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Motol University Hospital – Prague’s largest medical facility – embraces EGNOS technology and becomes accessible even under harsh weather conditions.

Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) are crucial in times of crises such as global pandemics, and are an integral part of many healthcare systems across the globe. They help with emergency evacuations and inter-hospital transports across Europe and also with transporting doctors and medical equipment to remote sites. Often, adverse weather conditions or other factors, such as smoke, cause helicopters to divert or abort landings. In addition, many hospitals lack costly ground-based helicopter navigation equipment to provide guidance in bad weather, which may lead to significant delays when time is of the essence.

To continue delivering high level healthcare services, Motol University Hospital upgraded its facilities by implementing an EGNOS landing procedure, allowing helicopters to land safely even under bad weather conditions on the rooftop helipad of the hospital. The European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) is the European Satellite-Based Augmentation System. It is improving the performance of Global Navigation Satellite Systems by offering an additional layer of accuracy in the landing procedure.

Thanks to EGNOS, the European Satellite-Based Augmentation System, pilots can navigate through the clouds and fog, and land safely at the Prague-based hospital. Hospital accessibility around the clock is crucial for the transportation of critically ill patients and also for operations such as the organ transplant transportation service of Motol Hospital.

“I am delighted that the GSA has been instrumental to the implementation of this procedure and that Motol Hospital now relies on EGNOS to ensure that patients in critical conditions can safely land on its helipad. I am looking forward to making more hospitals accessible across the European Union.’’ says GSA Executive Director, Rodrigo da Costa. 

“As the director of the Motol University Hospital, I am pleased that the European GNSS Agency (GSA) helped to create and implement a satellite-based procedure for the hospital’s helipad. This will enable using the helipad in adverse weather conditions, while the complicated transfer of patients to emergency will be eliminated. Above all, it will enhance our Transplant Programme as it will allow very quick organ transfer directly from the helicopter to the operating rooms’’, concludes Motol University Hospital Director, Dr. Miloslav Ludvík 

The implementation of this procedure as first in the Czech republic on the hospital helipad has been co-funded by GSA within the EGNOS Adoption CZ project under Aviation Grant Programme.  The demonstration of this approach procedure took place early in December 2020, with the participation of the Aviation Service of the Police of the Czech Republic where an Airbus EGNOS-enabled helicopter H135 (EC135) landed successfully at Motol’s helipad thanks to EGNOS.

Read the press release in CZ here and EN here

Watch the video below:

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).

At an infrastructure project in Norway, Galileo-enabled machine guidance systems continued to operate in a challenging environment when others had already given up. This had a major impact in terms of work continuity and operating costs, so it is clear that access to Galileo’s differentiators will be a key criterion for industry and service providers when selecting operating systems in the future.

The infrastructure project in question is the Follo Line (Follobanen) - a EUR 2.4-billion high-speed railway project that aims to cut commute times between the Norwegian urban centres of Oslo and Ski by half. The line includes a 19-km tunnel, after which a 2-km section of track is being laid between high sheet pile walls on both sides, to protect passenger trains from falling rocks. 

During construction of this segment, machines used guidance technology from various providers for automated digging enabled by RTK positioning with centimetre-level accuracy. Accuracy at this level is required to ensure proper alignment of the wall segments as well as effective water drainage slopes. 

Differentiators making a difference

As the walls went up, they created a canyon around the construction site. Suddenly, one by one, the machine guidance systems started to fail. Excavators and loaders were grounded for days, incurring costs and delays for the operators. As construction slowly progressed, eventually only those machines with Galileo-enabled 3D guidance systems from  Makin’ - a Scandinavian machine control supplier - equipped with the latest AsteRx-U GNSS receivers from Septentrio, were still operational on the site. 

 “Galileo’s differentiators, such as better multipath mitigation and multi-frequency, together with multi-constellation capability, are delivering real benefits to users. We are working closely with industry to make them aware of these benefits so they can pass them on to their customers,” said GSA Head of Market Development Fiammetta Diani.

Operators are becoming increasingly aware. “Robust GNSS receivers in our guidance systems helped us get the reputation we needed to become the number one machine control company in Norway in under two years,” said Makin’ Chief Operating Officer Ruben Hensen.

Improved availability and accuracy

The construction site canyon blocked satellite visibility required by the GNSS guidance systems. As traditional GPS systems failed, only receivers that had access to the highest number of positioning satellites continued operating. The multi-constellation capacity of the Septentrio receivers on the Makin’ systems meant that they had access to more satellites, giving them the best positioning availability.

Watch this: What is Multipath?

In addition, the more signals a receiver can access the more information it can gather from the available satellites. For example, Galileo multi-frequency receivers make use of five signals per satellite, while dual-frequency receivers can make use of only two signals. This makes positioning of multi-frequency receivers more reliable in areas where the number of visible satellites is limited. Multi-frequency receivers also improve positioning accuracy by resolving ionospheric errors.

On the rail line project, metal fences around the construction site not only blocked low-elevation satellites but also generated reflected GNSS signals causing multipath. Receivers with access to the Galileo constellation benefit from the multipath mitigation that Galileo signals offer, allowing them to work better in challenging environments. 

When GNSS outages occur, guidance system integrators can lose time and money, while workers in the field get demotivated. From the experience of the Norwegian rail project, it is clear that not all GNSS receivers are made equal, and access to Galileo signals can make all the difference to a machine’s guidance systems when projects get tough. Having a high-quality Galileo-enabled GNSS receiver allows machine control systems to work even in the toughest environments.

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).

Following last week’s announcement, we can now unveil the second panel of the upcoming Entrepreneurship Day. Our contestants in the MyGalileoSolution competition - start-ups and entrepreneurs from all over Europe - have been busy polishing their solutions and finalising their pitches for the panel on Enhanced Human & Internet of Things. We are very excited to share what they have been up to and we invite you to register for our event to find out more!

The second panel of GSA’s Entrepreneurship Day looks at how MyGalileoSolution’s proposals under the Enhanced Human & Internet of Things have tapped into the potential for innovation of Galileo and beyond, devising solutions that integrate different technologies such as GNSS, 5G, and IoT, and are versatile enough to respond to very different user needs. 

The competition showed how, thanks to their knowledge and creativity capital, European start-ups can raise up to new challenges, redefining new services and applications for the benefit of a wide range of users. 

Read this: MyGalileoSolution Selected Teams Track 1 and 2

The jury of MyGalileoSolution was impressed by the novel approach taken by many of the teams in this year’s competition. Besides the challenge of evaluating the solutions, based on their societal impact, technical feasibility and business potential, it has been hard to assign the proposals to categories as many of the proposals can serve very different markets. 

Precision, robustness and ubiquity in positioning

The solutions presented in the Enhanced Human & Internet of Things panel focus on improving our lives through interconnected devices by building on Galileo’s capability to deliver extremely precise, robust and ubiquitous positioning and timing information. In this field, Galileo can offer a set of unique features as signal authentication to prevent spoofing, additional frequencies for better accuracy in urban environments, and high accuracy for more demanding applications. The soon to be launched Galileo High Accuracy Service (HAS) and the Open Service Navigation Message Authentication (OSNMA) will bring these benefits to the novel Galileo solutions. As recently announced, the OSNMA service is already in the internal testing phase. 

The MyGalileoSolution finalists offer a wide array of GNSS-based solutions, from autonomous robots, to asset management, from quick response in emergency scenarios, to helping visually impaired in precise orientation. All this is made possible by Galileo’s interoperability with the latest technological trends, as showcased in our White Paper on IoT.

Join us online on 2 March, 2021!

Tune in on March 2 to learn more about all of the breakthrough ideas that you will wish you came up with first! Selected projects will present their solutions to other fellow entrepreneurs and the event participants. You will also have a chance to hear from the industry experts, who will look into the latest GNSS tech trends and innovation. Our start-ups on this panel will discuss:

• How to save lives and secure valuable assets with cutting edge technology and smart devices?
• How to optimise and automate maintenance activities in apiculture, viticulture, park, road rail, and power line management with the use of robotics and IoT?
• How to assist the visually impaired with the help of satellites and sounds?

Register now to find out which application is deemed the most successful by our jury and investors, and is awarded the grand prize. 

Following last week’s announcement, we can now unveil the second panel of the upcoming Entrepreneurship Day. Our contestants in the MyGalileoSolution competition - start-ups and entrepreneurs from all over Europe - have been busy polishing their solutions and finalising their pitches for the panel on Enhanced Human & Internet of Things. We are very excited to share what they have been up to and we invite you to register for our event to find out more!

The second panel of GSA’s Entrepreneurship Day looks at how MyGalileoSolution’s proposals under the Enhanced Human & Internet of Things have tapped into the potential for innovation of Galileo and beyond, devising solutions that integrate different technologies such as GNSS, 5G, and IoT, and are versatile enough to respond to very different user needs. 

The competition showed how, thanks to their knowledge and creativity capital, European start-ups can raise up to new challenges, redefining new services and applications for the benefit of a wide range of users. 

Read this: MyGalileoSolution Selected Teams Track 1 and 2

The jury of MyGalileoSolution was impressed by the novel approach taken by many of the teams in this year’s competition. Besides the challenge of evaluating the solutions, based on their societal impact, technical feasibility and business potential, it has been hard to assign the proposals to categories as many of the proposals can serve very different markets. 

Precision, robustness and ubiquity in positioning

The solutions presented in the Enhanced Human & Internet of Things panel focus on improving our lives through interconnected devices by building on Galileo’s capability to deliver extremely precise, robust and ubiquitous positioning and timing information. In this field, Galileo can offer a set of unique features as signal authentication to prevent spoofing, additional frequencies for better accuracy in urban environments, and high accuracy for more demanding applications. The soon to be launched Galileo High Accuracy Service (HAS) and the Open Service Navigation Message Authentication (OSNMA) will bring these benefits to the novel Galileo solutions. As recently announced, the OSNMA service is already in the internal testing phase. 

The MyGalileoSolution finalists offer a wide array of GNSS-based solutions, from autonomous robots to asset management, from a quick response in emergency scenarios to helping the visually impaired in precise orientation. All this is made possible by Galileo’s interoperability with the latest technological trends, as showcased in our White Paper on IoT.

Join us online on 2 March, 2021!

Tune in on March 2 to learn more about all of the breakthrough ideas that you will wish you came up with first! Selected projects will present their solutions to other fellow entrepreneurs and the event participants. You will also have a chance to hear from the industry experts, who will look into the latest GNSS tech trends and innovation. Our start-ups on this panel will discuss:

• How to save lives and secure valuable assets with cutting edge technology and smart devices?
• How to optimise and automate maintenance activities in apiculture, viticulture, park, road rail, and power line management with the use of robotics and IoT?
• How to assist the visually impaired with the help of satellites and sounds?

Register now to find out which application is deemed the most successful by our jury and investors, and is awarded the grand prize.