SWIRLS
Galileo professional receiver development

SWIRLS is one of the projects that began under the second call of the Sixth Framework Programme for Galileo Research and Development. It is coordinated by Septentrio and is partially funded by the European GNSS Agency. SWIRLS consists of a consortium of nine European partners: - Coordinator: Septentrio Satellite Navigation (BE) - Partners: Orban Microwave Technology (BE), GMV (ES), Skysoft (PT), Technische Universiteit Delft (NL), E.ON-Ruhrgas (DE), Allsat (DE), VUGTK (CZ) and Satimo (FR).

The SWIRLS project is a complete receiver development programme: starting from user requirements for specific applications generated by experienced client partners, a full capability receiver prototype is designed, implemented and tested in its entirety. Parallel research and development activities in the course of the project investigate new receiver technologies for GPS/Galileo receiver applications in a professional market.

Description

Prototype development First the user requirements are defined based on end-user experiences and general market knowledge of the partners. The derived specifications serve as input for the architectural and research activities, after which the prototype is developed. The prototype is then integrated, internally tested and validated. Finally, the market partners subject the receiver prototype to application testing. The following phases are not part of the project but the next goal is to realise a commercial product. The prototype will be upgraded with the necessary modifications resulting from the test results, a pre-series will be produced and finally the product will be commercialised.

Objectives

The objective of SWIRLS is to build the first GPS/Galileo receiver for professional users (RTK, surveying, geodesy, etc.). As a criterion for the most relevant applications, the consortium has selected applications where the receiver performance benefits mostly from an increased number of SV simultaneously in view, which is obtained by combining GPS and Galileo while offering integrity services to ensure a correct operation of the application. Two applications have been targeted by the consortium:

• (permanent) control networks for geodetic/geodynamics/research applications;
• reference stations/rovers for applications such as RTK, DGPS, etc. The ultimate goal is to realise a prototype receiver for these two applications. The SWIRLS project has three main objectives:
• investigate and research receiver core technologies relevant to professional users (including antenna technology, interference and multipath mitigation, etc.).

The goal is also to identify new techniques or algorithms for the professional receivers (for both targeted applications).

• development of the hardware/software components.

Although based on tested technology, it is done in parallel with core technology studies in order to try to implement the findings made in the core technology investigations.

• development of a simulator, test and validation tools.