To study, design and prove the concept of innovative processing engines (tracking and positioning level) enabling robust, reliable and high-accuracy positioning for applications in harsh environment

 

Sub-meter accuracy is becoming instrumental for more and more applications in urban environments. For professional use (e.g. Autonomous vehicles, machine control, first responders), this comes with stringent need on the accuracy?s confidence: situational awareness, high reliability and continuity of service.

Situational awareness (ability for the receiver to estimate the effects of the local environment on the measurements) is a key feature for trusted positioning, as it may detect faulty measurements, improve the position?s estimation (e.g. Weighting) and support multiple integrity concepts.

This activity will design, develop and assess innovative architectures and processing techniques enabling robust, accurate and trusted positioning in harsh propagation conditions where state-of-the-art cannot achieve trusted sub-meter positioning. The following strategies will be considered to enhance robustness and situational awareness:

- Diversity of signals: optimal use of all available signals from a satellite (multi-frequency and so-called ?meta-signals?);

- Diversity of source: cooperative processing, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) GNSS estimation (single user or multiple users)

- Advanced estimation (e.g. Direct Position Estimation, Particle Filter,)

Concepts to enhance the continuity of service in case of long GNSS outage (e.g. Tunnels, interference) will be studied and integrated to the robust high-accuracy solutions. No technique is precluded and back-ups may be considered, including: UE-based back-up (e.g. Dead-reckoning) and terrestrial systems (5G, Signal-of-Opportunity, local infrastructure).

Leveraging on the versatility of existing ues RF sensors, the above can combine into a seamless cognitive processing of all incoming sources. The identified solutions shall be implemented and assessed by simulation and offline processing of real and synthetic signals.

This activity encompasses the following tasks:

- Gathering and characterization of the relevant state-of-the-art (techniques

- Architecture, design and implementation of the innovative solutions

- Field trials and performance assessment

- Ways forward for the consolidation of Galileo evolutions, outreach

Future activities may include the demonstration of a real-time prototype, the refinement of the algorithms to demonstrate or enhance performances for some applications, for instance in support of standardization activities.