Integration of Pressure Sensor and GPS Navigation System - NemeriX and Bosch Sensortec

NemeriX and Bosch Sensortec announced the successful integration of their technology to deliver a leading-edge multi-sensing GPS solution. The companies integrate the high-resolution Bosch Sensortec SMD500 pressure sensor with NemeriX's high-accuracy navigation solution.  The new pressure sensor and navigation system offers enhanced results for navigating urban stacked road systems, multi-level bridges and tunnels.

Frank Melzer, Bosch Sensortec GmbH, commented:

We are excited to see such an innovative application for our SMD500 air pressure sensor… This breakthrough solution developed by NemeriX is aligned with our strategy to provide innovative inertial and pressure sensing solutions for new applications, and also to improve existing solutions in the consumer electronics market. Based on our well-proven MEMS technology portfolio, we are continuously extending and refining our product line to serve the most demanding customers in the consumer markets…

The integration of pressure sensor and navigation system offers the ability to identify if a vehicle is traveling on the upper or lower levels in a multi-level or stacked road, and significantly enhancing turn-by-turn navigation in situations where traffic is traveling in the same direction on different levels of a road system, or where two-way traffic is accommodated.

By enabling fast and accurate determination of altitude, the new system facilitates timely notification of approaching exits on stacked roads, and early detection of wrong exits when two roads are separating in almost parallel directions, but with different slopes.

Even with high-performance GPS systems, typically the vertical accuracy that is achieved is significantly lower than the horizontal accuracy. This effect can be aggravated when the lower road is obstructed by the higher road, causing very high multipath that further degrades vertical accuracy. This new state-of-the-art solution enables the vertical performance to be significantly improved to the level where a typical road-to-road vertical distance of 10 meters or more can be unambiguously resolved. By combining high resolution barometric air pressure measurement data with non-biased, lower resolution GPS-derived altitude, the two companies have delivered a solution to the altitude conundrum within performance, cost, size and power consumption parameters that have not been seen before.

Lionel Garin, NemeriX, said:

This solution will allow users to accurately navigate over-lapping road systems for the first time. Our technology offers the flexibility to meet the needs of today’s GPS applications, while delivering the future of revolutionary multi-sensing capabilities for GPS navigation systems…

The SMD500 pressure sensor developed and manufactured by Bosch Sensortec provides a very high degree of resolution in air pressure measurement while at the same time featuring very small package size and ultra low power consumption, as required for mobile devices.

More info: NemeriX - Integration of Pressure Sensor and GPS Navigation System