The Informatics Development Institute (IDI) is leading a network of Irish researchers and expert consultants participating in the Galileo Joint Undertaking (GJU) programme for research involving SMEs (Small/Medium Enterprises).
Dublin, Ireland, April 12, 2006: The Informatics Development Institute is tasked with the design of a local wireless network as part of a project funded by the EC/ESA (European Space Agency) to detect small slow earth movements that are precursors to landslides.
The chair of the IDI, Gordon Foster, emeritus professor of Trinity College Dublin, said "Our experience in low-cost communications solutions in developing countries is the key to the IDI participation in this project". "Our affiliates in the National Satellite Services Centre in Kevin St. DIT are bringing their specific expertise in advanced wireless communications", he added.
At a conference "Galileo - fast forward to the future" in Brussels on 5 & 6 April 2006, thirty-two SMEs and researchers unveiled details of projects to create satellite navigation products of the future that will transform European citizens’ lives.
Examples of applications include devices that will give positioning accuracy
of 20-30 cm, a low-cost and effective early warning system to predict
landslides, an apparatus that will be able to track endangered species in the
wildlife and a high accuracy positioning array that will enable helicopters to
work in much more difficult circumstances, than currently is
the case.
The Executive Director of the Galileo Joint Undertaking (GJU), Mr. Rainer
Grohe, explained, ‘Projects such as these, based on Galileo technology will give
a major boost to European jobs and competitiveness. We are expanding the
parameters of European technical know-how’.
It has been estimated that the market potential for products based on Galileo and other satellite navigation systems could reach €400bn by 2020 with at least 3 billion users, and that Galileo will generate more than 140,000 new jobs in Europe and many more on a global scale.
The project website is http://www.galileoju.com
http://www.InformaticsDevelopmentInstitute.net
The Informatics Development Institute (IDI) is constituted as a not-for-profit company with a charter to carry out research and development and to encourage innovation in Information Technology and the science of Informatics and cognate sciences and technologies, together with their applications both in Ireland and abroad with special reference to developing countries.
The IDI carried out a trial LEOsat email project in Africa in the period 1998 – 2002, sponsored by the EU. The challenge was to bring communications at minimum cost to remote regions of developing countries, recognising that this is not a simple one of technology transfer.
Along with the Institute of Engineering Surveying and Space Geodesy (IESSG) at the University of Nottingham (UK), we are part of the GGPhi project led by the UK Civil Aviation Authority's (CAA) Institute of Satellite Navigation at the University of Leeds, UK. The project aims to build a Low-Cost, Low-Power Galileo/GPS Carrier Phase Positioning System for applications such as landslide & environmental monitoring. The IDI is working with our affiliates in the Dublin Institute of Technology National Satellite Services Centre in Kevin St. Dublin. Our task is to develop an architectural design for a low cost, low power, local and long haul communications system for a network of Galileo carrier phase receivers capable of detecting movements of the order of millimetres in order to warn of incipient landslides in remote areas of developing countries. The innovative aspect is in the low cost and low power design.
An interesting historical note is that in 1988 Peter Daly, professor of electrical and electronic engineering, University of Leeds, U.K., and graduate student S.A. Dale were honoured for pioneering work in deciphering the signal format of the USSR's Global Navigation Satellite System (Glonass) at a time when the Soviets were following a policy of secrecy.
The Directors of IDI
Gordon Foster, Fellow Emeritus, Trinity College, Dublin.
Diarmuid Herlihy, Managing Partner, Paradigm 2000.
Patrick O'Beirne, Managing Director, Systems
Modelling.
Prof. John Miller, Trinity College and Director of the Institute for Numerical
Computation and Analysis (INCA)
Affiliates of IDI
Ciaran O'Driscoll, Director, National Satellite Services Centre, Dublin
Victor Thorne, Dublin Institute of Technology
Tom Fallon, Dublin Institute of Technology
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Ghana
National Agricultural Research Organisation, Uganda
Copperbelt University, Kitwe, Zambia
Diarmuid Herlihy
'Clashleigh', Erskine Avenue
Greystones, Co. Wicklow, IRELAND
Tel/Fax +353 1 2876003
Email
http://www.InformaticsDevelopmentInstitute.net
http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/energy_transport/galileo/index_en.htm
The GALILEO satellite radio navigation system is a €3.8 billion initiative of the European Union and the European Space Agency complementary to the current US GPS system.
GALILEO is based on a constellation of 30 satellites and ground stations that emit signals indicating the time extremely precisely. The GIOVE-A, built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a Russian Soyuz rocket on Dec 28, 2005 and has successfully transmitted back test signals. In late 2006 a second test satellite will go into space, GIOVE-B, including a hydrogen maser clock for even greater accuracy. This will be followed by four working satellites in 2008 and the first commercial use of the system in 2010.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4792792.stm BBC News reports
Sat-nav has countless applications in the daily lives of consumers, from car guidance systems to feature-packed mobile phones. It has been estimated that the market potential for products based on Galileo and other satellite navigation systems could reach €10bn by 2015 and that Galileo will generate more than 140,000 new jobs in Europe and many more on a global scale. Rescue services will be able to pinpoint the exact location of a car driver's accident. People will be able to find their way in an unfamiliar city using their mobile phone.
Galileo is expected to be even more accurate than the US Global Positioning System (GPS) in that it offers publicly available resolution of five metres and commercial systems can offer 1 metre. In fact, researchers can use more advanced systems to detect centimetre-level differences over time.
The US GPS is run by the US military, meaning that the Pentagon can switch off or interfere with the system without warning civilian users around the world. The original intention was that Galileo will stay under civilian control, increasing the EU's strategic independence from the US. However, at the EU-US summit in Ireland in June 2004, an agreement was signed.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3839809.stm The BBC reports "The agreement determines how Galileo's frequencies should be structured which, crucially, will allow signals to be jammed in war zones if necessary. US Secretary of State Colin Powell signed the pact with Loyola de Palacio, EU Transport Commissioner, at the EU-US summit at Dromoland Castle, Ireland. The new accord between the EU and US sees Europe shift its frequency choices to a standard known as Binary Offset Carrier 1.1. The change will allow either side to effectively jam the other's signal in a small area, such as a battlefield, without shutting down the entire system. More importantly from the civilian perspective, the agreement allows the systems to be meshed seamlessly, greatly benefiting manufacturers, service providers and consumers."
Diarmuid Herlihy
'Clashleigh', Erskine Avenue
Greystones, Co. Wicklow, IRELAND
Tel/Fax +353 1 2876003
Email
http://www.InformaticsDevelopmentInstitute.net