Satellite Positioning Performance Assessment for Road Transport (SaPPART)

Context

Global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) have a great potential in the development of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and mobility services, and are expected to contribute to improved safety, increased capacity and reduced congestion. The road sector is estimated to represent more than 50% of the GNSS market and 75% when we consider the mobility services on smartphones. However, the current lack of a pan-European certification process, underpinned by agreed standards, is impeding the realisation of the expected benefits. The main reason for this is the complexity of defining and assessing the performance of GNSS, which is highly influenced by the environment and the operational scenario. Although standardisation activities have been initiated in Europe on this topic, many scientific issues are still open and require a common agreement.

Results

SaPPART, an Action under the European Cooperation in Science and Technology programme, brought together experts in GNSS, ITS and mobility to address the open issues. SaPPART defined a framework for the assessment of the performances of the GNSS-based positioning terminals;

• The White paper “Better use of GNSS for safer and greener transport” explains the fundamentals of positioning systems, with a focus on GNSS-based positioning and the issues related to its use in ITS.
• The Handbook defines a framework for performance management of GNSS-based ITS between application and positioning performances.
• The Guidelines provide advice and recommendations on the issues related to GNSS-based positioning terminals performance testing (by field tests and simulations).
• Gap analysis related to GNSS-based positioning in ITS standards and regulations.

The final conference jointly organised with ERTICO on "High Quality Positioning: a Key Success for Autonomous Driving" was used to disseminate the results produced by SaPPART, whose concepts have been integrated in leading ongoing European research projects (such as inLANE and ESCAPE).

A Rapp staff member was appointed Swiss member of the Management Committee, task force leader on Standardisation and Certification, and was co-author of the main SaPPART deliverables.

Further details on SaPPART can be found at http://www.sappart.net/