Geometric Model-Based Global Navigation Satellite System Sensor Emulator for Solving the Simulation-to-Real Problem in an Autonomous Driving Simulator

This article presents a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) sensor emulator designed for driving simulators, which generates position measurements that closely resemble those produced by actual GNSS receivers under urban driving conditions. The proposed approach utilizes the almanac to access up-to-date GNSS satellite information and incorporates geometry-based error modeling. This includes accounting for satellite geometry and multipath effects, with an emphasis on accurately replicating the surrounding environment to produce realistic position measurements. This method enables the emulation of complex interactions between GNSS signals and the environment, which is crucial for achieving realistic position measurements. To validate the feasibility of the proposed method, we implemented the GNSS sensor emulator in a real-time driving simulator and compared the emulated results with those from an actual GNSS receiver at the same location and time, using the digital twin approach.