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G E O S P A T I A L
I N D U S T R Y
M A G A Z I N E
GEOSPATIAL
WORLD
TM
NOVEMBER 2015 » VOLUME 06» ISSUE 4 | ISSN 2277–3134
Road to
future
www.geospatialworld.net
Autonomous vehicles and intelligent
transportation systems are slowly
changing the way we travel P | 18
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INSIDE
CONTENT
VOLUME : 6 ISSUE : 4
5
INTELLIGENT TRANSPORT
26 Autonomous Cars: The Most
Disruptive Innovation Ever
30 Autonomous Vehicles Need Reliable
Dynamic Map Data
32 Collaborative ITS
Will Intelligent Transportation Systems provide
a change in the efficiency and safety of our road
networks?
37 Moving Target
Attention is shifting to businesses and
individuals who use the transportation
infrastructure
42 Interview: A.S. Ganeshan, Project
Director of GAGAN, ISRO
44 Case Study: Driving Road
Infrastructure
SPECIAL FEATURES
Cover Image Credit: Intel
46 Re-engineering national mapping
agencies
52 COP's Half Full: Geospatial
Community's Expectations
Driveway to Future
REGULAR FEATURES
P | 18 As the idea of a self-driving car starts
to become less and less far-fetched, will
tech-hungry consumers be willing to cede
control to a machine?
7 EDITORIAL
8 NEWS
16 PRODUCTS
Disclaimer
Geospatial World does not necessarily subscribe to the views expressed in the publication. All views expressed in this issue are those
of the contributors. Geospatial World is not responsible for any loss
to anyone due to the information provided.
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Geospatial World • November• 2015
International
6
Advisory Board
Ahmad Fauzi Bin Nordin Sr
Prof. Josef Strobl
Director General of Survey
and Mapping (JUPEM), Malaysia
Chair, Department of Geoinformatics,
University of Salzburg, Austria
Aida Opoku-Mensah
Kamal K Singh
Special Advisor: Post 2015
Development Agenda,
UN Economic Commission for Africa
Chairman and CEO, Rolta Group
Kumar Navulur
Director, Next Generation Products,
DigitalGlobe
Barbara Ryan
Secretariat Director, Group on Earth Observations
Mark Reichardt
Christopher W Gibson
President and CEO,
Open Geospatial Consortium
Derek Clarke
President, Hexagon Geospatial
Dorine Burmanje
Asst Deputy Minister for Land & Surveying,
Ministry of Municipal & Rural Affairs,
Saudi Arabia
Vice President & Executive
Committee Member, Trimble
Chief Director-Survey and Mapping & National
Geospatial Information, Dept of Rural Development
& Land Reform, South Africa
Chair-Executive Board, Cadastre, Land Registry and
Mapping Agency (Kadaster),
The Netherlands
Ed Parsons
Mladen Stojic
Mohd Al Rajhi
Sandeep Singhal
General Manager, Bing Maps and Geospatial,
Microsoft
Geospatial Technologist, Google
Stephen Lawler
Vice-President, Direct Traffic,
Amazon
Greg Bentley
CEO, Bentley Systems
Vanessa Lawrence
Jay Freeland
Secretary General,
Ordnance Survey International, UK
President & CEO, FARO
The Team
CHAIRMAN
M P Narayanan
Editor — Mining (Hon)
Dr. Hrishikesh Samant
Senior Graphic Designer
Debjyoti Mukherjee
Publisher
Sanjay Kumar
Executive Editor
Sub Editor
Sanskriti Shukla
Managing Editor
Prof. Arup Dasgupta
Deputy Executive Editor
Editor — Defence & Internal Security
Lt Gen (Dr) AKS Chandele (Retd)
Product Manager
Editor — Building & Energy
Geoff Zeiss
Senior Assistant Editor
Geospatial World • November • 2015
Bhanu Rekha
Anusuya Datta
Harsha Vardhan Madiraju
Ishveena Singh
Circulation Manager
Ashish Batra
Executive — Posting
Vijay Kumar Singh
EDITORIAL
7
With intelligent transport systems, the
impact on geospatial will not only be on maps
and location, but also in the way transport
infrastructure, buildings and service facilities
will be planned and implemented
Prof Arup Dasgupta
Managing Editor, [email protected]
Cars may turn into the
ultimate IoT device
I
n 2002, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, DARPA, of the US Department of
Defence issued a Challenge for driverless cars to
negotiate a 240-km stretch in the Mojave Desert.
In 2004, four teams competed for the challenge; the
best one did all of 11.78 km. Experts said the goal could
at best be reached by 2007. In 2005 the challenge was
won by the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
The team leader, Sebastian Thrun, who later took over
as the head of Google's research into this area (he quit
Google last year), developed the chaufferless car which
was on the road by 2011.
One of the key technologies in use in these cars
which are of interest to us are digital maps. One has read
or heard several jokes about people following digital
maps and ending up in someone’s driveway. I have had
a similar experience in Malaysia where a crossing turned
out to be an overpass adding to several kilometres of
driving before we could get to our destination. With
rapid changes in the urban environment the issue is one
of accurate and up-to-date maps. The main sources of
error are new roads coming up and temporary blockages
due to road repair, accidents, traffic jams, flooding and
other natural disruptions. Methods like access to online
municipal portals and crowdsourcing need to be used as
well as instant reports through sensor networks.
The other major issue is of GPS accuracy. In dense
urban environments, multi-path signals considerably
degrade the positional accuracies. Systems like WAAS
can help as these are based on geostationary satellites.
Modern smartphones do use a WAAS type approach by
augmenting the GPS signals using corrections obtained
through a GPRS connection to a server. A third issue is
connectivity. For real-time information there had to be
failsafe connectivity through GPRS, satellite, RFID or
any other communications technologies.
Some carmakers follow a cautious approach by aiding the driver using several IT systems, none of which
are failsafe and the driver has to use his own judgement
in situations where automation fails. They quote examples of driverless cars causing accidents or being too
cautious, of not being able to discriminate between a
rock and an empty bag of chips and of not being able to
recognize a policeman signalling the car to the kerb.
Considering that it took just a year for driverless
cars to move from a dedicated test track to real life city
roads, these failures too will be solved sooner than later.
Google hopes to have such cars on sale by 2020. Just as
aerial film cameras have been replaced by digital multispectral cameras rendering photo-film, film processing
and storage defunct, so will driverless cars will bring
about a disruptive change in the way we travel not only
in cars but also in mass transit systems.
The impact on geospatial will not only be on maps
and location but also in the way transport infrastructure,
buildings and service facilities will be planned and
implemented. There will be an impact on the design of
Smart Cities as well as on ‘green’ systems. Ultimately,
we may see the car turning into the ultimate Internet of
Things device.
8
NEWS
DigitalGlobe posts profit,
but shares hit 3-year low
Jeffery Tarr, CEO, DigitalGlobe
Job cuts, negative reports all
point to gloomy times ahead
D
igitalGlobe is back in news. And it’s not all hunky
dory. On October 29, the satellite imagery giant
reported third-quarter net income of $9.2 million.
Though this was a year-on-year improvement as compared
to reporting a loss in the same period a year earlier, its
revenue earnings of $173.3 million in the period fell short of
Wall Street forecasts.
Further, while revenue share from US government
increased 26.4% to $111.0 million owing to fresh NGA
contracts, what was noticeable was that diversified
commercial revenue declined 6.7% to $62.3 million
principally due to revenue from location based services.
The company also cut its 2015 revenue and adjusted
EBITDA guidance ranges. Digital Globe shares plunged over
25% to 14.93 on Friday October 31 closing, their lowest levels
since 2012.DG shares have been under pressure since the
beginning of the year. Recently, JP Morgan downgraded the
stock to neutral from overweight, saying its future growth
prospects were "increasingly at risk," and Benchmark Co cut
its target for the company's stock to $20.
On October 15, the private satellite company cut 40 jobs,
or about 2% of its workforce. While the company says the
move was necessary “to balance costs and growth strategy”,
only seven months back, in February, it had fired 155
employees as part of what it said was an overall strategy shift.
The space imaging major, which is battling the impact
of new entrants into the satellite market, had brushed
aside all negative reports saying they were overplayed and
ignored the fact that the company provided the highestquality commercial imagery available. “The reports failed to
recognize the unique characteristics of what DigitalGlobe
provides for the US government that are so far outside of
what any of the emerging constellations are capable of.
It's ignoring the details," Walter Scott, Founder and Chief
Technical Officer, had said then.
What would be interesting to note is DigitalGlobe, in its
Q2 reports in July, had warned of "somewhat moderated"
top-line growth in the second half of the year. CEO Jeffrey
Tarr had accepted that the only segment to experience a
year-over-year decline in sales during the second quarter was
location-based services (LBS). He had then blamed this on
the decision to avoid selling the company’s highest quality
30cm imagery to some top LBS players at rock-bottom prices.
Selling such high-resolution imagery for Web-based
mapping services would have meant making them freely
available on the Web, which, in the long run, could have
undermined the company’s value proposition to highermargin customers in other verticals. However, the decision
naturally had immediate implications, especially given
the heavily crowded the satellite imagery market, who
immediately lapped up every available opportunity.
Credit: Apple: 7boot
NEWS
9
Apple acquires
2 artificial
intelligence
startups
A
rtificial intelligence is fast becoming an important
tool for tech companies as they seek to improve
their ‘virtual assistant’ services, such as, Apple's Siri
and Google Now. Moreover, Apple Watch and Apple TV
rely heavily on Siri and voice input to understand what the
user wants to do. So it really shouldn’t come as a surprise
that Apple scooped up two artificial intelligence startups in
October: Perceptio and VocalIQ.
While Perceptio allows companies to run advanced
artificial intelligence systems on smartphones without
needing to share much user data, VocalIQ’s software helps
computers and people speak to each other in a more natural
way. Perceptio founders Nicolas Pinto and Zak Stone are
established AI researchers who specialize in developing
image recognition systems through deep learning
technology. Deep learning is an approach to artificial
intelligence that lets computers learn to identify and classify
sensory input. UK-based VocalIQ sells its natural language
database as a service to app developers, who can use it as
the personal assistant in their apps. The platform stores and
learns from all communication from app users to provide
more intelligent and relevant answers in the future.
NGA rolls out new commercial
GEOINT strategy
N
ational Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has
released its commercial geospatial intelligence
strategy for acquisition and better use of
unclassified information. According to Robert Cardillo,
Director, NGA, the new strategy will focus on harnessing
advances in the private sector. Innovators in industry
are developing remarkable capabilities and services
that will offer a wealth of unclassified data sources and
new opportunities, added Cardillo. With the release
of the new strategy, it is also believed that the agency
could request funding to begin experimenting with the
different imagery products becoming available from a
new generation of commercial satellite operators and
data analytics firms.
According to a strategy document, the agency is
contemplating entering into a variety of contracting
schemes with the newcomers, many funded by Silicon
Valley venture capital. Some of these companies have
already begun launching imaging constellations of
unprecedented size.
10
NEWS
Lockheed Martin faces competition
from Boeing, Northrop on GPS sats
A
Courtesy: gps.gov
top US Air Force procurement official has
revealed that Lockheed Martin, the biggest
US government contractor, will face stiff
competition from Boeing and Northrop
Grumman for a GPS satellite contract.
Lockheed fell behind 28 months to complete the first of
the eight GPS III satellites it was to deliver under a contract
it won in 2008. The delay was because of flaws in the
satellite's navigation payload system, which was produced
by a subcontractor. Lockheed now plans to deliver the first
GPS III satellite in August 2016, provided that corrections
to deficiencies in its navigation payload pass testing in a
vacuum test chamber that replicates space.
While Boeing has expressed its interest to compete for
the next batch comprising of 22 satellites, Northrop is also
excited with this opportunity. Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, the Air
Force's top uniformed acquisition official, says, “We want
to get competition as much as we can so that we can try to
drive down costs and get a better system.”
The new GPS III satellites come with increased accuracy
for navigation. They also have greater resistance against
jamming, which has off-late become a top concern for the
Pentagon.
Intergraph SG&I is now Hexagon
Safety & Infrastructure
I
ntergraph's Security, Government & Infrastructure
(SG&I) division has been rebranded as Hexagon Safety
& Infrastructure globally. Parent company Hexagon
says that the new name aligns more closely with its
business and the solutions it offers. It reflects Hexagon’s
commitment to governments, utilities and other markets.
Steven Cost, president, Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure,
says, “Since acquiring Intergraph in 2010, Hexagon has made
many strategic and beneficial investments in safety and
infrastructure solutions – from research and development to
acquisitions and partnerships. In rebranding Intergraph SG&I
as Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure, we're… building on our
past as Intergraph and embracing the future as Hexagon. As
Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure, we'll continue to strive to be
a trusted partner to our customers, applying expertise and
innovation to improve their operations and services.” As a part
of this rebranding initiative, Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure
has unveiled a new creative identity, new website and new
social media presence. However, the Intergraph name will
continue to be used in product branding.
NEWS
China launches
4 EO satellites
11
four Jilin-1 satellites will be launched. Between 2016
and 2019, there are plans to have 16 satellites in orbit,
completing a remote sensing network that will cover the
entire globe and will be capable of a three to four hours
update in the data provided.
From 2020, the plans point to a 60 satellite orbital
constellation capable of a 30 minutes update in the data
provided. From 2030, the Jilin constellation will have 138
satellites in orbit, forming an all-day, all-weather, full
spectrum acquisition segment data and a capability of
observing any global arbitrary point with a 10 minutes
revisit capability, providing the world’s highest spatial
resolution and time resolution space information products.
ISRO arm
slapped with
$672 mn fine
Courtesy: rts.ch
T
C
hina has launched a group of four satellites aimed
at providing commercial earth observation services.
The "Jilin-1" satellites include one spacecraft
for high-definition images, one for testing new space
technology and another two for video. Data from these
satellites will used for monitoring, development, and
surveying of natural resources. Apart from this, they will
also contribute to mapping and disaster prevention for
both domestic and overseas clients.
The satellites were developed by Chang Guang Satellite
Technology Company, and carried into space by a Long
March-2D rocket. Jilin, one of China’s oldest industrial
bases, is developing its satellite industry as a new economic
drive. The province plans to launch 60 satellites by 2020
and 138 by 2030. According to reports, in the first phase,
he Indian Space Research Organization is facing
the worst crisis in its history. An international
tribunal has asked ISRO to pay damages worth
$672 million to Devas Multimedia for "unlawfully"
terminating a deal four years ago on grounds of national
security.
Under a 2005 deal, Antrix was to launch two operating
satellites and provide 70 MHz of the limited S-Band
wavelength to Devas for its digital multimedia services.
In return, Antrix would have received $300 million from
Devas over a period of 12 years. However, following a lapse
in procedures, the government scrapped this deal. The
government said that it could not provide an orbit slot in
the S-band of frequencies to Antrix for commercial use
because of high demand for the spectrum for public use.
According to a statement by Devas, the compnay disagreed
with Antrix's reasons for cancelling the deal and sought
negotiations, but "Antrix refused to engage", which forced
the company to start arbitration proceedings in June 2011.
Now, the tribunal has awarded damages and pre-award
interest amounting to $672 million to Devas. Moreover,
post-award interest will be levied at 18% per annum on
that sum until the award is fully paid.
12
NEWS
Courtesy: Wikimedia
Mapillary
partners with
Esri to help
governments
C
GLONASS ready
for domestic
switch
W
estern sanctions on Russia for long have been
restricting the country’s purchase of radiationresistant components base for its space
industry. But now, the Russian government has announced
that it has found out a way to switch its GLONASS global
navigation system to a domestically-produced electronic
component base. The country plans to achieve this aim
within the next two years. Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister
Dmitry Rogozin said recently, “We have found solutions
for switching to a domestically-produced [electronic]
component base within a year and a half or two years.”
GLONASS satellite navigation system is operated by
the Russian Aerospace Defense Forces. It is a priority for
Russian defense systems who don’t want surprises in the
event of disconnection from other navigation systems.
The system currently comprises nearly 30 satellites,
including 24 operational spacecraft, three spares, and one
platform in the flight-testing phase. There are 19 ground
stations providing consumers with a navigation signal with
an accuracy of one meter. Three stations are also located
in the Antarctic and one in Brazil, with two more to be
constructed in Kazakhstan and one in Belarus.
ommunity-based street imagery solution Mapillary
is partnering with Esri to help governments and
businesses see their cities evolve in real-time
through the ArcGIS platform integration. Relying heavily
on citizen collaboration, Mapillary allows anyone to
collect street-level photos with smartphone apps and
off-the-shelf equipment. Its USP is that unlike other
mapping services which could take months for images
to be processed, photos are available minutes after
uploading and are connected to construct a 3D view of the
landscape. Stressing on the importance of this partnership,
Jan Erik Solem, CEO and Co-Founder of Mapillary, said,
“City governments and organizations can chart their
municipalities in real-time and the projects they're working
on that either require a quick turnaround or frequent
updates, can be more streamlined.”
Mapillary for ArcGIS will allow users to scan images to
manage inventory and city assets, monitor repairs, inspect
pavement quality, and assess sites for new train tracks. New
features will include filtering based on capture time and
photographer, as well as automatic traffic sign recognition.
Courtesy: Wikimedia
Courtesy: Esri
NEWS
GeoDesign-ing
our complex
world
S
alzburg, Austria, played host to the third
GeoDesign Summit in October. The event was
co-hosted by University of Salzburg, VU University
Amsterdam, Geodan and Esri. The two-day
summit featured inspiring keynotes focusing on geodesign
frameworks and concepts, geospatial technologies
supporting geodesign and decision-making, and real-world
examples of geodesign in practice.
Opening the summit, Jack Dangermond, CEO, Esri,
emphasized that maps and geography are becoming a
language that cut across different discipline and culture.
Contents, analytics tool and processing power are now
widely available for the community to engage and
understand our changing world.
13
Prof Josef Strobl, Interfaculty Department of
Geoinformatics, University of Salzburg, said geodesign
was a necessity because experimenting in the real world
is way more expensive than the digital world. He followed
this up in his keynote address, saying, “Although geodesign
leverages a digital earth framework made possible by
various sensors and automation, the assessment and
evaluation scenarios for alternative futures should come
from the people.”
Indeed, the term ‘collaboration’ and ‘citizen engagement’
came up at multiple occasions throughout the event. City
councils are utilizing geodesign tools to communicate with
citizens for future development of cities as demonstrated by
City of Gothenburg, Sweden; City of Cologne, Germany; City
of Zurich, Switzerland as well as Salzburg.
Another interesting dimension of geodesign is in
gaming. Eduardo Dias from VU Amsterdam/Geodan
presented the result of participatory design workshops
involving schoolchildren in Netherlands to co-design their
surrounding school space using a popular sandbox game,
Minecraft. Such activities help generate spatial thinking
among children who will go on to become future spatial
planners. Geodesign is no longer ‘just GIS’, it has cut across
much bigger spectrum offering solutions in designing our
complex world.
HERE, Oracle collaborate to support
logistics service providers
H
ERE has integrated its Platform for Business with Oracle Transportation Management to help the latter power the map
display, geocoding and routing capabilities
for Cloud and on premise deployments. With the
planning, execution and freight payment aspects of
Oracle Transportation Management, both shippers
and logistics service providers can minimize cost,
optimize service levels and create flexible business
process automation.
HERE’s Platform would allow users to visualize
locations, orders, shipments, routes and information, such
as, real-time traffic and incidents, on the map. They would
also be able to generate point-to-point routes between
shipping locations. Moreover, geocoding locations and
calculating distance and transit time between locations
would also become simplified.
The HERE Platform for Business comes preconfigured
and pre-integrated into the Oracle Transportation
Management Cloud, giving Oracle customers access to the
innovative and high quality services built from HERE maps.
With the packaged capabilities including all of the mapenabled workflows, Oracle Transportation Management is
easy to deploy and use.
14
NEWS
Eye on Earth
2015 focuses
on identifying
sustainable
development data
challenges
T
he urgent need for global solutions to make
environmental, social and economic data more
available and accessible to achieve the global
sustainable agenda was the focus of the second
Eye on Earth Summit that took place from October 6
to 8 in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Global thought leaders from
organisations like the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP), Group on Earth Observations (GEO),
the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
and World Resources Institute (WRI) stressed the urgency
of the need to foster a culture of collaboration.
The summit, organised by the Eye on Earth Alliance and
sponsored by the Government of Abu Dhabi, was inaugurated
by UAE President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
“Global agreement this year on major intergovernmental
commitments on sustainable development has brought into
sharp focus, the need for transparent, timely and accurate
data and information on the state of the world’s resources.
These global agreements are creating a tipping point for the
role of data in sustainable development and Eye on Earth
will help to accelerate this transition,” explained HE Razan
Khalifa Al Mubarak, Secretary General, EAD. Completion of
day one of the summit saw Airscapes Singapore officially
recognized as winner of the ‘Data Visualization Challenge’
for its depiction of crowd-sourced air quality data from
a network of moving sensors providing personalized air
pollution exposure metrics. At the summit, members of the
Oceans and Blue Carbon Special Initiative launched ‘The
Oceans and Us’, a new publication that highlights the critical
role healthy oceans play in achieving the recently adopted
UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The summit emphasized on the
importance of the outcome of UN
Sustainable Development Summit and
the adoption of the report ‘Transforming our
world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’.
The Summit also acknowledged the need to report in a
systematic way on the Sustainable Development Goals and
generated interest in addressing the challenges in identifying
and delivering the environmental and socio-economic
data needed to track SDGs on a global scale, and sharing
knowledge among stakeholders.
While highlighting the role of citizen science groups in
supporting governments to fill data gaps, particularly across
the environmental and social dimensions of sustainable
development, the Eye on Earth Alliance partners also agreed
to formalize a governance framework and institutional
arrangements by the end of 2015. The five existing Alliance
members — AGEDI, GEO, IUCN, UNEP and WRI —
announced plans to enlarge the Alliance strategically to
support regional and thematic interests. Another notable
outcome was a call from several participating organizations
to establish Special Interest Groups (SIGs) on priority issues
and problems where data delivery, information access and
knowledge sharing needs to be enhanced to support the
2030 sustainable development agenda. These SIGs aim to
bring together communities of experts to find solutions
for very specific data issues. The summit was attended by
approximately 760 participants from over 100 countries.
Geospatial World was live on the ground at Eye on Earth
2015. Check out our exclusive coverage at www.geobuiz.com
16
PRODUCTS
HP PageWide
XL 8000 Printer
is king-sized
Being hailed as a disruptive technology, HP PageWide XL Printers do the job of two printers in one
single device, providing monochrome and color
prints at breakthrough speeds up to 60% faster
than the fastest monochrome light-emitting diode
(LED) printer. The new printers will enable reprographic houses, print service providers (PSPs), enterprise central reprographic departments (CRDs)
and print corners to produce computer-aided design (CAD) drawings and will open new business
opportunities with geographic information system
(GIS) maps, point-of-sale applications and posters.
Features:
• Speeds up to 30 D/A1-size prints per minute
• Two 775 milliliter ink cartridges per color with
automatic switching, expandable up to six rolls
• Print on a wide range of media up to 40 inches/101.6 cm
• Free up the operator — production stacker/
online folder available
Paragon releases Smarter Maps
for transport planners
Paragon has come out with a suite of smarter mapping products designed to add precision
to transport plans. The components are called Street Level Mapping, Average Road Speed
Data and Truck Attribute Data. These software give a detailed picture of the road network,
allowing planners to develop more accurate and
realistic plans faster. They can help to reduce fuel
costs and improve the accuracy of delivery times.
Features:
• Street Level Mapping: Includes all residential
streets and minor roads, so that schedules can be
planned to the nearest second and meter
• Average Road Speed Data: Improves the precision of routing and scheduling with a truer reflection of the real travel times
• Truck Attribute Data: Helps prevent detours
and reduces mileage
PRODUCTS
17
Trimble updates
Tekla Structural
Designer for
engineers
Luciad introduces
3D visualization
to Web software
Keeping today’s increasingly massive datasets and the push toward Internet of Things
in mind, Luciad software has introduced 3D
visualization to LuciadRIA Web. The software
components are designed for the creation of
situational awareness apps. By connecting
directly to data sources, the software can not
only analyze and visualize what is happening
now, but can also predict what will happen
next. Luciad CEO Marc Melviez, believes,
“The technology and its ability to show extremely large amounts of moving things will
drive innovation and generate countless new
business opportunities in the months and
years to come.”
Trimble’s Tekla Structural Designer software,
which is used by structural engineers to analyze and design steel and concrete buildings
efficiently, packs in even more punch than
before now. The new version includes expanded seismic analysis and design features that
automate accidental torsional effects and the
required seismic design combinations. Due to
this, engineers are able to use one product all
the way through to code-compliant design.
Features:
• Seamless Building Information Modeling
(BIM) collaboration
• Automation of tedious and complex tasks,
including wind loading calculations, floor
vibration checks and floor loading
• Expanded beam design options and integration with cellular beam provider
• Quick comparisons of different floor beam
systems
Features:
• Offers Geospatial Situational Awareness in
the browser
• Fully leverages HTML5 technology
• Can handle huge amounts of datasets
• Pertinent for industries like aviation and
defense
• Can be applied to any moving thing, like
vehicles, packages and mobile phones
18
COVER STORY
Driveway
As the idea of a self-driving car starts to become less and
less far-fetched, will tech-hungry consumers be willing
to cede control to a machine? By Ishveena Singh
I
t’s been a pretty long day at work. You’re at the
wheel, tired. You don’t realize when your eyes
close and you drift off your lane. Somebody
honks. You wake up, startled. This time, you
got lucky.
Accelerate to 2025 — the year by which all major
automakers plan to get their autonomous vehicles on
the road. You get in your car, punch in the destination,
and sit back. The engine revs into action. The car’s
computer connects to the Cloud to get real-time traffic
data. Sensors and software discern objects like pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles, and navigate safely around
them. You, meanwhile, are free to catch up on those
zzz’s, work on the business report you have to present
that afternoon, or simply enjoy the latest Netflix show
on your tablet.
Champions of self-driving cars envisage a time
when road accidents will become an unfortunate thing
94% 1.2mn
2,500
Accidents in the US
involve human error
Die in traffic accidents every
year globally
Fewer deaths estimated in the UK by
use of self-driving cars between 2014
and 2030
to future
Courtesy: carnectiv.com
of the past. Like the smallpox. With ever-alert computers taking over from reckless drivers, motor vehicle
crashes would plummet. Car-sharing would become
commonplace. Fewer automobiles on the road would
translate into more fuel savings, less carbon emissions,
and lesser pressure on the city infrastructure. There
would be no need to put up with irritable chauffeurs.
The elderly, differently abled and visually impaired
would become free from their physical limitations. The
society would attain vehicular nirvana… Or would it?
The pot of gold
The debate on that may have just started, but at least one
thing is clear. No company wants to be left behind in
the road to a pot of gold filled with endless possibilities.
Audi is aiming to beat all industry predictions and put
20
COVER STORY
How does the Google car work?
Sensor detect objects
in all directions
Rounded shape
maximizes sensors’
field of view
Interior for two is designed
for riding, not driving
1 Find location
GPS technology and data from internal
sensors give car its exact location
GPS may place vehicle
in inaccurate location
Vehicle’s actual
location using
GPS and sensor
data
Infographic: Debjyoti Mukherjee Source: Google
3 Classify obstacles
Sensors tell the difference between objects,
like bicycle, people and vehicles
Sensors identify
size, shape and
movement of
objects and can
tell the difference
between another
vehicle and a
pedestrian
2 Identify obstacles
Sensors pick up the presence of
obstacles, such as pedestrians, vehicles
or signs
Using location,
speed and
trajectory, the
car predicts that
the pedestrian
will cross the
street without
stopping
4 React
Car accelerates, brakes or changes direction
based on the sensor data
Self-driving
vehicles slows
down and yields
to pedestrian
crossing road
its A8 driverless limousine in the showrooms in 2017.
Meanwhile, Tesla has already equipped its Model S
electric sedan with a patch called Autopilot, which
allows the car to operate autonomously under certain
conditions. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who describes this
technology as a “really good chauffeur”, expects the
company’s fully autonomous vehicles to make their
debut as early as 2018. Google plans to partner with
several different companies to bring its much talked
about self-driving car technology to the market. Its timeline is set for anywhere between 2018 and 2020.
And if Google is pushing for autonomous driving
technology, how can “China’s Google” be far behind?
Baidu has partnered with BMW to roll out a self-driving
car prototype before the end of this year. General Motors has said it would introduce a fleet of autonomous
Chevy Volts on its Warren Technical Center campus
in Michigan in late 2016, but, these would only for
employee use. Japanese carmaker Nissan has confirmed
at the Tokyo Motor Show last month that it is “well
on track” with plans to “equip innovative autonomous
drive technology on multiple vehicles” by 2020. Jaguar
Land Rover predicts its driverless vehicles to hit the
roads in 2024. Daimler has its eyes set on 2025.
Even ride-hailing service Uber is eyeing a slice of
the smart car pie. The company has made public its
plans to open a research and development center for
driverless cars in Pittsburgh. And while Apple might not
comment on numerous rumors that the company wants
to follow Google’s footsteps and build its own electric
car, chief executive Tim Cook does acknowledges the
massive transformation happening in the auto industry.
Speaking at the recent WSJDLive conference in California, Cook pointed out, “When I look at the automobile,
what I see is that software becomes an increasingly
important part of the car of the future. You see that
autonomous driving becomes much more important.”
Crawling the world
Software, indeed, will drive the car of the future. And
powering that software would be an ultra-precise digitization of the physical world. No, we are not talking
about a normal digital map which shows you road
intersections on your smartphone. These super-accurate maps are packed with tiny details, such as, the
position and height of every single curb, measured all
COVER STORY
the way down to centimeters and
inches. As James Etheridge, head of
media relations at Nokia’s mapping
service HERE, says “the map is no
longer an imprint of the world frozen in time; it’s becoming a conduit
for the dynamic data generated by
vehicles, people and businesses”.
Google’s self-driving car team's
mapping lead Andrew Chatham explains what goes into the maps they
are developing for their vehicles.
“[Our maps] are any geographic
information that we can tell the car
in advance to make its job easier. We tell it how high the traffic
signals are off the ground, the exact
position of the curbs, so the car
knows where not to drive. We'd also
include information that you can't
even see, like implied speed limits,”
he says. In the United States,
Google had mapped 2,000 miles of
road this way till mid-2014. The US
road network sits at around 4 million miles. And Google is looking
to map every single street where its
car might want to operate.
Ever since Uber started dabbling
with the idea of driverless cars,
it has also become serious about
developing its own mapping platform. It acquired San Jose, Calif.,
based mapping startup deCarta in
March this year. After that, Uber
purchased around 100 of Bing
21
The original Google-X man
Stanford Professor Sebastian Thrun was the winner of the
2005 DARPA Grand Challenge — a driverless car competition
sponsored by the US Defense Department. This caught the
attention of Google co-founder Larry page, who lured him
out of academia and hired him to head the tech giant’s research lab, Google X.
Under Thrun’s leadership, Google’s self-driving project made rapid strides. But,
Thrun was thinking: “If you can build a self-driving car, that’s great. But if you
can teach people to build a self-driving car, that’s even better.” So, four years
ago, he founded Udacity, a startup which works in collaboration with hightech companies to provide students with “nanodegrees” — a combination of
on-demand video lessons, short online quizzes and longer projects — for free.
Udacity has graduated 1,000 students from the program till date.
Maps’ employees, along with some
of its mapping assets. It was also in
the bidding to acquire HERE, but
lost out to a consortium of German
carmakers. And now, it has been
learned that Uber has been hiring
contractors to drive its mapping
cars and capture 3D images of local
streets, a la Google Street View.
Tesla is also creating high-precision digital maps of the earth using
GPS. And it is acquiring that data
through its drivers. Every Model S
car, with or without Autopilot, is connected to the Cloud. So, the company
is using data from each of its cars to
develop maps. In the meantime, GM
is also researching precision mapping
to guide its future cars.
Now, it’s not like that the cars of
the future are some dumb machines.
They come with their own set of
intelligent armor: radars, sensors,
cameras, et al. But, as Etheridge
points out, “A car’s camera and
radar can’t see through another car
or around a bend or a building.”
And even without obstruction, the
range of those sensors is limited to
100-200 meters at best. You need
a much longer electronic horizon
to make the right decisions in
real-time. “An airbag deploying 500
meters ahead? Likely an accident,
which you can be routed around.
Tires slipping on a warm day? Perhaps heavy water build-up or a spill
which other cars should be warned
about, so they can slow down while
approaching the area? Cars have
an incredibly rich array of sensors
generating a ton of data, which
currently just sits in the car. The
next few years will see us begin to
The steering wheel killer
The enormous transformative potential of driverless cars is evident by the fact that fully-autonomous driving capability is
being spearheaded by a non-automaker: Google. The technology giant started its self-driving car project in 2009 by modifying
the Toyota Prius and the Lexus RX450h. By December 2014, Google had built its own bulbous electric self-driving pods to
weed out any and all limitations that come with a car which is built around a driver. So, the steering wheel and pedals were
chucked out, and the shape of the car was changed to give the sensors an optimal field of view. Six year into the project,
Google has self-driven over 1.8 million miles, with over 20 prototype vehicles zipping on the streets of California and Texas.
22
COVER STORY
harness that data in the Cloud and
do useful things with it.”
Couch on the road
There’s a branch of artificial
intelligence (AI) called deep
learning, which trains computers to
understand patterns in large reams
of visual data. Deep learning can be
extremely significant for self-driving
China’s edge
over the West
If Google is pushing for autonomous driving
technology, how can “China’s Google” be far
behind? Last year, the search engine major
invested $10 million into Finnish mapping
company IndoorAtlas, adding its expertise to an
existing data-mapping service. And now, Baidu
has partnered with BMW to roll out a self-driving car before the end of this year. The Chinese
search engine and technology giant will use that
prototype car to test road-readiness of Baidu’s
technology. So, the car will drive itself, but still
have human controls. Baidu’s head of deep
learning, Kai Yu, has asserted that the company
is not looking to make human drivers redundant.
Rather, its technology is designed to assist them.
One major advantage that China has over the US
or the UK is that while legislation lags technology
in the West, Chinese government has more power
to swiftly mandate the kind of across-the-board
changes that would be required to unleash
self-driving cars.
cars’ safety systems. It can be used
to program the software to recognize different kind of automobiles,
including emergency vehicles. It can
enable your computer on wheels to
detect speed limit signs. Or figure
out that there’s a truck on the left, so
it should not try to change lanes and
cut it off. Essentially, an autonomous
vehicle is trained to work just like
our brains would — by accepting
sensory input and acting accordingly. But, how many unexpected
situations can you actually feed into
the system?
The first time a Google car
spotted a couch in the middle of the
road, it could not figure out what
was going on. The human safety
driver had to take over. But soon,
the software on all the cars was
upgraded to handle such a situation.
And all self-driving cars got to
learn from one car’s mistake, even
those that have not been manufactured yet.
When it comes to AI, the
learning capacity of computers is
endless. Tesla’s Musk calls this a
“fleet learning network”, where all
cars contribute to a shared database.
“When one car learns something,
all learn,” Musk says. Take I-405
in California, for instance. It’s a
highway where lanes are terribly
marked. But, Tesla’s Autopilot
functions well on this section also
because it has all the requisite information from Model S drivers who
pass through this specific stretch of
road.
Chipmaker Nvidia knows that
interpreting tons of data an autonomous vehicles generates every
second requires an obscene amount
of processing power. Which is why,
the company has shifted its focus
from video games to using deep
learning technique to push into the
world of driverless cars. Danny
Shapiro, Director of Nvidia’s automotive unit, affirms: “This notion
of being able to build a brain for a
self-driving car has really accelerated the demand for our technology.”
So much so, the company’s automotive unit posted 85% annual growth
in sales in the last fiscal year. And
just last month, Nvidia’s director of
deep learning, Jonathan Cohen, was
poached by Apple — yet another
sign that the tech titan is getting
serious about autonomous cars.
The winter is coming
Apple and Google have plenty of
cash to burn — their combined
bank worth is estimated to be
around $270 billion. And Musk
has even quipped that if Apple
makes a self-driving car, it would
finally be able to “offer a significant
innovation”. But, what is making
traditional automakers ignore an
inevitable peril of autonomous driving: Collapse in future car sales?
Sebastian Thrun, a computer
scientist at Stanford University
and a former leader of Google’s
self-driving-car project, believes
that self-driving technology will
challenge the very notion of car
ownership. “There will be fewer
cars on the road — perhaps just
30% of the cars we have today,” he
insists.
A University of Utah research
foresees a more disruptive future.
It predicts that an autonomous taxi
with dynamic ride-sharing has the
potential to replace 10 private cars.
And with fleets of driverless cars
COVER STORY
offering greater mobility with far
fewer vehicles, car sales would take a
nose-dive. For several manufacturers,
this would spell death or acquisition.
Just like smartphones upended Nokia
and Kodak. Traditional automakers
would need to shift from hardware to
software model, and the value in the
industry would come from services,
rather than the product.
But, the auto industry is not the
only one that needs to worry. The
terrible driver’s dream car could
doom the auto insurance industry.
Robert W. Peterson, a professor at
Santa Clara University School of
Law, notes, “Over 90% of accidents
today are caused by human error.
There is every reason to believe that
self-driving cars will reduce frequency and severity of accidents, so
insurance costs should fall, perhaps
dramatically.”
Well, there would still be
non-crash related situations: theft,
vandalism or a tree falling on your
car. But, maybe insurance companies
should think of themselves in the
position of record companies before
the iPod came out. A Brookings
Institution study predicts that autonomous vehicles will complicate the
already complex entanglements between insurance providers, plaintiffs,
drivers/owners named as defendants,
and manufacturers. And if personal
liability tumbles, liability for auto
manufacturers will go up. More so,
if an enthusiastic hacker decides
to have a little fun with the car’s
security system. Post-sale safety, the
study noted, will focus on software upgrades. Manufacturers that
become aware of potentially risky
software issues will need to provide
upgrades as soon as possible, but, at
23
Source: KPMG, CAR
The various facets and forces that must come together to enable self-driving
the same time, they will also have
to ensure that the new version is
properly tested.
There are ethical questions too
that need to be answered. What
if an autonomous vehicle finds
itself confronted by an unavoidable accident? Should the car be
programmed to hit another vehicle
or a pedestrian? Or should it just
crash itself into a wall, potentially hurting its occupants? And
who do you hold liable in such a
situation? The Toulouse School of
Economics in France conducted
three surveys in this matter. The
research showed that people are
“relatively comfortable” with the
idea that driverless car should be
“programmed to minimize the death
toll in case of unavoidable harm.”
Automation will also be bad
news for the taxi industry. According
to a Columbia University research, a
fleet of 9,000 autonomous vehicles
have the potential of replacing New
York’s all 13,000 taxis. No wonder
that the technology has piqued the
interest of Uber — its biggest cost is
paying the taxi drivers. Uber CEO
Travis Kalanick has even admitted to
this in an interview. “When there is
no other dude in the car, the cost of
taking an Uber anywhere becomes
cheaper than owning a vehicle,” he
has said.
24
COVER STORY
Source: Driverless-Future
The First Movers
• Google Self-Driving Car Project, United States
The project started in 2009 under the direction of Darpa Grand Challenge
winner Sebastian Thrun. Chris Urmson was heading this initiative until
September 2015 when automotive industry veteran John Krafcik took over.
• GM-Carnegie Mellon Autonomous Driving Collaborative
Research Lab
Headed by Raj Rajkumar who won the 2007 Urban Driving Grand Challenge
with the ‘Boss’ autonomous car based on a modified Chevy Tahoe. The collaborative research lab was established in 2008.
• Uber Advanced Technologies Center
Located in Pittsburgh, this center focuses on research in the areas of autonomous vehicles, vehicle safety technologies and mapping.
• Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany
Headed by Christoph Stiller. Cooperated with Daimler in 2013 to have a
Mercedes drive autonomously more than 100kms through Southern Germany
using only close-to-market sensors. A spinoff (Atlatec) focuses on vision-based
3D mapping and map-based localization.
• VisLab, University of Parma, Italy
VisLab is a spin-off of the University of Parma headed by Alberto Broggi, and has
been involved in automated vehicles research for more than 15 years.
• Oxford Mobile Robotics Group, UK
Headed by Pau Newmann, the group’s key research areas are large-scale
navigation and scene understanding, going far beyond traditional algorithms for
simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM).
• Easymile, France
Joint venture between a Ligier Group, a vehicle manufacturer, and Robosoft, a
robotics software company. Their main product is a driverless shuttle, the EZ-10,
which is tested in several European cities as part of the Citymobil2 project.
• Singapore-MIT-Alliance for Research and Technology, Singapore
The future urban mobility group experiments with autonomous golf carts to
improve last mile transportation and builds simulation models for predicting
mobility demands in transportation networks.
• Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Korea
The institute works on various aspects of robot/cognitive convergence, including
navigation, 3D depth sensing and is working on an autonomous vehicle shuttle
for outdoor environments (ESTRO).
• ZMP, Japan
The company works on sensor systems, car robotics platforms and connected car
technology. Together with Japanese company DeNA it hopes to build a robot taxi
for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
• Yutong Bus Company, China
Develops a self-driving city bus. In September 2015, their prototype autonomous
bus completed a 32-km trip in regular traffic on an intercity road, including lane
changes, overtaking etc.
A brave new world
So, what about those love the feel of flooring
the accelerator, or the sound of the engine
revving? Perhaps they are hoping that the technology will never work. Or that the widespread
deployment will take so much time that they
won’t be around to see it happen.
In fact, a research by The University of
Michigan Transportation Research Institute
indicates that a large proportion of American
adults (68%) would be either very or moderately concerned about riding in a fully self-driving
vehicle.
Michael Sivak, the co-author on the study,
points out autonomous vehicles will increase
people’s susceptibility to motion sickness as
well. He says, “Basically, the problem is caused
by the activities that people would like to do
in self-driving vehicles (which they are unable
to do while actively driving), such as, working
on a laptop, watching movies, playing video
games, etc. These types of activities are known
to increase the frequency and severity of motion
sickness.”
Technological advances will come. And if
the cars get a chance to prove they really are
both reliable and safe, cultural adoption will
also follow. But, the biggest hurdle before
driverless cars today is the regulatory one. Lack
of government support could be a significant
obstacle to adoption. Engineers need to know
what the government is going to come down on
and what it will allow. In the absence of national guidelines, there is going to be a lot of confusion over the rights and liabilities involved with
the use of autonomous driving technology.
But, like Musk says, “It's going to be interesting, ultimately, to see how cities handle these
disruption waves, which are going to be coming
faster and faster. Some cities are going to allow
it, and then they're going to be the bastion of the
future, and the other cities are going to look like
they're in the Middle Ages.”
Ishveena Singh, Senior Assistant Editor
[email protected]
© DLR e.V. 2014 and © Airbus DS/ Infoterra GmbH 2014
WorldDEMTM
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The new standard of global elevation models with pole-to-pole coverage,
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26
The Most
Disruptive
Innovation
Ever
The autonomous car is an innovation
that will profoundly change the world.
By Claudio Simão
P
hilosophers Jean
Baudrillard and Zygmunt
Bauman believed that the
contemporary revolution
is the uncertainty revolution in a
“liquid society” where everything
overflows. Every day more facts
arise proving the truth of this notion.
Compare current innovations
to the Industrial Revolution of the
19th century, for example. Today,
we are experiencing multiple
technological revolutions within
a single generation, and they are
happening faster than ever before.
The continuous breakdown of paradigms is causing dramatic alterations in our society.
What is most astonishing is the
interconnectivity of each disruption.
The cycles we experience are more
linked — from technologies to business models to social movements,
making it very difficult to predict
what will come next and what will
prevail. This is an overflow of
influences without limitations on
what can impact lives in a civilization where connectivity is both
ubiquitous and invasive.
One of the most promising
opportunities we are seeing is
improved productivity across nearly
every industry. These productivity
improvements continue to come
from new, end-to-end autonomous
processes. They involve embedded
intelligence, leveraged predictive
and contextual analytics, real-time
optimisation tools and artificial
intelligence techniques.
So what is the next
innovation to change
the world forever?
Imagine an innovation that can:
• Dismantle an entire global industry that directly generates more
than $3 trillion in revenues and
generates another $1 trillion in
related sectors.
• Completely shift the business
models and value chains of
dozens of segments and revenue
streams including the financial
services, insurance, infrastructure,
public safety and transportation,
oil and gas, mining, agriculture
and automotive industries.
• Directly affect government
operations with significant changes to the circular flow of income,
tax revenues, political policies,
economic cartels, etc.
• Drive 8 million workers into
unemployment while also creating an abundance of new jobs
never before conceptualised.
• Unsettle the daily routines of city
life, transforming the majority of
the world’s population.
Imagine an innovation that can
also do these things:
• Saving hundreds of thousands of
lives each year
• Positively impacting the environment on a major scale and greatly
improving the quality of life in
cities across the world.
• Redirecting billions of US dollars
invested in inefficient and unproductive assets to more effective
investments.
Fact Matters
→ Cars are driven only
4% of the time
→ That is 8.4 trillion
hours of idle time per
year
→ 90% of automobile
accidents are caused by
human error
→ Parking comprises more
than 30% of city traffic
→ 75 billion hours are
spent commuting in cars
→ Optimization will create
savings of $422
billion a year in US
→ 15% direct reduction
in pollution likely
• Creating completely new industries and value chains never
before imagined.
You are right if you
thought this is a
description of the
autonomous car
27
$1.3trn
Potential benefit for the US economy
from autonoumus vehicles
The autonomous car is an
innovation that will profoundly
change the world.
How? The reasoning is simple:
car utilization is unbelievably
inefficient. Our utilization of cars is
starkly different from the car manufacturing process, which represents
one of the most efficient industries
today. According to a study by Morgan Stanley, cars are driven only
4% of the time. That’s 8.4 trillion
hours of idle time per year. If you
consider the global vehicle fleet
with a collective ownership value of
$20 trillion, the amount of money
wasted is staggering!
PricewaterhouseCoopers indicates that the benefits of autonomous car introduction could impact
as much as 90% of the global car
fleet, reducing:
• 250 million cars to only 2.5
million in the US alone through a
transportation sharing model
• 8 million traffic accidents to 1.1
million
• 9 billion gallons of gas to 190
million gallons – road congestion
leads to wasted-fuel; eliminating
this would lead to a savings of
$158 billion.
If you consider the potential
impact, there is a $1.3 trillion benefit for the US economy from the
introduction and implementation of
autonomous vehicles (including the
expansion of electrical cars).
$20trn
The collective ownership value of the
global vehicle fleet
So let’s imagine. You contact
an autonomous driving car service
using a mobile app. Almost immediately the car arrives at your destination. This is an effective service
at an overall reduced cost.
Let’s also consider
• As much as 90% of automobile
accidents are caused by human
error and the leading cause of
death for 4-to-34-year-olds in the
United States. This could mean
saving millions of lives and injuries per year.
• Average annual car ownership
cost is $9,000, the second most
expensive asset after a house.
• Parking comprises more than
30% of city traffic. Its elimination could add two more lanes to
streets, saving time and fuel and
reducing pollution. In addition,
without parking lots and garages,
more space would be available
for city development, improving
quality of life.
• According to researchers, the
impact on traffic reduction would
equate to a full week of time
saved per driver each year.
• The same study has shown that 75
28
billion hours are spent commuting
in cars, thus optimization would
create savings of around $422
billion per year in US alone.
• It is estimated that pollution
may be reduced 15% directly
and another 5% due to process
optimisation and utilisation of
electric cars.
Will the implementation
of autonomous cars
really happen?
Car manufacturers and consulting
firms are calling for a completely
autonomous car by 2030, but the
driverless revolution has already
started. The technological building
blocks are available in the form of
GPS, radar/LiDAR, infrared and
ultrasonic sensors, cameras, inertial
systems and more.
Automation software has been
developed for autonomous vehicle
process flows. These solutions include parking assist, intelligent cruise
control, lane guidance, blind-spot
sensors, emergency breaking, collision avoidance and traffic jam assist.
More self-driving features are
coming soon, with General Motors,
Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Nissan
and Tesla saying 2017 models will
have self-driving capabilities up to
90%. These features, however, are
mostly related to Advanced Driver
Assist Systems (ADAS) versus full
autonomous driving. Hands-free
driving on test courses and free
roads isn’t quite the same as maneuvering through the traffic- and
obstacle-filled streets typical of an
urban setting.
Nonetheless, we will likely see
this transition accelerated. Groupings of sensors and connectivity
will enable more sets of ADAS
features, providing progress in the
development of a complete “allroad autonomous operation.”
So what will happen to
the existing car industry
and related services?
Let’s briefly examine the music,
movie and photography industries,
how transformative these businesses are. From vinyl records to
cassette tapes, from VHS to DVDs
— their evolution has been constant
and these are nuances of the past —
digital is now our way of life. We
have learned that traditional, heuristic management approaches aren’t
always sufficient when approaching
change that scales exponentially
and non-linearly.
And where does Hexagon fit
into the big picture? Like many
forward thinkers, we are looking
closely at the early adopters of this
technology and preparing ourselves
The driverless revolution has started and
the technological building blocks are
available in the form of GPS, radar/LiDAR,
infrared and ultrasonic sensors and more
Autonomous Cars
to Cut
→ 250 mn cars to only
2.5 mn in UK alone
through a transportation
sharing model
→ 8 mn traffic accidents
to 1.1 mn
→ 9 bn gallons of gas to
190 mn gallons
→ Savings of $158 bn on
fuel alone
for a society in which we will see
more and more automation. We are
becoming part of discussions taking
place about technologies such as
robotics and automation and how
key industries are incorporating
them into their operations.
One thing we can guarantee,
Hexagon will serve an important
role in this disruptive change.
Claudio Simão, Chief Innovation
Officer, Hexagon & President,
Hexagon Ventures
(Originally published on Hexagon’s
Shaping Change Blog at
http://blog.hexagon.com)
INTERVIEW
Courtesy: techhive.com
30
Autonomous VEHICLES need
Reliable Dynamic Map Data
Navigation and location-based services have become as core to the
modern automobile as the engine or the chassis. By Philippe Gicquel
T
he acquisition of HERE,
Nokia’s maps and
navigation arm, by a
German consortium of
automakers consisting of Audi,
BMW, Daimler, and others has
demonstrated how strategic it is
for automakers to control maps
and navigation. Automobiles are
about mobility. Navigation and
location-based services are as core
to the modern automobile as the engine or the chassis. Moreover, maps
and navigation become a must-have
in an autonomous vehicle.
When sensors like radars or
cameras stop “seeing”, the infotainment system’s map can still deliver
useful information. For example,
a camera may not “see” a speed
limit sign hidden behind a truck
while passing, but the infotainment
system’s map can provide that
information to the driver regardless
of visibility. In more standard scenarios, sensors may deliver reliable
information up to 300 meters ahead,
but map information can enable the
driver to “see” much further ahead.
A feature often designated as
“electronic horizon” has first been
proposed for comfort or fuel saving
by adapting the gear box and engine
behavior to the predictable road
curves and slopes. Electronic horizon is now one of the foundational
elements for safety and a must-have
in an autonomous car.
The map information expected for
these new features is much richer
and diverse than what is used for
simple GPS navigation. Both the
spatial precision and the needed
frequency for updates are still in
debate, but they surely are different
from what is available in today’s
cars. 300 meters are equivalent to
6 seconds if a car is moving at 180
km/hour. This is why a fast refresh
rate of map information (ie, every
one or two seconds) is essential to
making a “real time” electronic horizon reliable beyond sensors’ range.
To collect this “real time” data,
map providers need to employ new
methods of gathering information.
Crowd sourcing using smartphone
sensors to get high-definition traffic
jam information has already been
in production for years. To meet
the need for this additional required
data, cars themselves could be used.
As they have a higher number of
sophisticated sensors, and they are
connected, cars can serve as a source
for a continuous flow of information.
Several challenges must to be
overcome to make this happen,
many of which have nothing to
do with technologies, but more to
business organization and ecosystem. One automaker alone may not
have enough cars on the road to
gather the data with the expected
level of reliability. For this reason,
automakers need to team up and
attack the problem together. To
build an efficient car-to-cloud-tocar loop, they should deliver sensor
data in a standardized way to an
independent party who could gather
the information, treat it, and deliver
back the expected services specified
by each automaker.
The dream for an autonomous
car has been pushed from outside
the automotive industry. Silicon
Valley companies put no limit in
their ambitions because their way
of thinking is different. They see
opportunities where others would
only see difficulties and they have
put traditional automotive industry
under pressure. This healthy com-
31
petition made Roger C. Lanctot
of Strategy Snslytics to write few
months ago that “Auto Industry
[is] facing its Kodak moment”. The
acquisition of HERE shows that
auto industry isn’t passive. Here are
some interesting questions for the
coming months:
Will HERE, being now owned
by several automakers, actively
participate in the industry and try
to work closer with GENIVI on the
standards or will they drive on their
own way? What type of company
do you see winning the map battle
and why? What challenges do you
see for automakers to keep control
of car data loop? We’d love to see
your thoughts…
Philippe Gicquel, Technical
Product Manager, Genivi Alliance
[email protected]
Since its beginning, GENIVI, as the
automotive alliance for in-vehicle
infotainment (IVI), established a location-based services (LBS) expert group that
has defined several standard interfaces (APIs) to allow easy integration of
navigation engines and applications.
Standard interfaces defined by GENIVI that
bridge in-car data to Web applications are
now being discussed in a W3C working
group with the possibility of becoming a
World Wide Web standard. On the car-side,
GENIVI has defined a common tooling with
AUTOSAR to help define the standard interfaces between the Infotainment head-unit and
other embedded Electronics Control Units
(ECUs). For more information on GENIVI’s
location-based service APIs and other navigation work, please visit the ivi-navigation
project; for more information on common
project with AUTOSAR, please visit the
IoNAS project.
32
Collaborative ITS
Will Intelligent Transportation
Systems, or ITS. provide a
revolutionary or evolutionary
change in the efficiency and safety
of our road networks?
O
ptimists believe that ITS technologies and
applications will deliver a radical step
change in how we move people and goods
— and that we are at the cusp of that revolution. Others take a more conservative view, foreseeing instead a gradual deployment of new technologies
that incrementally improve our lives. The one area of
agreement among these two groups is that ITS collaboration so far has been much harder than anticipated and
possibly harder than necessary.
Many of the most promising ITS applications have
failed to make it beyond trial phases, as governments
and the private sector have struggled to find the right
formula for success. In the white paper ‘Collaborative
ITS: Why Collaboration has been So Difficult, and
Why that could be About to Change’, HERE and SBD
demonstrate how ITS collaborations are changing.
Why has ITS collaboration been so
difficult to get right?
• The Square Wheel: A common cause of failure for
ITS initiatives is the deployment of services that simply
do not resonate with the needs of consumers. Sometimes these initiatives will prove hard to register for
or use, and often this lack of intuitiveness will lead to
low uptake and usage rates. Much of this disconnect is
driven by how ITS initiatives start — a disproportionate emphasis is placed on disparate academic studies
and engineering-focused pilots, and insufficient time is
spent on the last-mile effort to develop clear business
and deployment models.
The consumer disconnect is the
most concerning of the ITS challenges, as it often reflects a lack of
longer-term vision and an inability
within our sector to clearly verbalize a value of ITS that extends
beyond a single application.
• The Redundant Wheel: Other
ITS projects have been launched
without a full evaluation of existing
solutions that could either partially
or fully fulfil the needs of consumers and the public sector. A good
example of this is traffic information, where governments have
continued to invest in expensive
roadside equipment to measure
traffic despite the widespread availability of high-quality alternatives
from players like HERE, Google,
TomTom or INRIX.
The local and national public
sector now has a greater awareness
of the value of re-focusing their
resources and expertise towards leveraging (rather than duplicating) ITS
initiatives from the private sector.
• The Missing Wheel: In other
circumstances, ITS initiatives
often fail to ever move beyond the
research stage despite a clear and
urgent need, due primarily to a lack
of political will. A good example
of this has been the slow deployment of dynamic parking support
services that can help minimize
33
urban congestion by directing drivers to available spots. Although a
limited number of privately funded
schemes are in operation in certain
large cities, a significant proportion
of parking spaces continue to be
managed by local governments that
are outside of these schemes.
• The Politicized Wheel: As ITS
sits at the intersection of public and
private transportation interests, it
is inevitable that political frictions will emerge. However, these
frictions have been a major cause
of delays and cancellations of ITS
initiatives. The most prominent of
these has been ERA GLONASS
(Accident Emergency Response
System) in Russia, which has been
used as a political football among
different groups. Similar ITS initiatives in France and Germany have
also suffered the same fate.
• The Re-invented Wheel: One
of the key barriers has been the
development of multiple and often
competing technologies for the
integration and dissemination of
ITS applications, making it harder
to achieve economies of scale. ITS
applications such as Electronic
Toll Collection or V2X communications were designed from the
beginning to be tightly coupled
to specific technologies such as
DSRC (Dedicated Short Range
Governments have continued to invest in
expensive equipment to measure traffic
despite the widespread availability of high
quality alternatives from private players
34
Traditional ITS value chain
Smart devices
and vehicles
Components
Connectivity
ITS Infrastructure
Communications). The challenge,
however, is that the long time-cycle
required to agree on standards has
enabled new and potentially competing technologies to emerge from
the consumer electronics , telecoms
and automotive worlds. This leaves
the ITS sector in a difficult position
— make a major U-turn by piggy
backing ITS onto new technologies
such as LTE, or stick with ITS-specific standards and risk creating
expensive ‘Technology Siloes’ that
reinvent the wheel.
What is the cost of not
getting ITS right?
The benefits of ITS are regularly
touted within research papers and
by ITS associations that are keen
for governments to adopt more
aggressive transportation policies.
User centric
ITS value chain
se
ITS
rvices and product
s
Smart
devices and
vehicles
ITS
Infrastructure
Components
Connectivity
Cloud
services
Cloud services
Benefits can relate to lives saved,
time saved or cash saved. But what
happens when initiatives fail to
deliver or are severely delayed?
• Missed opportunities: Although
tempting to only focus on initiatives
that have failed to fully deliver on
their potential, there are a number
of notable successes that are worth
highlighting. In Singapore, the first
generation of Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) demonstrated how careful
planning can lead to a highly profitable and socially beneficial output,
and as the plans for ERP 2.0 proceed
it is clear that the government is
strongly promoting value-added
services as a way to make toll collection more palatable to the public.
Other South East Asian markets
like Malaysia and Indonesia are
looking to emulate their successful
collaborative model as they expand
their own road toll networks. In
Hungary, the government opted
against forcing specific hardware
solutions for fleet tolling (as
markets like Germany, Austria and
Switzerland have done), and instead
developed an API that allows
third party fleet operators to share
mileage and tolling data to a central
platform using their own approved
hardware. In the USA, a growing
number of states have successfully
reduced their reliance on expensive
and unreliable fixed sensor networks for ITS applications such as
ITS Services
and products
B2B, B2C
customers
and users
traffic monitoring, and are instead
turning to the private sector to
leverage their existing assets.
• Failed ITS initiatives: These
initiatives are defined as either
suffering from systematic issues
following commercial deployment,
or alternatively being abruptly
cancelled before deployment due to
technical, political or social issues.
Either way the initially targeted benefits of the ITS initiative are never
fully realized. Examples of failed
initiatives are most prominent in the
field of Electronic Toll Collection
(ETC), where governments around
the world have attempted to deploy
usage-based road taxes in order to
manage capacity and raise revenues.
In the USA, for example, the
Illinois Tollway announced in 2012
that due to poor enforcement and
insufficient legal recourse, it was
owed $300 million in unpaid tolls
and penalties, amounting to almost
50% of its annual revenues.
In France, the government was
forced to cancel the ecotaxe initiative
altogether, paying the chosen supplier (Ecomouv) €800 million to compensate them for the termination of
the contract. The cancellation came
amid a strong consumer and legal
backlash against the government, and
despite efforts to scale the initiative
back to only focus on trucks.
Beyond these two high-profile
examples, SBD has identified nine
other failed ITS initiatives over
the last five years that have led to
governments and the private sector
wasting $14.75 billion in sunk costs
and unrealized revenue potential.
• Delayed ITS initiatives: It is
common for any large-scale project
to suffer from delays. However,
the complexity of ITS initiatives
and collaborations makes it even
harder to deliver the planned value
on time. No ITS delay has been
more prominent than public eCall
in Europe, which the European
Commission began investigating
in the early 2000s and initially
targeted a deployment for by 2010.
Having recently passed legislation,
the Commission now expects eCall
to be mandated on all new type-approved vehicles from 2018.
The delay has already led to
12,500 preventable road deaths over
the last five years, along with €800
billion in costs. In the USA, NHTSA’s aim of introducing a mandate
for collaborative V2X communication between cars has also suffered
delays, and is expected to be
delayed even further.
SBD estimates that in the last
five years alone, failed, delayed
and unrealized ITS initiatives have
cost an incredible $89 billion. The
missed opportunities to reduce the
societal burdens of increased congestion and accidents account for
the majority of this cost, although
the commercial sector is also hit by
missed revenue opportunities too.
• Unrealized ITS initiatives:
Although impossible to quantify,
there is also a third group — ITS
applications that are technically
feasible and have a proven value —
but have not yet been progressed
Cost of faliure ITS
Based on 15 projects all around the world
35
Undelivered projects
6/15
25
Lost revenue projection
per project ($ mn)
$89bn
Max
$170 mn
20
15
10
Average
$59.4 mn
5
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
beyond the early research and piloting stages due to a lack of political
push or an inability to develop the
right collaboration model.
This cost is much harder to
estimate, as it is based on a series
of ‘what ifs’. Considering the time
spent by drivers in finding a vacant
parking space, one needs only to imagine the traffic, social and environmental impact were even only a few
of Europe’s most congested cities to
deploy urban parking management
solutions that have been shown to be
technically feasible.
Why ITS collaboration is
about to get better?
ITS came ahead of its time. The
ambitious vision for a connected
network of transportation and
Min
$2 mn
infrastructure that enabled safer and
more efficient mobility required the
development of advanced technologies and collaborative frameworks.
However, these building blocks
have proven too complex and
expensive to develop purely for the
support of ITS applications.
There has also been one additional hurdle that has held back ITS initiatives — data. This may be about to
change. The proliferation of sensors
in connected devices, the ubiquity
of powerful mobile networks and
the increasing maturity of big data
analytics are paving the way for software-richer ITS designs that reduce
the need for major new investments
in hardware infrastructure.
If we assumed that mobile
networks can satisfy the robust
36
Reasons for
delay/failure of ITS
2/15
Consumer backlash
1/15
Consumer accessibility
1/15
Slow consensus
4/15
Political shift
3/15
Based on 15 projects all around the world
Optimistic forecasts
3/15
Legal issues
communications requirements of future
intelligent transportation systems, this does
suggest a diminished future role for short and
medium range communications technologies.
• Sensory overload: Much of the focus
during the early days of ITS was on building
fixed or mobile sensor networks to gather
sufficiently granular and reliable data. Today, top-selling smartphones like the iPhone
6 and Samsung S6 have up to a dozen sensors to monitor location, proximity, acceleration, humidity, light and sound. Within the
automotive industry, SBD forecasts that by
2021, 24 million cars in USA, EU and China
will be sold each year with external safety
sensors such as radars and cameras. The
sensory world is also being revolutionized
by a new generation of cloud-based mapping
and analytical solutions that can provide the
ITS sector with a step-change in granularity, cost-effective scalability and real-time
updateability.
• Connectivity proliferation: The value
of sensor data grows exponentially when
liberated from its host device — a key tenant
of the emerging Internet of Things (IoT).
According to Cisco, connected devices now
outnumber the world’s population by 1.5 to
1. The growth in connectivity has been enabled in part by the growth in LTE networks
across many markets, offering lower costs
and faster speeds than ever before.
By 2020, SBD forecasts that over 50%
of new cars will be shipped ‘connected’,
driven largely by pressure within carmakers to monitor and remotely upgrade cars,
along with legislative mandates for eCall in
markets such as Europe and Russia.
The deployment of LTE-Advanced and,
later, 5G connectivity (focusing on a more
seamless ‘always on’ quality of service) will
make vehicle data a truly sharable commodity. In fact, the abundance of sensors within
cars makes it one of the largest generators
of data across all sectors. By 2020, SBD
forecasts that data extracted from cars will
surpass 200 exabytes per year.
• Big Data maturity: The third major
disruptor for ITS is the maturing of the Big
Data sector, which is undergoing a significant
transition from focusing on ‘storage-for-thesake-ofstorage’ to business-driven real-time
analytics and sharing. Until recently ‘Big
Data’ was synonymous with ‘Siloed Dumb
Data’, with great effort being placed on moving data to central clouds but limited progress
being made in enabling real-time analytics of
that data or real-time inter-cloud connectivity.
Through new IoT-specific Application
Programming Interfaces it is now becoming
technically and commercially easier for large
clouds to share real-time data in order to
develop new applications and services.
Data, the catalyst for
collaboration
A city in motion generates a tremendous
volume of data. Yet, for the most part, that
data is untapped and its potential value is not
fully captured. To do so means connecting
vehicles,individuals, city and road infrastructure, and traffic authorities to enable
a meaningful volume of quality data to be
pooled — no single car manufacturer or road
transit authority can create a data ecosystem
alone.
A fully integrated ecosystem of transportation — one that includes the full spectrum of
road and public transit infrastructure, and both
commercial and private vehicles — can only
be achieved when the different parties holding
the key to the data they generate come together and agree as a first step to share that data
and, as a second step, on the rules of sharing.
Cloud computing and rights management can
help support the rules of sharing in a secure
and safe way.
Extracts from a HERE-SBD white paper on
‘Collaborative ITS: Why Collaboration has
been So Difficult, and Why that could be
About to Change’
37
Moving Target
Geospatial technologies have long played a role in creating roads and
railways. Attention is shifting to businesses and individuals who use the
transportation infrastructure. By Ron Bisio
T
ake a moment to consider the roads, highways,
railways, ports and
airports around you. With
immense variety in scale, function
and complexity, our planet’s transportation infrastructure ranks high
among mankind’s most impressive
achievements. It owes much of its
existence to geospatial technologies.
Geospatial information plays an
essential role in the processes by
which transportation projects are
conceived, planned and constructed. Transportation agencies need
accurate terrain data and cadastral
information to select a transportation corridor and execute a project.
During planning and construction,
engineers and contractors rely on
precise positioning to design and
build the myriad structures that
make up modern transportation facilities. Once an infrastructure project is in operation, geospatial data
enables owners and maintenance
teams to keep the infrastructure in
good condition and adapt to changes in demand and public needs.
These functions use an array
of technologies. GNSS and optical
systems provide positioning data for
mapping, engineering and construction (including automated machine
control), as well as inspection and
quality control. Imaging and LiDAR
assist in planning, maintenance and
upgrades. Mobile mapping and airborne systems, including unmanned
aircraft systems (UAS), can rapidly
gather information over large areas.
Software for processing, modelling
and analysis blends data from these
sources to deliver concise, actionable information to project owners,
contractors and the public.
However, the benefits are not
limited to the infrastructure itself.
38
Top: Field service management solutions provide
detailed information on the location and status of
mobile workers and assets. Right: Smartphone apps
connect remote workers with dispatchers and fleet
management systems.
One of today’s most important
trends is the increasing use of geospatial technologies by enterprises
that use the infrastructure in transporting people, goods and services.
This trend goes far beyond in-car
GPS navigation systems that guide
drivers to the nearest coffee shop or
fuel station. Today, geospatial technology interacts with back-office
systems to manage widely dispersed workers and assets. In an
increasingly mobile world, the new
technologies are changing the way
in which transportation works.
Geospatial technologies have
delivered tangible advantages to
transportation businesses. Major benefits include improved
safety and productivity, lower
fuel consumption, reduced carbon
emissions and increased customer
satisfaction. Let’s look at three
examples in the transportation
arena where geospatial information
is guiding operational decisions at
multiple levels and locations.
Field service operations
Field service organizations use
mobile workforces made up of
technicians and vehicles to serve
customers and equipment dispersed
over large areas. This segment
includes industries such as construction, repair and maintenance
services (appliances, plumbers,
etc.); telecommunications and
cable; emergency response; utilities
and delivery services.
In order to operate efficiently, these organizations combine
positioning and connectivity
technologies with fleet management
systems. Integrated systems manage
real-time information on the location and status of each vehicle and
technician. By using fleet management technologies, they can connect
fleet operations, worker scheduling
and vehicle maintenance schedules
as well as tie field operations to
back-office systems.
The geospatial components of
field service management deliver
significant value. For example, a
company that services communication towers uses Trimble fleet
management solutions in its trucks.
By knowing the location of each
truck, the firm can quickly react
to a service request and identify
the technician closest to the tower.
Work orders are sent directly to the
technician and in-vehicle displays
guide the technician to the tower
location. Companies have reported
as much as 30% reduction in fuel
consumption as a result of improved routing and reduced idling.
In some industries, the blend of
geospatial and back-office data can
drive the decision of which technician to dispatch to a given service
call. The technician nearest to the
request may not have the skills or
equipment needed to resolve the issue. In this case, it is more effective
to send a different technician who
can handle the customer’s needs.
In addition to GNSS, other
sensors can monitor status and
events on the vehicle. For instance,
companies that collect trash and recyclables can automatically record
the time and location each time a
truck lifts and empties a collection
bin. This information can be used
for billing and to resolve customer
questions.
One variable in integrating a
new technology into mobile work
processes is how readily the mobile
workers adopt it. As workforces evolve and employees retire,
they are being replaced by newer,
tech-savvy workers. The incoming
workers offer the opportunity to use
connectivity and mobile tools to
share information and guide work
processes. In many cases, workers
have their own smartphones, which
enables organizations to employ a
“bring your own device” (BYOD)
strategy to mobile workforce management. By loading work applications onto employees’ smartphones,
companies can reduce time and
costs in implementing mobile workforce solutions while improving the
exchange of information between
field and office.
When using mobile workforce
technologies, companies can monitor driver performance and improve
efficiency and safety. Systems can
identify unwanted driver behaviors
such as speeding, deviation from
assigned routes or excessive idle
time, enabling managers to coach
drivers to perform according to
expectations. Onboard technologies
for geofencing can alert owners
when a vehicle has travelled out of
a designated area and even assist in
recovery of stolen assets.
Over-the-road trucking
Much of the global economy depends on moving freight from one
place to another. On land, long-haul
trucking handles the bulk of the
shipping. In the US alone, trucking
carried nearly 70% of the nation’s
freight in 2012. Roughly 2.5 million
large trucks hauled more than 13.2
billion tons (12.0 metric tons) of
cargo. Other regions, including
Europe and Asia, also rely heavily
on trucking.
While the amount of freight carried by trucks in the US continues
to increase, the business model of
the truckers is changing. Rather
than independent owner-operators,
most trucks are now owned by
trucking companies. Many are
small businesses that run as few
as five trucks in their fleets. It’s a
highly competitive industry with
tight margins.
Given the numbers, even marginal improvements in efficiency
can produce significant cost savings
for fleet operators. These improvements can come from driving
behaviors such as optimized routing
and reduced idling. Other improvements lie in effective management
of loads, labor and regulatory costs.
Truck drivers commonly use
GPS for navigation and route planning. A truck’s location is just one
piece of information available to
optimize its performance and profitability. New technologies provide
tools to improve safety, compliance
and maintenance aspects of trucking
operations. These solutions enable
operators to shift from reactive
problem solving to a proactive approach in managing and preventing
trouble. Fleet operators can gather
more data on their business and
actively improve customer service.
The power of geospatial data
in transportation is illustrated by
the GeoLogistics portfolio from
ALK Technologies, Inc. Moving
beyond basic navigation, GeoLogistics combines positioning and
communications with rich databases
to support efficiency, compliance
and safety. Drawing from datasets on highway conditions, truck
routes can be planned to account
for vehicle size, traffic, weather and
tolls. Planning of trips for vehicles carrying hazardous materials
(hazmat) can be limited to designated hazmat routes. Systems can
include required driver rest stops
into trip plans and show drivers
the best prices for fuel along the
39
way. Real-time tracking enables
the system to monitor progress and
guide drivers to avoid delays due
to traffic, construction or hazards.
With solutions running on mobile
devices such as smartphones and
tablets, fleet operators can use the
BYOD approach to control costs
and accelerate their drivers’ acceptance of the new technologies.
One of today’s interesting trends
is extending the Internet of Things
(IoT) to long-haul trucks. Using the
concept of the Internet of Transportation Things (IoTT), networks of
sensors on a vehicle can track its
location, mechanical systems, condition of cargo as well as monitoring driver habits and performance.
Sensors can collect information
about the vehicle such as pressures,
temperatures, fluid levels, throttle
Customized in-cab and handheld
hardware provides efficient
communications between drivers and
dispatchers. The devices can capture bar
codes and signatures for delivery records
40
Technologies for railway infrastructure maintenance and construction help ensure
safe operation and minimized downtime
position and video images. Rather
than storing data for post-trip download and review, modern solutions
incorporate real-time communications that enables fleet operators to
monitor their vehicles throughout
each trip.
Onboard freight monitoring
systems are especially valuable in
carrying food or other temperature-sensitive cargo, where refrigerated trucks (known as ‘reefers’)
must maintain proper temperatures
to prevent spoilage or thawing.
Because multiple carriers may be
involved in moving food from the
source to market, it is difficult to
monitor and control key parameters
of temperature and humidity. Using
IoTT, onboard GPS can track the
location of each load (or items in
the load) while other sensors measure conditions inside the reefer. The
information is immediately available in the Cloud, enabling managers
to identify conditions that might
result in spoilage or other issues.
They can then take proactive steps
to protect the cargo.
Efficiency and safety in
rail transportation
Compared to other modes of land
transportation, railways have an
inherent advantage in fuel efficiency per ton-kilometer. As a result,
shippers often choose to move cargo using trains rather than trucks.
This presents attractive growth
potential for railway operators, but
the opportunity is tempered by the
finite capacity of rail infrastructure
and rolling stock.
One way to address the
limitations is to expand capacity
by upgrading existing facilities
or adding new track and routes.
Similar to roads and highways,
geospatial technologies are widely
used in rail infrastructure, supplying information for planning and
design, construction, inspection and
maintenance.
However, building new infrastructure is not the only solution.
By improving the utilization and
efficiency of existing mobile
assets (rail cars and locomotives),
railways can increase capacity and
manage costs. Using approaches
analogous to the trucking industry,
rail operators connect field data
with back office and asset management systems.
For example, the Trimble Nexala
R2M solution uses onboard sensors
to supply real-time remote diagnostic data to maintenance depots.
The information enables scheduling
of fault diagnostics and repairs
based on the actual condition of the
vehicle. This approach increases
the efficiency of operations and
drives maintenance actions needed
to avoid future failures. Other solutions use schedules, train location
and real-time diagnostics to reduce
delays while maximizing energy
and fuel efficiency. The systems
include in-cab displays that provide
information and guidance for train
drivers to adhere to timetables and
manage energy consumption.
Safety and efficiency are
high-priority issues in the rail industry. The push for rail safety has
spawned aggressive initiatives on
multiple continents. Programs such
as the European Rail Traffic Management System (EMRTS) and the
US Positive Train Control (PTC)
are intended to increase safety by
using information on the location
and status of trains and rail facilities. The programs establish methods for monitoring and controlling
train movement, including speed
and separation from other trains as
well as safety for trackside workers.
The implementations include in-cab
guidance and can support automated control as well. For example, the
operator can receive instructions on
when to begin slowing for a curve
based on the severity of the curve
together with the train’s speed and
braking characteristics.
Implementation of PTC requires
extensive geospatial information.
Accurate data is needed on the
location of tracks, switches, signals
and rail facilities. Technologies
such as GNSS and mobile mapping
are well suited for this task. To keep
the databases up-to-date, software
algorithms for change detection
help to streamline work to identify
encroachments or other situations
that require attention.
Geospatial systems provide
another benefit for railways: In
addition to supporting PTC requirements, the position and attribute
information populates large GIS
datasets that rail operators can use
to increase efficiency in operations,
maintenance and asset management.
We should expect geospatial
solutions to play a central role as
PTC and related systems evolve.
For example, real-time GNSS can
monitor a train’s location and speed.
The information can be shared with
the operator, other trains and control centers. The decision to enter
a specific section (or ‘block’) of
track is currently made using data
from axle sensors at each end of
41
Autonomous vehicles will rely on
real-time positioning and detailed maps
to negotiate urban and rural areas;
modernization of air traffic control will use
GNSS to ensure safety and save fuel
the block. With geospatial data, the
decision can be made based on information on the actual location and
speed of the preceding train. The
technology will enable operators to
get more trains onto existing track
while maintaining strict protocols
for safety and spacing.
New prospects for
geospatial professionals
New applications for geospatial technologies will continue
to emerge, with many solutions
focusing on automatic transportation
management and operation. Autonomous vehicles will rely on real-time
positioning and accurate, detailed
maps to negotiate urban and rural
areas. Modernization of air traffic
control will use GNSS to ensure
safety and save fuel by enabling
aircraft to fly shorter routes between
cities. Integrating fleet management
solutions with utility operations can
reduce response times for outages or
spills. And emergency managers and
first responders can use geospatial
data to increase situational awareness as they position and dispatch
critical resources.
When the new applications are
combined with geospatial technologies for planning, engineering and
construction, we see a threefold
benefit. First, the time and cost
to construct new or upgraded
infrastructure are reduced. Second,
because the infrastructure is utilized more efficiently, its capacity
increases at no additional cost.
This results in a higher return on
the taxpayers’ investment. Third,
efficient, well-managed vehicles
return benefits through lower fuel
consumption, reduced emissions,
optimized maintenance programs
and improved customer satisfaction.
These trends offer important
opportunities for geospatial professionals. Service providers such as
aerial imagers, photogrammetrists,
surveyors, mobile mappers and
data analysts can become trusted
advisors for their clients. New
opportunities also exist within the
transportation companies. As use
of geospatial information increases in quantity and sophistication,
many firms will seek to employ
in-house expertise. By investing in
the skills and tools needed to solve
specialized needs in transportation,
geospatial professionals can place
themselves on the road to continued
growth and success.
Ron Bisio
Vice President, Geospatial
Division, Trimble
42
INTERVIEW
Going Beyond the Skies
with GAGAN
GAGAN is the acronym for India’s GPS Aided GEO Augmented Navigation
system. A.S. Ganeshan, Project Director of GAGAN, a project of the Indian
Space Research Organisation, explains how the system is doing more than
just improving air navigation services in the country
I
s satnav system GAGAN
fully operational now?
Yes, we have two satellites,
GSAT-8 and GSAT-10,
carrying the GAGAN payload and
augmenting the performance of
GPS signals received over Indian
airspace. And since even a single
satellite carrying the navigation
payload or augmented payload
is enough for the aviation sector,
having two satellites allows us to
guide an aircraft using APV1 or
Approach Procedures with Vertical
guidance. GAGAN is capable of
providing 1.5-meter accuracy in
the horizontal plane and 2.5-meter
in the vertical. This would allow
Airport Authority of India [AAI] to
pack many aircrafts one behind the
other. And having a crow’s flight
would not just save fuel and time,
it would also save the environment
from unnecessary carbon emissions.
Today we have instrument
landing system or ILS in majority of
airports which supports the landing
requirements. These will be replaced
by GAGAN. Also, there is a talk on
about the greenfield airports, under
which small cities and districts of
India will have airports. For all of
them you need not have very good
landing facility, and maintenance of
all these things are time consuming
and expensive. All of this can be
simplified with just a GAGAN receiver on board and a flight management system equipped on aircraft.
How is GAGAN being used in
non-aviation sectors?
ISRO is working closely with the
Indian Railways to leverage GAGAN beyond the aviation sector. A
‘hooting’ system is being developed to be installed at unmanned
railway crossing. It would warn the
people about the arrival of a train.
This would happen in collaboration with ISRO’s online geoportal, Bhuvan, which documents a
detailed map of India.
We are also developing anti-collision devices in the Konkan valley.
We can put a unique ID for each
railway line and if a train is coming
on that particular track, relative
positions can be transferred to a
central information hub to ensure
that two trains don’t collide. We can
also install a GAGAN receiver on
a goods train to locate its location.
GAGAN has the ability to transform the Railways into an intelligent transportation system. If you
know the position of your wagons,
you can easily divert them according to your needs. In Chennai, we
have implemented a paperless ticketing system. There is an app which
uses GAGAN. It automatically
deducts money when you board a
train, so you don’t have to stand in
a queue to get a paper ticket. And it
should be noted that apart from anti-collision devices and monitoring
the unmanned crossings, GAGAN
can also be used for the alignment
of the railways. In case of heavy
rains, railway tracks get disturbed.
All this can be managed with the
help of GAGAN receivers.
We are also in touch with
National Highway Authority of
India about how they can benefit
from GAGAN. The Ministry of
Environment and Forests is using
GAGAN to identify wildfires in the
forest areas.
There is a great discussion on
about developing smart cities in India. A smart city must have a good
transportation system and position
information becomes fundamental
here. So satellite-based augmentation system like GAGAN as
well as the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System [IRNSS]
will play a very critical role in
development of smart cities in
the country.
Do you think GAGAN can
replace GPS?
The United States evolved
GPS as a military program two
decades ago. GAGAN is only
two years old. But, keeping that
comparison aside, even today,
the utility of GPS as a navigation
service is not fully utilized. So,
we are doing relatively well. If
we were to form a joint working group for GAGAN, we will
get much ahead of others in no
time. And as far as replacing
GPS is concerned, remember
that GAGAN is GPS Aided
43
Courtesy: defencetalk.net
INTERVIEW
Satellite-based
augmentation
system like
GAGAN and the
Indian Regional
Navigation
Satellite System
will play a very
critical role in
development of
smart cities
in India
Geo Augmented Navigation. It is
an augmentation of the GPS. And
since GPS may not be able to meet
the accuracy requirements that
GAGAN can provide, we want to
get the message across that replace
GPS receivers with GAGAN
receivers.
GAGAN is already there on mobile devices with high-end receivers. It can be used on your mobile.
It is available for everyone now.
How are you collaborating with
the private sector?
Collaboration with private players
is one of our main objectives. We
are service providers. GAGAN will
have a rich potential for app developers, platform developers and
receivers, particularly in the navigation sector. If all the stakeholders
come on one platform, there is a lot
of potential for private companies
to bring home the benefits to the
common man.
44
CASE STUDY
Driving Road Infrastructure
Figure 1: Noise protection information
An Austrian government company, which plans, finances, builds,
maintains and collects tolls for highways, explains how it is using GIS
at each step for optimizing work processes
A
SFINAG — short
for Autobahnen- und
Schnellstraßen-FinanzierungsAktiengesellschaft (German for
Autobahn and highway financing
stock corporation) — is an Austrian
publicly owned corporation that
plans, finances, constructs, operates and tolls the entire Austrian
motorway and express roads with
a total length of 2,183 km. For
about 2,800 employees GIS plays
an increasing role supporting daily
business. Topics vary from cadastre,
drainage systems and infrastructure
to noise protection, natural hazards,
construction site program and longterm activities.
ASFINAG's GIS is based
on Esri ArcGIS, with SynerGIS
WebOffice at the front-end. The
company has used GIS since 2003
and today it is one main goal is
the geographical visualization of
data and information by using Web
technologies. To guarantee up-todate information, interfaces to several databases as well as guidelines
and processes supporting the data
management are indispensable.
The GIS team and its tasks are
organized within ASFINAG in the
department road network planning.
The GIS team collaborates with the
entire ASFINAG. The main goals
are suppling a modern, state-ofthe-art GIS system architecture,
running a geographic platform with
high performance and reliable data,
providing data and information in a
self-explanatory and pleasant way
and guaranteeing up-to-date data by
establishing interfaces to several databases. The GIS team sees itself as
a service provider for all employees
ASFINAG and contractors.
Data management
To guarantee up-to-date data and
information, tasks are established:
• Guideline for surveying data:
Contractors have to deliver surveying data according to the ASFINAG
guideline “PLaDOK”, which
describes the structure (layers) of an
AutoCAD (dwg) dataset. The surveying data are stored in the GIS.
The necessary activities between
different ASFINAG departments
and the contractors are specified
within defined tasks.
• Project-specific data: Contractors
have to deliver project-specific data
for instance for drainage systems,
natural hazards, etc., according to a
given structure by the GIS team.
• Purchasing data like cadastre or
orthophotos from third parties.
• Interface between databases:
GIS connects to different databases,
e.g. SAP, Sharepoint and document
management system.
• Generating data can be done in
house by GIS experts or by non GIS
experts in different departments by
using a WebGIS frontend.
Benefits of GIS
GIS users are in many departments
of the whole company. Different
departments like road service, asset
management, electrical engineering,
road network planning, construction site departments and customer
service centre benefit from GIS
information.
The Road Network Planning
department is responsible for longterm programs, establishing concepts
45
Figure 3: Water protection sites
Expansion joints and technical documentation
CASE STUDY
and studies for mid-term activities,
executing specific projects (e.g.
additional lanes) and coordinating
the construction site program. GIS
supports in visualizing necessary
maintenance activities, construction
site projects and long-term programs
by using interfaces to SAP and
Sharepoint. Furthermore, locations of
rest areas und possible extensions are
shown. Noise protection topics are
also part of the GIS.
The Asset Management department is responsible for structure
maintenance management, e.g.
condition detection and assessment,
project requirements and definition,
infrastructure database and technical assessment of specific transportation. GIS integration allows
the geographical documentation of
bridges, expansion joints, retaining
walls and noise protection walls.
The interface to the Infrastructure
Management Database enables
information to be provided like the
condition of objects, check-ups and
monitoring. Linking between GIS
and Document Management System
allows the users to access technical
documentation.
Road Operation tasks comprise topics such as refurbishment,
upgrading and renewal works, road
control service, winter service,
cleaning rest and parking areas
Drainage infrastructure
and reviewing and checking tunnel
safety equipment. GIS supports
the Road Operation department
in visualizing responsibility and
contact information of the different
teams along the road network, giving information about cadastre and
property, highlighting green space
areas for cutting, and supplying
data about drainage infrastructure
and natural hazards.
ASFINAG MSG is responsible
for collecting tolls on the ASFINAG
road network. The customer service
centre need information for the
customer about situation of traffic,
winter services, contact information
of road service teams, noise protection, toll sticker and so on. All these
information is provided by GIS. Furthermore, GIS supports in visualizing
toll sign information and provides
data about sign type, the teams responsible and technical information.
The points of sale for toll sticker and
heavy trucks, including address and
contact, can be viewed.
Facts and figures
The GIS team consists of three
employees. Data management is
supported by one employee from
ASFINAG ASG. Now 200 unique users are using the GIS daily. There are
more than 200,000 map requests per
month. The GIS team offers monthly
GIS trainings. Employees have the
possibility to learn different GIS
functions and review the different
GIS contents. Therefore, GIS links
information of different departments
together, supports decision processes
and stimulates comprehensive collaboration within ASFINAG.
Peter Aubrecht , Team Leader
ASFINAG Service GmbH
[email protected]
46
SPECIAL FEATURE
Imperatives of faster updating of data and demands from new users
are egging the national mapping agencies to move towards new
technologies and processes. By Prof Arup Dasgupta
I
n the September edition, we
discussed the policy issues
confronting the National
Mapping Agencies (NMAs).
Policy issues are usually intertwined with technology advances.
Given that surveying and mapping
has been around for centuries and
the mandate to create authoritative data for a country rests on the
NMA, it is but natural to rely on
time-tested technologies. However,
imperatives of faster updating of
data arising from growing demands
as well as demands from new users
often catalyses the need to move
to new technologies and processes.
Beginning with the basic concept of
baseline datasets changes are happening in the way data is acquired,
stored and distributed.
Baseline datasets
All geospatial activities require
baseline datasets which are usually
provided by the NMAs. In Japan,
it is called Fundamental Geospatial Data defined in a law dealing
with NSDI issues established in
2007. In Norway, there are many
baseline datasets at different levels
of usage. Low level for datasets
and databases, middle level for
services, which uses or are based
on the databases and datasets,
and high level for simple public
services such as portals, websites
etc. which use the services. While
all these layers of distribution are
available for the users, it is ensured
that the private companies retain
their market for more advanced
geospatial products.
The Ordnance Survey of the
Great Britain also has a similar
approach based on ‘fitness for
purpose’. While a 30 second or
1km digital elevation model (DEM)
grid such as the NOAA’s (National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Globe 30 is fit for many
purposes, a developed nation such
as the Great Britain has many
needs that require far greater detail
and integrated geographic products of which height is only one
component. The Dutch Kadaster
is responsible for the key registers
on topographic and cadastral data
in the country. These registrations
are part of a national system of Key
registers, defined by national law.
Developing countries also have
baseline datasets, courtesy of their
colonial heritage. Sri Lanka has
maps at 1:50,000 and 1:10,000
scales, geodetic control and cadastral data as authoritative data.
Survey of Bangladesh prepares
base maps covering the whole
country. Thus baseline dataset that
includes number of feature classes,
are automatically inserted into the
authoritative data. The National
Mapping and Resource Information Authority in Philippines,
abbreviated as NAMRIA, produces
topographic base maps, nautical
SPECIAL FEATURE
charts and other fundamental
thematic maps such as land cover
and land classification. These are
all part of a good baseline dataset
along with fundamental data being
produced by other agencies like cadastral data, public infrastructure,
environment and natural resources,
etc, points out Efren P. Carandang,
Deputy Administrator, National
Mapping and Resource Information Authority, Republic of the
Philippines. Republic of Korea has
the basic geospatial dataset which
acts as a reference to other dataset,
as mandated in the Korean National Spatial Data Infrastructure
Act, reveals Sanghoon Lee, Team
Leader, International Cooperation
and Standard Team, National Geographic Information Institute.
In Malaysia, JUPEM has a
complete baseline dataset covering
the core cadastral and topographical or built environment datasets
which are recognized nationally as
the fundamental datasets of their
national data infrastructure (NSDI)
and are the ones that are needed by
other governmental agencies. Mexico also has a very detailed dataset at
1:50,000 scale.
VGI as a data source
One of the most disruptive technologies is the GPS-enabled smart
phone. Common people can now
locate their PoIs and share them
through the Internet. While the
accuracies are low, of the order of
tens of metres, the value lies in the
timeliness of the data. In disasters
and other fast-changing situations
such data is invaluable. Google
India attempted to update its maps
of India through a Mapathon where
individuals were encouraged to
locate PoI.
This was unfortunately undermined
by Survey of India, which restricted
the data dissemination pending vetting for ‘sensitive’ locations. While
this was an extreme reaction but not
unique to India. Some other countries however, are more forthcom-
47
ing, albeit with caution. Dr Hiroshi
Murakami, Director-General of
Planning Department, Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI),
agrees that volunteered information
is potentially useful for detecting
changes. However, due attention
has to be paid to the quality of the
information provided by volunteers.
For example, to revise mountain
trails, which tend to change due
to landslides, training on GPS is
provided to volunteer mountaineers
who provide the mountain trail data
as they climb. The NMA assesses
the data and uses it to update its
database.
Norway also relies on public
reporting of errors or missing elements in a map through a website,
to manage some datasets which
need frequent updating. Quality
One of the most disruptive technologies
is the GPS-enabled smartphone. Common
people can now locate their PoIs and share
them through the Internet
48
SPECIAL FEATURE
Google Map Maker makes it easy
to edit the map and add important geographic information.
Google India’s attempt to update its maps of India through
a Mapathon where individuals
were encouraged to locate PoI,
was unfortunately undermined by
Survey of India.
assurance is done and if the error is
genuine, the authoritative databases
are corrected, says Anne Cathrine
Frøstrup, Director General of Kartverket, Norway. In the Netherlands,
VGI is used for specific data. For
example, as Kees de Zeeuw, Director Kadaster International, points
out, the monitoring of the international border poles in the Netherlands is done with the aid of mobile
services and the public.
Peter ter Haar, Director of
Products and Innovation, Ordnance
Survey, thinks volunteered or crowd
sourced data has its place, but at
present it is not authoritative or consistent enough. There are question
marks over its reliability and accuracy, and with many crowd sourced
datasets they are incomplete.
Sri Lanka is planning to update
its 1:10,000 scale maps with VGI.
All the Survey department staff,
including non-technical staff and
students, will be asked to add
missing or new data for a small
area where they live. Validation
would be done by a surveyor at the
mapping branch in the same area
using satellite images. This could
be expanded to the young school
student’s in future in a digital
environment, maintains P. Sangakkara, Additional Surveyor General
(Central), Sri Lanka. The Philippine
Geoportal provides a platform for
sharing and integration of such datasets into authoritative government
datasets for any specific or general
purpose. The outputs of such integration remain separate from
the core authoritative datasets and
the responsibility for such outputs
rests with the contributing entity.
However, Bangladesh and Malaysia
do not use VGI because of lack of
authenticity. They may use it in the
future under an appropriate policy.
South Korea is considering VGI
for real-time updating of specific
areas, and establishing a prototype
VGI-based GeoPortal for disaster
management as a mission of UNGGIM-AP WG2. The country would
in particular like to adopt the concept
of community mapping by trained
community members with NMAs'
support for tackling quality concerns.
In the case of INEGI in Mexico,
there are efforts such as Participatory
Mapping project, through which
the organization aims to capture
updated information with the active
participation of the public, the state
units and the academy. Comments
received from the public are sent to
the units responsible of maintaining this information, who will then
validate the updates and reflect them
monthly on the central database.
Common geodetic
framework
Tracking and control of launch
vehicles and satellites do need a
global geodetic network. However,
Volunteered or crowd sourced data has its
place, but at present it is not authoritative
or consistent enough. There are question
marks over its reliability and accuracy
SPECIAL FEATURE
why do we need such a global network for what is essentially national
or regional tasks? According to
Dr Murakami, using a globally
common geodetic framework is the
most accurate and efficient way of
developing the country’s geodetic framework. Traditionally, a
framework was developed by doing
local astronomical observations and
ground survey by setting up monuments on the ground, or extending
the framework of the neighbouring
countries. However, this methodology has inherent problems of error
accumulation geographically and
limited temporal resolution as it
takes a long time to complete the
survey. The introduction of VLBI
and GNSS and other space geodetic
technologies and the wide-spread
commercial applications of satellite
positioning, has energized the geodetic framework. It requires close
international cooperation on the
observations. In addition, the earth
is changing its shape continuously. Therefore, globally consistent
continuous geodetic observation is
the only way to create accurate and
stable geodetic framework even for
local and regional areas.
Frøstrup adds that location services-based on GNSS have totally
changed the way of positioning
things, making it a necessity to
have a geodetic reference frame that
covers the entire planet. “Ultimately, we need one global geodetic
reference frame maintained on
the global level, but densified to
improve the local accuracy on
regional or national level,” she says.
Peter ter Haar adds that satellite
positioning is obviously a global
system and therefore requires a
globally consistent geodetic framework within which to operate. A
global geodetic system is also very
important for scientific activities
involving Earth monitoring.
Creating common
geodetic framework
Japan works closely with the
international organizations on
very-long-baseline interferometry
(VLBI) and GNSS observations, and
provides data to them. The results
of such international observations
are processed, analysed and combined to develop a global geodetic
framework, which is adopted for
the national geodetic framework by
connecting all national control points
to coordinates of the origin realized
by the international cooperation together with the ellipsoid to translate
the 3D coordinates into latitude and
longitude, says Dr Murakami.
In terms of update, the initial
framework is retained as the standard framework for a 30 or 40 years,
until the displacement caused by
ground surface movement due to
the plate movement and earthquakes becomes significant. In case
49
VLBI and GNSS and
other space geodetic
technologies
and widespread
commercial
applications of
satellite positioning,
has energized the
geodetic framework
of large local displacements due to
earthquakes, only coordinates of
control points in the affected areas
are revised in each case.
However, when a devastating
earthquake hit the eastern Japan in
2011, the ground surface movement was more than 5 meter, and
complicated, requiring updating
of the framework. The framework
of north-eastern half of Japan was
The Philippine Geoportal's Map Catalog is a platform for
sharing geospatial data and maps. This platform is based
on open source projects like GeoNode, GeoServer, GeoExt,
OpenLayers, PostGIS, and Django.
50
SPECIAL FEATURE
The geodetic observatory
at Svalbard, Norway, will
become one of the key
pillars of the global geodetic
reference frame when it’s
finished in 2020. With its
location at 79 degrees north,
it plays an important role in
the determination of polar
motion
updated to ITRF2008 based on
observation of VLBI, GNSS and
geodetic levelling. The other half of
Japan still adopts ITRF94, because
the area experienced only small
displacement and the amounts do
not have much social influence.
Norway has for decades been
operating a geodetic observatory
at Svalbard. With its location at
9 degrees north, the observatory plays an important role in the
determination of polar motion that is
essential for the operation of satellite
navigation systems. The Norwegian
government decided in 2011 to
upgrade the observatory into a so
called “core site” which means that
the observatory should be equipped
with state-of-the art technology
within all the geodetic disciplines.
The observatory will become one of
the key pillars of the global geodetic
reference frame when it’s finished in
2020, reveals Frøstrup.
The Norwegian geodetic
network is aligned to the global
geodetic network but fixed to earth
crust as it was in 1989. “By using
a network of about 150 continuous
operating GNSS sites, we are monitoring the difference between the
national and the global reference
frame. The difference is transmitted
as a national service to professional
ETRS89, a consistent, GNSS-compatible,
geodetic system applicable across
the whole of Europe, is used to enable
compatibility of positioning and geo-data
across the entire continent
GNSS users so that they becomes
able to perform positioning in accordance to the national geospatial
infrastructure,” she adds.
The primary geodetic coordinate
reference system in Great Britain is
realized by the Ordnance Survey’s
nationwide network of permanent
high precision GNSS receivers —
OS Net. OS Net realises coordinates
in the European ETRS89 (European
Terrestrial Reference System 1989)
which is a consistent, GNSS-compatible, geodetic system applicable
across the whole of Europe and is
used to enable compatibility of positioning and geo-data across the entire
continent. ETRS89 is also directly
related to the global ITRS (International Terrestrial Reference System).
So, if required, ETRS89 coordinates
in GB can be easily transformed to
coordinates in the global ITRS.
Data in Sri Lanka is now in geodetic reference GN99, which is well
documented and transformation is included in most GPS receivers. Hence
data can be converted to WGS84 or
vice versa. The Survey of Bangladesh has already integrated the
coordinate system from local (Ever-
SPECIAL FEATURE
est 1830) to global (WGS 1984). At
present the reference framework used
is ITRF-1992, which is going to be
transferred to ITRF-2008 very soon
and necessary GNSS observations
are already done, reveals Surveyor
General of Bangladesh Brig Gen Md
Abdul Khair.
In line with its mandate to
establish and maintain the national
geodetic network and pursuant to
UN General Assembly Resolution
69/266, NAMRIA formulated and
has just started implementing a national geodetic network modernisation plan. Malaysia too is updating
its geodetic framework to link it
to the world geodetic framework,
adds Datuk Sr Ahmad Fauzi bin
Nordin, Director General of Survey
& Mapping.
Open data standards
The Japanese government has developed its own open data standards
on the government data available on
the web, and GSI complies with the
government standards. Norway follows the open data standards, and the
ISO TC 211 standards and specific
domestic standards. Ordnance Survey introduced persistent identifiers
in their Boundary-Line product, and
then in OS MasterMap in 2001. It
also encouraged the Digital National
Framework (DNF). However, a large
group of users simply want to combine their data with ‘a map’, and OS
supports this through OS OnDemand
(an open standard INSPIRE View
Service, which is in itself an Open
Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web
Mapping Service) and OS OpenSpace (a simpler interaction with a
web API, suitable for consuming
in websites). Since 2010, OS data
products are published in GML
3.2. In the past five years, OS has
pioneered providing geospatial data
in ‘linked data’ format. The Netherlands complies with legislation and
international law while treating user
demand as the focus.
Both Sri Lanka and Bangladesh
are in the process of evolving open
data standards based on ISO specifications. In Philippines, using a
common set of base maps, geoportal data contributors and users, as
well as those working independent-
51
During the 2011 earthquake,
northeast Japan jumped
5 meters eastward and the
seafloor closer to the fault
skipped 31 m to the east,
according to GPS data. This
required urgent updating of the
geodetic framework
ly outside of the geoportal system,
are assured that whatever maps and
datasets they produce are interoperable with one another.
The way ahead
OS MasterMap contains 450 million geographic features
found in the real world, from individual addresses to
roads and buildings. Every feature has a unique common
reference (a TOID), which enables the layers to be used
together and combined with your own information
The impact of new technologies and
processes are being felt as NMAs
adopt them, in some cases with
caution. However, the pressure of
demand and the evolution of new
applications, particularly individual
based applications is and will continue to foster change. Here again
the success or failures of NMAs are
being dictated by their ability to see
the future and adapt and adopt.
Arup Dasgupta Managing Editor,
[email protected]
52
CLIMATE CHANGE
COP’s Half
As governments and environment agencies around the
world gear up for the COP21 meet in Paris beginning
later this month, the geospatial community’s
expectations run high. By Sanskriti Shukla
On November 30, 2015, the 21st
Conference of the Parties (COP21)
of the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) begins in Paris. The
stakes could not be higher at the
event which is expected to be a
major milestone in efforts to combat
climate change. And that is also true
for the geospatial community. The
UN recognizes that there is a growing requirement for more accurate
measuring of the changing planet,
down to millimetres, and that geoinformation has become mandatory
when it comes to achieving Sustainable Development Goals. And yet,
there is no explicit role for space
technologies in the official climate
change draft agreement.
T
wenty-three years
after the signing of the
Framework Convention,
greenhouse gas emissions are still rising, sea levels are
rising, the hole in the ozone layer
is expanding, polar ice sheets are
melting, and natural disasters are
increasing. All posing a grave
threat to sustainable development
in all countries. Avoiding the
highly dangerous climate change
will require sustained efforts and
profound changes in the world’s
energy systems, land-use patterns,
and socio-economic development
trajectories.
Geospatial data and information
is absolutely essential to analyze
and effectively plan for adaptation
to climate change. In a world where
space-based technologies are being
used in almost every field, the
issue of lack of awareness among
decision-makers and representatives of the research and academic
community with respect to space
technology applications still exists.
The 2015 COP21, also known
as the 2015 Paris Climate Conference, will, for the first time in over
20 years of UN negotiations, aim
to achieve a legally binding and
universal agreement on climate,
with the aim of keeping global
warming below 2 degree Celsius.
The global agreement reached at
Paris is expected to be a decisive
turning point for the world’s efforts
to fight climate change. “What’s
important about Conference of the
Parties is that many citizens of the
world are finally getting the message
about the impact humans have on the
Earth,” says Barbara Ryan, Secretariat Director of the Group on Earth
Observations (GEO). While the GEO
is upstream of this policy debate and
doesn’t have a direct voice or a role
to play at COP, Ryan sees the organization wanting to make sure that all
the member states of UN understand
that earth observation and geospatial information can help all those
CLIMATE CHANGE
Full
COP to the UNFCCC. Ishii expects
a comprehensive, legally bound
agreement as an outcome and wants
more actions to be triggered on the
ground for issues like deforestation and climate-smart agriculture.
“COP 21 is an opportunity to create
a multi-stakeholder platform for
taking actions,” she adds. GEF was
established on the eve of the 1992
Rio Earth Summit, to help tackle our
planet’s most pressing environmental problems. Since then, it has provided over $14 billion in grants and
mobilized in excess of $70 billion in
additional financing for more than
4,000 projects.
Mistakes of the past
decisions. “We must leverage that information regardless of the decisions
that come out of COP. We need to get
these technologies into policy and
COP gives us an opportunity to step
up and do something about that.”
“I am expecting great things from
COP,” echoes Naoko Ishii, CEO and
Chairperson, Global Environment
Facility (GEF), which administers
the Least Developed Countries Fund
(LCCF) and Special Climate Change
Fund (SCCF) established by the
The geospatial community is also
wary of not repeating past mistakes
and sees the Paris summit as a major
milestone for getting governments
and companies to take serious actions
around climate change. “We don’t
want to repeat the same mistakes of
Copenhagen. We want to fully support the European Union and member
states, and make sure that we have all
the information to make the right kind
of negotiations so that good outcomes
come out of COP21,” says Chris
Steenmans, Head of Programme, ICT
and Data Management, European
Environment Agency (EEA). He
53
hopes that the final agreement that
comes out will ensure that global
warming stays below the 2 degree
Celsius level.
The EEA will not be there at
Paris actively as a player, but is
making sure that the EU has the
right data and information available
to ensure that all the targets that are
put forth in the context of climate
change can be achieved. “We have
to make sure we — not only the
European Commission but also the
member states — have the right
package for the negotiations that
will be finalized at COP21.”
Craig Hanson, Global Director
of Food, Forests & Water, World
Resources Institute explains: “In
Rio+20, we didn’t have initiatives
like Global Forest Watch and now
we do. I think we are on the cutting
edge of a dramatic explosion of
geospatial technology and this will
play a major role in advancing the
COP21 agenda.”
The United Nations Committee
of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM)
Fifth Session in August made it
really clear that forests, oceans and
environment play a major role in
sustainable development. Which
is why at the summit in New York,
member states expressed the need
Even though geospatial information has found a
place in the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development, there is no mention of space
technologies or geoinformation in the official
climate change draft agreement yet
CLIMATE CHANGE
The ozone hole over Antarctica has increased by 2.5 million square km than what it was at the
same time in 2014. This just less than the record in 2006 when it was 27 million square km.
German Aerospace Center (DLR) Earth Observation Center (EOC) used earth-observation
satellites to determine that the ozone hole over Antarctica currently extends more than
26 million square km — an area larger than the North American continent
for objective, clear and reliable data
access for achieving sustainable
development goals. And next month
in September, as the governments
of the world and the UN General
Assembly met in New York to solidify 17 SDGs, 169 targets and 304
proposal indicators to adopt the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development, geospatial information found
its rightful place in the UN agenda.
But even then it doesn’t find any
mention in the Climate Change draft
for the Paris meet.
“There is no Plan B but to use
geospatial information for all these
aspects. In order to address these issues, we need an integrated approach
and accurate data,” stresses Ishii.
“Earth observation and geospatial
information must play a leading role
in measuring, monitoring and reporting of those sustainable development
goals,” adds Ryan.
Part of the system
For several decades now satellite
remote sensing and geographical
information system (GIS) have
helped study and understand better
each and every aspect of our planet.
Geospatial technologies that visualize and use information collected
from ground, airborne and satellite
platforms have proved to be a vital
tool to examine the changes and to
suggest adaptation and mitigation,
locally, regionally and globally.
Extracting large amounts of data developed from remote sensing sensors
along with interoperability through
latest computing and software techniques makes it easier to access the
frontier zones of the earth system.
“It is critical that we have
knowledge in the area of weather,
climate and sea level change, and
that an understanding of a global
geodetic reference frame is applied
to inform mitigation efforts and
decision making for sustainable development,” says Rohan Richards,
Principal Director in the National
Spatial Data Management Division
of the Ministry of Water, Land,
Environment and Climate Change.
Spatial information plays a key
part in the fight against environmental degradation and runaway
climate change. Satellites offer a
unique way of gathering data on
essential climate variables at the
global level, which may be too
difficult, too costly or impossible
NASA has warned that the global sea level rise could be faster than as predicted earlier. Sea
level rise is caused primarily by two factors related to global warming: the added water from
melting land ice and the expansion of sea water as it warms. The following chart by NASA,
tracks the change in sea level since 1993 as observed by satellites.
Courtesy: NASA
Courtesy: DLR
54
Courtesy: NASA
CLIMATE CHANGE
55
NASA GRACE mission (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) consists of twin co-orbiting satellites that fly in a near polar orbit separated by
a distance of 220 km. GRACE precisely measures the distance between the two spacecraft in order to make detailed measurements of the Earth’s
gravitational field. Since its launch in 2002, GRACE has provided a continuous record of changes in the mass of the Earth’s ice sheets. The graph
shows the change in the Greenland Ice Sheet between January 2004 and June 2014. A color scale was applied in the range of +250 to -250
centimeters of equivalent water height, where blue values indicate an increase in the ice sheet mass while red shades indicate a decrease.
to gather using in-situ approaches.
Such variables include atmospheric,
terrestrial, and oceanic aspects.
“Geospatial doesn’t really need a
mandate but what it does need is
availability and free access. We have
all seen the benefits of geospatial data
when it comes to sustainable development,” says Craig Hanson, Global
Director of Food, Forests & Water,
World Resources Institute.
All eyes on Paris
There’s a lot of momentum building
towards COP21. Countries are
coming out with their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions
(INDCs) as they are explaining the
commitments they will be making
towards addressing climate change.
In the current political agenda, environment is very low, not
only in Europe but also at a global
level. Steenmans believes “it is all
about employment, poverty, wars,
refugee crises… It is the role of
governments and organizations like
us to make citizens understand that
environment is equally important.
And there fore you need to have a
coordinated approach.”
There is a need for a much
greener world for everyone. The
use of geospatial technology in
mitigating climate change issues
and challenges is gaining importance due to its information driven
tools which would probably lead to
smart decision making as desired by
the policymakers at the national and
international levels.
“Paris will be a major milestone
for getting governments and companies to take serious actions around
climate change,” says Hanson.
The climate community needs
geospatial information in order to
assess climate impacts, evaluate the
risk that climate change is presenting, and develop and implement
plans for adaptation. While it is
true that the benefits of geospatial
data are enormous when it comes to
sustainable development, geospatial doesn’t really need a mandate.
What it does need is availability
and free access. Adaptation plans
are happening now, and adaptation
is crucial for the global community
to reach the outcomes necessary.
COP21, after all, is our last
chance to adopt a global agreement
for a secure a safe climate.
Sanskriti Shukla, Sub Editor
[email protected]
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