CEWITT
Low Cost and low Energy GNSS-based Wireless Tag for asset Tracking and monitoring

SIGFOX has developed a breakthrough communication technology, which offers a drastic improvement in terms of range, autonomy and system cost.
STERELA benefits from a strong market position on road data collection systems which are installed all over Europe. The consortium will capitalize on these 30 years of unique experience in the integration of products placed on the road as well as significant expertise in the acquisition and processing of signals from several types of road sensors.

Why this project is important for EGNOS/GSA/SatNav?

In CEWITT, EGNOS will provide the required accuracy and integrity of time-stamped geo-positioning in urban areas, along with a preliminary assessment of Galileo benefits in satellite redundancy.

Objectives

The project aims to develop an innovative wireless tag in order to ensure the integrity and cost effectiveness of applications for Pay per Use parking & identification of free parking slots in urban areas.

• With the CEWITT system, drivers are billed depending on the exact number of minutes they are parked. For that purpose, they are given a tag to be positioned on the car's windscreen. Once the car is parked, the tag transmits the timestamp localization to the Control Station. As soon as the tag detects that the car is moving again, the payment process stops automatically. Thanks to a battery lifetime greater than 10 years, drivers don’t have to worry about battery replacement.
• The tags are now packaged into resistant shells and screwed onto the surface of each parking slot, where they can detect arrivals and departures to and from the parking slot. This information is transmitted to the control server. When approaching their destination, users can locate available parking slots through a service accessible via their smartphone. A routing algorithm then guides them towards the empty parking slot.

Other kinds of information useful to municipalities can also be extracted thanks to GNSS timing features, such as the parking slot’s occupation rate, which can be compared to the revenues generated in order to quantify the losses induced by parking smugglers, or which can be analysed for a better understanding of the parking flow.

How does it work?

The tag includes a magnetometer, an accelerometer, a micro-controller, a GNSS chipset, patch antennas as well as a wireless communication module. It also contains an energy harvesting system which increases the system’s lifetime. The tag allows the retrieving of time-stamped and geo-positioned sensor information when at a standstill. Thanks to built-in motion sensors, it waits for another action to begin before transmitting another signal, when the asset starts moving again, for instance.

Next Steps

The tag is designed to achieve the required performance in terms of GNSS based parking monitoring while targeting a low production cost, and will be tested by a community of 20 users in an airport parking lot.