SOEs & Winter Olympics: BDS Supports High-Precision Navigation at 'Snow Ruyi'

China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC) is responsible for the continuous high-precision real-time positioning service outside and inside the National Ski Jumping Center, dubbed "Snow Ruyi", in Zhangjiakou, North China's Hebei Province, during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

The BeiDou micro base station is the first miniaturized, low-cost indoor high-precision positioning base station independently developed by China.

It is the first time the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System has been used in either an indoor or outdoor setting. With support of the BeiDou micro base station, fast 360-degree positioning is realized in all areas of the venue with features able to handle various indoor building structural environments.

It is also the first time in the world that continuous indoor-outdoor sub-meter positioning in stadiums on a large scale has been achieved.

Terminal of the BeiDou micro base station [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

The terminal of the BeiDou micro base station is a palm-sized white box that can be carried in a pocket. The wearable device is compatible with the indoor BeiDou micro-base station and the outdoor BeiDou satellite signals, making possible switching of seamless indoor and outdoor high-precision positioning.

The box can be used independently and with a smart phone through wireless means.

Users can use their phones to scan the QR code on the back of the box to connect to the terminal and share their real-time location information with other users through the location service software application.

At the same time, the real-time location information obtained by the user carrying the terminal can also be transmitted to the cloud location service platform in the remote server room through the 4G and 5G module of the terminal box, improving the analysis capacity of the BeiDou micro base station.

The large amount of real-time location information collected by the terminal box can provide three-dimensional full-scene indoor and outdoor personnel and vehicle posture monitoring, as well as command and dispatch services. It also makes indoor and outdoor map location display and real-time positioning data interaction possible.

Based on the high-precision BeiDou micro base station, the security and distribution robot is able to accurately complete autonomous navigation inspection and distribution tasks within "Snow Ruyi".

To meet requirements of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, the terminal box is designed to have low power consumption and can normally work in environments with temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius.

It's worth noting that the accurate positioning capability of the BeiDou micro base station is playing a key role in COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control.

According to CETC, the base station's system can provide accurate screening of targeting people, contact time, close contact level and distance threshold. It can also directly show images, close contact risks and first contact time of the targets and export detailed responses to close contact queries.

Industry insiders say that the project is of great significance to full-area positioning coverage of China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System and contributes to the nation's location information security.

(Executive editor: Niu Yilin)