Sydney Satellites Paul Harcombe Chief Surveyor and Director, LPCU

Who is LPI?

• Land Titling

• Valuations

• Surveying & Mapping

Responsible for maintaining the NSW State Survey Infrastructure

• Where am I?

• Where is it?

• Which direction?

• How far?

Who connects to Survey Infrastructure?

• Past • Now

(GNSS) Positioning Infrastructure

Limitations of GNSS Limited or no service in:

• Urban/Natural Canyons

• Vegetated Areas

• Indoors

• Underground

• Underwater

• High levels of radio frequency interference

Susceptible to:

• Interference

• Intentional Jamming

• Spoofing

• Space weather events

• Military motives

• Non-Australian decision makers

Dependence and Vulnerability • Global Navigation Space Systems: reliance and

vulnerabilities (The Royal Academy of Engineering) • Mid-term review of European satellite radio navigation

programmes (European Commission) • NSTAC Report to the President on Commercial

Communications Reliance on the Global Positioning System (National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee)

• Australian Strategic Plan for GNSS (Australian Spatial Consortium

• ...

Alternatives Revert back to old methods? • Norm for most NSW surveyors

Adopt new technology, but it would need to:

• Work in real-time

• Achieve cm level accuracy in national coordinate system

• Integrate with other sensors and systems

Sydney Satellites • World first test of the performance of Locata vs GNSS in

a maritime environment. Collaborative partners:

• Observed by Australian Hydrographic Service (RAN)

What is Locata? Ground based positioning system consisting of:

• Four or more ‘LocataLites’ (shown in picture) which synchronise with each other using TimeLoc

• LocataLites can be set up on existing control or surveyed in

• Locata rover(s) roaming within bounds of LocataLites

Objectives

Quickly establish a temporary Locata network in a harbour/maritime scenario

Determine the position for a vessel moving within the network using Locata technology

Evaluate the performance of Locata compared to existing positioning techniques (GNSS)

Preparation Work In the lead up to the final test day:

• Multiple reconnaissance trips

• Stakeholder meetings

• UNSW practice day

• Signal test day

• UNSW/Locata training day

• Preliminary positioning test day

Example Test Run

Fort Denison CORS

Set-Up on Sydney Ports Corp. Vessel

Locata Receiver

Temporary Antenna Mount

Antennas

SPC GPS SPC GPS

Test GPS Test GPS

Locata Helix Locata 5/8 Wave

Preliminary Results • Analysis of three runs of Farm Cove

• Approximately 12 minutes of data

• LocataLites ‘in view’ ranges from 4 up to 7 during this particular session

• Data collected at 10Hz (both GPS and Locata)

• Compared to GPS RTK solution after offsets taken into account

2D RMS Error (95%)

Horizontal: 4.4 cm

Comparison to high-precision GPS.

Outcomes Quickly establish a temporary Locata

network in a harbour/maritime scenario

Determine the position for a vessel moving within the network using Locata technology

Evaluate the performance of Locata compared to existing positioning techniques (GNSS)

Next phase of testing • Emergency Services Applications

– Urban environments/Indoors

– Barangaroo development or Australian Technology Park possible locations

• Port Logistics

• National Positioning Infrastructure – Where does it fit?

– Enable navigation through virtual world