Introduction

The e-GPS (Enhanced Global Positioning System) Research Center was established on March 15, 2005 at Ching-Yun University. At the same time, the Land Survey Bureau (LSB), Ministry of the Interior, R.O.C. signs the cooperative agreement with the e-GPS Research Center for collecting, calculating and studying the GPS data from the base GPS stations set up by LSB on north Taiwan. The primary missions of the e-GPS Research Center are in the research and teaching of GPS related sciences and technique, and also in development of new applications. The center strives to advance into a world-class GPS research facility that encompasses basic technical developments, widespread educational promotions, and relevant applications in various fields.

Goals

The GPS technology and the data computation processing have been improved to near real-time and precise positioning mode, like the Real-Time Kinametic (RTK) technique. But the error from satellite system, atmosphere, receiver clock..et. al., make the effective range of centimeter precision in several kilometers only between the base and rover stations. For expanding the effective range and decreasing the density of base stations, LSB will have set up a national regional e-GPS base stations network by 2006. In order to obtain high precision position result and provide multi-goals positioning service with plus value application, the system will be involved regional position error interpolating mode and Virtual Base Station (VBS) technique. The center is responsible for the VBS maintain and data management in north Taiwan. In addition, the precise coordinates of the VBS and moving receiver in the field have to be computed by the center.

Faculty

Currently, there are 9 members in the center, which includes: a director, who is chaired by one of the professor; an associate director, who is one of the associate professor; an executive secretary, who is one of the assistant professor; 9 guidance counselors that all the professors from universities in Taiwan.

Director

C. S. Chen, Ph. D.

Professor

e-mail: ccs@cyu.edu.tw

Associate Director

J. T. Lee, Ph. D.

Associate Professor

e-mail: jtlee@cyu.edu.tw

Executive Secretary

T. K. Yeh, Ph. D.

Assistant Professor

e-mail: bigsteel@cyu.edu.tw

Research Activities

The chief mission of the center is in the developing and strengthening of Taiwan’s e-GPS technology and main task of the center is to collect, to calculate and to study the GPS data from the base GPS stations set up by LSB on north Taiwan. The base GPS stations’ data from Changhua, Hualien County to keeling City will transmit to the e-GPS Research Center continuously day after night. Using these data, the mission of the e-GPS research center is to calculate the regional correction model and to produce VBS. The VBS system is made up of the latest in GPS hardware, modeling and networking software, plus communications interfacing. Once set up, RTK roving receivers in the field have access to real-time network modeled corrections. In the field, you also have the reassurance of the built-in integrity monitoring system that warns if there are any problems with the data. The correction data produced by VBS can be offered to any rover in the north Taiwan for accurate real time positioning and navigation. By high-speed, wide-band internet network data transmission technology, the correcting data produced from the VBS can be offered to users in many aspects such as positioning and navigation. So, the center will aim for efficient data management, precise and fast positioning, new computing method.

Laboratory Facilities

1.      Hardware

Geoscanner (3D Laser Scanner)

GS200 (3D Laser Scanner)

Trimble 5700 (GPS receiver)

2.      Software

RapidForm 3D

Microstation V8

InRoad

MicroStation GEOGraphics – GIS

VRS(Virtual Reference Station) – RTKnet