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In good news for the maritime and inland waterways domain, initial results show that EGNOS corrections perform well when retransmitted over IALA beacons and AIS base stations.

As a member of the International Association of Maritime Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities (IALA), the GSA has been working to foster safer and more efficient maritime travel through the use of such improved and harmonised navigation aids as satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS), including EGNOS. In fact, this potential use of SBAS corrections for navigation, in both coastal waters and inland waterways (IWW), has attracted the attention of many European authorities interested in its potential to complement their Differential GNSS (DGNSS) radio beacon networks.

Watch this: EGNOS for Waterborne Transport

To better understand this potential, the GSA, along with consortium partners ALG, Indra, ESSP and Alberding GmbH, launched a pilot project on the transmission of SBAS corrections via IALA beacons and automatic identification systems (AIS) for the maritime and IWW domain.

The project aims to demonstrate the operational performance of the transmission of EGNOS corrections converted to DGNSS corrections over the existing transmission infrastructure (AIS base stations/IALA beacons) used by the maritime and IWW domain, while also providing a detailed cost/benefit analysis of the proposed solutions.

A two-step approach

To accomplish this, the project is utilising a two-step approach. In the first phase, which concluded in April 2018, the consortium established an advisory board and working groups, along with a preliminary assessment of the technical, operational and economic feasibility analysis of the different service provision schemes.

In the currently ongoing second phase, the focus is on the deployment of the preferred service provision schemes. To start, the consortium selected the most suitable architectures for transmitting the EGNOS-based virtual reference stations (VRS) differential corrections, which can be either centralised or de-centralised. The four pilots uses a fair combination of both IALA beacons and AIS stations, as well as maritime and IWW domains, with data being collected from both static and dynamic receivers. Furthermore, DGNSS corrections that are currently being generated and broadcasted to users have been deactivated and replaced with the EGNOS-based solution (with the current infrastructure remaining as a backup).

Satisfactory performance

With the results from the first batch of pilot projects in, researchers can confirm that EGNOS-based corrections have achieved performance levels above or closely below the requirements set by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). According to project researchers, this is mainly due to the:

• High availability of the EGNOS Signal in Space (SiS) (100% in the period of analysis when using combined SiS) and of the EGNOS Data Access Service (EDAS) (only minor outages detected); and
• High quality of the corrections generated.

Ongoing work

A fine tuning of the system is being implemented for those cases where requirements are not fully met.

In close cooperation with the participating authorities, the consortium has also developed a complete cost-benefit model for quantifying potential savings brought by the introduction of EGNOS and to assess the optimal deployment strategy for maximising the benefits of this transition. On top of this, some possible operational benefits are also being analysed. Finally, the consortium is working on an EGNOS Service Provision operational/liability scheme.

The second quarterly report can be downloaded 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).

Smart Gate, a system designed to measure time precisely during sporting activities, has been awarded first place in the GSA Special Prize at this year’s European Satellite Navigation Competition. The awards were handed out at the Galileo and Copernicus Masters gala award ceremony – the ‘Space Oscars’, held on 4 December as part of 2018 European Space Week in Marseille.

The Smart Gate team, a group of sport and tech enthusiasts, combined their two passions to develop a cost-effective solution that enables skiers and snowboarders to improve their performance. Using GNSS precise timing combined with radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, Smart Gate provides precise times on ski/snowboard runs, which sportspeople can use to hone their skills and techniques.

"So far, the Smart Gate solution has been built using the private funds of its founders. We have dedicated a lot of our knowledge, involvement and passion to it,” project developer Marcin Wilik said.

Wilik said that winning the GSA Special Prize would be extremely important for the project. “First of all, we will have funds to improve our prototype and secondly it will give us the attention of the media and investors. This is what we need right now. It is no exaggeration to say that winning the GSA prize will be an important turning point for the Smart Gate project," he said.

Ridesharing

Second place in this year’s GSA prize went to Troodle – a ridesharing solution that, unlike previous systems, offers socially and ecologically motivated drivers a digital platform based on environmental awareness and social responsibility rather than earning opportunities or cost sharing.

Utilising geodata-based real-time communication, the Troodle app calculates optimal stopping points, ideal routes and average travel times as a basis for immediate and effective ridesharing. As a result, it can offer spontaneous, safe, environmentally friendly and low-cost mobility without advance agreement, for short and long distances in both cities and rural areas.

"We are very pleased about the ESNC GSA Prize. Together with the ESA-BIC funding, the financial support will enable us to develop our prototype of the Troodle app, which will be tested in two German cities at the beginning of 2019," Troodle founder Bernd Sailer said.

Autonomous machines

Finally, the third place this year goes to HIVE, a cloud-based solution for highly accurate GNSS positioning and navigation that helps position, navigate, and track drones, robots, and other autonomous GNSS-equipped machines with up to centimetre-level precision.

To improve their positioning accuracy, autonomous vehicles need to be connected to a ground-based, continuously operating reference station (CORS) that uses GNSS.  HIVE’s software combines unlimited numbers of fragmented GNSS CORS facilities in a single solution and provides easy access to all of them. In this way, it acts as an instrument for creating a united European GNSS CORS infrastructure, supporting the next-generation of autonomous machines.

“Winning a GSA nomination is a significant milestone for us, as the project we have worked hard on for years is receiving international recognition. And this is just the beginning,” project founder Simon Litvinov said.

10 years of partnership

This year is the 10th consecutive year that the GSA has been a main partner in the European Satellite Navigation Competition and awarded a Special Prize. This year for the first time the GSA awarded cash prizes of EUR 7,000, EUR 5,000 and EUR 3,000 to the top three proposals. This year’s contenders for the GSA prize addressed the topic 'When and where? – Exact timing and positioning matters'.

Watch this: Galileo Masters-GSA – 10 Years of Partnership

“I would like to congratulate this year’s worthy winners of the GSA Galileo Special Prize and all the Galileo Masters prize winners,” GSA Executive Director Carlo des Dorides said. “During our 10 years of partnership with the competition, the GSA has awarded a Special Prize to contenders who presented the most pioneering ideas for the commercial use of Galileo and EGNOS. This year has been no different, and market uptake potential was an important criterion when evaluating the winning projects,” he said.

As part of its Special Topic Prizes over the past ten years, the GSA has received more than 80 innovative proposals per year, covering new applications across the broad scope of sectors that benefit from Galileo and EGNOS in a wide variety of areas. Over the years, the GSA Special Prize winners have helped establish the ESNC as a major driver of new, useful and economically viable GNSS applications.

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).

Smart Gate, a system designed to measure time precisely during sporting activities, has been awarded first place in the GSA Special Prize at this year’s European Satellite Navigation Competition. The awards were handed out at the Galileo and Copernicus Masters gala award ceremony – the ‘Space Oscars’, held on 4 December as part of 2018 European Space Week in Marseille.

The Smart Gate team, a group of sport and tech enthusiasts, combined their two passions to develop a cost-effective solution that enables skiers and snowboarders to improve their performance. Using GNSS precise timing combined with radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, Smart Gate provides precise times on ski/snowboard runs, which sportspeople can use to hone their skills and techniques.

"So far, the Smart Gate solution has been built using the private funds of its founders. We have dedicated a lot of our knowledge, involvement and passion to it,” project developer Marcin Wilik said.

Wilik said that winning the GSA Special Prize would be extremely important for the project. “First of all, we will have funds to improve our prototype and secondly it will give us the attention of the media and investors. This is what we need right now. It is no exaggeration to say that winning the GSA prize will be an important turning point for the Smart Gate project," he said.

Ridesharing

Second place in this year’s GSA prize went to Troodle – a ridesharing solution that, unlike previous systems, offers socially and ecologically motivated drivers a digital platform based on environmental awareness and social responsibility rather than earning opportunities or cost sharing.

Utilising geodata-based real-time communication, the Troodle app calculates optimal stopping points, ideal routes and average travel times as a basis for immediate and effective ridesharing. As a result, it can offer spontaneous, safe, environmentally friendly and low-cost mobility without advance agreement, for short and long distances in both cities and rural areas.

"We are very pleased about the ESNC GSA Prize. Together with the ESA-BIC funding, the financial support will enable us to develop our prototype of the Troodle app, which will be tested in two German cities at the beginning of 2019," Troodle founder Bernd Sailer said.

Autonomous machines

Finally, the third place this year goes to HIVE, a cloud-based solution for highly accurate GNSS positioning and navigation that helps position, navigate, and track drones, robots, and other autonomous GNSS-equipped machines with up to centimetre-level precision.

To improve their positioning accuracy, autonomous vehicles need to be connected to a ground-based, continuously operating reference station (CORS) that uses GNSS.  HIVE’s software combines unlimited numbers of fragmented GNSS CORS facilities in a single solution and provides easy access to all of them. In this way, it acts as an instrument for creating a united European GNSS CORS infrastructure, supporting the next-generation of autonomous machines.

“Winning a GSA nomination is a significant milestone for us, as the project we have worked hard on for years is receiving international recognition. And this is just the beginning,” project founder Simon Litvinov said.

10 years of partnership

This year is the 10th consecutive year that the GSA has been a main partner in the European Satellite Navigation Competition and awarded a Special Prize. This year for the first time the GSA awarded cash prizes of EUR 7,000, EUR 5,000 and EUR 3,000 to the top three proposals. This year’s contenders for the GSA prize addressed the topic 'When and where? – Exact timing and positioning matters'.

Watch this: Galileo Masters-GSA – 10 Years of Partnership

“I would like to congratulate this year’s worthy winners of the GSA Galileo Special Prize and all the Galileo Masters prize winners,” GSA Executive Director Carlo des Dorides said. “During our 10 years of partnership with the competition, the GSA has awarded a Special Prize to contenders who presented the most pioneering ideas for the commercial use of Galileo and EGNOS. This year has been no different, and market uptake potential was an important criterion when evaluating the winning projects,” he said.

As part of its Special Topic Prizes over the past ten years, the GSA has received more than 80 innovative proposals per year, covering new applications across the broad scope of sectors that benefit from Galileo and EGNOS in a wide variety of areas. Over the years, the GSA Special Prize winners have helped establish the ESNC as a major driver of new, useful and economically viable GNSS applications.

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).

Smart Gate, a system designed to measure time precisely during sporting activities, has been awarded first place in the GSA Special Prize at this year’s European Satellite Navigation Competition. The awards were handed out at the Galileo and Copernicus Masters gala award ceremony – the ‘Space Oscars’, held on 4 December as part of 2018 European Space Week in Marseille.

The Smart Gate team, a group of sport and tech enthusiasts, combined their two passions to develop a cost-effective solution that enables skiers and snowboarders to improve their performance. Using GNSS precise timing combined with radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, Smart Gate provides precise times on ski/snowboard runs, which sportspeople can use to hone their skills and techniques.

"So far, the Smart Gate solution has been built using the private funds of its founders. We have dedicated a lot of our knowledge, involvement and passion to it,” project developer Marcin Wilik said.

Wilik said that winning the GSA Special Prize would be extremely important for the project. “First of all, we will have funds to improve our prototype and secondly it will give us the attention of the media and investors. This is what we need right now. It is no exaggeration to say that winning the GSA prize will be an important turning point for the Smart Gate project," he said.

Ridesharing

Second place in this year’s GSA prize went to Troodle – a ridesharing solution that, unlike previous systems, offers socially and ecologically motivated drivers a digital platform based on environmental awareness and social responsibility rather than earning opportunities or cost sharing.

Utilising geodata-based real-time communication, the Troodle app calculates optimal stopping points, ideal routes and average travel times as a basis for immediate and effective ridesharing. As a result, it can offer spontaneous, safe, environmentally friendly and low-cost mobility without advance agreement, for short and long distances in both cities and rural areas.

"We are very pleased about the ESNC GSA Prize. Together with the ESA-BIC funding, the financial support will enable us to develop our prototype of the Troodle app, which will be tested in two German cities at the beginning of 2019," Troodle founder Bernd Sailer said.

Autonomous machines

Finally, the third place this year goes to HIVE, a cloud-based solution for highly accurate GNSS positioning and navigation that helps position, navigate, and track drones, robots, and other autonomous GNSS-equipped machines with up to centimetre-level precision.

To improve their positioning accuracy, autonomous vehicles need to be connected to a ground-based, continuously operating reference station (CORS) that uses GNSS.  HIVE’s software combines unlimited numbers of fragmented GNSS CORS facilities in a single solution and provides easy access to all of them. In this way, it acts as an instrument for creating a united European GNSS CORS infrastructure, supporting the next-generation of autonomous machines.

“Winning a GSA nomination is a significant milestone for us, as the project we have worked hard on for years is receiving international recognition. And this is just the beginning,” project founder Simon Litvinov said.

10 years of partnership

This year is the 10th consecutive year that the GSA has been a main partner in the European Satellite Navigation Competition and awarded a Special Prize. This year for the first time the GSA awarded cash prizes of EUR 7,000, EUR 5,000 and EUR 3,000 to the top three proposals. This year’s contenders for the GSA prize addressed the topic 'When and where? – Exact timing and positioning matters'.

“I would like to congratulate this year’s worthy winners of the GSA Galileo Special Prize and all the Galileo Masters prize winners,” GSA Executive Director Carlo des Dorides said. “During our 10 years of partnership with the competition, the GSA has awarded a Special Prize to contenders who presented the most pioneering ideas for the commercial use of Galileo and EGNOS. This year has been no different, and market uptake potential was an important criterion when evaluating the winning projects,” he said.

As part of its Special Topic Prizes over the past ten years, the GSA has received more than 80 innovative proposals per year, covering new applications across the broad scope of sectors that benefit from Galileo and EGNOS in a wide variety of areas. Over the years, the GSA Special Prize winners have helped establish the ESNC as a major driver of new, useful and economically viable GNSS applications.

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).

Smart Gate, a system designed to measure time precisely during sporting activities, has been awarded first place in the GSA Special Prize at this year’s European Satellite Navigation Competition. The awards were handed out at the Galileo and Copernicus Masters gala award ceremony – the ‘Space Oscars’, held on 4 December as part of 2018 European Space Week in Marseille.

The Smart Gate team, a group of sport and tech enthusiasts, combined their two passions to develop a cost-effective solution that enables skiers and snowboarders to improve their performance. Using GNSS precise timing combined with radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology, Smart Gate provides precise times on ski/snowboard runs, which sportspeople can use to hone their skills and techniques.

"So far, the Smart Gate solution has been built using the private funds of its founders. We have dedicated a lot of our knowledge, involvement and passion to it,” project developer Marcin Wilk said.

Wilk said that winning the GSA Special Prize would be extremely important for the project. “First of all, we will have funds to improve our prototype and secondly it will give us the attention of the media and investors. This is what we need right now. It is no exaggeration to say that winning the GSA prize will be an important turning point for the Smart Gate project," he said.

Ridesharing

Second place in this year’s GSA prize went to Troodle – a ridesharing solution that, unlike previous systems, offers socially and ecologically motivated drivers a digital platform based on environmental awareness and social responsibility rather than earning opportunities or cost sharing.

Utilising geodata-based real-time communication, the Troodle app calculates optimal stopping points, ideal routes and average travel times as a basis for immediate and effective ridesharing. As a result, it can offer spontaneous, safe, environmentally friendly and low-cost mobility without advance agreement, for short and long distances in both cities and rural areas.

"We are very pleased about the ESNC GSA Prize. Together with the ESA-BIC funding, the financial support will enable us to develop our prototype of the Troodle app, which will be tested in two German cities at the beginning of 2019," Troodle founder Bernd Sailer said.

Autonomous machines

Finally, the third place this year goes to HIVE, a cloud-based solution for highly accurate GNSS positioning and navigation that helps position, navigate, and track drones, robots, and other autonomous GNSS-equipped machines with up to centimetre-level precision.

To improve their positioning accuracy, autonomous vehicles need to be connected to a ground-based, continuously operating reference station (CORS) that uses GNSS.  HIVE’s software combines unlimited numbers of fragmented GNSS CORS facilities in a single solution and provides easy access to all of them. In this way, it acts as an instrument for creating a united European GNSS CORS infrastructure, supporting the next-generation of autonomous machines.

“Winning a GSA nomination is a significant milestone for us, as the project we have worked hard on for years is receiving international recognition. And this is just the beginning,” project founder Simon Litvinov said.

10 years of partnership

This year is the 10th consecutive year that the GSA has been a main partner in the European Satellite Navigation Competition and awarded a Special Prize. This year for the first time the GSA awarded cash prizes of EUR 7,000, EUR 5,000 and EUR 3,000 to the top three proposals. This year’s contenders for the GSA prize addressed the topic 'When and where? – Exact timing and positioning matters'.

Watch this: Galileo Masters-GSA – 10 Years of Partnership

“I would like to congratulate this year’s worthy winners of the GSA Galileo Special Prize and all the Galileo Masters prize winners,” GSA Executive Director Carlo des Dorides said. “During our 10 years of partnership with the competition, the GSA has awarded a Special Prize to contenders who presented the most pioneering ideas for the commercial use of Galileo and EGNOS. This year has been no different, and market uptake potential was an important criterion when evaluating the winning projects,” he said.

As part of its Special Topic Prizes over the past ten years, the GSA has received more than 80 innovative proposals per year, covering new applications across the broad scope of sectors that benefit from Galileo and EGNOS in a wide variety of areas. Over the years, the GSA Special Prize winners have helped establish the ESNC as a major driver of new, useful and economically viable GNSS applications.

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).

The European GNSS Agency (GSA) kicked off a new campaign to raise awareness of the fact that Galileo is making a real difference in the lives of the over half-a-billion users who have extra Galileo accuracy in their phone…. yet may not know it!

Did you know that Galileo is already improving the GPS signal that your smartphone receives, giving you extra accuracy and precision? Most Europeans are unaware that they are already benefitting from Galileo, but this is about to change! The Accuracy Matters campaign aim to increase public awareness of Galileo’s success and the added value it brings to the mass-market.

Lost in Location? Use Galileo!

According to the latest figures, today over 500 million devices - most of them the latest smartphone models - are now Galileo-enabled. The time has come to make people aware that Europe’s investment in Galileo is bringing daily benefits to millions! The new campaign is focusing on the fact that a little goes a long way and that “Accuracy Matters”. The new awareness-building campaign will include ten short video clips that give an entertaining glimpse of everyday situations where ‘Accuracy Matters’ to anyone using location data on their smartphones.

The campaign will be fully launched on December 15, but you can already get a first taste here: Lost in Location? The video clips will be released in all EU languages and promoted on the Internet and through social media.

Do you know whether your phone is Galileo-enabled? You can check out all the devices that are already Galileo-enabled here: UseGalileo.eu.

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).

The European GNSS Agency (GSA) kicked off a new campaign to raise awareness of the fact that Galileo is making a real difference in the lives of the over half-a-billion users who have extra Galileo accuracy in their phone…. yet may not know it!

Did you know that Galileo is already improving the GPS signal that your smartphone receives, giving you extra accuracy and precision? Most Europeans are unaware that they are already benefitting from Galileo, but this is about to change! The Accuracy Matters campaign aim to increase public awareness of Galileo’s success and the added value it brings to the mass-market.

Lost in Location? Use Galileo!

According to the latest figures, today over 500 million devices - most of them the latest smartphone models - are now Galileo-enabled. The time has come to make people aware that Europe’s investment in Galileo is bringing daily benefits to millions! The new campaign is focusing on the fact that a little goes a long way and that “Accuracy Matters”. The new awareness-building campaign will include ten short video clips that give an entertaining glimpse of everyday situations where ‘Accuracy Matters’ to anyone using location data on their smartphones.

The campaign will be fully launched on December 15, but you can already get a first taste here: Lost in Location? The video clips will be released in all EU languages and promoted on the Internet and through social media.

Do you know whether your phone is Galileo-enabled? You can check out all the devices that are already Galileo-enabled here: UseGalileo.eu.

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).