SC 4.1: Emerging Positioning Technologies and GNSS Augmentation

Chair: Heidi Kuusniemi (Finland)
Vice-Chair: Fabricio S. Prol (Finland)

Terms of Reference

Objectives

• Development of new techniques for positioning
• Analyzing the integrity levels of PPP and PPP-RTK for collaborative positioning;
• Enhancing PPP for real-time applications;
• Providing perspectives of how the positioning and augmentation technologies should develop utilizing, e.g., LEO systems;
• Advancing solutions for low-cost receivers as well as smart wearable systems;
• Exploring the future opportunities of quantum navigation.Program of Activities
• Promote international collaboration to advance emerging positioning solutions.
• Organize and/or participate in scientific events (workshops, conferences, seminarsetc.)
• Organize special issues on the emerging technologies for positioning.
• Increase cooperation with international organizations, such as Institute of Navigation (ION), International Federation of Surveyors (FIG), Nordic Institute ofNavigation (NNF), Nordic Geodetic Commission (NKG), and the United Nations(UN).

WG 4.1.1: Integrity Monitoring of Collaborative Positioning

Chair: Liang Li (China)
Vice-Chair: Liang Wang (China)

Terms of Reference

With the rapid development of automatic and intelligent transportation, the collaborative positioning become increasingly indispensable to provide high-precision and credible positioning information. This WG mainly focuses on the integrity monitoring structure design, algorithms development for the signal, information, data processing and critical nodes of collaborative positioning. The PPP/PPP-AR/PPP-RTK will be one of critical components of collaborative positioning. The accurate integrity of multiple risks of collaborative positioning requires to be estimated, evaluated, andvalidated. The integrity risk resources include the high accuracy correction products generated from service providers, the user terminal based on multi-sensor system, andthe communication link between the cloud and the user.

Objectives

• Develop integrity monitoring algorithms and software for PPP/PPP-AR/PPP-RTK correction products including the satellite orbit, clock, code/phase bias corrections,and atmospheric corrections.
• Integrity monitoring of GNSS/INS integrated navigation based on multiple hypothesis solution separation.
• Development of autonomous integrity monitoring methods for multi-sensor integrated navigation under different collaborative modes.
• Data processing and statistical evaluation of integrity risk parameters like the priori fault probability.
• Integrity risk allocation framework construction among multiple potential risks which results in collaborative positioning failure.
• Integrity risk estimation, evaluation, and validation of collaborative positioning.
• Investigate the integrity of collaborative positioning for the liability-critical applications, including autonomous vehicles and precision ocean engineering.

Members

• Liang Li (China); Chair
• Liang Wang (China); Vice-Chair
• Yiping Jiang (China-Hong Kong)
• Yang Gao (Canada)
• Fuxin Yang (China)
• Kazuma Gunning (USA)
• Chun Jia (China)
• Mathieu Joerger (USA)
• Liuqi Wang (China)
• Mingqiang Xie (China)
• Zhen Lyu (China)
• Xin Li (China)

WG 4.1.2: Upcoming GNSS services for accuracy, reliability and resilience

Chair: Paolo Zoccarato (Italy)

Terms of Reference

By integrating advanced facilities and data processing directly into the system architecture, GNSS is starting to offer freely-available firsthand services to sustain userneeds on accuracy, reliability and resilience in navigation. Examples of these servicesare the Galileo High Accuracy Service (HAS), in its initial phase since 24th January2023, or the Galileo Open Service Navigation Message Authentication (OSNMA). These services, anticipating fundamental technological advancements in GNSS signals and infrastructures, are extending not only the consolidated GNSS capabilities but also the perimeter of the system support, providing reference algorithms, guidelines,and standards to be implemented by the users to achieve the service goals. This WG focuses on research targeting the adoption of these emerging real-time GNSS services to support geodetic applications, survey and monitoring (e.g. earthquake and tsunami events). The investigation aims to improve the performance and resilience of GNSS-based Position Navigation and Timing (PNT) solutions by extending algorithms and technologies and integrating alternative systems with the emerging GNSS services.

Objectives

• Promote algorithms, technologies and alternative systems for PNT to be integrated with the emerging GNSS services for improving performance and resiliencein geodetic applications and monitoring.
• Identify geodesy applications in need of the emerging GNSS services and develop methodologies for their utilization (e.g. catastrophes/atmosphere/tsunami monitoring, Earth dynamics, climate change analysis).
• Propose recommendations for future developers and users of emerging GNSS services in geodetic applications.
• Evaluate and extend established real-time methodologies for PNT enhanced by emerging GNSS services to achieve accurate and reliable (including integrity ofmessage) PNT solutions.
• Explore limitations on the guidelines and standards about the utilization of the emerging GNSS services and collect feedback, requests and ideas to be provided to the GNSS services for better sustaining/fitting the user needs in geodesyapplications.
• Establish open processing campaigns and dataset sharing for testing and comparison of the identified solutions and dissemination of the results through the IAGcommunity.

Members

• Paolo Zoccarato (Italy); Chair
• Ignacio Fernandez Hernandez (Spain)
• Gianluca Caparra (Italy)
• Sophie Damy (France)
• Beatrice Mottella (Italy)
• Nicola Laurenti (Italy)
• Dimitrios Psychas (Greece)
• Francesco Darugna (Italy)
• Patrick Henkel (Germany)
• Lotfi Massarweh (Netherlands)
• André Hauschild (Germany)
• Adria Rovira (Spain)
• Urs Hugentobler (Germany)
• Mirko Reguzzoni (Italy)

WG 4.1.3: LEO-PNT Systems

Chair: Fabricio S. Prol (Finland)
Vice-Chair: Elena Simona Lohan (Finland)

Terms of Reference

Given the current interest in deploying multiple satellites within low Earth orbit(LEO), the time is opportune to understand the advantageous implications of LEO-PNT missions for Geodesy. This WG is focused on understanding the possible enhancements that LEO-PNT systems can provide for navigation solutions when compared to classic GNSS systems. We aim to understand the contributions of communication, augmentation, and dedicated LEO satellite systems for PNT. To this end, new methods, instrumentation, and data analysis will be developed.

Objectives

• Advance instrumentation to collect data and perform PNT through LEO satellites;
• Development of algorithms to enable PNT solution based on current and upcoming LEO satellite missions;
• Explore limitations of the LEO-PNT systems and possible enhancements in comparison to GNSS;
• Propose recommendations for future developments in the field.

Members

• Fabricio S. Prol (Finland); Chair
• Elena Simona Lohan (Finland); Vice-Chair
• Francesco Menzione (Italy)
• Heidi-Kuusniemi (Finland)
• Miguel Cordero Limon (Netherlands)
• Lotfi Massarweh (Netherlands)
• Jindrich Dunik (Czech Republic)
• Mayank Mayank (Finland)
• Miquel Garcia Fernandez (Spain)

WG 4.1.4: Low-Cost GNSS receiver systems

Chair: Dinesh Manandhar (Japan)
Vice-Chair: Bruno Nava (Italy)

Terms of Reference

This WG will focus on low-cost GNSS receiver systems for high-accuracy PNT and associated applications. We target receiver systems with cost of a few hundred dollars, which include all necessary components and are easy to use in the field without requiring expert knowledge. This type of system will further enhance capacity building, deployment of base-station, and new application development at a large scale. The team will collaborate closely with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs(UNOOSA).

Objectives

• Explore different types of receivers, antennae, data processing devices, software, and other necessary tools for high-accuracy PNT and associated applications for GNSS augmentation, such as space weather (TEC, S4 computation), EWS (Early WarningSystem) message, and signal authentication;
• Design and develop prototype receiver systems for base-station and rover units;
• Evaluate existing software and customize for low-cost receiver system;
• Promote the discussion of the future perspectives of low-cost receiver developments.

Members

• Dinesh Manandhar (Japan); Chair
• Bruno Nava (Italy); Vice-Chair
• Sharafat Gadimova (Austria)
• Alison Moraes (Brazil)
• Andrzej Krankowski (Poland)
• Anindya Bose (India)
• Kaito Kobayashi (Japan)
• Avinab Malla (Nepal)
• Eugenio Realini (Italy)
• Ayman Mahrous (Egypt-Japan)
• Jorge Del Rio Vera (Austria)
• Roberto Capua (Italia)
• Ayoub Ben-Adim (Morocco)

WG 4.1.5: Wireless positioning with terrestrial instruments

Chair: Andrea Masiero (Italy)
Vice-Chair: Kai-Wei Chiang (China-Taipei)

Terms of Reference

PNT systems had a remarkable impact on a number of applications, including a visible influence on the everyday life of most of the World population and causing an increasing interest in location based services (LBSs). Most of the PNT systems currently available on the market are satellite-based: they do exploit GNSS in order to assess their own position and to synchronize on a common time. Nevertheless, the usability of GNSS-based systems for accurate positioning is currently mostly limited to open-sky scenarios, whereas the performance of such systems dramatically decreases indoors, in urban canyons, and in the other GNSS-denied environments. Extending accurate localization to scenarios challenging for GNSS typically implies the use of additional sensors, including inertial ones, radio-based, cameras, LiDAR. The goal of this WG is to investigate the contribution of radio-based positioning with terrestrial instruments in applications where GNSS is not available or not reliable, including outdoor-to-indoor(and vice versa) transitions. Such investigation aims at exploiting in particular the interconnection between smart devices, which, also thanks to the spread of technologies  such as 5G, is expected to become increasingly common for most of the devices provided with positioning tools available in the market in the near future. WiFi solution will take advantage of the RTT (round-trip-time) measurements, recently available on several devices on the market. In addition to WiFi, the WG will investigate the use of radio transceivers in general, such as Bluetooth and UWB, as standalone or integrated solutions, involving for instance also vision and LiDAR. The goal is to improve the overall positioning performance of the system, focusing on the potential of device interconnection, leading to collaborative solutions, which can be particularly useful to enable positioning in devices working in critical conditions (e.g. not fully provided ofsensors, and/or when the radio-based positioning system is associated to a low density infrastructure of anchors of known position). In such investigation several navigation platforms will be considered, including smartphones, drones and ground vehicles.

Objectives

• Development of algorithms for positioning based of WiFi, focusing in particular on the evaluation of RTT-based solutions;
• Development of algorithms for positioning with radio-based solutions, exploiting sensors currently mounted on smart devices such as WiFi, Bluetooth, UWB;
• Explore collaborative positioning strategies, reporting on the selection of best algorithms in terms of performance and to ensure scalability of the proposed approach;
• Assessment of the performance of WiFi and other radio-based methods once integrated with other sensors;
• Establishing links between this WG and other IAG, FIG and ISPRS WGs addressing the positioning problem with alternative sensors with respect to GNSS.

Members

• Andrea Masiero (Italy); Chair
• Kai-Wei Chiang (China-Taipei); Vice-Chair
• Charles Toth (USA)
• Vassilis Gikas (Greece)
• Harris Perakis (Greece)
• Salil Goel (India)
• Jelena Gabela (Austria)
• Paolo Dabove (Italy)
• Vincenzo Di Pietra (Italy)
• Wioleta Blaszczak-Bak (Poland)
• Czeslaw Suchocki (Poland)

WG 4.1.6: Smart Wearable Positioning

Chair: You Li (China)
Vice-Chair: Baoding Zhou (China)

Terms of Reference

Smart wearable devices have been applied in Earth observation, smart cities, internet-of-things (IoT), mobile healthcare, public security, augmented reality/virtual reality, and other fields. They have become important platforms for human-computer interaction, environmental perception, life, and entertainment. Based on the integrated sign,movement, computing, communication, and other sensor chips in wearable devices, it is expected to greatly expand human perception and cognitive ability, accurately locate and perceive personalized and unstructured data of different users, coordinate the relationship between people and the environment, and even change the lifestyle of modern people. The popularity of wearable platforms also brings new opportunities and challenges for the realization of intelligent, ubiquitous navigation and space-timeservices.

Objectives

• Scalable and intelligent wearable positioning and motion-tracking sensors, algorithms, and systems;
• Smart human-computer interaction and human-in-the-loop motion and environmental perception;
• Self-improving and adaptive wearable navigation systems;
• The combination of intelligent wearable devices, artificial intelligence and robots;
• Geo-centric cloud/edge computing with wearable data;
• Wearable motion sensing for the smart city, smart home and smart transportation;
• Application of smart wearable motion sensing in IoT, mobile healthcare, public security, AR/VR, and other fields;
• Precise positioning and mobile mapping with sensors in capsule robots.

Members

• You Li (China); Chair
• Baoding Zhou (China); Vice-Chair
• Xin Xia (USA)
• Wei Liu (USA)
• Yiran Luo (Canada)
• Fuqiang Gu (China)
• Weisong Wen (China-Hong Kong)
• Zengke Li (China)
• Chi Chen (China)
• Shengjun Tang (China)
• Jianping Li (Singapore)
• Zhouzheng Gao (China)
• Bing Wang (China-Hong Kong)

JSG 4.1.7: Evaluating the Potential of Next Generation Quantum Sensors for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing(PNT)(joint with QuGe and FIG)

Chair:  Allison Kealy (Australia)

Terms of Reference

PNT stands as an essential utility of modern society, spanning across sectors such as defense, disaster management, finance, telecommunications, agriculture, and energy. The precise determination of absolute location, a cornerstone of PNT, traditionallyrelies on GNSS and their timing signals. However, a paradigm shift is under-way, powered by compact quantum sensors. Leveraging the principles of quantumphysics, these sensors encompass a wide range of functionalities, including ultra-precise atomic clocks, accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, and gravitometers. Their emergence heralds a transformative era in PNT, promising unparalleled precision and resilience, particularly in GNSS-denied environments. This imminent revolution necessitates a comprehensive exploration of quantum sensors’ capabilities and theirpotential impact on PNT.

Objectives

• Quantum Sensor Assessment: Conduct a thorough evaluation of the performance, precision, and resilience of next-generation quantum sensors, dissecting their individual capabilities, limitations, and real-world applications.
• Quantum  Sensors  in  GNSS-Challenged  Environments:  Investigate  the  suitability and robustness of quantum sensors for PNT applications in GNSS-deprived/compromised environments, addressing the challenges of signal degrada-tion and signal loss.
• Interplay of Quantum Sensing Technologies: Explore the interplay and synergy among different quantum sensing technologies, such as atomic clocks, accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, and gravitometers, elucidating their combined potential for enhancing PNT.
• Recent Advances in Quantum Sensing: Analyze recent advancements in quantumsensor development, providing insights into cutting-edge research, technological breakthroughs, and potential cross-disciplinary applications.
• Anticipating Future Quantum Sensor Developments: Predict and anticipate future developments in quantum sensor technology, assessing their potential impact on PNT and emerging use cases, including quantum communication and quantum computing.
• Integration Strategies: Develop strategies and recommendations for the seamless integration of next-generation quantum sensors into existing and evolving PNT infrastructures, considering compatibility, inter-operability, and standards.
• Technical Report and Knowledge Dissemination: Summarize research findings, recommendations, and best practices in a comprehensive technical report, facilitating knowledge dissemination within the scientific and engineering communities.
• Scientific Publications: Explore opportunities for scientific publications to shareresearch outcomes and insights with a broader scientific audience, contributing tothe advancement of quantum sensor technology and its applications.