A GPS/EGNOS Local Element Integrated with the VHF Communication Infrastructure Under Development in the POP-ART Project.

The paper aims at introducing the on-going activities around the design and development of a network-based positioning system exploiting the advantages of both the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System (EGNOS) and the VHF communication infrastructure with the goal to support the Alpine Rescue Teams in the management of search and rescue operations. Such an innovative integration strategy among analog communication channels and EGNOS is the key topic of a project named Precise Operation Positioning for Alpine Rescue Teams (POP-ART) co-funded by the Galileo Joint Undertaking as specific action toward the support of innovative ideas around EGNOS and Galileo proposed by Small Medium Enterprises (SME). The positioning system is based on the raw GPS measurements collected by the users and transmitted to a Local Element by VHF radio channels (or GPRS when available). The POP-ART activities are based on pre-existing works already presented in [1] [3]. The goal of the paper is to provide the latest information on the results already achieved within the project as well as the perspective on the expected performance thanks to several analyses on the EGNOS features. In particular, the results demonstrate that the system fully exploits the improvement given by the EGNOS signals, ensuring a suitable level of accuracy in the positioning for a larger time with respect to standalone GPS positioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]