SAPCORDA - Safe and Precise GNSS Augmentation Services

Mark Burbidge, Rodrigo Leandro, Botho Eulenburg, Cornelia Waldecker

Abstract:	Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) have changed our lives. However, current technologies cannot meet performance, safety, and availability requirements for the new era of connected and automated transportation. Our Advanced Augmentation Services are designed to fully meet these requirements, and take your business and daily experience to a new level of performance. Sapcorda unleashed the functionally safe high-accuracy GNSS augmentation service that enables centimeter accuracy on a continental scale. Even though not identical, the performance that can be achieved with the Sapcorda augmentation services compares to the performance of traditional “Network Real Time Kinematic” (RTK) services. The reason behind that is the extensive infrastructure coverage upon which the Sapcorda service relies. Sapcorda’s infrastructure differs from most available correction services infrastructure, allowing much more detailed failure mode control from a correction service data perspective (e.g. atmospheric effects), as well as enabling more stable accuracy and homogeneous initialization and positioning performance across the coverage areas. The correction data is transmitted using the so-called state space representation (SSR). In this technology, all GNSS satellite and transmission effects are modelled and represented in the communication protocol. This representation allows more efficient data broadcasting, which in turn allows wide (continental) coverages while maintaining performance similar to traditional high-accuracy RTK services. Sapcorda has been working with a number of different partners on the establishment of an industry protocol for automotive GNSS, including all known high-accuracy aspects of GNSS as well as the emerging GNSS functional safety aspects that become relevant for GNSS correction services in the automotive industry. As mentioned earlier, using an industry-accepted standard provides protection to all industry players by promoting the use of industry-accepted technology and concepts, as well as allowing for flexibility and/or plurality of suppliers and vendors operating under same guidelines for data modelling and functional safety. The position accuracy of the solution that can be obtained with the Sapcorda augmentation service is at the centimeter level, depending on the integrated system. In addition to the correction service, position accuracy also depends on quality of antenna, signal tracking, algorithms, and finally the interference environment at the receiving system. The augmentation data provided by Sapcorda is designed to relieve the receiving system from any accuracy limitations related to the atmosphere, satellite systems, and control segments. In other words, every single non-local aspect of the GNSS data modeling becomes known by the receiving system when making use of the Sapcorda augmentation broadcast data. The SAPA service enables mass-market GNSS devices to operate with unprecedented accuracy and reliability across Europe and the Continental United States. The service’s cutting-edge technology unlocks advanced performance with instantaneous sub-decimeter position accuracy for devices used in all market applications. The SAPA service is tailored for mass market applications including innovative mobility solutions, IoT applications, as well as traditional markets such as maritime. SAPA was designed from ground up to support safety critical applications such as autonomous driving. In this presentation we will demonstrate several aspects of this unprecedented service what level of performance can now be experienced by users across the whole Europe and United States.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 33rd International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2020) September 21 - 25, 2020
Pages:	39 - 54
Cite this article:	Burbidge, Mark, Leandro, Rodrigo, Eulenburg, Botho, Waldecker, Cornelia, "SAPCORDA - Safe and Precise GNSS Augmentation Services," Proceedings of the 33rd International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2020), September 2020, pp. 39-54. https://doi.org/10.33012/2020.17551
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