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Lack of interoperability is a significant issue in electronic road tolling systems. These systems need to be reliable, user friendly, and cost-efficient to enable the development and implementation of fair road-charging policies and to cope with future technical developments. A significant step forward for interoperability at EU level has been made with the publication in March of a new European Directive on the interoperability of electronic road tolling systems and the European GNSS (Galileo and EGNOS) is slated to play a major role.

Lower costs for European Electronic Toll Service (EETS) operators mean that charges can be lower, more traffic will flow on toll roads and/or more fees can be raised to improve road infrastructure; bringing benefits for operators, users and the public economy.
Interoperability of tolling systems also makes sense in terms of usability, with drivers able to seamlessly switch from one road-pricing scheme to another as easily as they ‘roam’ across borders on mobile phone networks.

Read this: Satellite positioning is changing how we move

The new EU Directive 2019/520 lays down the conditions necessary to ensure the interoperability of electronic road toll systems across the entire European Union road network, including urban and interurban motorways, major and minor roads, and other road infrastructure such as tunnels or bridges, and ferries. It will also facilitate the cross-border exchange of vehicle registration data to ensure collection of any road tolls due.

Toll technology choices

For all new electronic road toll systems that require the installation or use of an on-board unit (OBU) to carry out electronic toll transactions, the Directive stipulates the use of one or more specified technologies: satellite positioning, mobile communications, or 5.8 GHz microwave technology.

Any existing electronic road toll system that requires the installation or use of an OBU will also need to adopt one or more of these technologies if substantial technological improvements are carried out to the system.

In addition, any OBU using satellite positioning technology and placed on the market after 19 October 2021 will need to be compatible with the European GNSS positioning services provided by Galileo and EGNOS.

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In fact, EGNOS and Galileo are already activated in over 70% and 60%, respectively, of GNSS-enabled on-board units for tolling of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) in Europe today.

Powerful solution

GNSS represents a powerful solution to many of the challenges of today’s road tolling operators, who need to know who is on a given road, for how long and over what distance – all with a very high degree of accuracy and reliability.

In terms of the total cost of implementation, GNSS-based solutions are much more flexible and cheaper in the long term, allowing operators to modify virtually instantaneously which road segments are covered. This way they can easily enlarge or reduce charging schemes, if and when needed, ultimately optimizing traffic and improving the efficiency of road transport.

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).

Augmented reality is becoming increasingly widespread, with a variety of professional and leisure applications using digital content to complement and augment the physical world, and many augmented reality software developers are taking advantage of GNSS high-accuracy for their localisation needs. A session at the Munich Satellite Navigation Summit at the end of March discussed the challenges of combining these two technologies.

Augmented reality is a major emerging trend, the societal impact of which will be increasingly felt in the coming years. “When we look at the forecasts for augmented reality, we expect 50% growth over the next two to three years,” said Dr Philipp Rauschnabel, Professor for Digital Marketing and Media Innovation at the Bundeswehr University Munich.

Rauschnabel noted that augmented reality can create significant value for companies in a number of ways, through new AR-enabled business models, in the marketing sphere, and in industrial production, maintenance and training, where AR solutions can make processes more efficient.

Scan the world with GNSS

In his presentation, Darius Pajouh, Managing Director of computer vision company Visualix, stressed the essential contribution of positioning to augmented reality applications. “Visual mapping and localisation are the key technologies that original equipment manufacturers use to create shared experiences,” he said.

Read this: Helping the visually impaired explore the outdoors

Pajouh noted that, as the technology is still relatively new, not all the use cases are totally clear yet. One thing that is clear, however, is the size of the potential market. “The market is about to explode,” he said.

Visualix uses the tracking capabilities of mobile phones, like ARCore and ARKit, as well as Google glasses and other hardware, to generate a 3D model of an indoor space as a base for AR deployment in an area of up to 10,000 square meters.

The aim is that, by incorporating satellite technology, it will be possible to remove the size constraints, Pajouh said. “I am very excited about the possibility of also doing outdoor localisation and combining visual and satellite tracking to see how satellite navigation can reduce our computational load.”

Tracking user requirements

Fiammetta Diani, Head of Market Development at the European GNSS Agency (GSA), looked at the ways that GNSS can support augmented reality and how augmented reality can be an opportunity for GNSS innovators.

Diani said that the GSA met with augmented reality users last December, in the frame of the European GNSS User Consultation Platform, to discuss their requirements. At the meeting, users categorised use cases in two streams - leisure and professional, with applications targeting travel and tourism, live sporting events, and augmented navigation for assisted driving. Professional use cases included industrial design and architecture.

“These augmented reality applications have three main requirements - ubiquity, accuracy and security,” Diani said, adding that accuracy requirements vary – for some applications, accuracy of one to two metres is sufficient, while others require decimetre or even centimetre accuracy, in addition to protection against spoofing.

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GNSS can meet these requirements, Diani said. “Firstly, the second E5/L5 frequency is already providing metre-level accuracy and many chipmakers in the professional and consumer domains are investing in dual-frequency,” she said.

GNSS driving innovation

Diani noted that in 2020 Galileo would also offer a precise point positioning (PPP) service that will give global decimetre-level accuracy free of charge. “So you will have dual-frequency accuracy to which you can add correction services. In the same timeframe we will also offer authentication, which will provide protection against spoofing. What’s more, the E5 signal also offers better multipath protection,” she said.

In this way, GNSS is ready to meet the needs of the burgeoning augmented reality segment, which is set to see record growth. “Recent market research shows that augmented reality may be the fastest growing GNSS segment, worth up to EUR 40 billion,” Diani said.

Other participants noted that GNSS not only supports augmented reality applications, but is driving innovation in the augmented reality segment. “The more accurately you can track, the more use cases there will be,” said Wolfgang Stelzle, CEO of RE’FLEKT GmbH.

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).

Augmented reality is becoming increasingly widespread, with a variety of professional and leisure applications using digital content to complement and augment the physical world, and many augmented reality software developers are taking advantage of GNSS high-accuracy for their localisation needs. A session at the Munich Satellite Navigation Summit at the end of March discussed the challenges of combining these two technologies.

Augmented reality is a major emerging trend, the societal impact of which will be increasingly felt in the coming years. “When we look at the forecasts for augmented reality, we expect 50% growth over the next two to three years,” said Dr Philipp Rauschnabel, Professor for Digital Marketing and Media Innovation at the Bundeswehr University Munich.

Rauschnabel noted that augmented reality can create significant value for companies in a number of ways, through new AR-enabled business models, in the marketing sphere, and in industrial production, maintenance and training, where AR solutions can make processes more efficient.

Scan the world with GNSS

In his presentation, Darius Pajouh, Managing Director of computer vision company Visualix, stressed the essential contribution of positioning to augmented reality applications. “Visual mapping and localisation are the key technologies that original equipment manufacturers use to create shared experiences,” he said.

Read this: Helping the visually impaired explore the outdoors

Pajouh noted that, as the technology is still relatively new, not all the use cases are totally clear yet. One thing that is clear, however, is the size of the potential market. “The market is about to explode,” he said.

Visualix uses the tracking capabilities of mobile phones, like ARCore and ARKit, as well as Google glasses and other hardware, to generate a 3D model of an indoor space as a base for AR deployment in an area of up to 10,000 square meters.

The aim is that, by incorporating satellite technology, it will be possible to remove the size constraints, Pajouh said. “I am very excited about the possibility of also doing outdoor localisation and combining visual and satellite tracking to see how satellite navigation can reduce our computational load.”

Tracking user requirements

Fiammetta Diani, Head of Market Development at the European GNSS Agency (GSA), looked at the ways that GNSS can support augmented reality and how augmented reality can be an opportunity for GNSS innovators.

Diani said that the GSA met with augmented reality users last December, in the frame of the European GNSS User Consultation Platform, to discuss their requirements. At the meeting, users categorised use cases in two streams - leisure and professional, with applications targeting travel and tourism, live sporting events, and augmented navigation for assisted driving. Professional use cases included industrial design and architecture.

“These augmented reality applications have three main requirements - ubiquity, accuracy and security,” Diani said, adding that accuracy requirements vary – for some applications, accuracy of one to two metres is sufficient, while others require decimetre or even centimetre accuracy, in addition to protection against spoofing.

And this: LBS user requirements highlighted in GSA special report

GNSS can meet these requirements, Diani said. “Firstly, the second E5/L5 frequency is already providing metre-level accuracy and many chipmakers in the professional and consumer domains are investing in dual-frequency,” she said.

GNSS driving innovation

Diani noted that in 2020 Galileo would also offer a precise point positioning (PPP) service that will give global decimetre-level accuracy free of charge. “So you will have dual-frequency accuracy to which you can add correction services. In the same timeframe we will also offer authentication, which will provide protection against spoofing. What’s more, the E5 signal also offers better multipath protection,” she said.

In this way, GNSS is ready to meet the needs of the burgeoning augmented reality segment, which is set to see record growth. “Recent market research shows that augmented reality may be the fastest growing GNSS segment, worth up to EUR 40 billion,” Diani said.

Other participants noted that GNSS not only supports augmented reality applications, but is driving innovation in the augmented reality segment. “The more accurately you can track, the more use cases there will be,” said Wolfgang Stelzle, CEO of RE’FLEKT GmbH.

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 first Space for Innovation in Rail conference in Vienna on 18 and 19 March brought together stakeholders from the rail and space sector in a unique event to discuss the important role of satellite-based positioning technology for the future of the European rail sector. The event highlighted a portfolio of research, innovation and deployment projects being funded by the GSA and the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking that demonstrate how satellite technologies can provide scalable positioning solutions to increase rail safety, boost capacity and efficiency, and deliver global success for advanced European technologies.

In an increasingly digitalised world, the European Global Navigation Satellite Systems Agency (GSA), the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA), and the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking (S2R JU) are working together to explore the role of satellite technology in future railway systems. Both GSA and S2R JU have a key role in leading innovation and engaging with stakeholders, while ERA orchestrates the process from a regulatory point of view within the framework of the European Railway Traffic Management System (ERTMS).

Over the two days of the Space for Innovation in Rail event in Austria a range of projects looking to integrate satellite technologies with the rail system were presented.

Leading EU rail innovation

The STARS project (Satellite technology for Advanced Railway Signalling) was described by Peter Gurnik of AZD Praha, who was the project coordinator at the start of the project and Jose Bertolin from UNIFE who took over for the later stages. The positioning performance of GNSS is directly affected by environmental conditions that impact on the localisation function and, therefore, the overall performance of a train control system. STARS’ major objective is to fill the technology gap to allow a full implementation of GNSS in safety critical rail applications.

The project has developed a universal method for field measurement and characterisation of the rail environment including a yearlong measurement campaign. “A set of open tools has been developed that can assist rail companies to evaluate identified environmental factors,” said Bertolin. The project also links with economic aspects of GNSS within an enhanced ERTMS.

Massimiliano Ciaffi from Italian rail infrastructure manager RFI said that Italy, a pioneer in adopting ERTMS for high speed lines, has a plan to extend the ERTMS over all lines (about 16 800 km) including regional and local lines for which the ERTMS will likely be the first application in Europe.

The ERSAT (ERTMS on Satellite) initiative started in 2012 is targeting a solution to integrate GNSS positioning and public telecommunications over the ERTMS platform and consists of a portfolio of projects as the pillars of a roadmap to allow RFI a step-wise operational deployment.

The core ERSAT deployment is on the Pinerolo – Sangone line close to Turin that is representative of operational scenarios on regional lines in Italy. “The ERSAT architecture being developed is designed to be upgradable and also backward compatible to allow a fast deployment without prejudging the adoption of the latest satellite technologies,” said Ciaffi. The programme had effectively developed and verified in field satellite technology for ERTMS on a test bed in Sardinia and the objective now is to activate a first commercial line by the end of 2020. Further developments are ongoing to reduce the total cost of ownership and to use the virtual balise concept to achieve a Zero Staff Responsible Time, which will improve safety and efficiency.

Not only signalling

GNSS can also contribute to rail asset management as was demonstrated by the SIA project (System for vehicle- infrastructure Interaction Assets health status monitoring) presented by Wolfgang Zottl of ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG. The initiative is developing four ready-to-use services to provide information about the health status of four of rail’s most demanding assets in terms of maintenance: the wheels, the rails, the overhead pantograph and catenary (power wires). These new services could help to substantially reduce overall railway maintenance costs, unscheduled maintenance and derailments. Location and positioning are important data components for the system.

All four services have some common features being web-based applications using real-time information to make the ‘health assessments’ and able to integrate with current and future operational systems. “Full testing will commence in June this year,” said Zottl. “And will be based on the use of low-cost sensors to provide a cheap system that could be used on all trains.”

EGNOS leverage

A European Space Agency (ESA) funded project STEMS (System Suitability Study for Train Positioning using GNSS in ERTMS) was described by Mike Hutchinson of NSL. The project will examine how to leverage EGNOS for use in the rail sector.

“We will assess the suitability of Satellite-Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS), such as EGNOS, for acceptance by railway authorities,” said Hutchinson. “And propose a methodology for building the safety case for use in ERTMS applications.“

The project will leverage the existing investment and vast experience from the aviation sector and is based on the legacy SBAS configuration of augmenting GPS L1 signals (EGNOS V2 and V3.1).

The X2RAIL2 project aims to refine and develop four selected key technologies in the field of railway signalling and automation systems to the level of technology demonstrators. The four technologies are: Fail-Safe Train Positioning using a multi-sensor concept, where GNSS is one of the preferred technology; On-Board Train Integrity to allow the application of new signalling train separation concepts based on the train self-localisation rather than on traditional train detection systems such as balises; Formal Methods to innovate and standardise processes and interfaces as signalling systems evolve to reduce time-to-market costs; and Traffic Management Evolution that will improve standardisation and integration of Traffic Management processes to achieve flexibility and scalability.

“The project will provide new technical capabilities by combining innovative technologies,” explained Salvatore Sabina of Ansaldo STS. “We are looking to move signal intelligence from trackside to on board the train.”

Next steps

Summing up the project presentations, Daniel Lopour, Market Development Officer at GSA said that “European R&D on GNSS for rail signalling is fully synchronised between GSA, Shift2Rail and ESA.”

Lea Paties, Programme Manager for the Shift2Rail JU agreed that the key element is a high level of coordination to achieve inclusion of GNSS in ERTMS. “We aim at satisfying all the market needs,” she said. “The final system should be stable, fully interoperable, and overall offer reductions in both capital expenditure and operating expenditure for implementation of advanced ERTMS, while improving the flexibility and attractiveness of ERTMS for users in Europe and beyond.”

Lopour outlined some of the next steps to potential wider implementation of a GNSS-based ERTMS. “An analysis of European GNSS performance in the rail segment is available and will feed into a definition of a system architecture within Shift2Rail X2RAIIL2 project,” he said.

There is ongoing work on the cost-benefit of GNSS and further work is required to confirm how appropriate certification for system components might be achieved working with ERA.

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).