GMV has played a key role in setting up the Galileo High Accuracy Service (HAS) infrastructure. This service went live on 24 January 2023 and users around the world can now harness its high-accuracy positioning capabilities delivered by the EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) as Galileo Services’ Provider. This milestone makes Galileo the first global navigation satellite system (GNSS) to provide such a service free of charge worldwide to anyone with a properly equipped receiver. With unprecedented levels of positioning accuracy down to decimeter level (for detailed information please refer to HAS SDD), this service is enabled thanks to an additional level of real-time positioning corrections delivered through a data stream within the existing Galileo signal. The core infrastructure responsible for the generation of this new data stream with high-accuracy positioning information has been developed by GMV. Miguel Romay, GMV’s Navigation Systems General Manager, said: “The launch of the Galileo High Accuracy Service is a milestone for the European Union and highlights GMV’s success as a leader in the design and implementation of high-accuracy positioning services based on satellite navigation systems.”

The European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) awarded a major contract to GMV in 2020 for the development of the “processing heart” of this service’s infrastructure, the High Accuracy Data Generator (HADG), the engine that generates the real-time corrections stream. The purpose of the HADG is to ensure the continuous delivery of such data under appropriate availability, continuity, and latency conditions. The data covers corrections to the GNSS satellite navigation message, mainly orbit and clock corrections, as well as other service parameters.

As project leader, GMV has led the main activities in the HAS’ processing infrastructure development, namely supplying algorithms for calculating high-accuracy corrections. This has been possible thanks to GMV’s extensive experience in high-accuracy positioning technology, such as its GNSS-based GMV GSharp ® solution.

The Galileo HAS is an open access service that transmits high-accuracy corrections in real time through the signal generated by the satellites of the Galileo constellation, specifically via the E6-B band and internet enabling an improved accuracy in the user positioning performance.

The Galileo High Accuracy Initial Service, now operational delivers sub-decimeter accuracy that can be applied in a wide range of sectors, including navigation, autonomous driving, geodesy, and agriculture. The HAS is a substantial improvement over other open service positioning systems as well as a catalyst for the development of high-accuracy solutions based on it.

Without question, this milestone strengthens GMV’s role as a top-level participant in the Galileo project, as well as a leading company in the high accuracy technology now commercialized under its GMV GSharp ® solution.