The objective of GLAD Phase 1 is the study of the commercial feasibility of a low-cost attitude determination and navigation system based on non-dedicated mass market GNSS receivers and antennas aided by MEMS sensors. The fusion of GNSS and inertial data takes advantage of the complementarity of these two technologies to achieve accurate and reliable navigation: inertial sensors provide excellent dynamic response at very high data rates, while GNSS serves as an absolute reference to prevent the drift inherent to the numerical integration of acceleration to calculate velocity and position. In addition, differential GNSS carrier-phase measurements can be used to obtain extremely accurate orientation by using a multi-antenna configuration. This novel navigation system brings the advantages of multi-antenna GNSS systems to applications where these would not be usable otherwise by proposing a cost-effective implementation with competitive performance, size and power, relying on non-dedicated receivers and compensated inexpensive sensors. The technical feasibility of this approach has already been successfully proven with the fabrication and test of a complete low-cost hardware prototype in a previous R&D project funded by the FP7 programme. The accuracy of the navigation solution using novel algorithms was demonstrated integrating data recorded with this hardware platform, while the computational complexity of a real-time implementation of said algorithms was shown to be suitable for the targeted embedded microcontroller. A preliminary study of its commercial feasibility was already drafted within this project as well; the objective of this proposal is now to perform a proper commercial feasibility analysis and business plan to guide the path from the prototype demonstrator to mass production of a fully-capable navigation system making use of GPS, Galileo and EGNOS.

GLAD-2 is aimed at the industrialisation of an innovative product (GNSS low cost and highly accurate attitude determination system, reinforced magnetic immunity) and its commercialisation plan. The innovative and technologically advanced prototype (TRL6), outcome of an FP7 project, (with proven feasibility through SME-INST-1 project) will be transformed into a TRL9 profitable product. It avails an identified business opportunity derived from the UAS/RPAS expansion and lack of high precision and low cost positioning solutions. This will be done in parallel to the regulation harmonisation in Europe, thus fostering this niche market, mainly in the civilian professional sector, for precision accuracy and/or magnetic interference sensitive applications. ACORDE expects to reach the 5% European market share, offering this product to autopilot/sensor developers, UAS integrators and UAS manufacturers, what will imply a cumulative turnover of 8.5M€ and cumulative profit of 1.6M€ in the 2016-2022 period, generating 5 FTE positions in the company. Since the company strategy is based on high technology engineering connected to radiofrequency and satellites, creating robust, reliable and high performance products, it is clear that the goal pursued in GLAD-2 is absolutely aligned with the corporate strategy, complementing the high-tech offering, consolidating the UAS supplier capabilities, and exploiting an experienced R&D line within the company. Therefore, this opportunity represents a key milestone in the strategic implementation plan: not only will promote the GNSS/Galileo products market activity, but also will open new niche markets for the company, thus increasing the probabilities of synergies, cross sales and incremental selling, creating a virtuous circle with the rest of the company technologies and products, not to mention the employment creation and the diversification of incomes, leading to a robustness and competitiveness improvement of the SME.