An Introduction to Map Matching for Personal Navigation Assistants

Abstract

The paper examines Personal Navigation Assistants (PNAs) and identifies three different types. The first one provides the user with a map and the ability to search the map in a variety of ways; the second provides both a map and the user's current location; and the third provides a map, the user's location, and directions of some kind. The paper then explores map-matching algorithms that can be used to reconcile inaccurate locational data with an inaccurate map/network. Point-to-point, point-to-curve, and curve-to-curve matching is discussed, and in all three cases algorithms that only use geometric information and that also use topological information are considered.