use M+ as a rover, but bear in mind, that you will need to connect it with the base station via LoRa and you will have to buy additional LoRa adapter to your M+, since it is not included in the package. Otherwise, you can connect M+ with RS+ via WiFi, but you will be restricted to WiFi signal reception (~100 m in the best case scenario). If you will sum everything up, you will get pretty much similar sum, as buying another RS+, which has all this components included. Also, there is a damping platform for RS+ in the shop.

You can output position in many ways. As Polina mentioned - serial port, Bluetooth or TCP. The output format is a standard NMEA.

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Thank you for your suggestion :).
Do you think the Reach RS+ damping platform (Reach RS+ damping platform - Emlid Store) is sufficient for mounting the Reach RS+ in my Golf Car ?

Thank you for your answer :smile: . Is the RS+ damping platform (from shop) really sufficient and robust ? By the way, the rover (RS+) will be placed in a Golf Car.

I haven’t used it. Maybe you should ask someone, who uses it in agricultural field.

Yes, that should be just fine for a golf cart.

Thank you all for the information you have provided.
I have a similar use case as @adamsyah and I have two questions:

  1. Does the Reach RS+ provide orientation information? (In other words, do I still need an IMU and fuse the data to get a heading of the rover?)
  2. Is the damping platform really necessary? (I understand that it should be necessary if the Reach RS+ provides IMU related data but if it only output position data, do we really need damping platform for a ground rover?)

Yes it will work very good and it will also prevent the bottom of the unit from breaking out

Only when mounted on machinery with high viberation or a lot of jarring around

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