The Integrated Navigation Systems Integrity group works on the research and development of innovative navigation technologies and algorithms to support the safe operation of air and ground vehicles. In particular we look at:
Support enroute, precision approach and automatic landing of aircrafts
Navigation of aerial vehicles in the context of Urban Air Mobility (UAM)
Railway Signaling and automatic train control based on GNSS and multisensor technologies
High accurate and safe autonomous ground vehicle navigation
In these applications, the rigorous safety assessment of the navigation solution based on GNSS and the combination of multiple sensors is essential for the certifiability of navigation systems.
The group considers the integration of multi-frequency, multi-constellation Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) as well as other ranging signals with inertial sensors and systems, barometers, compass, and other type of navigation related information to achieve a high accurate and high reliable positioning solution. One critical aspect of the research consists in the robustness and safety assessment of the integrated solutions, which includes robust and new error and threat modeling techniques, fault detection and exclusion mechanisms and integrity risk quantification.
The main topics of the group are:
Aircraft-based Augmentation Systems (ABAS)
In order to ensure the integrity of the system, GNSS must be augmented. We investigate the augmentation of GNSS and terrestrial signals with the redundancy of measurements and the combination with onboard inertial sensors and barometers for aviation users.
In particular, in the group we cover the development of Advanced Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (ARAIM) for the regulated aviation applications and the augmentation with Inertial sensors and barometers. The development of new error overbounding methods and integrity monitoring with Kalman filters is a key research aspect.
Robust Multisensor Navigation and Integrity Monitoring
Railway signaling and automatic train control is foreseen to rely on onboard sensor technologies to reduce cost in infrastructure. The group works on error modeling and integrity monitoring design of GNSS+ solution for the railway environment. We contribute to different European projects that supports the development of European GNSS for signaling purposes.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) will operate in challenging GNSS environment near or inside cities. We work on the new challenges to ensure a high accurate and safe navigation solution to support the new operations of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) based on multiple sensor technologies.
Integrity for High Accuracy Positioning with GNSS+
Automation requires new levels of localization accuracy that can only be achieved by exploiting the carrier-phase measurement of GNSS and related algorithms like Real Time Kinematic (RTK) or Precise Point Positioning (PPP). We work on developing new concepts that allow for the safety assessment of these high accurate GNSS technologies for challenging GNSS environments.
Satellite On-bard Integrity Monitoring
The space segments opportunities are nowadays fast expanding. In particular LEO constellations offer new opportunities to support navigation solutions and augment GNSS. In the team, we consider innovative GNSS monitoring systems from space to achieve new requirement levels of emerging applications.
The group participates to different expert and regulatory working groups such as EUROCAE, RTCA and EU-US Working Group on next generation GNSS and collaborates with different internal and industrial partners in the context of different projects.
Innerstädtische Mobilität der Zukunft mit dem Urban Modular Vehicle (UMV): Mit dem autonom fahrenden Stadtflitzer kommen bis zu vier Personen klimaneutral und automatisch im Großstadtdschungel an ihr Ziel.
