How will the navigation market develop in the nearest future? Will its reset happen? What solutions are coming as a replacement? These and many other important issues were discussed by leading experts at the 9th International Navigation Forum that took place in Moscow on April 22-23, and was collocated with the 7th International Exhibition “Navitech-2015” .

The 9th International Navigation Forum has been attended by around 1,400 delegates of 550 companies from countries of the Eurasian Economic Union, the European Union, BRICS, including such countries as: Austria, Belarus, Great Britain, Germany, India, Italy, Kazakhstan, China, Lithuania, the Netherlands, the United Arabic Emirates, the USA, Turkmenistan and France. Among the Forum’s registered attendees there were representatives of federal and regional government authorities of the Russian Federation, representatives of authorities of CIS countries, delegates of leading Russian and foreign navigation, information, automobile and other companies, working in the field navigation and related industries. The Forum and Exhibition are traditionally the central navigation event of the year in Russia and CIS countries.

At the beginning of the plenary session there was GLONASS/GNSS-Forum Navigation Awards Grand Award Ceremony. This year, for the eighth time, the people, who had made invaluable contribution into the development of navigation technologies, were awarded. In the nomination “For the Contribution into the Creation and Development of the GLONASS System” the awards went to: Gennady Lebedkin – Professor of the Academy of Security, Defense and Law Enforcement Issues; Georgy Poleshchuk – Deputy CEO of STK “Soyuz” Holding; Victor Persev – Head of the Department of Scientific & Technical and Information Support to KVINO Device Development, TsNIImash; Oksana Eltsova – made her big personal contribution into the preparation of the federal special-purpose program “Global Navigation System”; Segei Revnivykhе and Vladimir Klimov – are authors of the idea to create the first special-purpose program of creating the GLONASS global navigation satellite system, actively participated in preparing and implementing it. In the nomination “For the Introduction of Navigation Technologies”, for many-year honest work, great services in scientific activities and implementing projects on the introduction of navigation technologies with the use of GLONASS, the awards went to: Alexander Ganin– the First Deputy CEO of Russian Satellite Communications Company; Mikhail Lebedev – Advisor to the CEO of Almaz-Antei; Ivan Shepotko – Leading Consultant of NIS.

In the framework of the plenary session of the Navigation Forum, the Assistant to the Russian President Igor Levitin noted: «Over the past year the number of navigation devices exceeded 3.5 billion pieces, among them 60% use Russian GLONASS system signals. This is a clear evidence of the Russian project’s prestige, acknowledgement of the high technology level». Also Mr. Levitin emphasized that fulfilling different important tasks opens new stage of Russian and international navigation.

The Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation Maxim Sokolov noted that the navigation technologies had become a solid part of our day-by-day life. The GLONASS technologies are actively used in the state sphere, in the work of the entire transport system, of all its industries. The systems of control and monitoring, logistics, safety, intelligent transport systems, tachographic control work with the use of satellite navigation. And it is expected. According to specialists’ estimates, the potential economic effect, achieved out of the use of navigation technologies, can be over half percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

According to Maxim Sokolov the main event of the past year was the decision to put the ERA-GLONASS state system into commercial operation starting January 1, 2015. Russian, not for one step, but for many steps determined the creation and application of similar systems in Europe, and in America, and in China, and in other countries of the world. The creation of the ERA-GLONASS system is a full-scale project in the field of navigation activities, transport and in-vehicle safety enhancement, which, in the first place, focused on saving human lives.

The Deputy Head of the Federal Space Agency Mikhail Khailov told about the status and prospects of the GLONASS system. “Thanks to federal authorities and industry efforts we have reached the complete grouping (24 satellites used for intended purpose, ensuring the provision of the navigation signal to 100% of the Globe territory), achieved the accuracy equal to GPS one (2.8 m) and started summer tests of the new generation spacecraft “GLONASS-K” - Khailov stated. According to Mr. Khailov the Federal Space Agency’s further objectives are the support and development of the existing grouping, and in particular: the development of the orbit segment, development of the Earth-based segment, and the development of international cooperation for the purpose of promoting the GLONASS system.

“Over ten years our navigation forum has passed a long way: received the status of international one, became the central event of the navigation industry in CIS countries. Following the development of GLONASS navigation technologies the forum’s topics have changed as well. Today the main focus is on the effective use of opportunities of navigation, information and communication technologies for transport, different economy fields, for the interest of all categories of users,” – Alexander Gurko, President of the Non-Commercial Partnership “GLONASS” said. “Each year the Partnership serves as a strategic partner of the Forum and demonstrates key trends of the market at the exhibition “Navitech”. The most important navigation event of the past year in Russia is, undoubtedly, putting the ERA-GLONASS state system into operation, which is based on the application of GLONASS technologies. Next step is the use of ERA-GLONASS opportunities for the interest of Russian motorists, federal, agency and regional systems, businesses. This is what will become a main driver of the development of GLONASS technologies and the Russian navigation market.”

The volume of the world navigation market was 65 billion euros in 2014, by 2020 this number will almost double – up to 100 billion euros. At the moment the number of navigation devices in the world has already exceeded 3.5 billion devices, among which 2.5 billion are smartphones.

According to NP “GLONASS” analysts’ estimates, in next 3-5 years the main drivers of the global development of the navigation industry will become the capitalization through commercial services (information, safety, payment, insurance, technical support) of Connected Сar opportunities; the development of V2X technologies– V2V, V2I, V2P; the development of navigation technologies for vehicles (robomobiles, UAV ) and robots; technologies of the single navigation for consumers: satellite, inertial, indoor navigation; technologies of high-accuracy and guaranteed reliability navigation.

Over next years the additional drivers for GLONASS technologies, according to experts, will become the equipping of transport with driver’s work and rest control devices (tachographs), the creation of a system of compensation for damage to federal roads caused by heavy trucks (12 tons) and the export of GLONASS solutions to countries of the Eurasian Economic Union, SCO and BRICS.

Speaking of the development of the GLONASS system, it is necessary to note that the system of updating maps is also being improved. At the round-table “Safety and navigation: only together farther” Sergei Efimov, Director of the Scientific and Technical Complex, OJSC Center “Priroda”, gave his presentation on “Improving the system of providing GLONASS data to the state topographic monitoring for the interest of forming GIS – “Arctica”. He spoke about using a topographic base in updating maps and about new approach to timing updates of this or that terrain. Mr. Efimov noted that the topographic monitoring consisted of an overview monitoring (determining terrains needed to be updated via the remote sensing from satellites) and a detailed monitoring (detecting terrain changes). The monitoring process is completed with the creation of a prototype. GLONASS is used both at the stage of the detailed monitoring and at the stage of an additional ground observation, as well in the process of the remote sensing. It is extremely important that all information is stored in databases, and there is the opportunity to track changes during many years.

At the Forum Russian developers emphasized the tendency to combining, integrating different technologies in the framework of the creation of navigation and information systems.

According to the Director of Marketing at SpaceTeam® Svetlana Khadonova, the classic transport monitoring systems gradually fade into the background. «The customers are interested in complex solutions, which would allow fulfilling a wide range of tasks of a particular enterprise: This is transportation safety and information protection, and transport performance control in the real-time mode with the use of many different parameters, and work planning assistance, and performance efficiency enhancement, and saving money on parking lot maintenance, and many other things». Thus, for example, we develop a special, costume-made, explosion-proof device equipped with an executive units performance detector, including the diagnostics function, » - Svetlana Khadonova commented.

In the commercial market there are multi-profile navigation GLONASS/GPS devices, combining many functions useful for a consumer, appear. Soon the ERA-GLONASS protocol support, navigation with the traffic jam control function, video detection, tachograph, multimedia set, vehicle monitoring and diagnostics, alcolock, communication device, toll road controller can be technically combined into a multi-profile navigation device and provide the single telematics service to a consumer.

The development of navigation services for mass consumer needs can be clearly observed in the field of indoor navigation. At the round-table “ Indoor navigation: The consumers are waiting for simple and effective solutions” Florian Freitag, indoo.rs Project Manager, told about real cases developed by his company, this is the use of applications in trade centers, airports, offices and other buildings for the indoor navigation. Florian said that their projects were focused on a client and were able to meet many needs, such as analytics gathering, positioning, etc. The technology uses wi-fi, ip – radio signals in the combination with innovative sensors in smartphones, gyroscopes. Concluding his presentation, Florian pointed out spheres that are most interested in such apps: these are aviation and retail.

The indoor navigation is comparatively new product on the Russian market, and as of now the forum participants noted that the priority direction for Russia and Russian companies remains the in-vehicle navigation market, having the main impact (up to 80%) from using satellite navigation technologies .

Forum Organizer GLONASS/GNSS-Forum Association

Forum Operator ProfConferences Company

Exhibition Organizer Expocentre Fairgrounds

Supported by Federal Space Agency

Forum Strategic Partner NP “GLONASS”

Official Partner Russian Satellite Communications Company

Partners Oberthur Technologies, Telit, NTLab-Systems, Huawei

Forum Technology Partner SpaceTeam®

Sponsor of the Section “New Technology Platforms. Life in Cloud” HERE

Coffee-Break Sponsor Orimi Trade Group of Companies

General Internet Partner Gazeta.Ru

Strategic Media Partner Vestnik GLONASS Magazine

Strategic Internet Partner ComNews Publishing Group

Official Media Partner TelecomDaily Information and Analytics Agency

The Press Office of ProfConferences