GNSS ON THE RAILWAY: A VISION OF THE FUTURE

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GNSS ON THE RAILWAY A VISION OF THE FUTURE
PAUL CROSS DEPARTMENT OF GEOMATIC
ENGINEERING UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
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INTEGRATION ADDS VALUE
location
comms
LBS
GI
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GNSS IN 2010 (?)

• 60 Navigation satellites
• GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, ??
• Supporting nation-wide local infrastructure
• OS/Trinity House already have 100 ref sites
• Railway GNSS infrastructure?
• Improved performance
• Increased availability (more satellites)
• Better signal penetration
• Integrity (system and RAIM)
• Greater accuracy
• More interference/spoof resistance, etc
• Faster acquisition

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EXPANDING GNSS RAILWAY APPLICATIONS

• Construction
• Channel Tunnel link, West coast mainline
• Control of specific operations (e.g. doors)
• Track maintenance
• Mapping (3D model)
• Signalling (safety critical)
• Information control (e.g. balise function)
• Information for passengers (LBS?)
• Freight logistics

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GNSS ON THE RAILWAYS

• GNSS alone cant solve all the railways
  positioning problems
• Tunnels, cuttings, stations, indoors, etc
• Multipath and diffraction
• Integration will be essential
• Inertial sensors offer greatest flexibility
• Pseudolites may also contribute
• One dimensional nature of problem must be
  exploited (map matching)

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WHAT IS NEEDED

• Collaboration within the railways
• RAILWAY INFRASTRUCTURE MODEL
• Track data base, buildings, railway furniture
• GIS implementation
• Collect once, use many times
• Collaboration with others
• Trinity house, CAA for safety critical issues
• OS(?) for mapping issues
• ?? for communications
• Research and engineering to produce mapping and
  positioning solutions

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FUTURE PERFECT(?)

• One organisation in the railways responsible for
• collecting and managing spatial data, and for
• establishing and operating positioning
  infrastructure
• Single multipurpose GNSS-based system
• Signalling, track maintenance,
• Railways working closely with partners
• CAA, Trinity House, OS, ..
• Result will be an increased level of performance
• Safety, efficiency, punctuality, information, ..