Galileo High Accuracy Service begins delivery
Galileo has begun the delivery of its High Accuracy Service (HAS), as officially announced by Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for the Internal Market. He described HAS as “feeding a prosperous market for innovative applications – from farming to drone navigation and autonomous driving.” Galileo is the European Union’s Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS).
Galileo is now the first GNSS providing free-of-charge, high-accuracy precise point positioning (PPP) corrections worldwide both through the Galileo signal in space (E6-B) and via the internet.
High-accuracy positioning in real time
The precise corrections provided by the Galileo HAS will allow users to improve the accuracy associated with the orbit, clocks and biases provided through the Galileo Open Service broadcast navigation messages and the GPS Standard Positioning Service navigation data. These corrections enable the computation of a high-accuracy positioning solution in real time when processed by an appropriate algorithm in the users’ receivers tracking the Galileo E6-B signal.
The typical accuracy below a few decimetres (<25cm horizontal) in nominal conditions of use is a revolution where Europe provides this as an integrated service for free, thus allowing the massive development of applications worldwide.
“This new service has been made possible thanks to the outstanding cooperation and team commitment of all involved partners,” declared EUSPA executive director, Rodrigo da Costa.
“Galileo HAS will become the pillar of many EU sectorial policies. Currently, high accuracy is primarily used in such professional applications as surveying, precision agriculture and civil engineering, among others,” he said. “However, new and emerging applications, including autonomous driving, unmanned vehicles, robotics and a range of location-based services, will all welcome high accuracy.”
Da Costa also noted that, when used in synergy with Copernicus, the Galileo HAS will open up new market possibilities and help design new services.
“The Galileo High Accuracy Service offers new levels of accuracy to everyone who needs it, while the Open Service Navigation Message Authentication allows users to authenticate Galileo signals, and therefore supports spoofing detection. ESA’s role is to oversee Galileo system upgrades, working together with Galileo’s service provider, EUSPA, and its owner, the European Union,” said Javier Benedicto, ESA director of navigation.
All official HAS documentation, including its Service Definition Document (SDD), is available in the European GNSS Service Centre (E-GSC), managed by EUSPA.
