H2020 AUDITOR Project: Advanced multi-constellation EGNSS monitoring and augmentation network and its application in precision agriculture
- Type Project
- Status Filled
- Execution 2016 -2018
- Assigned Budget 996.373,75 €
- Scope Europeo
- Main source of financing H2020
- Project website AUDITOR
The project's objective is to implement new differential augmentation data-based precise positioning techniques in custom GNSS receivers to improve the performance of current augmentation services, thereby reducing costs. These techniques have been shown to offer higher accuracy with faster convergence times than commercially available differential solutions. In addition, more sophisticated atmospheric models are being implemented to provide better ionospheric error corrections and thus increase user accuracy.
All of these advancements are being integrated into a software demonstrator that will use public GNSS network data and be able to generate and apply these corrections in near real time. A custom dual-frequency receiver module is being implemented, following an innovative approach, integrating a software-defined GNSS receiver into an embedded system that will integrate hardware accelerators to enable real-time operation in a low-power system.
The resulting receiver's form factor and capabilities will be comparable to those of existing professional receivers on the market, while retaining all the advantages of software receivers: modularity, scalability, upgradeability, and flexibility. Furthermore, by offering multi-frequency and multi-constellation support, this advanced receiver will allow low-level access to key internal components, even at the sample level, facilitating the integration of other complementary techniques.
The fact that the software layer is an evolution of an existing and successful open-source project, GNSS-SDR, will allow GNSS developers and researchers to customize the receiver code. Building on this, this will enable cost-effective precision agriculture (PA) services for farmers, especially those with small and medium-sized businesses in areas of Europe where EGNOS availability may be limited under certain conditions. This will allow for increased production with fewer inputs (agrochemicals, water, energy, person-hours), thereby improving economic profitability and sustainability.
Taking into account the requirements/state of the art and the designed AUDITOR subsystems, in the second period, the complete AUDITOR system was implemented.
The AUDITOR subsystems were implemented, tested, and validated. This includes the hardware/software related to the GNSS receiver, which presented significant challenges requiring multiple prototype iterations and extensive software development. The iBOGART subsystems and network modules were also validated with test data streams and subsequently with test data from Greece provided by the GNSS receiver.
Regarding AUDITOR's business plan: AUDITOR is expected to provide its value-added features in key European PA agriculture applications such as Tractor Guidance, Automatic Steering and VRA (Variable Rate Applications) composed of c. 300k GNSS devices in 2023, i.e. approximately € 180 million in that year. The interesting market prospects are offset by strong competition that is forcing AUDITOR to quickly fill the gap with its competitors (mainly WW coverage via Internet, development of L-band satellite transmission capabilities and 4cm reach to 20' conversion time) and subsequently to offer a more economical solution than the market, operating through a B2B model.
Even in such a competitive market, the outlook for AUDITOR is considered positive, with an NPV of approximately €12 million if the augmentation service is offered alone and an NPV of approximately €9 million if a GNSS Rx is included with the augmentation algorithm.
AUDITOR testing was completed successfully with minor deviations:
- Tests in the Netherlands: Robot tests were defined and test fields were located. The robot was run with existing receivers. Data was recorded for further processing with AUDITOR software.
- Preliminary tests in Castelldefels: System tests with fixed antennas at the CTTC headquarters. RTCM transmission experiments and RINEX generation.
- Trials in Greece: Field trials in a vineyard. Tractor-mounted AUDITOR receiver. Collecting L1 and L2 signals.
- Trials in Barcelona: Field trials in a wheat crop. AUDITOR receiver mounted on a combine harvester. L1 and L2 signal collection.
The objective of AUDITOR is to implement novel augmentation data-based precise positioning techniques in custom GNSS receivers to improve the performance of current augmentation services and reduce costs. These techniques are already patented by the consortium and have been proven to offer greater accuracy with faster convergence times than commercially available solutions.
More sophisticated atmospheric models will be implemented to provide better ionospheric error corrections and further increase accuracy. All of these advancements will be integrated into a software demonstrator that will use public GNSS network data to generate these correction data streams.
These new receivers will enable cost-effective precision agriculture services for farmers, especially those with small and medium-sized businesses in parts of Europe. The customized dual-frequency receiver module will follow an innovative approach by converting a software-defined GNSS receiver into an embedded system that will integrate hardware accelerators to enable real-time operation in a low-power system.
The form factor and capabilities of the resulting receiver will be comparable to those of existing professional receivers on the market, while retaining all the advantages of software receivers: modularity, scalability, upgradeability, and flexibility. In addition to providing multi-frequency and multi-constellation support, this advanced receiver will allow very low-level access to seven internal keys at the sample level, enabling the integration of other complementary techniques such as interference analysis and monitoring or authentication via remote servers for encrypted bands.
The fact that the software layer is an evolution of an existing and successful open-source project, GNSS-SDR, will allow GNSS developers and researchers to customize the receiver code to suit their own applications or test their algorithms using this flexible receiver module, from reflectometry to ultra-hermetically coupled GNSS/INS systems.
AUDITOR will feature several improvements compared to existing systems:
- The use of WARTK/MSTID techniques enables longer baselines between permanent receivers in the GNSS network, drastically reducing the infrastructure required to provide faster and more accurate corrections for precise positioning. Testing WARTK in a real-world setting and the enhancements that enable it represent a breakthrough beyond the state of the art. A solution is currently being sought to enable the application of WARTK corrections using RTKLIB. This would also mean that open data-based ionospheric corrections could be applied by all GNSS users without significant investment, thanks to the reuse of existing infrastructure.
- The latest improvements and findings in MSTID modeling will be taken into account, resulting in lower accuracy performance limitations.
- Reduction in convergence times
- Implementation of an integrated hardware and software engine to enable low-power, real-time operation while maintaining the full flexibility of SDR deployments, specifically targeting open, low-cost, multi-frequency Galileo and EGNOS receivers.
All of these advancements will be offered to the Precision Agriculture market in various key services, such as agricultural machinery navigation, data analysis services, and variable rate applications.
- ACORDE TECHNOLOGIES SA (ACORDE)
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