Experts to deliberate on satellite navigation at Isro today

Isro is hosting a meeting of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) community, the user community and the academia at the Isro Satellite Centre, Old Airport Road on Thursday.

Titled GNSS user meet 2015, its theme is ‘Towards self-reliance in satellite navigation’. The event assumes significance as India has entered into the realm of satellite-based navigation with its two pioneering projects GAGAN (GPS-aided geo-augmented navigation) and IRNSS (Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System). GAGAN has received certification for precision approach and IRNSS provides independent positioning with four satellites. 

The meet intends to bring together the GNSS-based industries, receiver manufacturers, PNT service providers, application developers, content providers, the user community and the academia. It aims to explore various avenues to utilise the Indian satellite-based navigation services for the country’s socio-economic benefits.

The event includes plenary session with talks delivered by eminent personalities from the GNSS community, technical sessions and a panel discussion. Also, an exhibition showcasing the GNSS products and services by the industry has been organised.

Papers are invited for four technical sessions with themes: GAGAN and IRNSS applications; innovative transport and location-based services; receiver technologies using GAGAN/IRNSS; advanced algorithms and methods for GNSS.

A competition has been organised for students to elicit innovative ideas from them on the topic ‘Innovative ideas in GNSS Design and Applications.’ For details, log on to Isro’s official website www.isro.gov.in. Participation in the event is only by online registration.

The IRNSS is an autonomous regional satellite navigation system being developed by Isro. The requirement of such a navigation system is driven by lack of access to foreign government-controlled global navigation satellite systems, that was not guaranteed in hostile situations, as happened to the Indian military depending on American GPS during the Kargil war.

The GNSS is a system that is used to pinpoint the geographic location of a user’s receiver anywhere in the world.