The first results and status of the ATENEA project were presented at the international annual conference ION GNSS 2011 which took place from September 19th to 23rd, 2011, at the Oregon Convention Center, Portland, Oregon, USA. The presentation was held by Antonio Fernández (DEIMOS Space) and the corresponding paper, available in the conference proceedings (http://www.ion.org/search/browse.cfm?pub=GNSS), is co-authored by members of the ATENEA consortium partners: DEIMOS Space (ES), DEIMOS Engenharia (PT), the Institute of Geomatics (ES), the Politecnico di Torino (IT), GeoNumerics (ES) and TopScan (DE). Mariano Wis was the GeoNumerics co-author.
ATENEA is an FP7 EU-funded project (ref.: TREN/FP/TR/247975) led by DEIMOS Space (Tres Cantos, ES) whose purpose is to integrate GNSS, INS and LiDAR measurements to perform precise, accurate and reliable navigation and positioning in general outdoor environments, from urban canyons to open areas.
Corridor and urban mapping by LiDAR images is an active research domain and a well established mapping technique. However, today, it is only feasible by using high-end systems with a cost per unit in the order of 800 k€. In addition, LiDAR sensor orientation is currently provided by loosely and closely coupled GPS/INS receivers, degrading performance in urban scenarios with poor satellite visibility and harsh multipath conditions.
ATENEA tackles the most challenging issues of this type of applications, showing how the use of GNSS signals, integrated positioning and observable processing can in one shot increase robustness, continuity, accuracy and drastically reduce the system cost. The ATENEA project is developing an advanced concept for seamless navigation at the cm-level regardless of the environment based on the following technologies: deeply coupled GNSS/INS receiver design; Galileo signal and modulation (E1 MBOC and E5 AltBOC) new capabilities; and integrated GNSS/INS/LiDAR navigation filters.
In ATENEA, GeoNumerics is responsible for the extraction of LiDAR tie features from LiDAR point clouds, for their modelling and for the assessment of their integration in the GNSS/INS/LiDAR navigation filter. GeoNumerics contributes as well with its experience in the application of GPS to photogrammetry and remote sensing.
FP7 is the short name for the European Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development. This is the EU's main instrument for funding research in Europe and it will run in the time period 2007-2013. FP7 is also designed to respond to Europe's employment, competitiveness and quality of life needs.
The ION GNSS 2011 is the largest of the three technical meetings that the North American Institute of Navigation (ION, http://www.ion.org) hosts each year (the International Technical Meeting in January; the Annual Meeting in June; and the Satellite Division Technical Meeting, ION GNSS, in September).
ARTICLE DETAILS
Authors: Fernández,A., Díez,J., de Castro,D., Silva,P.F., Colomina,I., Parés,M.E., Dovis,F., Wis,M., Lindenberger,J.
Year: 2011
Title: ATENEA: GNSS/INS/LiDAR integration for urban mapping
Conference: ION GNSS 2011
Organization: The Institute of Navigation (ION)
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