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The World ATM Congress is the must-attend trade event for the air traffic management sector, welcoming participants from across the world who come to showcase the latest innovations, services and products. One of those services on display in Madrid was the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS).

EGNOS, which was designed for aviation, has revolutionised the way we fly – creating more access to small and regional airports, increasing safety and facilitating business across Europe. From the commercial, regional, general and business aviation sectors to OEMs, airports and the end user – everyone benefits from EGNOS. 

As to the airports – the focus of the congress – there are already over 430 EGNOS-enabled procedures available at over 300 different European airports. According to GSA Market Development Officer Carmen Aguilera, more than 500 procedures are planned. “These procedures will increase accessibility to regional airports, support decongestion of main hubs and provide suitable alternatives or backups for Instrument Landing Systems (ILS) – all while EGNOS implementation is spreading to more even countries,” she says.

                Read this: EGNOS can crack the capacity crunch!

When you consider the safety and cost benefits of EGNOS implementation, it’s no wonder that so many airports are enthusiastic about publishing EGNOS-enabled localiser performance with vertical guidance (LPV) approaches. “Many of these 300 airports are small and regional airports that simply cannot afford the high cost of installing and maintaining ground-based ILS,” explains Aguilera.

“For Slovakia, which was one of the first countries to adopt EGNOS LPV procedures, it was simply a matter of increased safety,” says LPS SR Head of ATM Planning and Procedures Ratislav Primus. “With EGNOS, we can provide accurate vertical guidance – making airports across Slovakia much safer.”

As an alternative to ground-based ILS navigational aids, EGNOS utilises geostationary satellites and a network of ground stations to receive, analyse and augment GPS signals. With EGNOS, these satellite signals become suitable for such safety-critical applications as aircraft landings. Thus, the EGNOS LPV 200 service level provides vertical guidance that enables reaching a decision height as low as of 200 feet. This is a capability similar to what is provided by ground-based navigational aids, but without the same financial burden of installing, maintaining and calibrating ground equipment.      

“I highly recommend implementing EGNOS Cat-I procedures leveraging LPV-200, especially for smaller airports, but also as a valuable add-on for larger airports,” says Austro Control Head of ATM-CNS Procedure Design Team Daniel Schaad. “It’s worked well for us and, increasingly, for airlines too. It is very innovative with ILS performance and we’re happy to have EGNOS procedures in our portfolio – I think it’s a good option for everybody.”

New models and retrofit too

Of course having all of these procedures isn’t very useful if nobody uses them. This is why, in addition to facilitating the launch of new EGNOS procedures, the GSA is also committed to working with manufacturers to ensure the latest aircraft and rotorcraft coming onto the market are EGNOS-ready. Thanks to these efforts, most new aircraft models have EGNOS-capability, including models from such leading manufacturers as ATR, Airbus, Bombardier, Cessna, Dassault Falcon Jets, Hawker, Beechcraft and Pilatus. According to the GSA, this list is expected to continue to increase in the near future. 

                And this: Europe’s aviation community enthusiastic about EGNOS

In addition to new aircraft models, the GSA also noted a rise in the number of available retrofit solutions. “These retrofit solutions enable in service aircraft to add EGNOS capabilities,” says Aguilera. “The GSA is working with operators and avionics manufacturers to increase the available retrofit options for the most common models.”

Moving up, moving fast

With EGNOS Version 3 set to enter service in the near future, EGNOS will also augment Galileo, thus further increasing performance and improving accuracy, resilience and safety.

“The principle behind EGNOS – of providing a space-based navigation system – means operators can equip their planes with fairly light-weight receivers and make use of satellite signals with minimal ground-based infrastructure required,” adds European Regional Airlines Association General Manager Policy and Technical Russel Dudley. “Speaking for our association and members, we are strong proponents of EGNOS as it has proved itself an incredibly useful and meaningful tool.”

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 Horizon 2020-funded GHOST project is bringing Galileo’s robust positioning capabilities to smart transport systems. 

All across Europe, the number of smart cities is multiplying. To tackle their growing needs and to guarantee efficient city planning and maintenance, many cities are engaged in massive investments in such key areas as street lighting, road maintenance, traffic and waste management. In parallel, public transportation is continuously evolving in terms of coverage, comfort and technology.

Within this context, the exploitation of Galileo and its integration with other sensors is key to developing concrete solutions for current and future smart city planning. Along these lines, the Horizon 2020-funded GHOST (Galileo Enhancement as Booster of the Smart Cities) project is designing, developing and validating an intelligent system for vehicles that equips existing public transport fleets with a Galileo-enabled camera and connects these vehicles to a web portal. The system automatically takes pictures of predefined points of interest (POI) based on the accurate position of the vehicle – provided by Galileo. All images are sent to a processing server capable of detecting such anomalies as potholes or a burnt-out street light. The system then uses the web portal to report these findings to the relevant authorities.

“At this point, GHOST is designed primarily for reporting street lighting anomalies and road deteriorations, monitoring public garbage collection and detecting double parking infractions or disabled parking spots occupied by unauthorised vehicles,” says Project Coordinator Claudia Maltoni. “In addition to these basic functions, we have also identified more advanced services, such as spotting bus-lane and congestion-charging-area violations, which will be implemented at a later date.”

A user-focused system

The GHOST system’s key differentiator is its use of Galileo positioning, which gives it the capability to take autonomous snapshots with an error range of 1 to 10 metres (depending on the size of the POI). In densely populated urban environments, such a level of service is only possible with the combined use of Galileo, inertial sensors and Kalman filters. The Kalman filter is an algorithm that uses a series of measurements observed over time, as opposed to a single one, in order to increase precision. 

The GHOST system’s key services:

• reporting street lighting anomalies and road deteriorations
• monitoring public garbage collection levels
• detecting double parking infractions or disabled parking spaces occupied by unauthorised vehicles
• monitoring timely collection of garbage.

Another unique feature is a free smartphone application that citizens can use to collect geo-localised snapshots. “Whenever an individual user sees an anomaly within a city’s infrastructure, all they have to do is snap a picture with their smartphone,” explains Maltoni. “This level of engagement not only enhances the overall system, but also empowers individual users to play a key role in urban upkeep.”  

Improving urban efficiency

By taking advantage of the many vehicle movements happening in cities every day, GHOST proposes a competitive way to improve the efficiency of monitoring a city’s operations and infrastructure. Once finalised, the system will enable faster detection of double parking or road deterioration and help reduce traffic, accidents and pollution.

“Thanks to our field tests and favourable lab results, we are already setting up the next phase of the project, with the aim of taking the system’s technology to the next level,” concludes Maltoni. “This includes providing real-time, onboard image processing so that the system can handle such dynamic scenarios as bus-lane infractions and congestion-charging enforcement.”

The project is currently working to bring GHOST technology to market. Coordinators are busy making key contacts with interested public administrations, garbage collection companies and traffic police departments. It is also working to ensure that the system complies with all European regulatory standards, such as those related to circulation or privacy.

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 ESCAPE project, funded under the European GNSS Agency’s (GSA) Fundamental Elements programme, is developing an innovative positioning engine that exploits the newly available capabilities of Galileo.

With the declaration of Galileo Initial Services, companies, service providers and developers can now take full advantage of the more precise positioning and better performance that Galileo provides. All one needs is a Galileo-enabled chipset and/or receiver.

In the road transportation sector, the ESCAPE project (European Safety Critical Applications Positioning Engine) is doing just that: using Galileo to provide users with better positioning and performance.

Also read: Building the E-GNSS engine for the self-driving car

The project could prove critical in the advancement of the connected vehicle and autonomous driving, both of which require accurate and reliable positioning information for safety-critical applications. Whereas traditionally this positioning information is provided via multiple sources of sensor data, doing so requires the use of expensive radar/Lidar-based sensors and cameras not specifically designed for road transport use. In order to be viable, autonomous vehicles must offer both a cost-effective and a safe solution.  

Bringing Galileo to road transport

For the ESCAPE project, this balance can be found in its innovative positioning engine that exploits the newly available capabilities of Galileo. In parallel with the launch of Galileo Initial Services, the project is developing a Galileo-enabled chipset to be integrated into its dedicated engine designed specifically for automotive safety-critical applications. “The project is developing the first multi-constellation Galileo chipset receiver offering multi-frequency capability adapted to road applications – and in particular autonomous vehicles,” says Project Coordinator Jessica García. “The chipset will be integrated in an onboard positioning unit with unique localisation features that are tailored to the needs expressed by the applications of autonomous driving.”

The ESCAPE positioning engine is built on four core innovations. First, the engine integrates different localisation data sources, including multi-constellation/multi-frequency global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), intelligent cameras, inertial units, vehicle odometer and advanced navigation maps. Second, the integrity level it provides measures the trust associated with the real-time location estimates. “This degree of trust regarding the information provided to the vehicle is crucial for its use in safety-critical applications involving high levels of automation,” explains García.

Core features of the ESCAPE engine

• a GNSS/Galileo multi-constellation, multi-frequency chipset for road applications
• use of the precise point positioning (PPP) service
• hybridisation of cameras, maps, vehicle sensors and GNSS integrated into a tight coupling filter
• provision of an integrity layer to the exploited technologies
• capability to implement navigation message authentication.

Third, the project integrates the engine into a vehicle with autonomous driving capabilities. As a result, it fully enables the vehicle’s autonomous operations with a close-to-market engineered architecture. And last but not least, the engine will be the first solution featuring authentication provided by OS-NMA, an important Galileo differentiator. 

New milestones

Recently, the project reached an important milestone: the identification of the user-level requirements and the finalisation of a user-level safety analysis. “These user-level achievements are important because a major element that influences the design of the positioning engine is the level of automation that the user expects these vehicles to provide,” explains García.

To translate these requirements into solutions, the ESCAPE project has mapped user-level expectations into five major case studies. For each case, the project identified one or more test paths for the vehicle where algorithms and functionalities are to be tested. “This approach guarantees that the design of the engine is driven by actual user needs,” says García. “As a result, we will end up with a near-market-ready, safety-orientated GNSS-based engine set to transform road vehicle automation.”

Fundamental information

Launched in October 2016, the ESCAPE project is led by the Spanish company FICOSA in collaboration with GMV, Renault, IFSTTAR, STMicroelectronics and the Istituto Superiore Mario Boella. The project is funded under the European GNSS Agency’s (GSA) Fundamental Elements programme, a research and development (R&D) funding mechanism supporting the development of GNSS-enabled chipsets, receivers and antennas. 

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).

Horizon 2020-funded inLane project combines the precision of Galileo with computer vision technology to create the next generation of in-vehicle navigation systems. 

Although today’s in-vehicle navigation systems are great at getting us from Point A to Point B, they tend to lack the details. For example, all navigation systems currently on the market provide the user with reliable guidance, usually in the form of a simple line depicting the road and direction of travel. However, none provide lane-level positioning or map matching. Even when traveling on a multi-lane expressway, the navigation map only shows a single line.

The reason: these navigation devices use low-cost global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers, meaning that they cannot provide the accurate positioning needed to depict multiple lanes. In order to provide more complex applications, such as lane-level information, lane-level navigation and scenario-based prioritised alerts, more accurate and reliable positioning is required. 

To get this necessary level of accuracy, the Horizon 2020-funded inLane project is working to fuse the precision of Galileo with computer vision technology. By combining these two technologies, they plan to create the first low-cost, next-generation navigation system capable of providing lane-level and precise turn-by-turn navigation.

The inLane solution will also be able to detect new objects not currently displayed on the navigation map, such as a new traffic signal. When such an object is detected, the system sends this information to the back-end server. As the back-end server receives similar information from other vehicles, it will update the maps accordingly.

inLane, at a glance

By combining the precision of Galileo with computer vision technology, the inLane system will:

• deliver lane-level information to an in-vehicle navigation system
• give drivers the opportunity to select the optimal road lane, even in dense urban and extra-urban traffic
• reduce the risks associated with last-second lane changes
• enable a new generation of enhanced mapping information based on crowd sourcing.

“By delivering lane-level information to an in-vehicle navigation system, and combining this with the opportunity for vehicles to exchange information between themselves, drivers will be able to select the optimal lane for travel, even in dense traffic,” says the project’s Technical Coordinator Gorka Velez of VicomTech, one of the inLane consortium members. “With the inLane system, every driver will be able to choose the appropriate lane for exiting, thus reducing the risks associated with the last-second lane changes that are all too common on our busy expressways.”

In order to ensure the inLane system provides information that is useful to actual drivers, the project wants to hear from you. Via a short survey, the project wants to know how you currently use your in-vehicle navigation device. For example, do you get your guidance via the audio or visual cues, or both? It also asks what type of additional features you would find helpful, such as enhanced driver awareness, intelligent speed alerts, simple lane allocation, traffic sign notification, etc.

“The intention of this survey is to get people thinking about advanced driver assistance systems [ADAS] and how these will impact their driving experience,” says Velez. “By better understanding their expectations and concerns, we will be better positioned to design an end-user-focused ADAS.”

The survey, which can be found here, only takes a few minutes. As an added incentive, all participants can have their name entered in a draw for a chance to win a new TomTom G0520 navigation system! The deadline to participate is 30 March 2017.

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) has launched a new funding opportunity to support the development, supply and testing of a Galileo Open Service authentication user terminal.

The Galileo Open Service (OS) will soon provide a Navigation Message Authentication feature, known as the Open Service Navigation Message Authentication (OS-NMA). Via this feature, users can verify that a navigation message comes from a Galileo satellite and not a potentially malicious source. The Open Service is the Galileo programme’s free service for positioning, navigation and timing.

OS-NMA Signal-in-Space transmission is expected to begin in 2018, reaching full service capability in 2020. However, before full service can be achieved, a new generation of OS-NMA-enabled user terminals must be developed, tested and implemented. To fulfil this need, under its Fundamental Elements funding scheme, the GSA is seeking proposals for the Development, supply and testing of a Galileo open service authentication user terminal (OS-NMA) for the GSA (GSA/OP/23/16). 

How to participate 

Proposals shall aim to develop a robust, close-to-market OS-NMA User Terminal (OS-NMA UT). The OS-NMA UT shall:

• feature OS-NMA capability
• offer the highest possible level of robustness by implementing further anti-spoofing capability
• meet smart tachograph application requirements.

Within the scope of the procurement, an end-to-end validation platform is to be developed to assess the performance of the OS-NMA UT.

The OS-NMA UT will undergo extensive testing to confirm its robustness under real conditions and against a full set of potential spoofing threats.

All proposals must be received no later than 19 May 2017 at 17:00 CET. 

In support of this opportunity, the GSA is organising several informational sessions, including:

• Receiver Manufacturers’ Workshop in Prague (21 March 2017)
• Fundamental Elements webinar covering three calls for proposals and an invitation to tender (29 March 2017).

Registration for both is available here.

The allocated budget for the project is EUR 2.5 million. The contract is expected to be signed in October 2017.

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).

Last month, for the first time, a European rail test journey was completed using a signalling system based on positioning provided by European GNSS that aims to be included as the positioning system for ERTMS.

On 24 February 2017, for the first time, a European rail test journey was completed using the positioning technology provided by Galileo. An initiative of the Horizon 2020-funded ERSAT EAV project (ERTMS on Satellite – Enabling Application Validation), the test journey took representatives of the rail industry, railway service provision and relevant European agencies between Cagliari and Decimomannu in Sardinia, Italy – thus demonstrating the capability of GNSS to monitor and safely manage rail traffic on conventional secondary, local and regional rail lines with the aim to become an integral part of European Rail Traffic Management System – (ERTMS).

“What we saw here today is how GNSS can provide the rail segment with a new level of efficiency,” says GSA Executive Director Carlo des Dorides. “With GNSS, the rail sector can increase its capacity and safety while reducing costs for infrastructure and maintenance, along with its environmental impact.”

Also read: E-GNSS enabled railway signalling – from vision to action

Although the European rail community understands the potential of GNSS, its adoption has been limited due to a lack of clear definition and definitive testing. Specifically, before GNSS is fully adopted, the sector needs to have confidence that train localisation based on GNSS technology will satisfy European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation (CENELEC) safety and integrity standards, which is one of the objectives towards which ERSAT EAV is progressing.

A new chapter in European rail

The ERSAT EAV project aims to verify the suitability of such European GNSS services as EGNOS and Galileo for the rail sector, particularly within regional lines. To accomplish this, the project is defining and developing the safe localisation of train positioning based on satellite technology and ensuring such a system is in harmony with the European ERTM standard.

The ERSAT EAV advantage

• increase traffic capacity available to railway undertakings
• reduce CO2 emissions
• guarantee high safety standards and punctuality
• lower operating costs with new technological equipment that requires less investments in installation and maintenance

A key component to this effort is the adoption of the virtual balise. In today’s European Train Control System (ETCS), the positioning of a train is based on a balise – a physical element mounted at specific intervals along the railway track. One objective of the ERSAT EAV project is to ensure that, wherever possible, these physical balises are replaced by virtual ones. Virtual balises expand on the cost and efficiency benefits stemming from their integration of GNSS technology into the ERTMS. Furthermore, their use does not pose any operational or safety implications on the ETCS.

Watch this: Galileo satellites already in service of the on-board train positioning system

The ERSAT EAV project is a fundamental part of the strategy to prioritise the uptake of European GNSS within the rail sector and foster innovation within the European space and rail industry. This most recent test-journey was critical in demonstrating the enormous opportunity that GNSS offers to the ERTMS, especially as it applies to local and regional lines, which currently represent nearly 50 % of Europe’s total railway length.

Read this: GSA talks GNSS and rail at ERSAT EAV workshop

“For Italy, GNSS is an exceptional solution for providing sustainable rail transport across the country,” says Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI) Head of Standard Tecnologies Fabio Senesi. “The integration of new technologies, including GNSS, enables us to increase capacity, reduce cost and, most importantly, respond to the needs and expectations of our users.”

“ERSAT EAV is an example of the real innovation that the rail sector needs – an innovation with a global scope that greatly contributes to the creation of a single European rail area,” adds European Union Agency for Railways (EUAR) Executive Director Josef Doppelbauer.

The successful ERSAT EAV test-journey marks the start of a new chapter for railway traffic control. By integrating European GNSS with additional sensors and public communication networks, the system is able to locate trains via satellite and monitor rail traffic, as well as maintain ground-to-train dialogue using devices on board the train and the radio block centres positioned along the rail line in a way that promises minimum impact on the currently used technical specifications for interoperability. “Galileo and EGNOS are here to serve Europe, providing a global solution for standardisation and interoperability for ERTMS,” says des Dorides. “A solution like ERSAT EAV plays an essential role in giving Europe’s rail industry a competitive position on the global market.”

Ensuring European competitiveness

Being able to extend the benefits of GNSS for rail to the entire European rail system is critical for maintaining a sustainable and competitive railway system. Because of the efficiencies it offers, there is a growing, global interest in GNSS use for rail applications. “We firmly believe that rail transport has the potential to become one of the largest downstream markets for European GNSS in terms of volume, public utility and contribution to safety,” says des Dorides. “In fact, according to the most recent edition of the GSA’s GNSS Market Report, the number of worldwide GNSS installed units in the rail segment will double by 2020, reaching 534 000 units.”

Also read: European GNSS means safer, more efficient rail travel

To support European competiveness within this important market segment, the GSA continues to facilitate cooperation between industry, service providers and policy makers. One industrial partner, Ansaldo STS, has helped define the requirements aimed at supporting the integration of satellites and public radio communication networks. “The railway signalling market requires more and more innovative, reliable and competitive solutions in terms of costs, timing and energy saving, as well as safety and environmental impact,” says Ansaldo STS CEO Andy Barr. “We are glad to participate in testing this innovative technology.”

The GSA also supports the development of the rail market through various funding opportunities. For example, as seen in the success of the ERSAT EAV project, the Horizon 2020 (H2020) framework programme for research and innovation is taking a leading role in the standardisation and interoperability process.

In addition to ERSAT EAV, through H2020, the GSA is providing financial support to other projects working towards the integration of GNSS into the European rail sector. For example, the STARS project (Satellite Technology for Advanced Railway Signalling) is developing a universal approach for predicting the performance of GNSS in rail-related safety-critical applications and defining the necessary evolution of ERTMS to include these GNSS services.

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).

Last month, for the first time, a European rail test journey was completed using a signalling system based on positioning provided by European GNSS that aims to be included as the positioning system for ERTMS.

On 24 February 2017, for the first time, a European rail test journey was completed using the positioning technology provided by Galileo. An initiative of the Horizon 2020-funded ERSAT EAV project (ERTMS on Satellite – Enabling Application Validation), the test journey took representatives of the rail industry, railway service provision and relevant European agencies between Cagliari and Decimomannu in Sardinia, Italy – thus demonstrating the capability of GNSS to monitor and safely manage rail traffic on conventional secondary, local and regional rail lines with the aim to become an integral part of European Rail Traffic Management System – (ERTMS).

“What we saw here today is how GNSS can provide the rail segment with a new level of efficiency,” says GSA Executive Director Carlo des Dorides. “With GNSS, the rail sector can increase its capacity and safety while reducing costs for infrastructure and maintenance, along with its environmental impact.”

Also read: E-GNSS enabled railway signalling – from vision to action

Although the European rail community understands the potential of GNSS, its adoption has been limited due to a lack of clear definition and definitive testing. Specifically, before GNSS is fully adopted, the sector needs to have confidence that train localisation based on GNSS technology will satisfy European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation (CENELEC) safety and integrity standards, which is one of the objectives towards which ERSAT EAV is progressing.

A new chapter in European rail

The ERSAT EAV project aims to verify the suitability of such European GNSS services as EGNOS and Galileo for the rail sector, particularly within regional lines. To accomplish this, the project is defining and developing the safe localisation of train positioning based on satellite technology and ensuring such a system is in harmony with the European ERTM standard.

The ERSAT EAV advantage

• increase traffic capacity available to railway undertakings
• reduce CO2 emissions
• guarantee high safety standards and punctuality
• lower operating costs with new technological equipment that requires less investments in installation and maintenance

A key component to this effort is the adoption of the virtual balise. In today’s European Train Control System (ETCS), the positioning of a train is based on a balise – a physical element mounted at specific intervals along the railway track. One objective of the ERSAT EAV project is to ensure that, wherever possible, these physical balises are replaced by virtual ones. Virtual balises expand on the cost and efficiency benefits stemming from their integration of GNSS technology into the ERTMS. Furthermore, their use does not pose any operational or safety implications on the ETCS.

Watch this: Galileo satellites already in service of the on-board train positioning system

The ERSAT EAV project is a fundamental part of the strategy to prioritise the uptake of European GNSS within the rail sector and foster innovation within the European space and rail industry. This most recent test-journey was critical in demonstrating the enormous opportunity that GNSS offers to the ERTMS, especially as it applies to local and regional lines, which currently represent nearly 50 % of Europe’s total railway length.

Read this: GSA talks GNSS and rail at ERSAT EAV workshop

“For Italy, GNSS is an exceptional solution for providing sustainable rail transport across the country,” says Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI) Head of Standard Tecnologies Fabio Senesi. “The integration of new technologies, including GNSS, enables us to increase capacity, reduce cost and, most importantly, respond to the needs and expectations of our users.”

“ERSAT EAV is an example of the real innovation that the rail sector needs – an innovation with a global scope that greatly contributes to the creation of a single European rail area,” adds European Union Agency for Railways (EUAR) Executive Director Josef Doppelbauer.

The successful ERSAT EAV test-journey marks the start of a new chapter for railway traffic control. By integrating European GNSS with additional sensors and public communication networks, the system is able to locate trains via satellite and monitor rail traffic, as well as maintain ground-to-train dialogue using devices on board the train and the radio block centres positioned along the rail line in a way that promises minimum impact on the currently used technical specifications for interoperability. “Galileo and EGNOS are here to serve Europe, providing a global solution for standardisation and interoperability for ERTMS,” says des Dorides. “A solution like ERSAT EAV plays an essential role in giving Europe’s rail industry a competitive position on the global market.”

Ensuring European competitiveness

Being able to extend the benefits of GNSS for rail to the entire European rail system is critical for maintaining a sustainable and competitive railway system. Because of the efficiencies it offers, there is a growing, global interest in GNSS use for rail applications. “We firmly believe that rail transport has the potential to become one of the largest downstream markets for European GNSS in terms of volume, public utility and contribution to safety,” says des Dorides. “In fact, according to the most recent edition of the GSA’s GNSS Market Report, the number of worldwide GNSS installed units in the rail segment will double by 2020, reaching 534 000 units.”

Also read: European GNSS means safer, more efficient rail travel

To support European competiveness within this important market segment, the GSA continues to facilitate cooperation between industry, service providers and policy makers. One industrial partner, Ansaldo STS, has helped define the requirements aimed at supporting the integration of satellites and public radio communication networks. “The railway signalling market requires more and more innovative, reliable and competitive solutions in terms of costs, timing and energy saving, as well as safety and environmental impact,” says Ansaldo STS CEO Andy Barr. “We are glad to participate in testing this innovative technology.”

The GSA also supports the development of the rail market through various funding opportunities. For example, as seen in the success of the ERSAT EAV project, the Horizon 2020 (H2020) framework programme for research and innovation is taking a leading role in the standardisation and interoperability process.

In addition to ERSAT EAV, through H2020, the GSA is providing financial support to other projects working towards the integration of GNSS into the European rail sector. For example, the STARS project (Satellite Technology for Advanced Railway Signalling) is developing a universal approach for predicting the performance of GNSS in rail-related safety-critical applications and defining the necessary evolution of ERTMS to include these GNSS services.

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 KYNEO project is a case study on the impact that the European GNSS Agency’s (GSA) various funding mechanisms have on the development of the European GNSS market.

Ever wonder what kind of impact the GSA’s various funding mechanisms have on the development of the European GNSS market? The essential role this funding plays is seen first-hand in the rapid advancement of the KYNEO project. Winner of the 2015 European Satellite Navigation Competition’s (ESNC) GSA Special Prize, the project involves the development of cheap, flexible Galileo and EGNOS-enabled modules that allow ubiquitous positioning data for applications in the Internet of Things (IoT). 

According to project coordinator Rafael Olmedo, the project’s concept is an open innovation platform for what he refers to as the ‘GNSS of Things’. “The idea came from what I perceived as a need to be able to fast-prototype applications and devices in the rapidly developing IoT field,” he says. “What I saw was that many different products and services were looking for similar solutions for positioning that can be flexibly adapted in different contexts – something particularly true for developers.”

His solution is KYNEO, an Arduino-compatible board that allows developers to rapidly and flexibly build their own solutions based on open-source software. Arduino is an open-source electronic prototyping platform for the creation of interactive electronic objects. “There is a huge development community for digital electronic products out there, and KYNEO has been developed to serve as a great positioning tool for this community,” says Olmedo.

A multi-constellation solution

As the 2015 winner, the project received an initial payment of EUR 20 000, with an option for additional funding. “Thanks to the GSA Special Prize, we have successfully developed a new version of the KYNEO unit,” says Olmedo. The new version includes several improvements to the GNSS firmware and electronic components, including more effective power consumption. In addition to the updated unit, the project also updated its website, which now makes new software tools and examples available for developers.

One of the project’s main achievements is the addition of multi-constellation capability to the KYNEO unit. “Not only have we implemented differential corrections into the unit, making it possible to get EGNOS corrections through the radio module – very useful when there is no EGNOS coverage – but now, with the launch of Galileo Initial Services, the unit can also receive Galileo signals,” adds Olmedo. 

New market opportunities

In addition to its focus on preparing the supporting tools for developers – the project’s main customer base – Olmedo says the project has identified other potential customers, including technical universities and research and development (R&D) institutes who view KYNEO as an attractive unit for research. The team is also working on creating smaller enclosed devices for use by engineers and others who lack a developer’s GNSS programming background. For example, the project is currently developing a customised solution for a professional football coach, who will use KYNEO to measure the kinematics and positioning of players during training.

Moving towards commercialisation

However, before any of these markets can be fully exploited, the unit needs to comply with all relevant regulations. As the certification process is a complex and lengthy one, the project has contracted with a Spanish consultancy, for which it plans to allocate some of the additional funding from the GSA Special Prize towards.

“In this next phase, we turn our focus on getting the unit certified and implementing the business development support required for commercialisation at the national and international levels,” says Olmedo. “Thanks to the additional funding coming from the GSA Special Prize, I am confident that we will achieve all of our objectives.”  

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