The Impact of Galileo on Pedestrians Navigation Systems Z. Hunaiti, A. Rahman, M. Denideni and W. Balachandran School of Engineering and Design Brunel University, Cleveland Road Uxbridge, UB8 3PH, UK ziad.hunaiti@brunel.ac.uk Abstract The impact of Galileo satellite navigation system on enhancing the availability and accuracy of pedestrian navigation systems in general and satellite based navigation of visually impaired pedestrians in particular has been discussed in this paper. The main improvement to the pedestrian navigation system will be through increasing the available visible satellite in the view of dual mode receiver (GPS/GALILEO). 1. Global Navigation Satellite System Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is a space-based radio positioning system. GNSS includes one or more satellite constellations operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in order to provide three- dimensional position, velocity and time information to the users’ equipment anywhere on the surface of Earth and sometimes off Earth surface. So far location services can be obtained from two satellite navigation systems; the Global Positioning System (GPS) (operated by the United States of America) [1] and the Global Orbiting Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) (operated by the Russian Federation) [2]. In three years time, a new system called GALILEO, funded by the EU will offer similar services [3]. Many new applications are frequently emerging in a wide variety of sectors as technology continues to evolve. 2. Global Positioning System (GPS) GPS is the primary satellite-based navigation system, which provides three dimensional absolute positioning, velocity, and time (PVT) information. GPS was designed by the Department of Defence (DoD) of the United States of America (USA). Historically GPS has been used for military purposes, but in recent years GPS has been used in many applications, including, car navigation systems, pedestrians tracking and navigation, civil aviation, and many other applications. One of the major applications is the pedestrian tracking system, where GPS data and GIS mapping work along each other to provide information about the mobile user while roaming from one place to another [4], [5]. 2.1. GPS System Segments The Global Positioning System consists of three segments; Space Segment, Control Segment and User Segment [6], as shown in figure 1. Figure 1: GPS Segments 2.1.1. Space Segment This system uses 24 operational satellites, which form the space segment as shown in figure 2-2; satellites are located in six orbital planes with four satellites in each plane. They operate in circular 20,200 km orbits above the earth surface, at an inclination angle of 55 degrees and orbiting the earth every 12 hours. This formation allows a global coverage of GPS service. In order to ensure the continuation of the service and keep up to date with the latest technologies, DoD regularly launches new Master Control Station Monitor Stations Control Segment User Segment Space Segment Proceedings of the 16th IEEE International Conference on Electronics, Communications and Computers (CONIELECOMP 2006) 0-7695-2505-9/06 $20.00 © 2006 IEEE