zprávy

Alphamonitoring System, from the joint Italian-French team Alphageomega, has taken the Traditional Geomatics prize in this year’s Geomatics on the Move Competition, while the Integrated Geomatics Prize went to the Greek team 3 Deep Vision for their project Bathymetry from UAV Imagery and Machine Learning. The winners shared in the overall prize of EUR 30,000, with a total of 8 prizes offered in the two categories.

The Traditional Geomatics category looked for solutions in which the main innovation was based on the use of EGNSS, employing traditional equipment such as surveying or GIS grade GNSS receivers. In this category, Alphageomega designed and built an all-in-one system that helps to improve remote real-time knowledge of displacements at sensitive critical infrastructures and the surrounding environment.

Meanwhile, the Integrated Geomatics category targeted integrated surveying solutions that use Galileo or EGNOS along with tools and technologies such as drones, mobile mapping, laser scanners or Augmented/Mixed Reality, both within geomatics applications or beyond. 

The winner in this category - Bathymetry from UAV Imagery and Machine Learning - aims to implement a scalable and transferable web service for mapping shallow waters. This web service will facilitate the detailed and accurate monitoring and mapping of sensitive coastal areas, especially in times of climate crisis, taking as input georeferenced UAV images or 3D point clouds.

Targeted solutions

“With the Geomatics on the Move Prize, born from our collaboration with  the CLGE and the CLGE Young Surveyors’ Prize, we are encouraging innovators to leverage space technology and target real needs in the mapping and surveying community. Despite being the first edition in this new format, I was very impressed with the quality of the entries and congratulate the worthy winners,” said GSA Head of Market Development Fiammetta Diani.

Read this: Want to know more about EGNSS for geomatics?

This year’s Geomatics on the Move competition marks the ninth year of partnership between the Council of European Geodetic Surveyors and the GSA. Through this initiative, the GSA aims to further increase the use of Galileo, EGNOS and Copernicus in the field of geomatics and to increase awareness of the benefits these EU Space Programmes provide toward fostering innovative geomatics applications.

Geomatics on the Move is an ideas competition. The contenders had to present their solutions and demonstrate them through a written submission in the form of a poster and a live pitch at the finals. The prizes were awarded at an online ceremony on December 9, held as part of European Space Week.

Alphamonitoring System, from the joint Italian-French team Alphageomega, has taken the Traditional Geomatics prize in this year’s Geomatics on the Move Competition, while the Integrated Geomatics Prize went to the Greek team 3 Deep Vision for their project Bathymetry from UAV Imagery and Machine Learning. The winners shared in the overall prize of EUR 30,000, with a total of 10 prizes offered in the two categories.

The Traditional Geomatics category looked for solutions in which the main innovation was based on the use of EGNSS, employing traditional equipment such as surveying or GIS grade GNSS receivers. In this category, Alphageomega designed and built an all-in-one system that helps to improve remote real-time knowledge of displacements at sensitive critical infrastructures and the surrounding environment.

Meanwhile, the Integrated Geomatics category targeted integrated surveying solutions that use Galileo or EGNOS along with tools and technologies such as drones, mobile mapping, laser scanners or Augmented/Mixed Reality, both within geomatics applications or beyond. 

The winner in this category - Bathymetry from UAV Imagery and Machine Learning - aims to implement a scalable and transferable web service for mapping shallow waters. This web service will facilitate the detailed and accurate monitoring and mapping of sensitive coastal areas, especially in times of climate crisis, taking as input georeferenced UAV images or 3D point clouds.

Targeted solutions

“With the Geomatics on the Move Prize, born from our collaboration with  the CLGE and the CLGE Young Surveyors’ Prize, we are encouraging innovators to leverage space technology and target real needs in the mapping and surveying community. Despite being the first edition in this new format, I was very impressed with the quality of the entries and congratulate the worthy winners,” said GSA Head of Market Development Fiammetta Diani.

Read this: Want to know more about EGNSS for geomatics?

This year’s Geomatics on the Move competition marks the ninth year of partnership between the Council of European Geodetic Surveyors and the GSA. Through this initiative, the GSA aims to further increase the use of Galileo, EGNOS and Copernicus in the field of geomatics and to increase awareness of the benefits these EU Space Programmes provide toward fostering innovative geomatics applications.

Geomatics on the Move is an ideas competition. The contenders had to present their solutions and demonstrate them through a written submission in the form of a poster and a live pitch at the finals. The prizes were awarded at an online ceremony on December 9, held as part of European Space Week.

Alphamonitoring System, from the joint Italian-French team Alphageomega, has taken the Traditional Geomatics prize in this year’s Geomatics on the Move Competition, while the Integrated Geomatics Prize went to the Greek team 3 Deep Vision for their project Bathymetry from UAV Imagery and Machine Learning. The winners shared in the overall prize of EUR 30,000, with a total of 10 prizes offered in the two categories.

The Traditional Geomatics category looked for solutions in which the main innovation was based on the use of EGNSS, employing traditional equipment such as surveying or GIS grade GNSS receivers. In this category, Alphageomega designed and built an all-in-one system that helps to improve remote real-time knowledge of displacements at sensitive critical infrastructures and the surrounding environment.

Meanwhile, the Integrated Geomatics category targeted integrated surveying solutions that use Galileo or EGNOS along with tools and technologies such as drones, mobile mapping, laser scanners or Augmented/Mixed Reality, both within geomatics applications or beyond. 

The winner in this category - Bathymetry from UAV Imagery and Machine Learning - aims to implement a scalable and transferable web service for mapping shallow waters. This web service will facilitate the detailed and accurate monitoring and mapping of sensitive coastal areas, especially in times of climate crisis, taking as input georeferenced UAV images or 3D point clouds.

Targeted solutions

“With the Geomatics on the Move Prize, born from our collaboration with  the CLGE and the CLGE Young Surveyors’ Prize, we are encouraging innovators to leverage space technology and target real needs in the mapping and surveying community. Despite being the first edition in this new format, I was very impressed with the quality of the entries and congratulate the worthy winners,” said GSA Head of Market Development Fiammetta Diani.

Read this: Want to know more about EGNSS for geomatics?

This year’s Geomatics on the Move competition marks the ninth year of partnership between the Council of European Geodetic Surveyors and the GSA. Through this initiative, the GSA aims to further increase the use of Galileo, EGNOS and Copernicus in the field of geomatics and to increase awareness of the benefits these EU Space Programmes provide toward fostering innovative geomatics applications.

Geomatics on the Move is an ideas competition. The contenders had to present their solutions and demonstrate them through a written submission in the form of a poster and a live pitch at the finals. The prizes were awarded at an online ceremony on December 9, held as part of European Space Week.

Graniot, a team from Spain, has won this year’s 1st Farming by Satellite Prize. The winning team developed a web application that uses European satellite technologies to help agronomists and farmers monitor crops, reduce water waste and avoid poor fertilisation practices. The Farming by Satellite Prize promotes the use of GNSS and Earth observation in Europe and includes a special Africa Prize.

The Italian team Genuine received second prize in the competition for a web-based solution that identifies crop stress the optimal tractor path for irrigation and fertilisation using Copernicus, EGNOS and Galileo. The third prize went to AI4OceanFarming, also from Spain, for a solution that uses satellite data to identify ocean farming threats such as harmful algal blooms (HABs), ocean acidification (OA), and invasive species. Finally, the Special Africa Prize went to the Kenyan-Italian team GeoM&E for a solution that uses European satellite technology to monitor coffee diseases. 

The winners beat stiff competition from 40 other young teams with innovative ideas. The judges selected first a short list of the best teams to then take their ideas forward to a ‘Deep Dive’ phase. The selected eight grand finalists had the opportunity to pitch their solutions during a final ‘live’ judging round. 

An inspiring experience

“We’re honoured to be chosen as winners of the Farming by Satellite Prize 2020. We will put the EUR 5,000 cash prize to good use developing our satellite crop monitoring web application further. The whole journey has been a great experience that would not have be possible without the support of UGREmprendedora and the Andalucia Agrotech Digital Innovation Hub,” said Pablo Romero Díaz and Manuel Castro Ruiz from Graniot. “We’ve learnt so much. We have been inspired by the feedback from the judges and have enjoyed seeing the entries from all the grand finalists during the awards ceremony.” 

Read this: A “Cerealist’s Diary”, the testimony of a wheat farmer

 “The innovation and wide variety of agriculture applications submitted by young innovators this year has been wonderful to see. It confirms the value of encouraging the next generation of farmers to explore the use of satellite technologies in agriculture to enable sustainable farming practices,” said Joaquín Reyes González, who judged the competition on behalf of the European GNSS Agency (GSA).

Hans Dufourmont, a judge for the European Environment Agency (EEA), highlighted the environmental credentials of the entries: “The agricultural sector needs to continue developing sustainable food production practices and improve their impact on the environment and climate. It’s great to see Galileo and Copernicus convincing young farmers to become tech savvy entrepreneurs and develop competitive yet sustainable agriculture.”

Increased use of EGNSS and Copernicus in agriculture

The Farming by Satellite Prize is an initiative of the GSA and the EEA, supported by agricultural engineering equipment manufacturer CLAAS. The competition aims to increase the use of Galileo, EGNOS and Copernicus in European agriculture. The Prize also intends to raise awareness on the benefits the EU Space Programme provides toward fostering innovative and sustainable farming solutions. The objective of the Special Africa Prize is to encourage young Africans to develop satellite-based solutions that cater to the specific needs and resources of communities and lands in Africa.

Watch this: European Satellites for Agriculture

Commenting on the winning idea, Marcel Fölsch from CLAAS said: “The Graniot team has consistently presented a high-quality solution throughout all stages of this year’s competition. It is great to see their focus on olive farming in southern Europe, allowing them to narrow in on specific customer needs and present a compelling remote sensing solution to their users. We’re pleased to award the top prize to a team clearly driving the adoption of sustainable agriculture practises in Europe.”

Contestants were tasked with creating a new sustainable and environmentally friendly agriculture solution using Galileo, EGNOS and/or Copernicus. Solutions had to demonstrate a novel approach to the use of satellite services for farming, while ensuring accurate technical feasibility and a maximum impact on the farming industry. 

Participation was open to young farmers, academics, and professionals between the ages of 18 and 32. They could take part as individuals or as a team of up to four. For the Special Africa Prize, at least one applicant was required to be a citizen of or resident in an African country.

 For more information, click here.

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).

Angsa Robotics has won the overall prize in the Galileo Masters 2020 with “Clive,” Germany’s first autonomous trash collection robot, which collects small pieces of rubbish left on grass or gravel that would otherwise cause ecological and economic problems.

Thanks to its unique artificial neural network architecture, “Clive” can move independently while detecting and localising individual objects, which enables it to clean grass and gravel areas. Individual objects such as bottle caps or cigarette butts are targeted for collection but insects are spared, in a win-win solution for the environment. Since conventional sweeping machines are designed for flat asphalt surfaces, they are unsuitable for these types of surfaces, so these surfaces have typically had to be cleaned manually. 

“Clive” also creates an economic benefit for its customers. Its target use cases include the cleaning of festival venues after events and the daily cleaning of parks and other green spaces. Precise localisation via GNSS is essential to its operation: With better localisation, the robot can plan a more efficient path and clean a given area faster. 

Forward-thinking applications

“Angsa Robotics is combining precise GNSS localisation with further state-of-the art techniques such as artificial intelligence and robotics. Its innovative solution is an impressive reflection of what the Agency was looking for with its three challenges in this year’s edition of Galileo Masters: forward-thinking applications of space for future generations,” European GNSS Agency (GSA) Executive Director Rodrigo da Costa said at the digital Space Awards.

After winning both the GSA Space for Our Planet Challenge and the Galileo Prize Bavaria, Angsa Robotics was presented with a EUR 10,000 cash prize as the Overall Winner of Galileo Masters 2020, having beat out 23 other challenge and prize winners. In addition, the pioneering start-up was selected as one of the winners of the Galileo Incubation Programme, which includes an incubation and acceleration prize package worth up to EUR 62,000.

The winners of the Galileo Masters 2020 international innovation competition were announced during the online Space Awards on 8 December as part of European Space Week 2020. Seventeen winners selected by the Galileo Prize Partners had the chance to present their ideas to an international audience at a Space Pitches session at EUSW on 7 December.

EGNSS driving innovation

European GNSS and the accurate, highly reliable positioning data it delivers is an essential element in the uptake of autonomous vehicles such as cars, drones, or robots. Autonomous vehicles are already a growing segment in the transport and automotive sector, in urban air mobility, and in the drone market. 

By combining GNSS with on-board sensors and systems such as cameras, radar, or inertial sensors, robotic applications are also being developed for the construction, manufacturing, maintenance, monitoring, and the healthcare and household sectors. Satellite navigation data provides the accuracy, integrity, reliability, and availability required to operate autonomous vehicles. 

Global innovation network for Galileo

Galileo Masters’ network of 101 partners from 18 countries focuses on the regional implementation of the competition to ensure a high level of diversity while enhancing both job growth potential and regional development opportunities. The competition’s backbone consists of 17 Prize Partners that are involved in specific areas at the local level, providing participants with valuable support in launching their businesses across Europe. 

“Galileo Masters has given a significant boost to the rise of the GNSS industry in Europe,” said AZO CEO Thorsten Rudolph. “The top 100 companies that have grown out of the innovative ideas of more than 13,000 Galileo Masters participants since 2004 have created more than 3,300 jobs and generated EUR 178 million in total turnover in 2019. In recent years, these companies have also raised around EUR 524 million in venture capital.”

By fostering entrepreneurs and start-ups, Galileo Masters’ long-term objective is to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness with high-tech space solutions on a global scale. This was why the European Commission established Europe’s unique Galileo Incubation programme for the top six winners of Galileo Masters. For the fourth time, this programme will offer the year’s winners access to dedicated incubation services (worth up to EUR 372,000 in total) at their preferred incubation centre in the Europe-wide Galileo Masters network.

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).

European Space Week 2020 kicked off on Monday 7 December with the User Consultation Platform (UCP) plenary, where users from different market segments presented the results of work carried out during the UCP over the previous week. Copernicus users were included in the UCP for the first time, and possible services and applications arising from synergies between Copernicus and Galileo were very much in focus.

Opening the UCP plenary, GSA Executive Director Rodrigo da Costa noted that users were central to EGNSS. “This is why the User Consultation Platform is so important – it helps us to develop new services,” he said, adding that it is also a valuable tool for industry and for policy-makers, with inputs feeding into the development of new GNSS applications and into Horizon Europe downstream activities. 

EGNSS for post-COVID recovery

Representing the Aviation segment, Vanessa Rullier, Senior Manager at the European Business Aviation Association, noted that recovery from COVID would depend on society’s ability to meet its social and environmental obligations. She said that more should be done to extend the use of EGNOS approaches to reduce aviation’s footprint. Synergies between EGNSS and Copernicus can play a role in finding the best sustainable trajectory for aircraft, she said.

Read this: ICAO approves new standards and recommended practices for EGNOS and Galileo

Captain Johan Gahnstrom from CompetenSEA noted a clear trend towards the development of new assistance functions in the Maritime sector, along with the first steps towards automated vessels, not only for maritime and inland waterways but also for surveillance and fisheries control. With regard to the latter, he noted that a precise verified location would be essential for monitoring vessels, adding that Galileo and OS-NMA authentication would be very important in providing an undisputable position.

In the area of Natural Disasters & Emergency Response, Juan Luis Valero from the European Union Satellite Centre said that user feedback was positive on the three new Galileo services based on the Return Link Service (Remote Beacon Activation service, Two-Way Communication service, and Beacon Distress Positioning sharing service). He noted that users had identified a few challenges associated with the implementation of these new services, mainly related to power supply, user interface, and integration with platforms, such as boats. 

Need for High Accuracy 

Samuel Ryckewaert General Manager at Ubiscale said that in the Mass Market power consumption is a recurring issue and that 91% of users consider it crucial. Regarding Galileo differentiators, he said that 55% of users had shown a high interest in high accuracy. Miguel Ortiz, geolocation research engineer at the French Institute of Science and Technology for Transport, Development and Networks (IFSTTAR), also noted the importance of high accuracy. He said that automated driving had high demands in terms of not only accuracy, but also availability and robustness. Regarding the High Accuracy Service, he said the UCP highlighted the need to design new EGNSS services and to plan their evolution aligned with the market landscape, to avoid entering into competition with commercial offers.

Michele Tozzi from the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) noted that GNSS is key for the deployment of new mobility services such as MaaS and combined mobility, and that space data is also extremely useful to improve the efficiency of traditional services. He said that it is necessary to raise awareness about Galileo’s benefits, and that projects such Ariadna are working to achieve this.

Heinz Reichinger from RUAG Space noted that there are many different applications in the space sector, all of which have different priorities and accuracy requirements. He said that a position accuracy of 3.5m is good for many space applications and that the Galileo HAS service is already needed in this market segment. He said that there is also increasing interest in authentication for resilient GNSS-based navigation in space.

Robustness against spoofing

Heiko Gerstrung, Managing Director at Meinberg Funkuhren GmbH noted that protection against GNSS jamming and spoofing threats is now on the agenda of most - if not all - infrastructure operators. The UCP Critical Infrastructure session highlighted the importance of a built-in GNSS authentication service such as Galileo OS-NMA - but also the Galileo Commercial Authentication Service (CAS) - to improve robustness against GNSS spoofing. 

And this: New Galileo-inspired opportunities for Critical Infrastructures presented at ITSF 2020

As regards the timing and synchronization segment, Guerric Pont from the GSA said that standardisation is an important building block to help market uptake. He said that telecom operators already had to follow standards, but that technical guidelines specifically covering GNSS issues would be useful. 

In the context of Agriculture and Geomatics, Pablo Olmos from Leica Geosystems said that synergies between EGNSS and Copernicus provide a much better understanding of the environment and unlock the potential to create new applications and businesses. He said that these synergies are also essential for the Farm to Fork strategy in agriculture, helping to reduce pesticide and fertilizer use. 

Winding up the session, the GSA’s Head of Market Development Fiametta Diani noted that the UCP had highlighted two commonalities from across the market segments: the importance of Galileo’s differentiators – HAS and OS-NMA - which will bring in new user communities; and the need to leverage synergies between Galileo and Copernicus, particularly in the area of sustainable mobility.

Looking ahead, she said that the inputs from the UCP would feed into updates of the GSA’s User Needs and Requirements reports, while helping to improve current services and shape the evolution of the next generation of services and applications.

European Space Week 2020 kicked off on Monday 7 December with the User Consultation Platform (UCP) plenary, where users from different market segments presented the results of work carried out during the UCP over the previous week. Copernicus users were included in the UCP for the first time, and possible services and applications arising from synergies between Copernicus and Galileo were very much in focus.

Opening the UCP plenary, GSA Executive Director Rodrigo da Costa noted that users were central to EGNSS. “This is why the User Consultation Platform is so important – it helps us to develop new services,” he said, adding that it is also a valuable tool for industry and for policy-makers, with inputs feeding into the development of new GNSS applications and into Horizon Europe downstream activities. 

EGNSS for post-COVID recovery

Representing the Aviation segment, Vanessa Rullier, Senior Manager at the European Business Aviation Association, noted that recovery from COVID would depend on society’s ability to meet its social and environmental obligations. She said that more should be done to extend the use of EGNOS approaches to reduce aviation’s footprint. Synergies between EGNSS and Copernicus can play a role in finding the best sustainable trajectory for aircraft, she said.

Read this: ICAO approves new standards and recommended practices for EGNOS and Galileo

Captain Johan Gahnstrom from CompetenSEA noted a clear trend towards the development of new assistance functions in the Maritime sector, along with the first steps towards automated vessels, not only for maritime and inland waterways but also for surveillance and fisheries control. With regard to the latter, he noted that a precise verified location would be essential for monitoring vessels, adding that Galileo and OS-NMA authentication would be very important in providing an undisputable position.

In the area of Natural Disasters & Emergency Response, Juan Luis Valero from the European Union Satellite Centre said that user feedback was positive on the three new Galileo services based on the Return Link Service (Remote Beacon Activation service, Two-Way Communication service, and Beacon Distress Positioning sharing service). He noted that users had identified a few challenges associated with the implementation of these new services, mainly related to power supply, user interface, and integration with platforms, such as boats. 

Need for High Accuracy 

Samuel Ryckewaert General Manager at Ubiscale said that in the Mass Market power consumption is a recurring issue and that 91% of users consider it crucial. Regarding Galileo differentiators, he said that 55% of users had shown a high interest in high accuracy. Miguel Ortiz, geolocation research engineer at the French Institute of Science and Technology for Transport, Development and Networks (IFSTTAR), also noted the importance of high accuracy. He said that automated driving had high demands in terms of not only accuracy, but also availability and robustness. Regarding the High Accuracy Service, he said the UCP highlighted the need to design new EGNSS services and to plan their evolution aligned with the market landscape, to avoid entering into competition with commercial offers.

Michele Tozzi from the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) noted that GNSS is key for the deployment of new mobility services such as MaaS and combined mobility, and that space data is also extremely useful to improve the efficiency of traditional services. He said that it is necessary to raise awareness about Galileo’s benefits, and that projects such Ariadna are working to achieve this.

Heinz Reichinger from RUAG Space noted that there are many different applications in the space sector, all of which have different priorities and accuracy requirements. He said that a position accuracy of 3.5m is good for many space applications and that the Galileo HAS service is already needed in this market segment. He said that there is also increasing interest in authentication for resilient GNSS-based navigation in space.

Robustness against spoofing

Heiko Gerstung, Managing Director at Meinberg Funkuhren GmbH noted that protection against GNSS jamming and spoofing threats is now on the agenda of most - if not all - infrastructure operators. The UCP Critical Infrastructure session highlighted the importance of a built-in GNSS authentication service such as Galileo OS-NMA - but also the Galileo Commercial Authentication Service (CAS) - to improve robustness against GNSS spoofing. 

And this: New Galileo-inspired opportunities for Critical Infrastructures presented at ITSF 2020

As regards the timing and synchronization segment, Guerric Pont from the GSA said that standardisation is an important building block to help market uptake. He said that telecom operators already had to follow standards, but that technical guidelines specifically covering GNSS issues would be useful. 

In the context of Agriculture and Geomatics, Pablo Olmos from Leica Geosystems said that synergies between EGNSS and Copernicus provide a much better understanding of the environment and unlock the potential to create new applications and businesses. He said that these synergies are also essential for the Farm to Fork strategy in agriculture, helping to reduce pesticide and fertilizer use. 

Winding up the session, the GSA’s Head of Market Development Fiametta Diani noted that the UCP had highlighted two commonalities from across the market segments: the importance of Galileo’s differentiators – HAS and OS-NMA - which will bring in new user communities; and the need to leverage synergies between Galileo and Copernicus, particularly in the area of sustainable mobility.

Looking ahead, she said that the inputs from the UCP would feed into updates of the GSA’s User Needs and Requirements reports, while helping to improve current services and shape the evolution of the next generation of services and applications.