GAMMS: Galileo/GNSS-based Autonomous Mobile Mapping System

on 16 July 2021.

The overall objective of GAMMS is to develop an autonomous terrestrial mobile mapping system (AMMS), based on the tight integration of autonomous vehicle (AV), navigation/geodetic and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. More specifically, we aim at developing an advanced prototype (TRL 6 to 7) of an autonomous terrestrial mobile mapping system –a mapping robot– based on an already existing Level of Automation 4 (LoA-41) AV for cm-level accurate and certifiable mapping to serve the needs of the growing markets of
    1. High Definition (HD) maps for autonomous vehicles (a.k.a. driverless cars),
    2. 3D maps for smart cities and augmented reality (AR) applications,
    3. 3D maps to support Urban Air Mobility (UAM) applications –e.g. package delivery by drone or taxi
    4. drones– and, in general, ground-to-low-level-airspace unmanned applications urban sustainable and safe mobility.

GAMMS mainly focuses on HD maps for AVs. In the long term, we envision fleets of low-cost, autonomous, electrically-powered, mobile mapping systems (MMS) collecting geodata in a massive, continuous yet inconspicuous way to produce/update the base maps of the mentioned HD maps. In other words, robots making maps for robots.

Our vision is that the future of mapping is robotic mapping, where robotics, cartography and navigation/geodesy meet. This vision is aligned with the general and long-existing trend of geodata acquisition using robots, be them for indoor, aerial (corridor or large-area) mapping, or environmental monitoring. This is comparable to the field of aerial mapping, in which mapping robots will dominate the landscape –or, at least, play a significant role– of geodata acquisition for aerial mapping.

A key aspect and differentiator of GAMMS is the addition of the advanced Galileo signals (E5 AltBOC), triple frequency (TF) bands and new services –Navigation Message Authentication (OS-NMA, simply NMA) and High Accuracy Service (HAS). As opposed to –mostly US-based– AV-connected HD map makers we leverage Galileo differentiators resulting in higher trajectory precision/accuracy/reliability both in real-time (vehicle guidance) and post-process (generation of the HD base map). Thus, GAMMS makes no sense without E5 AltBOC, TF, NMA and HAS of Galileo.

GAMMS responds to current market opportunities, social needs and H2020 priorities. GAMMS consists with the current level of maturity of the involved technologies, and will set-up a board of stakeholders to cross-fertilize the project (the GAMMS Advisory Board, GAB). Indeed, AVs –a.k.a. self-driving or driverless– are no longer a futuristic idea and constitute the second car revolution.

GeoNumerics is a research and development (R&D) intensive small-and-medium-enterprise (SME) company specialised in geomatics and accurate navigation.

The European Space Agency (EUSPA) is a European Union (EU) agency that promotes the use, adoption, application and market development of European GNSS services and that these services and operations are thoroughly secure, safe and accessible.

The EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 (H2020) has been the biggest EU research and innovation programme ever with nearly 80 B€ (billion of €) funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020). H2020 couples research and innovation with emphasis on excellent science and industrial leadership, and tackles the EU societal challenges. H2020 goal has been to ensure that Europe produces world-class science, removes barriers to innovation and makes it easier for the public and private sectors to work together in delivering innovation. The H2020 programme will be succeeded by Horizon Europe, with an expected budget of 100 B€ to be launched on 1 January 2021.

PROJECT DETAILS
Acronym: GAMMS
Title: Galileo/GNSS-based Autonomous Mobile Mapping System
Period: 2021-07-01 to 2023-12-31
Funding: European Space Agency (EUSPA), European Commission (EC) grant 101004255, Horizon 2020 (H2020), H2020-SPACE-EGNSS-2019-2020
Coordinator: GEOSAT (FR)
Other participants: DEIMOS Engenharia (PT), École Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne (CH), ENIDE (ES), Pildo Labs (ES), Sensible4 (FI), Solid Potato (FI), GeoNumerics (ES)

H2020 web page: https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/
CORDIS entry: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101004255

GAMMS web page: https://gamms.eu/

The project GAMMS has received funding from the European Community's Horizon 2020 Programme under Grant Agreement 101004255.

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