The academics from the Navigation Faculty at the Maritime University of Szczecin succeeded in winning a European research and development competition commissioned by the European Space Agency. Their task now is to investigate and improve the applicability in maritime environment of the EGNOS navigation system which until now was mainly used in aviation.
The research is focused on Implementation of EGNOS in the maritime domain as effective augmentation system for positioning in inland and pilot navigation. EGNOS is a European differential satellite-based system that supplements other satellite navigation systems, including GPS. It not only augments positioning data, reducing the positioning error from ca. 10 to 1 m. The system provides also information on the maximum expected positioning error increasing at the same time reliability and accuracy of positioning data. Until now, EGNOS has mainly supported airborne navigation. Now the European Space Agency aims to increase its application in the marine environment. “The system will be particularly important in port operations, increasing the safety of ships” said Lucjan Gucma, PhD, the project leader, director of the Marine Traffic Engineering Institute, Maritime University in Szczecin.
- The main aim of the EMPONA project is to define the applicability of the EGNOS system in the maritime field with special emphasis on port waters. The tasks are divided into two main parts:
experimental: carried out aboard the NAVIGATOR XXI (university training ship), during which the Maritime University’s project partner - German Space Agency (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt), will carry out a measurement session to determine the position of the ship;
- simulation-based: carried out in the bridge simulator in the Centre for Maritime Traffic Engineering at the Maritime University (digital navigation maps will simulate onboard EGNOS measurements)
Maritime University in Szczecin is the leader of the consortium comprising also the German Space Agency. The project started in early November and will last for the following 16 months. The project budget amounts to EUR 250 thousand which is a maximum allocation available.
The European Space Agency is one of the world’s major space agencies whose aim is to explore and exploit space. ESA launches numerous unmanned exploration missions and earth-orbiting satellites. With annual budget of about EUR 4 billion, the Agency employs ca. 2 thousand people from all the EU member states (including researchers, engineers, computer scientists etc). Poland has been a member of the ESA since September 2012.