RT4FMM

Receiver techniques for future mass-market localisation needs

Aims

• Design of innovated GNSS receiver techniques suited for future mass-market receivers including the three main development areas: improved position accuracy, hybrid positioning for ubiquitous navigation and improved navigation resilience to interference and spoofing.
• Design and development of a platform emulating a mass-market device where the receiver techniques can be integrated and tested.
• Implementation of a client SW running in real-time in the mass-market platform and embedding the designed techniques.
• The evaluation of the performance of such techniques through testing in simulated and live scenarios.

Brief Description

The background of the project RT4FMM is focused on the localisation function of mass-market devices embedding GNSS positioning and other localisation means. Smartphones, tablets, tracking devices, digital cameras, portable computers, fitness gear all use GNSS positioning (along with network-based or hybrid positioning techniques) for navigation, mapping, gaming and geo-advertising. Besides several types of applications relying on position have been developed leading to an increasing variety of location-based services (LBS). Safety applications benefit from accurate emergency caller location tracking. LBS also assist enterprises by providing mobile workforce management and tracking solutions.
The current trends clearly identify some areas where the current technology is still not able to cope with the increasing needs:

• Improving accuracy of the position fix provided by mass-market GNSS receivers.
  • The introduction of GNSS multi-constellation chips working on L1 has shown on one hand the great improvement of such solution in terms of Time-To-First-Fix (TTFF) and Dilution of Precision in difficult environments where the availability of many measurements is mandatory (e.g. urban canyons) or where the antenna characteristics and the interactions with the users degrade the satellites received signal (e.g. smartphone). On the other hand, the tests of single frequency chips with up to four constellations have not shown enough accuracy as it is currently aimed at. The natural evolution of this trend is the addition of a second frequency at first and multiple frequencies as further step.
  • The first attempts of RTK and PPP position fixes with smartphone-grade antennae have shown the potential of carrier phase based techniques to increase fix accuracy.
• Providing ubiquitous positioning. The integration of outdoor and indoor LBS is ushering in the era of hybrid positioning, which includes all services the use both outdoor and indoor LBS technologies to enable a seamless navigation experience between outdoor and indoor environments.
• Increasing robustness of the positioning: detection and exclusion of faulty measurements in the frame of a hybrid-positioning engine integrating GNSS, inertial sensors and other sensors.