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Galileo Receiver for Mass Market Applications <br/> in the Automotive Area

Periodic Report Summary - GAMMA-A (Galileo Receiver for Mass Market Applications in the Automotive Area)

Project context and objectives:

Overview

The objective of the project is was the development of a cost-effective three-frequency receiver for global positioning system (GPS) and Galileo that meets the high demands of the automobile industry in particular high-precision and reliable positioning. The GAMMA-A project is funded within the European Commission (EC) Seventh Framework Program (FP7) and managed by the Directorate-General for Energy and Transport (DG-TREN) (see also http://www.gamma-project.info for details).

Motivation

In the automotive sector, there are very high demands on availability, accuracy and reliability for the position solution. These demands of novel and innovative driver assistance systems are not fulfilled in acceptable price classes by current GNSS receivers. There is the need of having a cost-effective receiver available to realize the driving assistance systems. It also has to deliver reliable and continuous position information even under heavy reception conditions caused by the shadowing effect and multipath propagation of the satellite signals and the permanently changing environmental conditions.

In the future, satellite-supported assistance systems should even be able to intervene in the car control system in case of danger - for example, to prevent accidents or to minimize the consequences of an accident.

These safety-critical systems represent the top class of driving assistance -that also has to undergo a thorough certification process.

Technologies

To meet these demands, the receiver is able to process the new broadband signals from Galileo and GPS in different frequency bands.

Therefore, new and different processes were developed in all parts of the receiver. Especially the so-called 'memory codes' (Galileo E5E1) and signals with combinations of 'binary offset carrier' (BOC) modulations (Galileo E1 CBOC) or as time division multiplex (GPS L1C TMBOC) require new methods for acquisition and during signal tracking. Thus the receiver finds its first position in a few seconds and also keeps it reliably with a very good quality even under difficult conditions.

The measurement of multiple signals with different frequencies and from different navigation systems makes it possible to calculate the position, speed and time with a high degree of redundancy. This is used to determine omnipresent interference like ionospheric effects but also to reduce local effects like multipath reception.

Furthermore, the project also analyzed the opportunities for secure signal authentication. Future receivers can reliably detect intentional interfering signals and reduce the interference effects. Thus an application in the security-relevant sector also becomes possible.

The multifrequency approach of GAMMA-A, that is innovative in the automobile sector, allows an analysis of the carrier phases to determine the position. Within the scope of the project, new methods for a quick resolution of the phase ambiguity were tested in the automobile sector. The solution of this problem in the future enables reliable traffic-lane identification and the compliance with lateral safety zones.

Integration

An important aspect in the automobile industry is the cost-effective price of the components. The price can only be reduced with a high degree of integration of many receiver parts. As the first step, both RF front-ends for the broadband GPS Galileo signals were implemented as an integrated circuit.

The digital signal processing - composed of the baseband processing, the channels and processors - were implemented on a rapid prototyping platform in a field programmable gate array (FPGA). All modules used were already designed in such a manner that enables later ASIC implementation quickly and with little effort.

Prototype

The prototype receiver was built in a robust PXI housing. The performance of the receiver was tested in several steps against the requirements of the automobile industry. In the scope of the project, the position accuracy requirement was defined at 1 m level - whereas 10 cm should be possible with activated RTK technology.

Project objectives

The objectives of the research and development project GAMMA-A are fourfold:

- to contribute to the preparation of the future market introduction of Galileo services and products in the primary domain of automotive applications;
- to design, develop and test a new triple-frequency Galileo/EGNOS/GPS satellite navigation receiver prototype;
- to investigate and analyse carefully potential solutions featuring future automotive applications;
- to address new challenging applications in secondary domains e.g. rail, maritime, emergency services and demanding location based services (LBS).

Project results:

Work performed and main results

Therefore, the concept of GAMMA-A foresaw to provide precise and reliable localisation performance within the environmental conditions of automotive applications, e.g. advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).

The project started with the identification of the relevant market segment and the elaboration of user requirements and suitable business model. All relevant core technologies for the chosen application and receiver architecture have been studied to enable the implementation of the receiver components with low implementation losses, good signal performance and accuracy.

The achievements and expected results of the GAMMA-A project are the design, development, test and validation of a prototype receiver which shall meet the identified user and technical requirements. Therefore, the triple-frequency receiver architecture combines the L1 GPS/EGNOS/Galileo signals with E5a/L5 GPS/Galileo and E5b Galileo. The GNSS receiver has been integrated with a communication unit into a terminal. Towards the finalisation of the project the system was tested and validated on a car platform in an automotive test environment.

Potential impact:

Therefore, the concept of GAMMA-A foresaw to provide precise and reliable localisation performance within the environmental conditions of automotive applications, e.g. advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).

The project started with the identification of the relevant market segment and the elaboration of user requirements and suitable business model. All relevant core technologies for the chosen application and receiver architecture have been studied to enable the implementation of the receiver components with low implementation losses, good signal performance and accuracy.

The achievements and expected results of the GAMMA-A project are the design, development, test and validation of a prototype receiver which shall meet the identified user and technical requirements. Therefore, the triple-frequency receiver architecture combines the L1 GPS/EGNOS/Galileo signals with E5a/L5 GPS/Galileo and E5b Galileo. The GNSS receiver has been integrated with a communication unit into a terminal. Towards the finalisation of the project the system was tested and validated on a car platform in an automotive test environment.

Final results and impact

FhG was able to raise it's know how in embedded receiver development and gained a multi frequency multisystem GNSS prototyping platform for its further development. Within GAMMA-A many steps towards a professional working receiver have been achieved.

TCA developed the multi-frequency, multi-signal PVT, which processes the Galileo/GPS/EGNOS L1/L5/E5 signals in real time on the receiver hardware. Within the core-technology studies, TCA investigated on the topics of interference and multipath mitigation, dual-frequency ionospheric correction, INS coupling, and integrity monitoring.

TAS-F is operating A-GPS servers providing already today assistance data to their customers in the mass market. Within GAMMA-A this assisted data support function was extended to Galileo. The extended functionality will be implemented into the existing service provision offers.

The promising outcomes of WP3710 on multi-constellation positioning assistance and WP3820 on position authentication will be further investigated by TAS outside GAMMA-A project, in order to assess how they could be exploited in commercial applications.

Thanks to GAMMA-A, TAS consolidates its expertise on GNSS assistance and positioning integrity applied to location based services, and thus strengthens the TAS location server product roadmap.

The work of IMST in GAMMA-A leads to a further improvement of expertise for highly integrated wideband GNSS frontend solutions. An important point is here also the use of a technology of a leading global semiconductor foundry, which is widely used in the industry and therefore future proof for further developments in this field.

Robert Bosch GmbH developed a suitable GNSS antenna which resulted in a patent application on 'circular polarised dual-frequency planar antenna design'. The application was delivered to the Patent Office on 27 April 2010; Status: in process; first office action January 2011.

Within the GAMMA-A project, inP was studying the impact of the harsh automotive tracking environment on possibilities to utilise dual frequency observation output. Thanks to GAMMA-A, a concept for determination of dm-accuracy positions has been established and validated for frequently changing tracking / visibility scenarios as to be expected in the automotive environment.

EPFL has been shown that the proposed two-step tracking algorithm can be used to track the new signals with a very low C/No ratio without losing lock. The tracking stability is good and the proposed scheme does not lose lock easily since the risk of biased tracking is circumvented. EPFL has gained a tracking algorithm with improved accuracy through the use of collaborative data / pilot code tracking.

UniBo showed that with a hierarchical code acquisition it is possible to achieve the twofold advantage of performance improvement and complexity decrease. In particular this is obtained by completing code acquisition in E1 and performing acquisition in E5 over a reduced uncertainty region thanks to the timing reference provided by E1.

Project website: http://www.gamma-project.info/gammaa/index.html