http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4394080.stm
Smart directions for green ideas
By Jonathan Amos
BBC News science reporter
Electro-car public transport and a scheme to track the proper
disposal of waste are two of smartest ideas for using satellite-
navigation technology.
The applications have just triumphed in an international competition
seeking novel ways to employ Galileo, Europe's soon-to-launch sat-nav
system.
The multi-billion-euro space venture will transform the quality of
location and timing data available on Earth.
And entrepreneurs are being urged to develop innovative ways to
exploit it.
The transport application devised by the Vu Log company in Sophia
Antipolis, France, envisages a fleet of "green" vehicles on city roads.
Future skies
The electro-car concept was deemed to be the best in over 200 entries
to this year's Galileo Masters competition.
The contest pushes small and medium-sized enterprises to start
thinking now about how they could get the best out of Europe's
satellite-navigation system, due to be operational by the decade's end.
At the moment, Vu Log's car scheme would have difficulty working
because the American Global Positioning System (GPS) does not give
sufficiently accurate and reliable location data to precisely pin-
point a vehicle in a heavily built-up area.
THE GALILEO FUTURE
Expected to be more than 400 million sat-nav users by 2015
European aerospace and electronics firms say it will create more than
100,000 jobs
Rescue services will be able to pinpoint the exact location of a car
driver's accident
System will allow someone to find their way in an unfamiliar city
using their mobile phone
But with Galileo operating alongside GPS to "beef-up" the sat-nav
signal, there would be less chance of community cars being lost in
the steel and glass "canyons" that characterise modern cities.
"This is definitely an application for the future," said Christian
Stammel, from the competition organisers.
"But when GPS is enhanced with Galileo, you can envisage all sorts of
'navigation guardian' solutions, which would guide you through a city
using a mixture of buses, subway, electric cars and on foot."
Galileo Masters 2005 accepted entries from seven European business
regions, including from the UK which put forward the greatest number
of ideas.
Richard White, from Melbourn in Cambridgeshire, took the prize for
the best of these. He has devised a secure, web-based system he calls
"TrackerBack" for keeping tabs on large or valuable loads from pick-
up to delivery.
It issues secret numbers to sender, haulier and recipient which, when
brought together, confirm the chain has been completed.
"Only when the Pin codes are brought together are you able to track
duty of care; you can prove an audit that is legally watertight,"
explained Mr White.
Green solution
With tighter controls being introduced for the disposal of waste and
a growing problem of illegal dumping, the entrepreneur believes his
TrackerBack system could play a useful policing role when combined
with Galileo.
"With the sub-metre accuracy of Galileo, you'd even know how high off
the ground that consignment of tyres was," he said. "You'd know
instantly if it had been dumped over a hedge rather being taken to
the reprocessing plant."
Lyn Dutton, from the Thales Group, which produces sat-nav receivers,
was on the UK judging panel. "We liked the environmental aspect to
Richard's solution and it addresses a real problem that exists at the
moment," he said.
"If you've paid a contractor to properly dispose of waste, you want
to be sure they haven't just pocketed your money and dumped the load
in some quarry. This has a position record attached to it and a log
of what was done."
Richard White is now working to develop his ideas further with the
Hertfordshire Business Incubation Centre (HBic), which manages the
Galileo Masters competition in the UK.
HBic is also hoping to bring on many of the other British entrants,
too, helping them to work through issues such as intellectual
property rights.
The 25-nation EU bloc is funding the early development of Galileo to
the tune of 1.1 billion euros (£0.7bn).
The deployment of the system - the launch of the satellites and the
construction of ground stations - will cost a further 2.1 billion
euros (£1.4bn), with two-thirds of the investment borne by the
private sector. The latter is also expected to pick up all the
running costs in the long term.
The first demonstrator spacecraft are undergoing final testing and
one will be launched next month.
A full constellation of 30 spacecraft should be in orbit within the
next five years.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/4394080.stm
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