Data Format Documentation

The publisher of the data should provide the following files:

• Data File 
• Files for each sensor
• File with documentation for each sensor ( units / models if necessary )

The files should be in matlab of plain ascii format.

In the case of matlab the data should be included in a single file.

The Data File format should consist of a an array of n (data points) rows by 3 columns as shown in the Figure 1. The first column will have the time stamp ordered in ascending order considering all the sensors that provide information in the experiment..

The second column will have an integer number with a unique sensor type. ( Please contact me and I can give you a sensor number to avoid repetitions ).

The third column has an index with the location of the sensor data in the particular sensor array data.

Figure 1

In the example presented in Figure 1 we have two sensors ( Sensor 1 and Sensor 2 ). There is a file with all the relevant information for each sensor. Documentation for these two files should be provided ( look at the existing examples in the web)

Finally the data file provided has in the first column the times at which sensor activity was reported starting at time 0.1. The first row indicates that at time 0.1 seconds sensor 1 reported information that can be accessed by reading the data stored in location 2 of sensor 1 array.

The next row indicates that at 0.12 seconds information from sensor 2 was sampled and is available at location 4 of sensor 2 array.

The navigation program will scan the data file array and incorporate only the sensor information that is required by the algorithm implemented by the user. For example a SLAM algorithm can be implemented using dead-reckoning and laser information. The estimated position can then be compared with the GPS information included in the file.