FUBE

Project duration: 09/2022 – 08/2026

Current positioning systems such as GPS, GLONASS and GALILEO rely on the sensors being continuously ready to receive signals. GPS receivers generally have high energy requirements in order to continuously receive data with a high degree of accuracy. This conflicts with the requirements of certain applications, such as wildlife monitoring. In these fields of application, sensors that are as lightweight as possible are required, which in turn necessitates the use of small batteries.

The collaboration between Professor Krondorf’s and Professor Derbel’s research groups therefore aims to develop an energy-efficient, satellite-based positioning system. The first step is to enable the detection of radio signals from space using a ‘wake-up’ receiver. Particular challenges here include the required reception sensitivity of the receiver, which is dictated by the great transmission distance between the sensor and the satellite. Furthermore, energy efficiency and miniaturisation must be maintained.

In the second stage, a specialised signal processing chain will enable the sensor’s position to be determined. By precisely detecting frequency shifts caused by the Doppler effect, it should be possible to determine the position using the signal from a single satellite. The challenges here are the limited positioning accuracy of Doppler-based methods and the sometimes enormous computational complexity in the space segment.

BMBF/VDI