Location:GNSS for Intelligent Fleet Management

Prelude
The transport along with other key infrastructure sectors (such as telecommunication, power, etc.) plays an important role in economic and technological growth of the country. The manufacturing, mining, agriculture, trade and banking are other sectors of importance, but their performance significantly depends upon the quality of transport services. In the absence of adequate infrastructure for transportation of goods, economic and social growth of the nation will remain constrained. This argument is further strengthened by a recent study which suggests that every percentage growth in the economy presumes a growth of 1.2 -1.4 per cent in the transport sector.

Since mid-1990s, the implementation of the Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) project, the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), the National Highway Development Project (NHDP), the increase in access controlled roads and expressways along with the participation of private sector have contributed substantially to upgrade the national road transport network. In addition to above, there has been substantial improvement in transport by rail, air and waterways.

In the recent past, Government of India has recognized and put special emphasis for development of infrastructure in transport, communication and spatial data (National Spatial Data Infrastructure) among many other areas of technology.

Current scale of developments in the road transport in India:

10 Million Vehicles are manufactured annually while 2 Million Four-wheelers are added on the roads annually
3,3 Million KM road network crisscrosses the whole country (however, the national highway network, which carries about 40% of the road traffic, is less than 2% of the road network)
3 Million Commercial vehicles carry the loads using the roads network

The Need
In India, the road transport has traditionally been preferred for the movement of goods due to flexibility in routing including door-to-door delivery. In the fast growing competitive market, the emphasis has also moved to the quality of the service including the collection and delivery of goods in a timely and reliable manner along with dissemination of information on movement of goods from place to place, availability of infrastructural facilities for efficient handling of goods en-route and collection of payments.

The transport operators, world wide, have effectively used the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for dissemination of information regarding pick-up of the goods from start location, monitoring of the same en-route, delivery to the end customer and collection of payments. Along with speedy delivery and world-wide reach, the performance of these operators is judged on the value-added services including reporting the current location of the goods; say using Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and RF based Identification (RFID) in the supply management chain at any given time.

The Technology Drivers
The recent advances in technologies including Electronics (Advanced Sensors, RFID, FPGA, Nanotechnology and MEMS), Information (RDBMS, Multi-media, Internet and Intranet and Network security in enterprise-wide implementation), Communication (Radio, GSM, GPRS, CDMA, MSS, WAAS, Bluetooth and TETRA), and Geomatics (Remote Sensing, GIS, Cartography and GNSS) have contributed amply to improve the efficiency and safety of road transport.

GNSS encompassing GPS (by US, operational since mid-nineties), GLONASS (by Russia, currently getting rehabilitated) and GALILEO (by EU, to be operational by 2010), refers to a satellite based navigation system meant to simplify navigation and tracking in unknown areas and meet position location requirements. It uses satellites and ground tracking systems in conjunction with a user receiver to determine and communicate its position precisely in longitude, latitude and altitude at any moment. The user can define the optimal route (way points) by picking up his current position using GNSS receiver and inserting the destination location. He can redefine the route by suitably defining geo-fence (obstructions en-route, say water bodies, road blocks, mines etc.).

GPS comprises of a constellation of 24 satellites in six orbital planes, with a visibility of 8 satellites from any part of the earth at a given time. Similarly, GLONASS, once fully operational, will have 24 satellites in three orbital planes and GALILEO will have 30 satellites in three orbital planes. The quality of GNSS depends on the receiver having access to a number (preferably three, in a triangle) of satellites. It has been reported that adding GALILEO to GPS and GLONASS will enhance the coverage of this service from 55% to 95%.