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The European GNSS Agency (GSA) and Galileo Services (GS) recently met to confirm their continued commitment to ensuring the success of both European GNSS programmes and industry. 

The GSA recently met with Galileo Services, who represents the European GNSS downstream industry, to discuss the market uptake of Galileo and EGNOS. The meeting, which took place at GSA Headquarters in Prague on 25 November, reconfirmed the two organisations’ collaboration on Europe’s GNSS programmes.

The focus of the dialog was on a recent GS published position paper entitled “Europe Must Succeed in the Global Navigation Race”. The paper highlights potential plans for increasing the development of the GNSS market in Europe and, in particular, the uptake of Galileo and EGNOS – a task at the core of the GSA’s mission.

“I am pleased to see a convergence of views on many of the actions identified in the paper, including market intelligence and the promotion and support of R&D activities,” says GSA Executive Director Carlo des Dorides. “In this direction, the GSA is pleased to see GS members actively involved in Horizon 2020 R&D projects.”

“Galileo Services deeply appreciates the resources and actions coming from the GSA and other European institutions aimed at strengthening European GNSS and its downstream market,” adds GS Chairman Gard Ueland. “However, we need to do more to ensure that European industry can take full advantage of this booming, global market.”

Des Dorides noted that working in close collaboration with industry is a key task for the GSA. In support of this objective, the GSA has published its GNSS Market Report, which serves as an essential tool for understanding the evolution and current state of the global GNSS market.

Likewise, the GS Position Paper aims to serve as a roadmap, outlining a series of crucial steps Europe needs to implement to succeed at achieving its market potential.

Both organisations reconfirmed their commitment to cooperation, both with each other and with other stakeholders, with the ultimate objectives of fostering European GNSS market uptake and promoting the emergence of a dynamic European GNSS downstream sector. 

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) attended Agritechnica – the world’s largest trade fair for agricultural machinery and equipment – in Hanover, Germany to discuss and promote the important role that European GNSS plays in precision farming.

Precision agriculture utilises a myriad of different technologies to make farming more efficient, to improve crop yield and reduce environmental impact. GNSS-enabled applications are key to these efforts, from farm machinery guidance using GNSS positioning, to automatic steering, yield monitoring and livestock tracking.

One of the most beneficial uses of GNSS is in yield monitoring, where the output of a yield sensor is combined with the GNSS positioning of the harvester, enabling site-specific monitoring. Soil condition monitoring, allowing farmers to see real-time updates on soil moisture levels, fertility, and diseases, is another area where GNSS applications are extremely useful.

“The role of European GNSS systems, specifically EGNOS and soon Galileo, in agriculture is to decrease costs and increase yields.,” said GSA Market Development Officer Reinhard Blasi, speaking at Agritechnica in Hanover. “Precision agriculture is highly effective, and allows farmers to optimise their fields with less fertiliser, pesticide, fuel, or labour input, so they can reinvest those savings in new equipment or other growth options.”

With a growing world population that needs to be fed, along with increasing climate issues, maximising output while saving resources is more important than ever. The main GNSS application is tractor guidance, which increases efficiency. When used to spray insecticides or in harvesting crops, EGNOS also increases yields and helps provide food supply around the world.

GNSS Applications in the Field

At Agritechnica, several companies demonstrated how they are using satellite navigation on a daily basis. For example, Topcon Precision Agriculture offers five solutions using satellite navigation:

• Control–auto-steering
• Implements–seeding and spraying
• Measuring the colour of green
• Drones (both fixed wing and octocopter)
• Yield Mapping Monitor

Topcon currently uses GPS and Glonass, but is eagerly awaiting Galileo. “The technology comes just in time,” said Julian Rioja, Marketing Manager EAME for Topcon.

Another company benefiting from EGNOS in the field is AGCO. AGCO uses EGNOS technology for precision mapping, field mapping for harvest, and mapping yield. “The EGNOS capability works well in our machinery, and we have had good interactions with the GSA,” said Paul Lay, Manager, Marketing Creative Services and Public Relations. “We’re ready for Galileo.”

Farmnet 365’s Klaus-Herbert Rolf agreed that EGNOS has been working well in the agriculture sector. “One of the biggest success of EGNOS is in the agriculture industry,” he said, citing food traceability as one area of particular success. 365 Farmnet’s technology currently saves 5% of working time for farmers, and saves 10-15 Euro per hectare. He also noted that the company is business-ready for Galileo, and he hopes the technology is launched soon, with a comprehensive communication strategy for businesses, in order to develop a complete roadmap and training plan to implement it as seamlessly as possible. 

GSA-Financed Project Takes Home Award

Also at Agritechnica, the CLAAS Group was awarded a silver medal for its CLAAS field route optimisation system, which optimises working passes for every field and accurately forecasts the processing time required. The solution, which results in an average cost reduction of 6%, was financed by the GSA FP7 project GEOPAL.
“This represents a tremendous potential, seeing that we have about 13 million farms in Europe,” said Christian Radons, Senior Manager Precision Farming at CLAAS Global. “We greatly appreciate the joint efforts from the GSA, and we are proud to have a great sellable product in the market.”

Anticipating Galileo

The GSA is eager to see how Galileo will enhance precision farming even further once utilised by agriculture companies. Both now and in the future, GNSS-enabled applications are a cost-effective solution to make farming more efficient, increase crop yield, and reduce the environmental impact of farming.

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) attended Agritechnica – the world’s largest trade fair for agricultural machinery and equipment – in Hanover, Germany to discuss and promote the important role that European GNSS plays in precision farming.

Precision agriculture utilises a myriad of different technologies to make farming more efficient, to improve crop yield and reduce environmental impact. GNSS-enabled applications are key to these efforts, from farm machinery guidance using GNSS positioning, to automatic steering, yield monitoring and livestock tracking.

One of the most beneficial uses of GNSS is in yield monitoring, where the output of a yield sensor is combined with the GNSS positioning of the harvester, enabling site-specific monitoring. Soil condition monitoring, allowing farmers to see real-time updates on soil moisture levels, fertility, and diseases, is another area where GNSS applications are extremely useful.

“The role of European GNSS systems, specifically EGNOS and soon Galileo, in agriculture is to decrease costs and increase yields.,” said GSA Market Development Officer Reinhard Blasi, speaking at Agritechnica in Hanover. “Precision agriculture is highly effective, and allows farmers to optimise their fields with less fertiliser, pesticide, fuel, or labour input, so they can reinvest those savings in new equipment or other growth options.”

With a growing world population that needs to be fed, along with increasing climate issues, maximising output while saving resources is more important than ever. The main GNSS application is tractor guidance, which increases efficiency. When used to spray insecticides or in harvesting crops, EGNOS also increases yields and helps provide food supply around the world.

GNSS Applications in the Field

At Agritechnica, several companies demonstrated how they are using satellite navigation on a daily basis. For example, Topcon Precision Agriculture offers five solutions using satellite navigation:

• Control–auto-steering
• Implements–seeding and spraying
• Measuring the colour of green
• Drones (both fixed wing and octocopter)
• Yield Mapping Monitor

Topcon currently uses GPS and Glonass, but is eagerly awaiting Galileo. “The technology comes just in time,” said Julian Rioja, Marketing Manager EAME for Topcon.

Another company benefiting from EGNOS in the field is AGCO. AGCO uses EGNOS technology for precision mapping, field mapping for harvest, and mapping yield. “The EGNOS capability works well in our machinery, and we have had good interactions with the GSA,” said Paul Lay, Manager, Marketing Creative Services and Public Relations. “We’re ready for Galileo.”

Farmnet 365’s Klaus-Herbert Rolf agreed that EGNOS has been working well in the agriculture sector. “One of the biggest success of EGNOS is in the agriculture industry,” he said, citing food traceability as one area of particular success. 365 Farmnet’s technology currently saves 5% of working time for farmers, and saves 10-15 Euro per hectare. He also noted that the company is business-ready for Galileo, and he hopes the technology is launched soon, with a comprehensive communication strategy for businesses, in order to develop a complete roadmap and training plan to implement it as seamlessly as possible. 

GSA-Financed Project Takes Home Award

Also at Agritechnica, the CLAAS Group was awarded a silver medal for its CLAAS field route optimisation system, which optimises working passes for every field and accurately forecasts the processing time required. The solution, which results in an average cost reduction of 6%, was financed by the GSA FP7 project GEOPAL.
“This represents a tremendous potential, seeing that we have about 13 million farms in Europe,” said Christian Radons, Senior Manager Precision Farming at CLAAS Global. “We greatly appreciate the joint efforts from the GSA, and we are proud to have a great sellable product in the market.”

Anticipating Galileo

The GSA is eager to see how Galileo will enhance precision farming even further once utilised by agriculture companies. Both now and in the future, GNSS-enabled applications are a cost-effective solution to make farming more efficient, increase crop yield, and reduce the environmental impact of farming.

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 together with ESSP demonstrates the improved accuracy of EGNOS at the annual ESRI user’s conference in Spain. 

The GSA, along with the European Satellite Services Provider (ESSP), recently presented success stories on EGNOS and ArcGIS at this year’s Conferencia ESRI España, the annual Environmental Systems Research Institute user’s conference in this country.

The Environmental Systems Research Institute (+ESRI) is an international supplier of GIS (Geographic Information System) software, web GIS, and geodatabase management application, holding about 40-percent of the global market share. At the conference, the GSA was able to demonstrate how EGNOS’ architecture and services work in real mapping situations.

Using the Barcelona Port Cartographic Institute measurement campaign as an example, the Agency together with ESRI showed how EGNOS improves GPS accuracy. Surveys of ports and harbours cover a range of topographic elevations and hydrographic depths to assess the condition of navigation channels. These assessments help quantify and determine dredging requirements, and the conditions of navigation structures such as jetties, breakwaters, and the adjacent shoreline.

The Barcelona Port Cartographic Institute wanted to check if EGNOS could fulfil the requirements put in place by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) to perform bathymetries. Typically, the data used to make bathymetric maps comes from an echo sounder mounted under or on the side of a boat, which ‘pings’ a beam of sound towards the seafloor. Next, a GNSS system positions the soundings with respect to the surface of the earth.

In this example, data was collected from an EGNOS compatible Leica GNSS system. After analysing the data collected using EGNOS, analysts found that the service accomplished the requirements of Surveys 1a (waters more than 40 meters deep), 1b, and 2, according to the IHO, in offshore bathymetrics.

The GSA, ESSP and ESRI also presented a case study from the beach of El Prat, a zone of high interest due to its constantly changing coastline – a result of dumping sand. The data accuracy of measurements collected from GPS and EGNOS signals were compared, using ZenoCollector, a solution from Leica Geosystems. ZenoCollector combines a high-accuracy data collection Zeno 20 device with another tool, the Collector for ArcGIS. The latter system allows data to be automatically synced online, where multiple people can view it instantly.

Results of both projects showed that EGNOS considerably improves GPS accuracy for free. For municipalities and organisations hoping to obtain more accurate results, all that is needed is an EGNOS-compatible requirement, and the vast majority are so. What was clearly demonstrated at the conference was the ease, benefits and cost-effectiveness of EGNOS for GIS.

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).