UK-based developer of GNSS-enhancing software Focal Point Positioning has announced Precise+, a technology that it says delivers reliable high-precision positioning in tough environments where conventional carrier phase tracking fails.
Centimeter-level positioning depends on continuous carrier phase lock. When that lock is interrupted – a routine occurrence in dense cities, under tree cover and in multipath-heavy environments – receivers suffer cycle slips and force the system to reinitialize. For advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), automated driving and robotics, these interruptions are the defining barrier to deployment at scale.
According to the company, Precise+ uses Focal Point’s Supercorrelation for precise global navigation satellite system (GNSS) positioning, improving performance in challenging environments: sub-meter performance in conditions where commercial receivers with live corrections deliver multimeter errors. It directly targets the cycle slips that cause real-time kinematic (RTK) and precise point positioning (PPP) systems to lose lock in challenging environments.
The Precise+ software-defined receiver was put to the test at Thetford Forest, a standard reference environment for GNSS performance under dense foliage. During testing, positioning error reportedly stayed below 80cm across 99% of measurements in the most challenging conditions on the route. In the same conditions, state-of-the-art receivers produced errors exceeding 3m.
The Precise+ results reflect receiver-level performance only, without the use of inertial sensors, dead reckoning or sensor fusion. The comparison was conducted directly against competing GNSS solutions under the same conditions, meaning any additional technologies applied by integrators, such as sensor fusion, RTK or PPP corrections, would be separate from these results.
“RTK and PPP deliver centimeter accuracy in open sky but degrade sharply where signals are disrupted by tree cover, buildings or multipath,” explained Scott Pomerantz, the CEO of Focal Point Positioning. “This limits deployment to a narrow slice of the road network, not the environments people actually drive in.”
Pomerantz continued, “Meanwhile, correction services carry high recurring per-vehicle costs yet cannot fix what happens at the receiver when the signal environment degrades. This means OEMs pay for precise positioning that doesn’t function where it matters most.”
Precise+ is targeted at automotive applications, including ADAS, automated driving and V2X.
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