TAUCETI - Next generation Survival Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT-S)

The Search & Rescue (SAR) community is at the turn of its history. New satellites have led to the development of the Medium-altitude Earth Orbiting Search And Rescue (MEOSAR) constellation of the COSPAS-SARSAT (C/S) system. Meanwhile EGNOS, Europe’s own SBAS, significantly improves localisation performance, introducing capabilities and allowing operations not possible through prior systems. Furthermore, Galileo’s Return Link Service (RLS), one of the main differentiators of European GNSS, will contribute to saving more lives at sea and on land. 

The SAR community strongly benefits from the performance of such systems, with more and more lives being saved every day. 

Survival Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT-S) beacons, which have been developed within the TAUCETI project, enabled a new technology to enter the market and finally brought innovations long awaited by the aviation community. 

The goal of the TAUCETI is to provide a new range of Survival ELT (ELT-S): 

• distress beacons compatible with multi-constellation GNSS and meeting the latest needs and requirements of end-users
• GNSS & SAR system validation on the field
• certifications for commercialisation of the new Ultima-S range, providing compatibility with both MEOSAR C/S and legacy LEO- and GEOSAR satellites, and capable to seamlessly interact with Galileo’s automatic acknowledgment system RLS.

Challenge and technical solution

A key challenge for the TAUCETI project was the provision of a new range of ELT-S beacons optimised to operate with the new MEOSAR C/S International Programme embedded in the GNSS constellation, including Europe’s own Galileo. 

As a result, the developed innovations provide a new range of S-ELT that brings to the market the advantages of the multi-constellation GNSS receivers, the Galileo RLS to inform the user, an answer to the Lithium batteries regulations, and a new global commercial product with a package including the Global Aeronautical Distress and Safety System (GADSS) Distress Tracking ELT and Survival equipment specifically designed for the flight crew.