2020 celebrated the 17th edition of Galileo Masters, featuring seven challenges presented by first-class partners and 17 EC Galileo Prizes powered by the European Commission (EC), with UAV’s winning in three of the categories.
These awards are organised by Prize Partners as part of a growing network of 101 European affiliates. In the 2020 competition, 306 participants from 33 countries submitted 130 new satellite navigation business cases and application ideas.
Here are the three UAV winners:
Safe Jamming of GNSS of Hostile Drones
Recently, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been used to interrupt the operations of airports and other critical infrastructure using GNSS signals. To neutralise these hostile UAVs, jamming radiation on the GNSS frequency band is used, but this neutralisation method is potentially dangerous for manned aircraft and also interrupts nearby GNSS users.
This new concept proposes a method of very selective GNSS jamming. The idea exploits non-linear effects in the semiconductor elements of electronic circuits. Combined frequencies (including GNSS) are generated when semiconductors in a UAV‘s electronic equipment are affected by a strong narrow- beam microwave signal comprising at least two frequencies. With no jamming radiation on GNSS frequency, this concept is safe for manned aircrafts and can be used in airports. There is spatial selective GNSS jamming, which means that the energy of higher frequency radiation can be focused into a much narrower beam. Moreover, the additional hostile
UAV‘s communication jamming is in different frequency bands.
Vilnius university, Vilnius Tech
Saulius Rudys, Paulius Ragulis,
Rimvydas Aleksiejunas
rudys@elmika.com
www.dlr.de/tm/en
www.teti.ff.vu.lt/index_eng.htm
The Future of Antenna Testing is Location- Independent
The SATCOM industry is growing and so is radio frequency interference (RFI). Most RFI arises from poorly performing or badly installed antennas and can cause connection failures and lowered bandwidth. Currently, antennas are tested in conventional test ranges prior to network deployment in order to prevent these malfunctions. However, this procedure is expensive, time- consuming, and a logistical challenge.
QuadSAT is introducing a system of drones and GNSS satellites that combine to offer location- independent antenna testing. It is an innovative and deployable farfield test range that makes antenna testing available whenever and wherever needed.
Using GNSS positioning, QuadSAT‘s drones are equipped with a very accurate local reference system that relates to the antenna undergoing testing. The system combines GNSS with RTK algorithms to achieve its high testing accuracy. The QuadSAT system operates automatically and cancarryoutabroadrangeoftestingmissions without needing the antenna to be moved or even taken out of operation.
QuadSAT ApS
Mads Selvejer Plum, Joakim Espeland, Andrian Buchi
msp@quadsat.com
www.quadsat.com
Contact-Drone
Large structures such as dams, wind farms, bridges, or buildings require continuous maintenance to guarantee the safety of their operation and a long useful life. These inspection processes are carried out manually, or more recently by drones equipped with optical and thermal infrared sensors.
However, these sensors are only capable of detecting surface damage, leaving internal problems unmonitored.
Contact-Drone is a drone payload that was developed to perform contact inspection tasks using GNSS data. It controls the movements of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based on location data and then uses LiDAR sensors when the drone nears the structure in question. This eliminates the human factor because the Contact-Drone payload will make the process independent of the flight controller.
Unmanned Galicia S.L.
Higinio González Jorge
higiniog@uvigo.es
unmannedgalicia.es
The full report on the winners can be downloaded here.
Source: Press Release