GNSS/INS Low-Cost Attitude Determination System

Project Information

GLAD

Grant agreement ID: 651137

DOI

10.3030/651137

Project closed

EC signature date 15 September 2014

Start date 1 October 2014

End date 31 March 2015

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies – Space

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

ACORDE TECHNOLOGIES SA
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GLAD (GNSS/INS Low-Cost Attitude Determination System)

Reporting period: 2014-10-01 to 2015-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

GLAD product is a low-cost attitude determination and navigation system, based on non-dedicated mass-market GNSS receivers and multi-antenna, and aided by MEMS inertial sensors. It provides accurate 3-axis solution even in quasi static conditions or under magnetic interference, with restrained baseline and lower cost, size and weight with respect to other existing platforms. The hardware platform, that includes a microcontroller unit running a real-time OS, GNSS/SBAS receiver modules, Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) and a barometer, is combined with robust and accurate navigation algorithms to provide attitude determination from GNSS carrier phase double difference with a tightly-coupled GNSS/INS fusion. Its technical feasibility has already been proven with the fabrication and test of a complete low-cost hardware prototype in a previous FP7 project (http://www.logam-project.eu/).
The objective of GLAD project is to perform a proper commercial feasibility analysis and business plan to guide the path from the prototype demonstrator to mass production of a fully capable GNSS/INS navigation platform.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

A deep market assessment and business plan have been performed to maximize the commercial exploitation of GLAD solution and to analyse the regulations/certifications needs at European level. As a result, three different market segments (aeronautics, naval and agriculture) have been identified and analysed, concluding that the most relevant addressable market segment is aeronautics, in which GLAD can provide an added value and exploit a market niche currently covered by more expensive and/or less accurate solutions. Besides, this analysis has allowed the definition of the technical modifications/adaptations that are required to assure the product correctly responds to the market needs.
On the basis of these results, a deep business analysis has been performed in the aeronautics sector, mainly UAVs, calculating the potential penetration, break-even point and cumulative profit in the product life time.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

After a deep SWOT analysis, including technical development considerations, target market size for each option, competitors’ analysis and sales strategies, ACORDE has decided to follow three different selling strategies, which are explained in the final report.

UAV applications demanding low cost and high positioning accuracy will be broadened with GLAD’s market entrance.

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