Improving positioning accuracy across Australia

The cost to Australia from not having an accurate national positioning infrastructure could be as much as $32 billion in lost productivity over the next 20 years.

Australian consumers and businesses are pushing for better and faster digital services across the country. The Co-operative Research Centre for Spatial Information (CRCSI) and its partners are working to enhance Australia’s current positioning infrastructure, which underpins the technology behind smartphones and GPS systems, by tapping into satellite networks.

The building blocks of our national positioning infrastructure are Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) - satellite-receiving ground stations. The Australian Government, through a range of collaborative initiatives, has been building the capacity within this network for the past few years to refine our National Geospatial Reference System.

CRCSI is working to further enhance the network by capitalising on the large number of satellites in the Asia-Pacific region.

Australia has a small population in a vast continent and much of the country still remains unmapped. This is why we are behind many other developed countries when it comes to the efficiency of the networks that allow real-time centimetre-accurate positioning from satellites.

Countries with 100% coverage such as the UK, Germany, Sweden, Turkey and Japan are geographically small in comparison to Australia and it is this issue of scale that puts Australia at a disadvantage.

A solution for Australia

One solution would be for the Australian Government to fund thousands of additional ground stations to further increase our positioning infrastructure; but land-based GNSS stations are expensive to build, at a cost of around $100,000 each.

CRCSI is looking to address the problem a different way. Using the ever-increasing number of satellites over the Asia-Pacific region, CRCSI is leading research on a much more affordable alternative.

“By 2020, Australia will have more positioning satellites overhead than countries outside the Asia-Pacific region,” said CRCSI Research Director Dr Philip Collier. “China’s Beidou program is racing ahead having already launched more satellites in the last two years than the European Galileo system.

“Both Japan and India are likewise working on regional densification systems that will bring further benefit to satellite positioning in Australia,” he added.

“Our approach, in collaboration with our partners, is to aim for a sparser ground infrastructure that tracks all available satellites and signals, supported by a sophisticated processing capability that delivers centimetre-accurate positioning to users in real time.

The cost of doing nothing

The cost to Australia from not having an accurate national positioning infrastructure could be as much as $32 billion in lost productivity over the next 20 years - according to a 2008 report by Allen Consulting.

The loss would be spread across a range of industries including agriculture. Farmers could miss out on productivity gains as high as 10% if the steering of their remote farming machinery isn’t accurate.

The mining industry, the construction industry and any other business that relies on accuracy for the tracking and positioning of vehicles, vessels and machines will all bear the burden of a less efficient system.

And with the emergence of intelligent transport systems over the next few years, the cost to Australia can only climb.

CRCSI research is looking to develop very sophisticated infrastructure on the ground that can tap into these multiple networks. One of the big outcomes would be a dramatic reduction in the number of reference stations to cover our continent. The target is to be able stretch the distance from the 70 km currently needed between current GNSS stations to 200 km.

“Having access to more satellites and more signals will allow positioning in environments where it is currently not possible today with a single system such as GPS,” said Dr Collier.

Improved positioning

Dr Collier said another major benefit would be the improved reliability and availability of positioning. “You need signals from at least four satellites to obtain position in 3D. If the signal from only one of those satellites is lost - perhaps because a tall building is in the way or you are deep inside an open-cut mine - your positioning accuracy is lost.

“By accessing multiple networks, we will create arguably the best and most reliable positioning system in the world. It would be superior even to those in countries with many more ground stations that work only with the US-based GPS system.”

Dr Collier said the CRCSI approach is unique and requires a world-best effort to develop, validate and ultimately implement the necessary processing algorithms so that they operate in an efficient and robust manner.

“We are very fortunate to have Dr Peter Teunissen as our science director. He is one of the world’s top scientists in his field.

“The way in which the CRCSI is coordinating the national research effort is also a key advantage. We have successfully created an environment where the relatively small research community can do work together and deliver results that solve the most pressing needs of industry and our nation.”

The new technology will underpin Australia’s National Positioning Infrastructure Plan developed under the leadership of Geoscience Australia