Samara University Scientists to Protect GPS Receivers from Coordinate Distortion

One of the major issues facing the automatically-controlled commercial transportation industry is the inadequate displaying of cargo-handling transport routes. In most cases, special apps for smartphones are used for this purpose, i.e. to distort navigational data and transmit false information on the user’s position, or to jam navigational signals.

A group of young scientists at Samara University has elaborated a navigational receiver model that uses snapshot technology for positioning.

The receiver will handle data received from GPS / GLONASS satellite systems. The project was approved by the START Federal Fund for the Promotion of Small Scientific and Technical Enterprises. The authors were awarded a RUB 2 million grant for R&D.

The receiver elaboration team at Samara University includes the young scientists Ekaterina Stepanova, Ekaterina Lysenko and Stepan Shafran, under the supervision of Professor Kai Borre from Denmark.

The project by Samara University scientists excludes all possibilities of navigation-receiver data distortion. It uses snapshot technology, an idea suggested by Professor Borre. The snapshot receiver forms an intermediate data package – a short recording of satellite signals (the session lasts just one-hundredth of a millisecond) and transmits it to a remote server, where the information is processed and the object’s actual location is detected.

Snapshot technology makes it possible to dramatically decrease the receiver’s energy consumption. This is achieved by turning the receiver on for only a short period of time to record navigational data. As of today, this technology is not in use anywhere, due to its complete novelty. It may be used all around the globe though – for instance, for tracking cargo-handling transport routes on toll roads, or for tracking cargoes and containers during transportation, at seaports and warehouses,” says Professor Kai Borre.

Currently, the project group working in the Navigational Receivers Lab of Samara University has elaborated the theoretical justification for the snapshot receiver and its mathematical model. Modelling results have shown that the receiver needs significantly less data in order to locate the object, as compared to standard GPS navigation systems.

The grant will provide the scientists with the opportunity to elaborate software and design documentation for the manufacturing of a navigational receiver prototype. The manufacturing of printed circuits and receivers is expected to be undertaken at a small innovational enterprise.

Jointly with Professor Kai Borre, the Electronics and Instrumentation Department at Samara University offers two English-language master’s degree programs on navigational receivers: "GNSS Receivers. Hardware and Software" and "GNSS Positioning Algorithms and Applications," as well as the PhD program "GNSS Technologies."