Localisation systems for GNSS-denied environments

Transport for New South Wales (TfNSW), in collaboration with iMOVE and the University of Sydney, is conducting a trial to evaluate Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (C-ITS) for providing location services in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-denied tunnel environments.

The project will assess the accuracy and reliability of C-ITS-based solutions, including Cohda V2X-Locate, by comparing them against the current ground truth localisation system in the Sydney Harbour Tunnel.

Findings will inform recommendations for implementing C-ITS based location services across the transport tunnel network to enhance safety and efficiency

Participants

• Transport for NSW
• University of Sydney

Project background

With the delivery of the Western Harbour Tunnel and M6 Stage 1 Tunnel, TfNSW will be responsible for more than 50 km of tunnels in Sydney and this trend will likely continue in the coming decade.

The tunnel environment presents unique challenges for road users and emergency services organisations due to the lack of location services within the tunnel environment, as well as an inability to deliver context sensitive incident information.

TfNSW is committed to enhancing transportation safety and efficiency. Having a cost-effective location services solution can help deliver wayfinding services and contextually sensitive information to assist road users during normal operation as well as tunnel closure and incident scenarios. One area of focus is localisation in tunnel environments, where traditional GNSS fail due to signal occlusion.

Reliable global localisation within tunnels is essential for various applications, including connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs), real-time traffic management, and incident response. Evaluation of localisation technologies’ performance is needed to enable deployment in these challenging environments. Such an assessment will promote confidence in their operation before large-scale implementation.

An independent evaluation, separate from the manufacturer, is required to validate these technologies’ accuracy, reliability, and scalability under real-world conditions.

This project involves undertaking a trial to assess the potential of C-ITS to provide location services within GNSS-denied tunnel environments. It explores whether a C-ITS-based architecture can deliver the required localisation accuracy and reliability for practical deployment.

It aims to compare the performance of fully operational, manufacturer-tested proprietary localisation solutions—such as Cohda V2X-Locate—against the localisation benchmarks to determine their viability and characteristics in addressing these challenges.

The outcomes of this trial will provide insights into the feasibility of using C-ITS for tunnel localisation and inform recommendations on deploying such technologies across the transport network.

Project objectives

1. Undertake a trial to assess the potential of C-ITS to provide location services within GNSS-denied tunnel environments.
2. Develop a hardware system that records sensory data for the ground truth solution and has V2X communication equipment to obtain positional signals from the C-ITS solution.
3. Develop a methodology for testing the localisation performance under different scenarios.

Please note …

This page will be a living record of this project. As it matures, hits milestones, etc., we’ll continue to add information, links, images, interviews and more. Watch this space!