This SBAS test-bed is a satellite based positioning infrastructure that will available from June 2017 – January 2019. CRCSI is coordinating and undertaking user testing of SBAS in Australia and New Zealand in conjunction with an economic benefit analysis of SBAS technology in the region.

CRCSI partners, Geoscience Australia (GA) and Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) together with three global companies GMV, Inmarsat and Lockheed Martin have implemented the SBAS test-bed to evaluate three positioning signals for improved accuracy and integrity over Australia and New Zealand.

There are almost 30 projects across aviation, agriculture, consumer, construction, maritime, rail, resources, road, spatial and utilities sectors in Australia and New Zealand are currently underway.

The positioning signals for evaluation are:

  • The current L1 Legacy service similar to that available in the United States (WAAS), Europe (EGNOS), Japan (MSAS), India (GAGAN) and Russia (SDCM).
  • A second-generation Dual Frequency Multi Constellation (DFMC) signal which will provide an improvement over the legacy signal in a number of areas. This signal has not been tested anywhere in the world until now.
  • High-precision Precise Point Positioning (PPP) corrections with expected decimetre accuracies at user level.

In simple terms, SBAS provides a cost-effective way to improve GPS accuracy from around 5 metres to less than a metre.

This trial is supported by a $12 million investment from the Australian Government as announced in January 2017 with a further $2 million from the New Zealand Government.

Further information about this research can be found on the Geoscience Australia and LINZ websites. Information about the CRCSI's positioning program can be found here. News and current details about the Australian National Positioning Infrastructure can be obtained here.

To receive ongoing updates regarding SBAS and the Test-Bed Demonstrator Trial (including downloading the 2019 Test-Bed Demonstrator Trial report, plus much more), visit the official FrontierSI SBAS page here, or alternatively copy and paste the following link into your web browser: 

https://frontiersi.com.au/project/satellite-based-augmentation-system-test-bed/