VEHICLE DINAMICS STUDY BASED ON GPS DEVICES

Abstract

The GPS technology is more and more widespread between common users, mainly for navigation applications, but to date the GPS devices performances become good enough to be used as tools in research activities. The price and easiness of use make this type of devices extremely interesting for the experimental study of any vehicle type dynamics. This paper shows some possibilities to process GPS data, allowing obtaining useful information about the vehicle dynamics behaviour. Also are presented and compared the data obtained from various GPS devices. The authors realised a computer program that run in AutoCAD environment, taking benefits from its graphical and list processing features. The data can be imported from different GPS devices using standard or proprietary file formats. Based on position and time information, it can be ascertained the speed, acceleration or slope and can be estimated the moving resistance forces and the power delivered by the engine. These results were represented as plots in different ways, for easy interpretation.