LOCATION-BASED SERVICES USING THE

GLOBAL NAVIGATION SATELLITE SYSTEM

Madhav N. Kulkarni*, Mahendra Kamath**

*Professor,**Research Scholar,
Geodesy & Remote Sensing Division,
Department of Civil Engineering, I.I.T. Bombay, Powai, Mumbai
kulkarni@iitb.ac.in

The eternal problem faced by the mankind: finding his or her own position precisely, has
been one of the greatest challenges, fuelling the developments in the surveying and
navigation technologies. In today’s complex world also, this problem is still an important
consideration in numerous human activities, including travel, traffic management, vehicle
navigation, aviation, mapping, etc. Many type of Location-Based Services (LBS) are in
operation today, using different techniques. The revolutionary space geodetic system: Global
Positioning System (GPS), and more recently, the Global Navigation Satellite System
(GNSS), have provided a powerful tool for LBS.

Location-Based Services (LBS)

Location-Based Services have become one of the essential infrastructures for the
development of any country. Vehicle Guidance Systems (VGS) and Intelligent Vehicle-
Highway Systems (IVHS), which are a part of these LBS, play a vital role in efficient
transfer of men and goods from origin to destination. They also ensure shortest travel paths
and, minimum delays and travel times. In the present scenario, Vehicle Guidance Systems
are effectively used for infinite purposes in various fields, departments and organizations.
The ‘Rail and Road Transportation Departments’ of various countries use these guidance
systems very efficiently for fleet management and public transport. In the modern scenario,
traffic problems are increasing rapidly. Especially in India, where the travel demand and the
travel density both are pretty high, the accumulating traffic creates a wide range of problems
like traffic congestions, traffic jams, delays in travel time, etc. Delay in travel time primarily
depends on various factors, including the internal factors and external factors. Internal factors
are those, which are governed by the user, like the maintenance of vehicle, mode of traveling,
routine travel speed, road chosen by the user, etc. External factors comprise of traffic jams,
traffic congestion, accidents, etc. These two kinds of factors are interdependent and cause
physical as well as mental effects on the user, which are harmful. Besides, if travel times are
decreased by some means, it will also help create a positive work-environment. There are
various ways of decreasing travel times like, by decreasing traffic congestion, by reducing
traffic jams, by reducing accidents, etc.

If a traveler is informed about the accident or traffic jam before getting stuck in the
cayos, the person will be able to choose alternative path by which one can reach the
destination in stipulated time. For this purpose, if one has a data base map, which shows all
possible paths between origin and destination, the accident position and the position of the
vehicle, then the user can easily judge the alternate paths to reach the destination swiftly and
peacefully. Besides the display of shortest path between the origin and destination, eases the
job. If any person is new to a place and doesn’t know the route to his destination, but knows
only the name of the destination, then a guidance system will come to rescue by showing all
possible paths and also the shortest path. The same guidance system can be used by Tourism
Department. With such type of guidance systems, tourists can be guided to their destinations
without manual help. This gives the tourists an effective and comfortable traveling
experience and also attracts many foreign tourists, thus developing the tourism, resulting in
inflow of foreign exchange and increase in financial revenues. It can be stated with sufficient
confidence that ‘A GPS-GIS integrated technique is most suitable to develop such a Vehicle
Guidance System.’

Global Positioning System (GPS)

The Global Positioning System is a constellation of 24 satellites, orbiting in six planes.

The satellites are placed at a height of about 20,200 km with 12 hours orbital period and
operated by the United States Department of Defense (DOD) for accurate determination of
position, velocity and time.

The GNSS constellation of GPS, GLONASS and GALILEO

The GPS signals are transmitted at two frequencies, designated L1 (1575.42 MHz) and
L2 (1227.6 MHz). The distance to a GPS satellite is estimated by measuring the time a radio
signal takes to reach us from the satellite. This is accomplished by cross-correlation of code
generated by the satellite and the GPS signal receiver. The distances from receiver to satellite
measured in this way are called code pseudo ranges. Minimum four satellites are required for
estimating the coordinates of a point on the Earth’s surface. While the use of the GPS is
extensive in defense, navigation and surveying applications, it is also being used in geo-
sciences, ionospheric & atmospheric studies, global climate changes, observing polar motion
& earth rotation rate, mapping the gravity field, detecting seismo-ionospheirc effects,
transport and communications, environment management, for accurate time and frequency,
etc.
 The Russian system: GLObal NAvigation Satellite System (GLONASS) and the
European system: GALILEO, added to the GPS, form the GNSS, which is the future of
satellite-based positioning systems.

Geographical Information System (GIS)

A Geographic Information System or more commonly referred to as a Geospatial

Information System, is a system for capturing, storing, analyzing and managing data and
associated attributes that are with a reference to the earth. In the strictest sense, it is a
computer system capable of integrating, storing, editing, analyzing, sharing, and displaying
information having a geographic characteristic. In a more generic sense, GIS is a tool that
allows users to create interactive queries (user created searches/FAQs), analyze the spatial
information, edit data, and present the results of all these operations. Geographic information
system technology can be used for scientific investigations, resource management, asset
management, Environmental Impact Assessment, Urban planning, cartography, criminology,
history, sales, marketing, and route planning. For example, a GIS might allow emergency
planners to easily calculate emergency response times in the event of a natural disaster, a GIS
may be used for efficiently planning and maneuvering traffic, a GIS might be used to find
wetlands that need protection from pollution, or a GIS can be used by a company to find new
potential customers similar to the ones they already have and project sales due to expanding
into that market.

A schematic Diagram of Location-Based Services using GNSS

Geographical Information System (GIS) has created a revolution in mapping procedures

as it can interact with the features and its attributes effectively. Various software like
ArcGIS, TransCAD, etc. are used in GIS. One can use the GIS functions to prepare,
visualize, analyze, and present ones work, and use the application modules to solve routing,
logistics, and other transportation problems with greater ease and efficiency than any other
product.

GNSS-GIS Integration

The GNSS-GIS integration brings the real world to the desktop for common man’s
utility. The time-consuming site visits and data analysis can now be performed in the
workplace itself. The power of GNSS-GIS integration is immense with numerous
applications in various areas such as agriculture, environmental, defense, natural resources,
health, business etc. Research and development work in Intelligent Vehicle Highway
Systems (IVHS) relies on the availability of various methods of locating and monitoring
vehicles in real time, across a road network. The GPS Team at IIT Bombay in engaged in
various research activities to study the usage of GNSS for IVHS. Various GNSS-GIS
integration studies pertaining to traffic and transportation are carried out and classified as:
1. Travel Time and Delay Studies using GPS/GNSS
2. Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL)
3. Dynamic Route Guidance (DRG)
4. Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS)

Real-Time LBS and GPS/GNSS

GPS/GNSS has the ability to collect and store large amounts of useful data. If these data
could be used in real time then we can have large number of applications in LBS. If data such
as percentage stopped time and speed of a probe vehicle circulating in a network could be
known in real time, then assessment can be made as to where congestion levels are highest.
This is feasible, given a good communication system. This information could be relayed to
the public as part of a traffic user information system, for instance providing drivers with
warnings to avoid areas where congestion-related delays are expected. Methods for IVHS
application include the use of advance warning signs and electronic billboards along the
highways to display this information, and radio stations devoted to providing the public with
details of current traffic situations. Public transport could also greatly benefit from GPS.
Commuters could be informed of the likely arrival time of the next buses and also notified of
any delays or deviation from schedules that may have been encountered. Research related to
such studies is being carried out by the GPS team at IITB.

Studies being carried out at IIT Bombay

The IIT Bombay GPS team is involved in carrying out various GPS-GIS integrated
studies for developing LBS. A typical experimental flowchart is shown below.
 Typical flowchart of an experimental study carried out at IIT Bombay

A Real-Time GPS-GIS integrated system was developed on experimental basis. The GIS
platform used was TransCAD, which is the first and probably only GIS software, designed
specifically for use by the transportation professionals to store, display, manage, and analyze
transportation data. This integrated system displays the position of the vehicle on the GIS
map, after getting data from GPS receiver, and can direct the vehicle to its destination. When
the traffic conditions ahead are known beforehand, this system will be able to display
alternative routes to reach the destination. Software can be further modified to find the
shortest path between given origin and destination among all possible alternatives routes.

In the experiment carried out on some of the important roads of Mumbai road network,
GPS was fitted to a probe vehicle and used to collect position, time and speed data of the
vehicle. Trimble Geo-Explorer 3 single frequency receivers, and TRIMBLE 4000SSI dual-
frequency receivers GPS receivers were used for this purpose. The data thus collected was
processed in real-time domain and accurate position of the vehicle shown on the GIS map on
the notebook PC kept inside the vehicle. This can aid in dynamic guidance of the vehicle.
Post-processing with the same data can be done for travel time and delay studies of different
routes.

Another study, as shown below, included the mapping of all the paths between Powai
area near IIT Bombay and Mumbai International Airport and thus finding out the shortest
path between them. All possible paths between Powai and Mumbai International Airport
were mapped using GPS to arrive at the shortest route between both the places, as shown
below. Even on a nationwide scale, given the data regarding all possible paths between any
two specific places, say Mumbai and Delhi, we can easily chart out shortest path between
them.
 All possible paths highlighting shortest path between Powai and Airport

Besides, a pilot experiment was conducted in Mumbai city, for testing Vehicle Guidance
System. Six regions in Mumbai city were chosen for studying: Powai, Andheri, Airport,
Mumbai Central, Chatrapathi Shivaji Terminus (CST) and Gateway of India. Each of the
places was considered as Origin and Destination. Using three hand-held GPS receivers on a
vehicle, the experiment was conducted by roving on the six places mentioned above and also
on some other prominent places in the Mumbai city. After the traverse was completed the
data was downloaded from the receivers and then integrated. Further, the interpolated co-
ordinates were fed to the Vehicle Guidance system. A line layer using the present data was
superimposed on the digitized map to get the map of the traversed area as shown below.

The path traversed by the vehicle in pilot experiment

 If user specifies an origin and destination all possible paths between the two points are
calculated and displayed as shown below. Also, if the user specifies same origin and
destination, then a message is displayed saying that the origin and destination specified are
same.

We can thus infer that given the present traffic scenario in India, there is an essential
demand for an efficient system to maneuver the vehicle flow to achieve swiftest and shortest
possible distance to any destination. The GPS-GIS science, although pretty young in India, is
the most efficient of the modes to achieve this target. With various research works regarding
this science being carried not only in IIT Bombay, but also in various other organizations in
India, we can be fully assured of a smooth ride even on the busiest of the days.

Acknowledgement

The research work at IIT Bombay described here is being carried out at the GPS
Research Group of Geodesy & Remote Sensing Division of the Department of Civil
Engineering, IIT Bombay. Many research scholars and students, including Mahendra
Kamath, Anand Hiroji, Parul Patel, Srikanth, Vijay Chowdhury, Sivaraman, and others have
carried out these studies under the guidance of the first author.