Geoscience Australia is working with the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information on the test-bed project which will evaluate the effectiveness of an SBAS for Australia, and build expertise within Government and industry on its transformative benefits. The project is funded through the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, and Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development.

The project will see Australia join the USA, Europe, Russia, India and Japan who have all invested in infrastructure that delivers satellite-based corrections via an SBAS. By trialling next generation SBAS, Australia becomes a leader of SBAS technology in the Asia Pacific, particularly through the early adoption of this technology in emerging applications.

Positioning data has become fundamental to a range of applications and businesses worldwide. It increases our productivity, secures our safety and propels innovation; enables GPS on smartphones, provides safety-of-life navigation on aircraft, increases water efficiency on farms, helps to locate vessels in distress at sea, and supports intelligent navigation tools and advanced transport management systems that connect cities and regions.

In early 2017, Geoscience Australia will call for organisations from across the aviation, road, rail, maritime, spatial, construction, mining, utilities and agriculture sectors to participate in the test-bed. Information will be released via the Geoscience Australia website. To keep informed of the progress of the SBAS test-bed project, sign up to the NPI Capability newsletter.

The two-year project will test two new satellite positioning technologies including next generation SBAS and Precise Point Positioning, which will provide positioning accuracies of several decimetres and five centimetres respectively.

http://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/positioning-navigation/positionin...