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The Galileo Reference Centre (GRC), to be located in the Netherlands, will play a crucial role in monitoring Galileo’s performance. The European GNSS Agency (GSA) made the announcement during this week’s European Space Solutions conference in The Hague. 

This week during the 4th European Space Solutions conference in The Hague, the GSA announced the establishment of the Galileo Reference Centre (GRC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. The GRC’s core mission is to perform independent monitoring of Galileo’s performance and report on its findings. 

European Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs Elżbieta Bieńkowska and Dutch Minister of Infrastructure and the Environment Melanie Schultz van Haegen joined GSA Executive Director Carlo des Dorides to officially sign the GRC hosting agreement during the conference’s opening session.  

“The use of space data is becoming more urgent and relevant in many areas, for example in maritime safety and smart mobility,” says Minister Schultz van Haegen. “The Galileo Reference Centre will help ensure the provision of high quality satellite data so users can better rely on and benefit from Galileo.”

With Galileo Initial Services set to be declared this year, the GRC will play a pivotal role in the programme’s operations. “When operational, the GRC will provide the GSA with an independent system to evaluate the performance of the Galileo Service Operator and the quality of the signals in space,” says des Dorides. 

GRC’s core facility in Noordwijk will also actively integrate contributions from the EU Member States, Norway and Switzerland. The core facility is charged with generating performance evaluation products, reporting and performing dedicated campaign-based analyses. It will also rely on a range of facilities and expertise available in the Member States. 

The GRC will be implemented using a versioning approach. The first step is expected to be in place at the time of declaration of Galileo Initial Services. The core facility is set to become operational in 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).

French start-up UBISCALE was named the winner of the first GSA “IoT Solutions empowered by GNSS” award at the 2016 GEO IoT conference.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is everywhere, connecting smartphones, tablets and industrial and home appliances, and making roads, cities, factories and appliances smarter. In every sector of the economy, IoT is enabling objects to exchange data with manufacturers, operators and other devices to create a vast integrated network of connected things and services that is expected to surpass a volume of 50 billion by 2020.

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) such as Galileo and EGNOS play a key role in IoT, providing the positioning, velocity and timing information required by an increasing number of context-aware applications.

To raise awareness of the integral role that GNSS plays in IoT, the European GNSS Agency (GSA) sponsored the IoT Solutions empowered by GNSS award within the GEO IoT World conference on 25-26 May in Brussels.

“Galileo brings IoT better accuracy and availability due to its signal strength in such difficult environments as in the city, as well as an authenticated open signal,” says GSA Executive Director Carlo des Dorides. “With this award, the GSA was looking for the most innovative IoT applications that rely on GNSS and leverage the enhanced possibilities offered by Galileo – and we found such an application in UBISCALE, this year’s winning company.”

Power saving solution

At the centre of this winning concept is the UbiGNSS™ technology and service that enables true low‐power GNSS‐based IoT services. The UbiGNSS™ solution’s essential insight is that for tracking applications, the device itself does not need to know its position, although the service side tracking applications does.

“From this assessment, we achieved power‐optimised GNSS pre‐processing for end‐devices and shifted the actual calculation of the position to a cloud‐based server, while sustaining the low data rate of Low‐Power Wide‐Area Networking (LPWAN),” says UBISCALE General Manager Samuel Ryckewaert who, along with CTO Mikaël Guenais, received the award during a special ceremony in Brussels. “In comparison to architecture based on GNSS computing the position at the device, the combination of GNSS and LPWAN used in UbiGNSS™ can cut power consumption by ten times, which enables unprecedented battery‐operated and truly cost‐effective tracking applications.”

UbiGNSS™ technology has been engineered to be compatible with all major GNSS systems, but the company anticipates that Galileo, thanks to its modulations and signal strength, will provide additional benefits, especially in terms of urban and other challenging environments.

The company is also anticipating a swift entry into the market. “With the advent of LPWAN networks, we believe our entry is arriving at the right time on the market,” says Guenais. “LPWAN networks are expected to represent 25% of total IoT connectivity by 2020 and will unleash a large volume of opportunities in lower-end devices.”

As well as working with new tracking devices, the UbiGNSS™ solution can also be applied to existing trackers as a firmware upgrade.

In reaching their verdict, the jury, which included GSA Market Development Officer for IoT and LBS Justyna Redelkiewicz and other industry experts, praised the UBISCALE solution, saying: “Power consumption is one of the main barriers for GNSS adoption in IoT.  As this project tackles this problem, we think it will have a huge impact on the market.”

In recognition of their achievement, the company received a GSA ‘prism’ trophy and certificate. In addition, UBISCALE will be funded for a business incubation period tailored around their needs, which could include market analysis, business strategy and business plan development, resource mobilisation strategy and international positioning. Furthermore, the company will have access to networking opportunities with industry and investors, investor relations and investor scouting, a dedicated team of GSA-accredited consultants and coaches, along with an extensive network of industry and institutions – all specialised in the GEO IoT market.

EAGLE award

In addition to the main prize, the GSA also announced a special prize awarded to the EAGLE (Enhanced Authentication with GaLileo dEvice) device, entered by Italian venture SpaceEXE. This concept integrates a high‐precision GNSS receiver with the capability of authenticating position through the GNSS satellite signal recording, the I.D. satellite tracked, and their position in orbit.

The application will enable local authorities to create ‘Fluid Limited Traffic Zones’ to dynamically regulate access to city centres, thus setting a new standard for city mobility. The technological novelty of the product is the civil use of authentication of the Galileo GNSS signal, paired with a massive cloud based system capable of monitoring multiple vehicles in real time. “The idea of this project is very interesting since it provides flexibility for city traffic management while leveraging Galileo Open Service authentication,” says Redelkiewicz.

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).

Speaking at this week’s Geospatial World Forum in Rotterdam, the European GNSS Agency (GSA) discussed the many benefits that EGNOS and Galileo offer the geospatial sector and, specifically, the surveying and mapping domains.

Speaking at the Geospatial World Forum, the premiere event for the geospatial sector, the GSA highlighted the multiple benefits that such European GNSS programmes as Galileo and EGNOS bring to European surveyors, as well as illustrating synergies with the EU Earth Observation programme Copernicus. Topics discussed included how to increase industry adoption of GNSS, how to better meet user needs, and the integration of E-GNSS into geospatial equipment and end products.

Although all of these topics are of interest to surveyors, the topic on the top of everyone’s mind was the status of Galileo – and the GSA came bringing good news.

As two additional Galileo satellites were launched just that morning, Galileo satellites 13 and 14 will be followed by the launch of four more satellites later this year, with the declaration of Galileo Initial Services expected in the autumn. “Currently 80% of all GNSS receivers for surveying and mapping are EGNOS enabled and 45% are already Galileo enabled. This confirmed that the sector is well-positioned to benefit from of the Galileo services” says the GSA.

Galileo’s improved signal robustness, varying levels of authentication and its Commercial Service’s high-accuracy receiver error below one decimetre are all features that will greatly benefit geospatial users. According to a recent GSA survey, 78% of respondents say they will be ready to use Galileo signals by 2017.

    Read also: EGNOS – A cost effective solution for GIS

As a prelude to what is in store for surveyors, the Swedish Cartographic Society reported that the Swedish surveyors are already anticipating how Galileo will help them for surveying in cities and other difficult environments. Most of the reference stations of SWEPOS, the Swedish national reference network provider, are fully equipped with Galileo-capable receivers.

However, Galileo will not operate in a vacuum. Not only is it interoperable with other GNSS systems, it also offers numerous synergies with the EU’s Copernicus Earth Observation system – particularly for the geospatial sector. “There is a huge potential for synergies between geopositioning and surface imaging,” says Dufourmont, Project Manager Copernicus Land Monitoring Services of the European Environment Agency. “For example, the sector is currently using both systems to track animals and monitor migration paths before making development decisions.”

Collaboration and support

To ensure the surveying community takes full advantage of all that Galileo and EGNOS have to offer, the GSA and the Council of European Geodetic Surveyors (CLGE) continue to collaborate. For example, GSA awards the special Galileo prize in the framework of the annual CLGE Young Surveyor Prize. Last year’s winner, Laura van de Vyvere of M3 Systems in Belgium, made innovative use of Galileo's unique four frequency signals to improve positioning in harsh ionospheric conditions.

GSA aims at responding to end-users’ needs and it therefore established a unique interface Galileo systems and users: the GSC (European GNSS Service Centre). The GSC is the platform where users can get information about the Galileo system status and performances, system documents and it includes a helpdesk.

The GSA is further supporting the uptake of European GNSS in the surveying sector via various funding mechanisms. For example, the Horizon 2020 LARA project is bringing together GNSS, augmented reality and 3D GIS geo-databases to show utility workers operating in the field what lies below the service – allowing them to know where it is safe to dig. MapKITE, another Horizon 2020 project, is bringing together terrestrial and aerial mapping systems, such remote payloads as LIDAR and GNSS systems for simultaneous geodata acquisition. 

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).