A real-time, multi-sensor architecture for fusion of delayed observations: application to vehicle localization

This paper presents a software framework called AROCCAM that was developed to design and implement data fusion applications. This architecture permits to build applications in a very short time unburdening the user of sensor communication. Moreover, it manages unsynchronized sensors and delayed observations in an elegant manner that permits the user to fuse those information easily, taking into account the environment perception date. In this paper, a fusion methodology for delayed observations is first presented in order to point the problem of latency periods in a fusion system. These latency periods are then taken into account within our embedded architecture needing only a little effort from user. Finally, benefits of AROCCAM architecture are demonstrated via a real-time vehicle localization experiment carried out with an outdoor robot