Images courtesy Lockheed Martin and Harris Corporation.
POSITIONING
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION Research using a satellite-based augmentation system will lead to more accurate positioning services in Australasia.
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he Australia and New Zealand CRC for Spatial Information (CRCSI) will lead an industry program that evaluates applications on a recently announced satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS) testbed. CRCSI partners Geoscience Australia and Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), together with three companies — GMV, Inmarsat and Lockheed Martin, will implement the SBAS testbed through a two-year project to evaluate three positioning signals for improved accuracy and integrity over Australia and New Zealand. “The SBAS testbed will trial a range of SBAS signals for the first time in Australia, one of which has never been tested before. The SBAS signals provide an opportunity for many users to more readily access higher accuracy satellite positioning over Australia and New Zealand,” said Dr Peter Woodgate, CEO of the CRCSI. “The SBAS testbed is Australia’s first exploratory step to joining countries such as the United States, Europe, China, Russia, India and Japan, which are already using the technology on a daily basis,” added Gary Johnston, head of Geoscience Australia’s geodesy and seismic monitoring section. “This technology hasn’t been widely tested in Australia before; however, GMV, Inmarsat and Lockheed Martin have experience implementing it around the world,” Johnston added. “The testing of SBAS technology in Australia offers a number of potential safety, productivity, efficiency and environmental benefits to many local industries, including transport, agriculture, construction and resources. “Research has shown that the widespread adoption of improved positioning technology has the potential to generate upwards of $73 billion of value to Australia by 2030,” said Johnston.
In January 2017, the Australian Government announced $12 million in funding for the trial of SBAS technology. Johnston said Geoscience Australia will be collaborating closely with GMV, Inmarsat and Lockheed Martin on the technical components of the testbed. “We’ll be testing two new satellite positioning technologies — next-generation SBAS and Precise Point Positioning — which provide positioning accuracies of several decimetres and five centimetres respectively.” Australia currently relies on the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) of other countries, including the United States’ GPS. These international systems typically give Australians positioning accuracy of five to 10 metres. The three signals to be tested are: • The current offering provided in Europe and the US (L1 Legacy signal). • A new dual-frequency signal to be tested for the first time in both Australia and New Zealand (L5 Dual-Frequency and MultiConstellation Signal). • High-precision, Precise Point Positioning (PPP) navigation corrections where decimetre-level accuracies at user level are expected. In simple terms, the SBAS satellite provides a cost-effective way to improve GPS signals from around 5 metres in accuracy to less than 1 metre. In March, Geoscience Australia and the CRCSI will call for organisations from a number of industries including agriculture, aviation, construction, mining, maritime, rail, road, spatial and utilities to participate in the testbed.
This month’s eMag is proudly sponsored by www.rohde-schwarz.com.au
Mar/Apr 2017 - Critical Comms
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