Sensor-Augmented EGNOS/Galileo Receiver for Handheld Applications in Urban and Indoor Environments - SARHA

In pedestrian user environments, like dense urban canyons or indoors, the GNSS positioning performance regarding accuracy and availability reaches well-known technological limits. These limitations can be overcome by adding additional sources of information to the system. The main objective of the project ‘SARHA - Sensor-Augmented EGNOS/Galileo Receiver for Handheld Applications in Urban and Indoor Environments’ is the combination of a modern satellite navigation receiver with augmentation and autonomous sensors. Additionally, the hybrid navigation system will be enhanced by a transponder receiver, which communicates with transmitters installed inside buildings, to provide absolute position updates. The transponder will allow the SARHA system to significantly increase reliability and accuracy of the positioning solutions indoors. The hybrid navigation software is split up into two parts. The first one will be implemented directly on the GPS receiver, whereas the second part will run on a microcontroller. In this way a small, low-performance microcontroller can be used, what represents the first step to reduce dimension, weight and energy consumption of the mobile system. The project aims at meeting the requirements of fire fighters, rescue services, police, special task forces, solitary, and lone workers for handheld applications acting in environments with unfavourable satellite signal conditions, using hybrid navigation system architecture. Based on the Galileo signal definitions, analyses are set up to explore the signal characteristics in comparison to the GPS signals. Improvements due to Galileo signal availability in urban and indoor environments are assessed and will later ensure seamless integration of enhanced technologies into continuous developments.