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Videos shared on social media as part of the Galileo Accuracy Matters campaign, highlighting Galileo’s contribution to the European Commission’s E112 emergency response service, have generated a number of questions from users across Europe. Here we address some of the main queries raised in an effort to bring more clarity on the issue.

112 is the European emergency number. It can be dialled free of charge from most mobile phones and, in some countries, fixed telephones to reach emergency services such as ambulance, fire and rescue, or the police. The 112 service is in place everywhere in the European Union and in other European countries.

Location enhanced

E112 is a location-enhanced version of the 112 emergency service, where emergency responders receive the position of the person in distress, similar to the eCall system for cars, enabling them to locate the caller’s position quickly and accurately. To support this, in December 2018, the European Commission adopted new measures requiring all smartphones sold in the EU from 17 March 2022 to have GNSS capability, particularly Galileo capability, so that they can use GNSS to provide caller location information to the emergency services.

Watch these: Accuracy Matters when saving lives

However, there is already a solution in place that uses GNSS technology in emergency calls made from smartphones. Advanced Mobile Location, or AML, transmits a ‘fused location’ comprising the GNSS, Wi-Fi or cell-ID information available on the caller's smartphone via a message to a dedicated end-point, known as a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP, the place where the emergency calls are answered), which makes the caller location available to emergency responders.

It should be noted that 112 does not have an inherent ability to locate people making emergency calls. For this to be possible two conditions should be met. Firstly, the PSAP must have AML technology in place and, secondly, the caller’s handset must be AML-enabled (AML is deployed in all Android-based smartphones and in iPhones running iOS 11.3 and above). Otherwise, the person making the call will have to inform the responder of their location, if they know it.

So, in short: 112 is the emergency service, E112 is a location-enhanced version of this service, and AML is a technological platform for locating callers to the 112 number. However, not all 112 operators are equipped with AML. For those that are, the Galileo-enabled E112 service will support the provision of accurate GNSS positioning as part of the fused location. Check with your local emergency services if you would like to know whether caller location is deployed in your area.

Getting to you faster

Testing conducted as part of the European Commission (EC)-funded HELP112 project showed that Public Safety Answering Points receive most location messages within 30 seconds of the start of the call. This means that by the time the caller has given their name and described the situation, the PSAP already knows their position. Location by cell-ID alone, which uses the GSM tower routing the call, is the fastest but least precise method of locating a caller.

Read this: Do eCall devices conform?

The project found that the average location accuracy using Cell-ID was about 1.6 km, using Wi-Fi it was 23 metres and using GNSS it was about 16 metres. This means that in a situation where only cell-ID is used, the rescuers would need to get close to the location and then search for the victims. With GNSS or Wi-Fi they would most likely be able to see the victims as soon as they arrived. GNSS combined with Wi-Fi provides an ideal indoor-outdoor solution.

The EC study found, based on tests conducted in three Member States, that on average 59% of the calls used GNSS as the main positioning method, 28% used Wi-Fi, 9% used Cell-ID and 4% of calls returned no position. Testing is currently being carried out to assess the accuracy gains provided by Galileo.

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).

SARA, a GSA-funded project developing a turnkey solution for search and rescue (SAR) and surveillance operations, has been successfully tested at a recent football match. Based on the test, the economic viability of using the solution for event filming and monitoring/surveying is currently being investigated.

The SARA project is working on engineering and commercialising a tethered drone-based SAR and surveillance solution using an already existing prototype. The solution is able to guarantee continuous operations by means of a patented cable used for power supply and as a secure data link. For drone navigation and control, as well as for target identification and localisation, SARA uses high-accuracy Galileo-enabled GNSS receivers.

Successful test

The test was carried out continuously for the duration of the football match, which offered an interesting test case requiring continuous surveillance over a two-hour period. The SARA terminal was set to monitor several players, whose positions were tracked over time. The footballers were localised using a Galileo-enabled GNSS receiver installed on the drone, which provided a reference, along with a computer vision algorithm that transformed pixels into 2D geographical positions.

Watch this: SARA for Football

A profile of the positions (one per second) was created and compared with the video material. “This qualitative test revealed interesting results in terms of target identification (the right player) and localisation within the football field zone, and also in terms of the limited cost of the equipment used,” said Marco Nisi, Head of Integrated GNSS Solutions at project partner Sistematica.

“This use case is now being studied to evaluate the economic viability of using the solution to film at events and to carry out monitoring and surveillance operations,” he said.

Range of applications

Maritime SAR is the primary target market but, as the football match test has shown, the solution has potential applications in other areas. One such area is security surveillance, particularly with the aim of preventing trespassing and detecting potential threats in open spaces. Possible use cases include monitoring and surveillance of building sites and other infrastructure, and security surveillance at major sporting events.

Read this: KAUST wins GSA Special Prize at ERL Emergency Local Tournament 2019

“In particular, as a very promising side market, the SARA team is continuing to address the technological challenges and to experiment with the business model with a view to reaching the sports domain as a provider of event surveillance management solutions and livestream broadcasting,” Nisi said.

The solution will be further tested in Szczecin, Poland in September 2019, where the drone will be operated on board a vessel to simulate a maritime SAR scenario. In this case, the drone will act as a vertical pylon and will be set up in “follow the ship” mode, making it possible to survey and identify and locate targets with an extended coverage of several nautical miles.

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).

SARA, a GSA-funded project developing a turnkey solution for search and rescue (SAR) and surveillance operations, has been successfully tested at a recent football match. Based on the test, the economic viability of using the solution for event filming and monitoring/surveying is currently being investigated.

The SARA project is working on engineering and commercialising a tethered drone-based SAR and surveillance solution using an already existing prototype. The solution is able to guarantee continuous operations by means of a patented cable used for power supply and as a secure data link. For drone navigation and control, as well as for target identification and localisation, SARA uses high-accuracy Galileo-enabled GNSS receivers.

Successful test

The test was carried out continuously for the duration of the football match, which offered an interesting test case requiring continuous surveillance over a two-hour period. The SARA terminal was set to monitor several players, whose positions were tracked over time. The footballers were localised using a Galileo-enabled GNSS receiver installed on the drone, which provided a reference, along with a computer vision algorithm that transformed pixels into 2D geographical positions.

Watch this: SARA for Football

A profile of the positions (one per second) was created and compared with the video material. “This qualitative test revealed interesting results in terms of target identification (the right player) and localisation within the football field zone, and also in terms of the limited cost of the equipment used,” said Marco Nisi, Head of Integrated GNSS Solutions at project partner Sistematica.

“This use case is now being studied) to evaluate the economic viability of using the solution to film at events and to carry out monitoring and surveillance operations,” he said.

Range of applications

Maritime SAR is the primary target market but, as the football match test has shown, the solution has potential applications in other areas. One such area is security surveillance, particularly with the aim of preventing trespassing and detecting potential threats in open spaces. Possible use cases include monitoring and surveillance of building sites and other infrastructure, and security surveillance at major sporting events.

Read this: KAUST wins GSA Special Prize at ERL Emergency Local Tournament 2019

“In particular, as a very promising side market, the SARA team is continuing to address the technological challenges and to experiment with the business model with a view to reaching the sports domain as a provider of event surveillance management solutions and livestream broadcasting,” Nisi said.

The solution will be further tested in Szczecin, Poland in September 2019, where the drone will be operated on board a vessel to simulate a maritime SAR scenario. In this case, the drone will act as a vertical pylon and will be set up in “follow the ship” mode, making it possible to survey and identify and locate targets with an extended coverage of several nautical miles.

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).

SARA, a GSA-funded project developing a turnkey solution for search and rescue (SAR) and surveillance operations, has been successfully tested at a recent football match. Based on the test, the economic viability of using the solution for event filming and monitoring/surveying is currently being investigated.

The SARA project is working on engineering and commercialising a tethered drone-based SAR and surveillance solution using an already existing prototype. The solution is able to guarantee continuous operations by means of a patented cable used for power supply and as a secure data link. For drone navigation and control, as well as for target identification and localisation, SARA uses high-accuracy Galileo-enabled GNSS receivers.

Successful test

The test was carried out continuously for the duration of the football match, which offered an interesting test case requiring continuous surveillance over a two-hour period. The SARA terminal was set to monitor several players, whose positions were tracked over time. The footballers were localised using a Galileo-enabled GNSS receiver installed on the drone, which provided a reference, along with a computer vision algorithm that transformed pixels into 2D geographical positions.

Watch this: SARA for Football

A profile of the positions (one per second) was created and compared with the video material. “This qualitative test revealed interesting results in terms of target identification (the right player) and localisation within the football field zone, and also in terms of the limited cost of the equipment used,” said Marco Nisi, Head of Integrated GNSS Solutions at project partner Sistematica.

“This use case is now being studied) to evaluate the economic viability of using the solution to film at events and to carry out monitoring and surveillance operations,” he said.

Range of applications

Maritime SAR is the primary target market but, as the football match test has shown, the solution has potential applications in other areas. One such area is security surveillance, particularly with the aim of preventing trespassing and detecting potential threats in open spaces. Possible use cases include monitoring and surveillance of building sites and other infrastructure, and security surveillance at major sporting events.

Read this: KAUST wins GSA Special Prize at ERL Emergency Local Tournament 2019

“In particular, as a very promising side market, the SARA team is continuing to address the technological challenges and to experiment with the business model with a view to reaching the sports domain as a provider of event surveillance management solutions and livestream broadcasting,” Nisi said.

The solution will be further tested in Szczecin, Poland in September 2019, where the drone will be operated on board a vessel to simulate a maritime SAR scenario. In this case, the drone will act as a vertical pylon and will be set up in “follow the ship” mode, making it possible to survey and identify and locate targets with an extended coverage of several nautical miles.

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).