zprávy

EGNOS and Galileo were at the World Air Traffic Management (ATM) Congress in Madrid from 6 to 8 March to highlight the vital and increasing role of European GNSS (EGNSS) in the aviation sector enabling simplified, safe and integrated ATM for all aircraft from civil airliners to autonomous drones. On 6 March, funding for research, development, innovation and implementation opportunities worth more than €300 million for EGNSS related aviation projects were presented in a special conference session.

For three days in March, Madrid becomes the centre of the ATM world. Now in its sixth edition, the Congress is the largest ATM forum in the world and is a ‘one-stop shop’ for all things ATM. In 2018 it was bigger and better than ever with a record 237 exhibitors registered and thousands of aviation leaders arriving for three days of conference sessions, product demonstrations and launches, contract closures, and networking.

Be part of €300 million

The main feature for EGNSS at Madrid was an awareness-raising session on the afternoon of 6 March co-organised by GSA: ‘Discover EU funding opportunities worth €300 million....and be part of it’.

The event kicked off with a description of current and upcoming EGNSS funding opportunities in aviation: the current EGNOS for Aviation Call and the next Horizon 2020 EGNSS Market Uptake Call.

Carmen Aguilera, of the European GNSS Agency (GSA) moderated the session and gave an overview of the programmes that are worth, in total, €50 million with the aim to further accelerate the use of EGNOS and Galileo in all aviation application areas, including drones.

The Aviation Grant Programme is the basis for the recently launched third call from the GSA for proposals to promote EGNOS operational implementation throughout European airports and among European airspace users. It targets all segments and aims to foster the use of EGNOS for navigation and surveillance applications, increase network effect and maximise public benefits.

“The call is structured to cover six areas of activity,” said Aguilera including the design and operational implementation of EGNOS based LPV/LPV 200 approach procedures, low level routes, the installation of EGNOS-enabled avionics and granting of airworthiness certification, the development of retrofit and forward-fit solutions, and the development of enablers and other EGNOS based operations including, for example, simulators, validation tools, training materials, or drone applications.

The call was published on 12 February and the deadline for submitting applications is 21May with the signature of the first grant agreements foreseen for September – October 2018. Applications can be made by citizens of any EU Member State and Norway or Switzerland.

More information on the call can be found on the GSA website and a series of information sessions about the call is being organised, including a webinar scheduled for 15 March at 11:00 CET. Registration for the webinar is open now.

The second programme is the forthcoming GSA organised Horizon 2020 research and development call. The H2020-SPACE-EGNSS-2019 call will open on 16 October and cover four topics: EGNSS applications to foster sustainable mobility including the use of drones; EGNSS applications fostering digitisation; ENGSS applications for societal resilience and environmental protection; and projects to raise awareness of EGNSS and capacity building.

The total budget for the call is €20 million and the deadline for proposal submission is 5 March 2019

Project success

As an example of a successful EU-funded, GSA-managed research project in H2020, Christian Belleux, Aviation Director at Orolia described the work of the HELIOS project and its subsequent commercialisation.

The project developed a range of Galileo enhanced beacons and associated antennas to exploit the full capability of the MEOSAR COSPAS / SARSAT international programme that operates a global Search and Rescue (SAR) distress alert detection and information distribution system.

EGNOS significantly improves the localisation performance for these beacons, introducing new capabilities and the use of the Galileo SAR service with its return link adds further operational and life-saving features. Two maritime beacons for personal use with Life Jackets and one aviation beacon with an associated high-speed fuselage antenna have been brought to market.

The aviation device will feature remote activation through the Galileo return link service capability and enables accurate location of an aircraft and sharing of critical data. “The device is compatible with recommendations for autonomous distress tracking that will be applicable from January 2021 for all new aircraft builds,” said Bellux.

Transport call

The final presentation of the session was from Isabelle Jagiello of the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) on the 2017 Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Transport SESAR call for proposals. This €290 million call, which opened on 6 October 2017 and has a final deadline on 12 April 2018, is exclusively for proposals addressing the priority Single European Sky aka SESAR.

The call is aimed at supporting the effective implementation of the Single European Sky policy and improving overall ATM performance in Europe. Funded projects are studies and pilot activities looking to improve infrastructure or technology.

“All project proposals must clearly improve ATM performance,” said Jagiello. “And use of EGNOS and Galileo is also a general requirement.”

The GSA and INEA coordinate their calls to ensure no dual funding and to ensure maximum use of the available budget in the respective programmes.

EGNOS awards

Following the presentation, participants were invited to a networking drink and the presentation of the 2018 EGNOS awards at the EGNOS stand. The awards were introduced by Sofia Cilla, Service Adoption Manager at ESSP – the EGNOS Service provider - and presented by José Luis Fernandez, Service Provision Unit Manager at ESSP.

The first recipient was Adriana Salmón Fernandez representing FerroNATS, a commercial air traffic control operator in Spain that has just implemented their fifth EGNOS procedure. She praised the smooth coordination of the implementation and looked forward to future collaboration.

Similarly, the second recipient, George Angelou representing the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority, appreciated the cooperation with GSA in the ongoing BlueGNSS programme and looked forward to EGNOS operational approaches in Greece being “up and running” soon.

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).

A call for proposals has been opened under the Fundamental Elements funding mechanism, targeting the development of GNSS receiver technologies for premium and general mass markets. This and other FE projects will be presented at Info Day in Prague on March 14.

As the Galileo constellation expands, and following the launch of Initial Services, the adoption of the system in the mass market has taken off with most major smartphone manufacturers announcing a series of products in the last eighteen months that will use Galileo.

But the mass market is not limited to smartphones. Two streams have been identified where additional efforts are required for fostering adoption:

1. Premium Mass Market (PMM): the upper segment of mass market applications with respect to general purpose mass-market applications, requiring higher performances than those achievable by popular mass-market products such as trackers or step counters, but less stringent than the professional ones such as GIS receivers.
2. General Mass Market (GMM): the low end of mass market applications, which is mainly cost-driven and for which energy consumption and physical size are key drivers.

Read this: GSA to host Fundamental Elements Info Day in Prague: join us on 14th of March

Proposals in the new call shall address any (or both) streams by developing, integrating, testing and demonstrating hardware components, software or firmware filling technology gaps for Premium Mass Market GNSS devices, Internet of Things, or any other general mass market application. They should also assess or, even better, leverage the several Galileo differentiators such as:

• Multiple carrier frequency, wide bandwidth E-GNSS signals;
• Data-less (pilot) channels;
• The prospect of a Navigation Message Authentication service transmitted over Open Service E1;
• The use of carrier-phase based applications and satellite-based real-time Precise Point Positioning (PPP) products, such as the ones foreseen in the Galileo Commercial Service;
• Integration of miniaturised Galileo SAR beacons with mass market devices such as smartphones.

One of the main characteristics of this call is its openness and flexibility. It constitutes a good opportunity for already-established providers of mass market solutions to improve or expand their product portfolio and for newcomers to facilitate the development of their own solutions and their entry into the market.

At a glance:

Apply here

This call is part of the annual Grant Plan published by the GSA and it follows the recent publication of calls for an Advanced interference detection and mitigation techniques and a Commercial Service User terminal. The 2018 Grant Plan should be published soon.

Furthermore, the GSA plans to hold an Info Day at its headquarters in Prague on March 14 2018, focusing on upcoming opportunities under Fundamental Elements. The event will also provide an update on the status of the programme. Participants in the Info Day will have the opportunity to meet with representatives from the European Commission/GSA, ongoing Fundamental Elements projects and the GNSS industry.

You can register for the Info Day 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).

A call for proposals has been opened under the Fundamental Elements funding mechanism, targeting the development of GNSS receiver technologies for premium and general mass markets. 

As the Galileo constellation expands, and following the launch of Initial Services, the adoption of the system in the mass market has taken off with most major smartphone manufacturers announcing a series of products in the last eighteen months that will use Galileo.

But the mass market is not limited to smartphones. Two streams have been identified where additional efforts are required for fostering adoption:

1. Premium Mass Market (PMM): the upper segment of mass market applications with respect to general purpose mass-market applications, requiring higher performances than those achievable by popular mass-market products such as trackers or step counters, but less stringent than the professional ones such as GIS receivers.
2. General Mass Market (GMM): the low end of mass market applications, which is mainly cost-driven and for which energy consumption and physical size are key drivers.

Read this: GSA to host Fundamental Elements Info Day in Prague: join us on 14th of March

Proposals in the new call shall address any (or both) streams by developing, integrating, testing and demonstrating hardware components, software or firmware filling technology gaps for Premium Mass Market GNSS devices, Internet of Things, or any other general mass market application. They should also assess or, even better, leverage the several Galileo differentiators such as:

• Multiple carrier frequency, wide bandwidth E-GNSS signals;
• Data-less (pilot) channels;
• The prospect of a Navigation Message Authentication service transmitted over Open Service E1;
• The use of carrier-phase based applications and satellite-based real-time Precise Point Positioning (PPP) products, such as the ones foreseen in the Galileo Commercial Service;
• Integration of miniaturised Galileo SAR beacons with mass market devices such as smartphones.

One of the main characteristics of this call is its openness and flexibility. It constitutes a good opportunity for already-established providers of mass market solutions to improve or expand their product portfolio and for newcomers to facilitate the development of their own solutions and their entry into the market.

At a glance:

Apply here

This call is part of the annual Grant Plan published by the GSA and it follows the recent publication of calls for an Advanced interference detection and mitigation techniques and a Commercial Service User terminal. The 2018 Grant Plan should be published soon.

Furthermore, the GSA plans to hold an Info Day at its headquarters in Prague on March 14 2018, focusing on upcoming opportunities under Fundamental Elements. The event will also provide an update on the status of the programme. Participants in the Info Day will have the opportunity to meet with representatives from the European Commission/GSA, ongoing Fundamental Elements projects and the GNSS industry.

You can register for the Info Day 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).

The Munich Satellite Navigation Summit opened on March 5 with a discussion about who stands to win from competition and cooperation in satellite navigation. After a lively debate it was decided that, ultimately, the end user will be the winner in what one panellist described as ‘the Golden Age of GNSS.’

Matthias Petschke, Director of EU Satellite Navigation Programmes, European Commission, opened the discussion by stressing that a balanced mix between competition and cooperation is needed in the satellite navigation sector. He said that competition between providers of GNSS services and between industrial players would lead to better services, more innovation and reduced costs. “On the other hand, cooperation will ensure compatibility of signals in terms of radio frequency characteristics and interoperability of systems – allowing multi-constellation to provide better services,” he said.

European GNSS Agency (GSA) Executive Director Carlo des Dorides agreed. He said that cooperation is necessary – and frequency coordination is only one example of this. The GSA director noted that, from a user perspective, GNSS systems provide the best performance when they work together. “Today more than 60% of the chipsets available on the market are multi-system and more than 20% foresee four-satellite-system compatibility.  The market is requesting more reliable, more accurate positioning, and this is what multi-system provides,” he said, adding that within multi-constellation solutions Galileo has a special place thanks to its frequency compatibility with GPS.

Galileo outperforming expectations

Noting that navigation information had become an integral part of our daily lives, Simon Plum, Managing Director for the Galileo Programme at DLR GfR, said that priorities have started to shift from the deployment of infrastructure to service delivery on a global scale. “Europe has proven its capability over the past number of years, and now the system has to grow its reputation of precision and, more importantly, of reliability,” he said.

In this regard, Petschke stressed that Galileo is already delivering much better services than expected and, what’s more, it is transparent about its performance, with quarterly performance reports published on the GSC website. “The market uptake results are impressive, preliminary figures show that some 75 million Galileo-enabled smartphones were sold last year and 95% of the chipsets on the market are already Galileo-enabled. What’s more, as of April 1 this year, all new passenger cars in the EU will be equipped with the eCall rapid assistance systems, which are enhanced by Galileo,” he said.

Read this: GSA publishes eCall guidelines to facilitate GNSS compatibility tests

User-driven

Carlo des Dorides said that the GSA is focusing on ensuring that the current generation of Galileo services, as well as the second generation, are driven by user needs. He said that Galileo will soon offer two unique differentiators that other GNSS are not currently providing: the Open Service Navigation Message Authentication (OS NMA) and worldwide Precise Point Positioning (PPP). “The new services will meet emerging needs, especially in autonomous applications,” he said.

Go Takizawa, Executive Director of QZSS Strategy at the National Space Policy Secretariat in Japan noted that by 2020 there would be more than 100 positioning satellites available in the world and that cooperation, compatibility and interoperability are important to ensure the performance and accuracy of the overall satellite positioning system. “This should bring benefits to GNSS users.  To make sure that the users are the ultimate winners, we need to have friendly competition and ensure compatibility,” he said.

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 Munich Satellite Navigation Summit opened on March 5 with a discussion about who stands to win from competition and cooperation in satellite navigation. After a lively debate it was decided that, ultimately, the end user will be the winner in what one panellist described as ‘the Golden Age of GNSS.’

Matthias Petschke, Director of EU Satellite Navigation Programmes, European Commission, opened the discussion by stressing that a balanced mix between competition and cooperation is needed in the satellite navigation sector. He said that competition between providers of GNSS services and between industrial players would lead to better services, more innovation and reduced costs. “On the other hand, cooperation will ensure compatibility of signals in terms of radio frequency characteristics and interoperability of systems – allowing multi-constellation to provide better services,” he said.

European GNSS Agency (GSA) Executive Director Carlo des Dorides agreed. He said that cooperation is necessary – and frequency coordination is only one example of this. The GSA director noted that, from a user perspective, GNSS systems provide the best performance when they work together. “Today more than 60% of the chipsets available on the market are multi-system and more than 20% foresee four-satellite-system compatibility.  The market is requesting more reliable, more accurate positioning, and this is what multi-system provides,” he said, adding that within multi-constellation solutions Galileo has a special place thanks to its frequency compatibility with GPS.

Galileo outperforming expectations

Noting that navigation information had become an integral part of our daily lives, Simon Plum, Managing Director for the Galileo Programme at DLR GfR, said that said that priorities have started to shift from the deployment of infrastructure to service delivery on a global scale. “Europe has proven its capability over the past number of years, and now the system has to grow its reputation of precision and, more importantly, of reliability,” he said.

In this regard, Petschke stressed that Galileo is already delivering much better services than expected and, what’s more, it is transparent about its performance, with quarterly performance reports published on the GSC website. “The market uptake results are impressive, preliminary figures show that some 75 million Galileo-enabled smartphones were sold last year and 95% of the chipsets on the market are already Galileo-enabled. What’s more, as of April 1 this year, all new passenger cars in the EU will be equipped with the eCall rapid assistance systems, which are enhanced by Galileo,” he said.

Read this: GSA publishes eCall guidelines to facilitate GNSS compatibility tests

User-driven

Carlo des Dorides said that the GSA is focusing on ensuring that the current generation of Galileo services, as well as the second generation, are driven by user needs. He said that Galileo will soon offer two unique differentiators that other GNSS are not currently providing: the Open Service Navigation Message Authentication (OS NMA) and worldwide Precise Point Positioning (PPP). “The new services will meet emerging needs, especially in autonomous applications,” he said.

Go Takizawa, Executive Director of QZSS Strategy at the National Space Policy Secretariat in Japan noted that by 2020 there would be more than 100 positioning satellites available in the world and that cooperation, compatibility and interoperability are important to ensure the performance and accuracy of the overall satellite positioning system. “This should bring benefits to GNSS users.  To make sure that the users are the ultimate winners, we need to have friendly competition and ensure compatibility,” he said.

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).