A number of initiatives across Europe are currently testing a number of practical road transport applications based on the increased accuracy and reliability of the EGNOS and Galileo satellite navigation technologies.
Delegates to the biannual TRA forum on road transport research in Brussels in June 2010 heard the latest developments from a number of collaborative initiatives which are taking technologies from the drawing board into the real world.
One of the leading examples is the GINA (GNSS for INnovative Road Applications) project which is doing large-scale trials of a road user charging (RUC) system using the EGNOS signal.
Sara Gutiérrez-Lanza, coordinator of the GINA project, speaks at the TRA event in June 2010. © Neil Maclean
"EGNOS and Galileo offer cost-effective, flexible and versatile solutions for road user charging (RUC) applications," said project co-ordinator Sara Gutiérrez-Lanza. "However, there has not been large-scale take off yet. We need to prove the technical and economical feasibility of the systems on a large scale."
GINA, which started in 2009, is running two sets of trials, both in the Netherlands. "We're tackling the problem from a realistic perspective, using the requirements defined by real end users," added Gutiérrez-Lanza.
More over at GSA.