GRABEL · GNSS Reconfigurable Antenna Based Enhanced Localization

GRABEL is an SME research initiative intended to investigate the joint use of reconfigurable antennas and beamforming algorithms for the purpose of improving the localization capabilities of Global Navigation Satellite systems (GNSS) receivers (including GPS and Galileo) in outdoor and light-indoor propagation environments. Under good signal propagation conditions (e.g. outdoors with clear line-of-site), most current GNSS receivers are able to deliver reliable navigation with accuracies to within a few meters. However, signal propagation is often characterized by the absence of a strong Line Of Sight (LOS), many non LOS (NLOS, multipath) components, interference (unintentional or intentional), noise and other degradations of the already weak GNSS signal received from the satellite, such as may be encountered in urban and indoor environments. At the same time, the demand for accurate and reliable outdoor-indoor localization is increasing. The requirements for location aware services are becoming more demanding, while the user community is growing. GNSS receivers must be enhanced to meet the needs of ever more demanding applications with respect to rapid, reliable and accurate localisation. GRABEL investigates and develops improved GNSS receiver techniques that make better use of the weak GNSS signals while mitigating the adverse effects of multipath signals, fading, shadowing and interference. The key idea in GRABEL is the use of jointly optimised reconfigurable antenna arrays and baseband beamforming algorithms to substantially improve the performance and reliability of GNSS receivers and wireless receivers more broadly. The use of jointly optimized reconfigurable antennas and beamforming enables GRABEL receivers to approach theoretical performance limits; offering robust, high performance localization in dynamically changing, general outdoor light-indoor environments. As such, GRABEL opens the door to a new generation of outdoor-indoor location aware services