The eighth International Navigation Forum, co-located with Navitech 2014, took place at Expocentre Fairgrounds in Moscow, Russia, on April 23-24, 2014. More than 1,500 people attended this year’s forum, representing more than 300 companies from 16 countries.
During the plenary session on the forum’s opening day, Sergei B. Ivanov, Chief of the Presidential Administration, delivered his welcome address to attendees. In his speech, he emphasised that Russia is now able to meet its own satellite navigation needs, pointing to the GLONASS system now being fully deployed with an orbital group of 28 satellites, 24 of which are in routine operation. GLONASS can receive signal everywhere on the planet, he said, adding that more satellites will be added to the group to replace existing ones as needed.
GLONASS is the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) operated by the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces.
Ivanov noted that the Earth-based measurement component of the GLONASS system abroad will eventually include 50 stations in 36 countries. This will make the system more competitive and guarantee more stable and precise operation. Only two such stations are currently in operation, one in Antarctica and the other in Brazil.
During his welcome address, Dmitry O. Rogozin, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Government, said that new on-board equipment, which will help improve GLONASS signal, has been already developed. He emphasised that the navigation data accuracy, compared to GPS, is on a high level. Developing its own navigation system, according to Rogozin, characterises Russia as a high-tech state.
Alexander O. Gurko, President of NP GLONASS, summarised results of last year’s event, which focused on the completion of the ERA-GLONASS system. ERA-GLONASS is the national system created by the Russian Government for emergency response to accidents (ERA), which uses the GLONASS system. ERA-GLONASS infrastructure is deployed in all subjects of the Russian Federation. NP GLONASS is currently working to introduce the ERA-GLONASS system by January 1, 2015, by which time it would be put into commercial operation.
The plenary session was closed by the Association of GLONASS/GNSS-Forum’s Annual Award Ceremony for the contribution to the creation and development of the GLONASS System. The awards went to Vladimir E. Druzhinin, Russian Institute of Radio Navigation and Time, Victor I. Kozlov, Reshetnyev Information Satellite Systems, Pavel G. Kiryan, Izhevsk Radio Plant, and Pavel O. Kruglov, Russian Space Systems.
Following the plenary session were roundtables related to the development of the navigation and information services market. These included navigation technologies for unmanned vehicles, indoor navigation, navigation, and cartography and navigation and advertising.
Add Comment