Easy-OBU
Enhanced (EGNOS/EDAS) Accuracy System with GNSS Outage Bridging Unit
Background & Objectives
Current satellite positioning systems have shortcomings due to limited accuracy and availability in difficult environments (e.g. in tunnels, canyons). This restricts the use of GNSS, if positioning must be guaranteed and if no secondary system is available.
However, not all GNSS applications need real-time availability of positional information, e.g.:
- Route controlling
- Car sharing
- Electronic toll collection
- Calculation of CO2 footprint
- Generation of vehicle logs.
Why this project is important for EGNOS/GSA/SatNav?
Easy OBU provides an inexpensive and flexible solution for situations where the visibility of GNSS satellites is limited or obstructed.
Objectives
The main objective of the Easy-OBU project is to introduce and demonstrate an inexpensive, portable on-board-unit (OBU) with open interfaces that allows retrospective robust positioning of vehicles for those instances where no (or insufficient) signal reception from navigation satellites is available.
The OBU used in the Easy-OBU project has the objective of supporting both the technical innovation and the economic constraints. For the task of technical development the experience of EFKON in the context of reliable OBU design guarantees a final product that meets the standards of automotive applications. The OBU can be easily mounted behind any vehicle’s windscreen and needs only to be connected to the car power supply. The EGNOS/EDAS based position information and additional measurements from the OBU will be forwarded to a back-office where further processing and “non-causal filtering” will be applied. The results will be stored in a database and will be used by a demo-application to show them to the users.
How does it work?
Easy-OBU provides a flexible approach for correcting positional information. The basis for this is the use of information from cheap internal sensors and innovative “non-causal filtering” algorithms. This leads to improved positional information than could otherwise not be obtained. This intelligent approach delivers robust navigation very economically, which reduces the cost of the OBU and simplifies the installation into the vehicle.
Next Steps
The next steps are to finalise the development phase and perform system validation.
Work performed & results
The evaluation of Easy-OBU starts with the execution of a real test trial. OBUs will be installed in dedicated vehicles to collect data from different locations. Easy-OBU will run a field trial with at least 2 000 km in 90 days at a test track, and in addition at least 1 000 km with partners' vehicles.
An important part of the project is the validation of Easy-OBU results by a group of experts from interested parties. The developed units will distributed to experts for testing, along with documentation and a description. They will use the units and the enhanced system for a defined period of time. The experts will be selected to cover a wide range of possible applications. At the end, the experts will be interviewed about their experiences with the units, the system's performance and (potential) identified weaknesses.
Easy-OBU Photo Gallery
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Easy-OBU at ITS World Vienna