New NAVISP activities support resilient transportation in Europe

2 min read · reported by ESA

On 14 October, at the NAVISP Industry Days in Rome, Italy, the European Space Agency (ESA) signed new contracts with three European companies that will support the development of innovative technologies for resilient rail transportation and aviation.

Two of these contracts, signed with Intecs Technologies (Italy) and Airbus Defence and Space GmbH (Germany) will explore the use of 5G signals for positioning in rail applications. The third contract, signed with Creotech Geo P.S.A. (Poland) will develop a high-precision multilateration system for aviation that uses optical-fibre based time transfer. All three of these contracts will develop complementary positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) solutions, which are not solely based on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), ultimately increasing the resilience of European infrastructure to interference.

“These new activities are one example of how NAVISP drives innovation by supporting research and development for new PNT services,” says Rafael Lucas Rodriguez, Head of the NAVISP Programme Office at ESA. “By enabling companies to address new challenges, NAVISP keeps European industries competitive in the PNT market.”

Resilient rail

The contracts with Intecs Technologies and Airbus Defence and Space GmbH will explore the potential of using publicly available 5G networks to provide safe and accurate positioning for rail applications. This could be particularly useful in challenging environments.

5G-based positioning for rail could improve on the current European Train Control System, which uses fixed location tags and odometry sensors. While this system is both safe and accurate, it has a high maintenance cost and only provides positions at discrete locations. Through these contracts, Intecs Technologies and Airbus Defence and Space GmbH develop a train localisation prototype that builds on existing efforts to use 5G in communications for rail and analyse its positioning performance.

Reliable aircraft location

The contract with Creotech Geo P.S.A. will demonstrate the use of optical-fibre based time transfer, otherwise known as White Rabbit, for use in multilateration. In multilateration, objects such as aircraft are located based on the time difference of radio signals received by synchronised receivers.

The potential benefit of using White Rabbit time transfer instead of traditional time transfer, which is based on Global Navigation Satellite Systems, is improved precision and resilience against jamming and spoofing. Such a system would be particularly beneficial for Poland, where GNSS jamming and spoofing have become a regular problem. This project will develop both the hardware and software for high precision multilateration for evaluation in a real operational environment.

About NAVISP

ESA’s Navigation Innovation and Support Programme (NAVISP) aims to cultivate European and Canadian industrial capacities while pioneering the advancement of novel positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) systems. The programme fosters innovation beyond satellite navigation, spearheading the development of products and services to use, back-up, complement or augment existing PNT capabilities.

By mitigating commercial R&D risks and facilitating the development of new products and services, NAVISP enhances global market access for European industry and strengthens national capabilities.

NAVISP was created in 2016 as an optional ESA programme and is supported by 20 ESA Member States.

For more information about NAVISP: https://navisp.esa.int/

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Published by the European Space Agency. View the original →