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Mark your calendar for the fourth edition of the European Space Solutions conference, 30 May – 3 June 2016 in The Hague, The Netherlands.

The fourth edition of the European Space Solutions conference is set for 30 May through 3 June 2016 in The Hague, The Netherlands. Under the auspices of the 2016 Dutch Presidency of the European Council, this five-day event will highlight how space-based services and technologies are the key to providing the efficient, effective and sustainable services that European society demands.

The conference will bring together leaders and representatives of the public and private sectors from Europe and across the globe, along with users, developers and thought leaders for a wide-array of presentations, panel discussions, workshops and a unique hands-on showcase of innovative space solutions.

Top Five Reasons to Attend

1. Listen to European policy makers discuss how to harness space in tackling Europe’s tough challenges
2. Get inspired by extraordinary speakers from international industry, research and institutional entities.
3. Discover innovative, effective and efficient solutions in the areas of Agriculture and Food, Water, Mobility, Climate Change, Health and Safety, and Energy
4. Meet entrepreneurs, start-ups, industry leaders, space stakeholders, investors, researchers and policy makers and network with more than 2,000 professionals coming from across Europe and beyond.
5. See a showcase of the latest space-based applications in Earth observation, satellite navigation, and European space research

Pre-register Today!

Don’t miss this opportunity for an inside look at the possibilities space applications offer to a wide range of businesses and sectors.

While in The Hague, you can also visit the European Space Expo, which is set to touch down in The Hague’s Old City Centre from 27 May – 5 June. Join the over 900,000 European citizens who have already visited this unique, hands-on showcase of Europe’s space programmes.

More information, preliminary agenda and pre-registration for the European Space Solutions conference is available 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).

Mark your calendar for the fourth edition of the European Space Solutions conference, 30 May – 3 June 2016 in The Hague, The Netherlands.

The fourth edition of the European Space Solutions conference is set for 30 May through 3 June 2016 in The Hague, The Netherlands. Under the auspices of the 2016 Dutch Presidency of the European Council, this five-day event will highlight how space-based services and technologies are the key to providing the efficient, effective and sustainable services that European society demands.

The conference will bring together leaders and representatives of the public and private sectors from Europe and across the globe, along with users, developers and thought leaders for a wide-array of presentations, panel discussions, workshops and a unique hands-on showcase of innovative space solutions.

Top Five Reasons to Attend

1. Listen to European policy makers discuss how to harness space in tackling Europe’s tough challenges
2. Get inspired by extraordinary speakers from international industry, research and institutional entities.
3. Discover innovative, effective and efficient solutions in the areas of Agriculture and Food, Water, Mobility, Climate Change, Health and Safety, and Energy
4. Meet entrepreneurs, start-ups, industry leaders, space stakeholders, investors, researchers and policy makers and network with more than 2,000 professionals coming from across Europe and beyond.
5. See a showcase of the latest space-based applications in Earth observation, satellite navigation, and European space research

Pre-register Today!

Don’t miss this opportunity for an inside look at the possibilities space applications offer to a wide range of businesses and sectors.

While in The Hague, you can also visit the European Space Expo, which is set to touch down in The Hague’s Old City Centre from 27 May – 5 June. Join the over 900,000 European citizens who have already visited this unique, hands-on showcase of Europe’s space programmes.

More information, preliminary agenda and pre-registration for the European Space Solutions conference is available 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 European Commission has published a new release 1.2 of the Galileo Open Service Signal In Space Interface Control Document (OS SIS ICD v1.2). The document provides the information needed by receiver and chipset manufacturers, application developers and service providers to process and make use of the open signals generated by the Galileo satellites.

The OS SIS ICD contains the publicly available information on the Galileo Open Service Signal In Space, specifying the interface between the Galileo space and user segments. The Galileo user segment is of particular interest to the European GNSS Agency (GSA), which has been delegated responsibility for the programme’s service provision by the European Commission. In fulfilment of this role, the GSA is well advanced in developing the European GNSS Service Centre (GSC), which provides the single interface for information and help to users of the Galileo Open Service (OS). Once fully developed, the GSC will operate on a 24/7 basis and offer a range of services, including hosting the Galileo User Helpdesk, providing the interfaces between the Galileo System and OS users and hosting a centre of expertise for OS service aspects. 

The OS SIS ICD is a key document as it provides the information required by receiver and chipset manufacturers, application developers and service providers to be able to process the Open Service signals generated by the Galileo satellites. In particular, the document specifies:

• Galileo signal characteristics
• Characteristics of Galileo spreading codes
• Galileo message structure
• Message data contents

The latest version is based on feedback from receiver manufacturers and other stakeholders received during an extensive public consultation in 2014.

The GSA further highlights the importance of this document for the development of receiver technology, which is the key enabler for translating Galileo signals into useful services. Over the past several years, the GSA has been engaged in open dialogue with chipset and receiver manufacturers, paving the way for Galileo to be fully integrated into a new generation of receivers and ensuring its signals will provide a wide array of new applications and services that directly benefit European citizens.

The Details

In addition to a number of minor editorial improvements including corrections and clarifications, an annex with numerical examples of FEC coding and interleaving has been added and the licence agreement has been revised and simplified. The document now refers to a companion document, "Ionospheric Correction Algorithm for Galileo Single Frequency Users", containing details on the ionospheric model used for Galileo. The E1-B, E1-C and E5 Primary Codes in Annex C are no longer included in the paper version, but are available in the electronic version of the ICD.

The Galileo OS SIS ICD v1.2 document can be downloaded here.

The Ionospheric Correction Algorithm for Galileo Single Frequency Users document can be downloaded here.

Paper copies are available on request by contacting the European Commission grow-galileo@ec.europa.eu.

Related links:

• Galileo Programme Reference Documents
• Video: “Message received: Ensuring that navigation devices are ready for Galileo”
• European Commission Galileo

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).

In global terms, the road sector is one of the largest and most dynamic consumer markets, representing a major business opportunity for GNSS technology applications. With a projected 2023 worldwide market for road-vehicle GNSS receivers now estimated at 620 million, the future for EGNOS and GALILEO-related road applications looks promising.

At the same time, steadily increasing road traffic in Europe does have a significant down side, including traffic congestion, accidents and increasing pollution. But GNSS technologies, now standard equipment in cars and other vehicles, are enabling services that respond to all of these issues, from fuel-saving route guidance to electronic toll charging, life-saving applications and ensuring the security of hazardous materials transportation.

Read the Report: GNSS Market Report Road

The Agency is focusing on three key GNSS Road application areas:

1. Safety-critical applications
2. Liability and payment applications
3. Policy-related applications

Safety Critical Applications

“Safety-critical applications leverage precise and secure positioning in situations where humans can come to harm or where systems or the environment could be damaged,” says GSA Market Development Officer Alberto Fernandez-Wyttenbach. As an example, he cites the so-called ‘connected vehicles’. Here, GNSS positioning information provides situational awareness that can be transmitted to other vehicles through vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications, contributing to the safety of the driver.

Watch This: EGNOS for Road

Meanwhile, autonomous vehicles are also rising on the agenda. These vehicles are enabled by a combination of different technologies and sensors that allow the vehicle itself to identify the optimal trajectory. European GNSS will play a key role here by providing relevant inputs for integrated navigation, such as precise vehicle location and speed.

Another key safety-related application is dangerous goods tracking, involving the transmission of GNSS-based positioning data on vehicles carrying such goods, along with other information about the status of the cargo.
Liability, Payment and Policy-Related Applications

“Liability and payment applications generate information of legal or economic significance, based on positioning data,” Fernandez-Wyttenbach says. “For example, under GNSS-based schemes for road-user charging (RUC), operators can charge motorists for the actual distance travelled, without barriers or gantries. And interoperable GNSS-based road charging is much easier to expand and to link with other similar schemes, even across borders.”

Also Read: Progress for Galileo at ASECAP

In a different but related sector, insurance telematics use GNSS data to assess individual driving behaviour. The so-called ‘black boxes’ rely on GNSS data to increase the fairness of motor insurance for both insurers and subscribers..

 “And then there is a set of new applications, which are used to apply the transport policies introduced by national or international legislations”, he explains. As an example he cites the pan-European ‘eCall’ scheme. The scheme involves a GNSS-enabled in-vehicle system that sends a 112 emergency call in the event of an accident, thus accelerating emergency assistance to drivers. When the European Parliament voted in favour of a new eCall regulation last April, Commissioner for Digital Society and Economy Günther H. Oettinger said: “eCall is a perfect example of an EU-supported project that has developed technological solutions to save people's lives.”

Another application the GSA is looking at is digital tachographs. The so-called smart tachographs leverage GNSS positioning to support road enforcers, recording the position of a given vehicle at different points during the working day.

The Next Generation of GNSS Receivers

Newer and higher-performance receivers now set for release will play an important role in safety-critical applications, particularly connected vehicles and autonomous driving. These two applications represent a disruptive and revolutionary innovation and will have to overcome a number of regulatory, economical, technological and social challenges.

For instance, further software development and testing is still needed, security is still an issue, as is public opinion. Liability models must be defined in a way that consumers are convinced to pay a premium for self-driving technologies. Finally, governments still need to define appropriate policies.

Read This: European GNSS Creates Opportunities for Fairer Road Tolling

Right now, the United States seems to move first in this area, being more flexible than Europe in terms of road transportation policy and regulation. The US is also the world leader in automotive sales revenues, and the use of road vehicles is more popular there than in Europe or Asia.

On the other hand, some European countries are making an impressive investment in pilot projects for driverless cars, so Europe is not completely off the radar in this area.

Research and Impact

The European satellite navigation systems Galileo and EGNOS represent important new implements for change in Europe and in the drive to meet key global challenges, including the ever-increasing demand for mobility.

The importance of road transport has not escaped the European Union and is reflected in the proportion of EU research funding set aside for road-related projects. Under the GNSS section of the EU research budget, road projects have been and will continue to be among the most frequently proposed by the R&D industry. The importance of road transport has also been highlighted in the GSA’s GNSS Market Report and in the Agency’s market development strategy.

According to GSA analyses, road transport has also been among the research areas achieving the greatest market impact, in terms of the number of real marketable products or services achieved.

All this points to a solid central position for road-related GNSS, backed by strong support from Europe’s private and public sectors.

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).