Satellite Navigation supporting disabled people: the NADIA project

Roberto Muscinelli, Thales Alenia Space Italia S.p.A.. Francesca Neccia, Thales Alenia Space Italia S.p.A..

BIOGRAPHY Roberto Muscinelli is a telecommunications engineer. He has worked in Telespazio at the SAILOR project (5th FP) aimed at demonstrating the feasibility and viability of provisioning a services mix over an integrate T-S-UMTS network, and as consultant in small enterprises of the roman area deeply involved in the Space sector. He actually works in the “Navigation & Integrated Communications” Business Line of Thales Alenia Space Italia. He was technical responsible for TAS-I activities for the MONITOR Project (6th FP 2nd call) devoted to territory and infrastructure monitoring by means of GNSS systems. Till July 2009 he was project manager for the NADIA initiative for the development of Navigation Applications for impaired citizens. He is actually involved in product roadmaps development, bid management and program management activities. Francesca Neccia is a telecommunications engineer. She has worked in important projects such as COSMO/SkyMed (ground segment development) and as consultant in an enterprise involved in the ICT sector. She actually works in the “Navigation & Integrated Communications” Business Line of Thales Alenia Space Italia. She worked for the program management of the MONITOR Project, 6th Framework Programme 2nd call, devoted to territory and infrastructure monitoring by means of GNSS systems. She has been the Program Manager of the NADIA project for the development of Navigation Applications for impaired citizens. She is actually the program manager for projects devoted to GNSS infrastructure design and development. ABSTRACT The NADIA (NAvigation for DIsability Applications) Project responded to the call for proposal of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) concerning the “Satellite Navigation Applications for Disabled Citizens”. Thales Alenia Space Italia is the Prime Contractor and unique interface to ASI, leading a mixed team composed by Industries, University and User associations. The main objective of the Project was to provide the Target Users (blinds and disabled on wheelchair) with the possibility to experience end-to-end solutions and prototype products able to guarantee their mobility in secure and safe conditions. The developed architecture

is primarily based on satellite navigation technologies, opportunely hybridized with other technologies (RFID, INMS, MEMS, etc..) and supported by communications capabilities and strategies. As full citizens, people with disabilities have equal rights and are entitled to dignity, equal treatment, independent living and full participation in society: the possibility to move in autonomy allows the active inclusion in the society. There are two key aspects that affect the mobility of a person in a given environment: the locomotion ability and the capability to perceive different elements in the environment. Starting with the identification of the user needs and requirements, the project went through the specification of the system and the system demonstrator. A demonstration phase, carried out by the users, equipped with “ad hoc” hybrid terminals was the way to achieve different important goals. The navigation capabilities have been demonstrated both in outdoor and in indoor scenarios. All the current and future solutions are useful only if integrated with the different layers of the civil society as Public Administrations, users Associations, etc. because even if the technology development can provide very efficient, innovative and useful tools, only this integration will lead to an universal design for a real inclusion. INTRODUCTION During ordinary daily life, a great part of the world’s population may challenge various kind of difficulties impacting autonomy concerning mobility, as a result of functional limitations or to the physical and functional nature of the environment in which they live and work. The ability to move freely and independently means full access to relationships, professional activities, public services, training and study, and to opportunities for recreation and tourism, etc. With regard to these issues, users and designers believe that it is important to find new ways of improving the accessibility and safety during all the possible routes inside indoor and outdoor environments. Satellite Navigation has entered in day-to-day life thanks to the diffusion of mass market cars navigation systems. Nowadays, the technology is mature enough for the development of pedestrian navigation systems, that however, demand different requirements from guidance systems for car navigation. The development

of tools to aid mobility of impaired people is therefore a more challenging task. This is where the NADIA Project comes in. Funded and promoted by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and implemented by Thales Alenia Space Italia with the collaboration of a mixed team of companies, university and user associations, this project has shown how satellite navigation applications can support mobility of impaired citizens. In this paper we will describe the various stages in the development of the NADIA system, focussing on the efforts that have been made to ensure that the application answers the real needs of the end user and evaluating also the positive psychological impacts due to the improvements in autonomy, social integration and quality of life after, an investigation in a real urban environment. This paper describes the general process leading to the identification of the users requirements of a disabled citizen regarding mobility issues and how those requirements become technical requirements of a navigation system for a urban scenario. We will focus the attention on how those technical boundaries were interpreted for NADIA project development and how the NADIA platform concept will evolve in short-medium period. THE AUTONOMY OF DISABLED CITIZENS A clear acknowledgement of the needs of an impaired citizen indicates the level of integration within the society. As full citizens, people with disabilities have equal rights and are entitled to dignity, equal treatment, independent living and full participation in society. The Maslow’s Hierarchy (Maslow’s Pyramid in Fig.1), proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation”, can help us to identify and to summarize a possible classification of human being needs:

1. needs of sustenance: food, refuge, etc.. 2. needs of safety and security (even through

assistance): highlighted since the end of XIX century and it is topic of debating after the second world war.

3. love/belonging: friendship, family, etc.. 4. needs of emancipation: a modern topic that

reflects the need of inclusion within the society from an active and productive point of view (work, learning, mobility, etc.).

5. New needs (related to self actualisation) for being included as full citizens: creativity, sports, leisure, etc..

According to this classification, we focused in the NADIA project to the needs described in the list above at bullet 4 and 5 in which we can identify a common basis: autonomy expressed in terms of mobility. The possibility to move in autonomy, allows an active inclusion. The key elements affecting the mobility of a person in a given environment are the locomotion ability and the

capability to perceive different elements within the environment. Whether the locomotion ability is intended as the possibility to physically move, the perception ability impacts the real possibility to reach the desired destination, through the knowledge of reference points and obstacles along the path: people affected by specific pathologies or disabilities, with a reduced ability to move or to perceive the environment, suffer from low autonomy in mobility.

Fig. 1 - Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

For a better understanding we can make an example considering people on wheelchair and blind people: • For a person using wheelchair, the real possibility

to move is often subject to the presence of obstacles and barriers or to the difficulty to reliably identify a known accessible route.

• Regarding blind people the possibility to move through environments or routes that are not safe or not familiar can become also a risk.

Those citizens are forced to move almost only in limited environments, typically close to their home. Moreover, it should be taken into account that any technological solution devoted to the barriers reduction or in general to life improvement has to consider the social and emotional aspects that come out with a day by day use, since the adoption of a device built specifically for the disabled (i.e. special transport vehicles) can sometimes stir up the user refusal, as it highlights even more the “diversity” feeling. Everyday a person with disabilities has to control all the action that he is able to complete in autonomy, because, sometimes even a small act, for example going to a park or public area, hides insurmountable obstacles. The main task that the current technology has to face is to solve two kind of problems: • A problem in practice: “going out in autonomy” • A psychological problem, because the existence of

an obstacle and the failure in its overcoming gives strength to feelings of inadequacy of living within a society.

As system engineers we have to take into account that even a simple problem that the technology can overcome in a simple way is not so simple when the

technology itself has to be designed and interfaced with “humans”, the most complex systems in nature. THE NAVIGATION ISSUE IN URBAN ENVIRONMENT The users needs related to the mobility issues of and impaired citizen drive our mission requirements. Now we have to express those users needs in a technical form, trying to focus each issue from a “navigation problem” point of view. Generally speaking, our mission objective is to solve the problem of “a pedestrian navigation like” use case. The following Fig. 2 provides an high level understanding of the problem: � The y-axis represents the navigation requirements

complexity, expressed for example, in terms of accuracy and routing problem (the main issues but not the only);

� The x-axis represents the overall system complexity in terms of all the requirements (variables) to be considered to solve the problem of mobility (including, safety, security, reliability, liability, availability, etc.) considering the development of an end to end solution.

Fig. 2 – Navigation Complexity vs. Overall system

complexity The pedestrian navigation requirements expressed in terms of accuracy and complexity of the routing problem is, from a technical point of view, the most complex issue compared to wheelchair navigation or car navigation: while vehicles can only move along predefined paths, pedestrians navigation is characterised by very high degree of freedom within the environment. For example a square can be crossed in many ways, green areas can be passed without following a certain path, buildings can be entered and so on. Moreover a pedestrians often moves very close to the buildings and, in this way, the achievable accuracy is drastically reduced due to obstructions, canopy, multipath, etc.

From this point of view the impaired citizen mobility problem may seem in the middle respect to pedestrian and vehicle navigation because, for example, a user on wheelchair is bounded to move on a graph, more complex, but similar to the graph used for cars routing. This consideration is true but it is not totally correct, because we have to consider other variables. While moving within unfamiliar urban environments with the aim to reach a destination, a wheelchair user has to face many different difficulties in terms of physical obstacles, time constraints and psychological issues. Unfortunately, our towns and cities are often designed out of the “universal design” concept, and the modification of the infrastructures are often missing or impossible (e.g. historical buildings) to do. Moreover the indoor navigation capabilities are something studied and discussed but not available as mass market products. Finally, if we consider the availability of a seamless navigation device or service (indoor and outdoor capable), this is not actually available for impaired citizens. The objective of this paragraph is to list most of the issues to develop a seamless navigation system for an impaired citizen who needs to move within a urban context considering: • autonomy; • security and safety of the users themselves and

their familiars; • communications and services exploitation; • wide integration; • improvement and diffusion of “universal design”

concept. From a technical point of view we have to consider that: • The principles of GPS based car navigation can

not be directly converted to “pedestrian like navigation” system because we have different preconditions in term of routing problem or signal in space availability and quality;

• The visualization of required root has to be adapted to the users possibility to interact with the device: a user terminal for a blind person is different from the user terminal for a citizen on wheelchair;

• The navigation mixed indoors and outdoors areas is very challenging because inside this spaces no one of known location methods works in standalone mode. The only feasible solution is the combination (e.g. through Kalman filtering) of different sensors and technology such as:

o GNSS navigation (Galileo, GPS, GLONASS, EGNOS, and augmentation (Assisted GPS, DGPS, Pseudolites, EGNOS, etc..),

o Cellular phone, Ultra Wide Band (UWB) and WLAN using triangulation for absolute and relative positioning,

o Visual or optical tracking, o Short range RFID positioning (passage

from known points and additional

information retrieval) acting as passive beacons,

o Dead reckoning sensors (e.g. magnetic compass, gyros, accelerometers, digital step counters, etc..) for orientation and travelled distance measurements,

o Cartographic communication of ad hoc maps and user centric content delivery implementing LBS (Location Based Services) or LPS (Local Positioning Systems).

o … The following paragraph will exploit these consideration describing the NADIA project approach and demonstration. NADIA: THE NEED OF A PLATFORM BASED ON USERS The NADIA (NAvigation for DIsability Applications) Project responded to the call for proposal of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) concerning the “Satellite Navigation Applications for Disabled Citizens”. Thales Alenia Space Italia was the Prime Contractor and unique interface to ASI, leading a mixed team composed by Industries, University and Users Associations. The main objective of the Project was to provide the Target Users (blinds and disabled on wheelchair) with the possibility to experience end-to-end solutions and prototype products improving mobility in secure and safe conditions. The NADIA project was structured into 6 phases compliant to the ECSS standard:

� Phase 0: Scenario Analysis; � Phase A: Application & Critical Products; � Phase B: System Engineering; � Phase C: Demonstrator Design; � Phase D: Development, Integration and

Verification-Validation; � Phase E: Demonstration and Pre-Operative

Project.

Started with the identification of the user needs and requirements, the project went through the specification of the system and the system demonstrator. The NADIA project is based on those premises, where the user with his/her problems is the core: the idea of a platform gathering different information, technologies, experiences but, above all, creating a network among the different opportunities and the civil society sectors in a more “open” way. The main element for the NADIA platform success was surely the identification of the Target Users needs and their translation into system requirements (services, subsystems and prototypal elements) that constituted its demonstrator. So the users themselves, contributed to the identification of the possible scenarios acting not as simple commissioners, but as critical controllers during

every phase of the project, verifying the effective compliance to their needs. The users presence was guaranteed by the presence of two important Italian entity, involved in the thematic of disability:

� FISH (Federazione Italiana per il Superamento dell’Handicap) a federation of about 1500 users association with the objective to improve the everyday life of all the citizens with disabilities granting a real integration;

� AIAS Ausilioteca a public service providing consulting activities regarding technical aids for disabled persons. The centre's aim is to ensure autonomy and independence for persons with physical disabilities. Particular relevance is given to the areas communication and environmental control, as well as game control for children.

The presence of FISH and AIAS Ausilioteca granted the achievement of the project’s objectives, because only who has a daily contact with disabilities can convey real needs and suggest approaches, to develop a “users focused” solution. The NADIA solution presented as main element within the solution value chain, the supply of high accuracy, availability and continuity of information during all the user’s route. A typical user’s journey may interest different environments, each of them characterized by it’s own peculiarities and with different impact on the technological choices for the assurance of security, safety, service guarantee, quality and reliability:

� outdoor urban � rural � canopy environments and urban canyons � indoor (public or private sites)

Nowadays, the information on the accessibility of public places, are unfortunately:

� not updated, � fragmentary, � in a not standardized format, � not suitable for access with ICT devices or in

electronic format. NADIA architecture was derived to solve the above constraints. The platform was an implementation of an end-to-end solution representing a valid support to the disabled people activities, considering satellite navigation applications as the core of the system. The NADIA architecture (Fig. 3) was based on a Multi-Function Navigation and Communication Infrastructure that managed the functionalities strictly related to navigation, connecting Service Centres (each one realized on specific user, application requirements and specifications) and customised Users Terminals. This kind of architecture, based on a single Infrastructure and different specific Service Centres, increased the scalability and flexibility of the system because the common functionalities were associated to a unique logic layer and the specialized functionalities were associated to different entities, each one designed

“ad hoc” to satisfy the needs of the different users disabilities.

Fig. 3 – NADIA platform logical architecture

In the Fig. 3 the logical/functional blocks grant different functionalities in the service chain towards the disabled user. The functional block Signal In Space (SiS) identifies the space segment of the platform, i.e. the current satellite systems, used as the basis on which the applications have to be built. The functional block Multi-Function Navigation Infrastructure (INM - snapshots of the demonstrator are represented in Fig. 4) is the key element for all those functionalities strictly tied to the navigation, but not only. All the information and/or elements that can be a common resource for the involved actors merge within it. The Multi-Function Navigation Infrastructure aims also at using in a efficient and effective way, the data and the information sent to the different Service Centres, so improving the quality of service. Navigation functionalities able to strengthen the positioning information are:

• AGPS (Assisted GPS) Server on site, that allows to:

o Upgrade the connected receiver sensitivity,

o Reduce the “Time to First Fix”. The AGPS allows also to determine the user position in light-indoor environments.

• Through an EGNOS server connection, by different means (for example SISNeT), it is possible to include in the set of assistance data, transmitted to the user terminals, also the differential corrections WAD and also the EGNOS integrity information, obtaining the content of the so called “Enhanced A-GPS”.

• The Multi-Function Navigation Infrastructure is connected to the national geodetic networks to represent a link system with other sources of augmentation data, that will be validated and certified following standard procedures, or standard de-facto.

• Local Elements management of those specifically addressed to the satellite navigation, to the ones addressed to the navigation in general (including the indoor/seamless), to the ones supporting the mobility (information, maps, pre-calculated

itineraries, etc.) and over to the multi-service elements. A local element can generally satisfy specific needs of some user groups having more accuracy, integrity and availability. Those infrastructures are often accompanied by a communication network, fix or mobile, used as transport vehicle of augmentation information.

Fig. 4 – INM demonstrator: functional diagram and

snapshots

• The developed local elements can be divided into two typology:

o Local Elements for the satellite navigation based on the GNSS technologies usage (i.e. reference stations, pseudolites, etc.);

o Local Elements for navigation and mobility but not specific of the satellite navigation. All the technologies HW and SW strictly tied to the navigation and to the mobility also hybridized with the aim to guarantee a service more reliable, seamless also in indoor scenarios.

• Finally, the instruments for the management

and monitoring of the provided information: o Quality management and monitoring; o Accounting and billing management; o Service Centres Database

management; o Database for added value

Information; o GIS server and map Database.

All the information provided by the INM infrastructure are accessible trough the web service paradigm in order to improve flexibility. In particular different positioning augmentation information can be provided directly to authenticated users terminals through a unique interface:

o RTCM2.3 messages, o SISNeT Messages, o Text data, o Meteorological data, o Data from other geodetic networks (EUREF

trough NTRIP protocols).

Fig. 5 – INM web caster structure logic

The functional block Service Centre is responsible of the management of all the functionalities related to the specific service aspects for a user category. The service centre manages the data acquired from the Multi-Function Navigation Infrastructure, specializing them, taking into account the user typology and the service category. The service Centres is:

• tied to high specialized content providers; • provided with proprietary local elements able

to grant specific services as extension of the communication coverage, indoor/seamless navigation, etc.

Some of the functions implemented by Service Centres are:

o PreTrip: the possibility for the user to have a planned path without barriers or obstacles;

o Standard routing through safe paths; o Instant rerouting in case unannounced

obstacles; o POI management and users POI signaling; o Authentication for INM services; o Routing to a fixed destination (take me home

request); o Emergency call taking into account users

position; o Billing and users information management.

Functional Block User Terminal and sensors of different typology and addressed to three different service category, classified upon the interaction with service Centres or upon the terminals functionalities:

• Base service • Strengthened service • Interactive service

The user terminal can integrate some of all the existing technologies (GNSS receivers, DGPS and RTK receivers, interface GSM/GPRS/UMTS, Wi-Fi antenna and modules, etc.). Two kind of users terminal were developed:

o The user terminal for disabled on wheelchair (TUDM),

o The terminal for blind users (TUN). The functionalities developed for the two, different system terminals, match with the functionalities of the service centres, but in addition the terminals have their own specific “users focused” functionalities. For example, the terminal for people on wheelchair has a SW module that control the attitude of the wheelchair and the accelerations during the motion, in order to prevent accidents or to allow a faster intervention, once an automatic signalling with the position information is sent. Last but not least, the NADIA platform design included also research and development activities. Those activities aimed to identify useful innovations to be tested within the demonstrator:

o Development of algorithms for the enhancement of the integrity availability (Horizzontal Trust Level, HTL): the objective was to provide an additional “integrity like” information based on hybridization of GNSS signals with INS platforms;

o Seamless NavCom: to develop a seamless Navigation System hybridizing GNSS signals with low cost RFID technology;

o Navigation Information supporting security policies;

o Local Obstacle Detection: to develop a device to help blind people to detect obstacles along the path using ultrasound sensors;

o Man to Machine Interface: Development of high configurable gateway for the use of different sensors (disability adapted) by means of a unique interface.

The developed system was tested during a demonstration campaign directly with users in a real urban scenario. The main objective was the prototype on field testing, to gain technical experience about the performance of the overall system and equipment. The navigation capabilities were demonstrated both in outdoor and in indoor scenarios. Two real use cases were designed:

� a tour within a green area in Roma, presenting paths with different characteristics (open sky, canopy, multipath, etc..), for outdoor/urban environment tests (green area within EUR district, Roma);

� the navigation inside an indoor environment (considering seamless transitions from

outdoor to indoor) in order to arrive to a meeting room inside TASI premises.

This process was divided into different steps. The first step started with the AIT and AIV phase. After the integration of the demonstrator each subsystem was tested (INM, Local Elements, Service Centres and Users terminals) inside a controlled environment:

o A reference system including different scenarios (open sky, multipath, urban canyon) was prepared for the true path estimation;

o Different users terminals configuration (based and interactive) were prepared;

o The accuracy of the different positioning techniques were compared (DGPS, EGNOS, SISNeT RTK, etc..).

The tests were performed in order to validate the mix of navigation and hybridized technologies chosen to fulfil the users requirements. Moreover also the terminal system functions were stressed. The approach followed respect to the positioning accuracy o the navigation techniques was organised in the following steps:

1. Creation of a reference path through RTK acquisition (centimetric accuracy);

2. Transformation of the acquired positions from WGS84 to a local reference System (East North Up , ENU);

3. Verification and statistic elaboration of the accuracy of acquired data along the path (dynamic acquisitions) and on control points (static acquisitions).

The GNSS analyzed technologies were the following:

� Code Differential acquisitions � Phase Differential acquisitions � EGNOS acquisitions � SISNeT acquisitions

Within the demonstration area some paths with heterogeneous characteristics have been selected:

� Open sky; � Canyon and canopy; � Multipath.

Those paths were georeferenced through an RTK survey (centimetric accuracy using a Leica GRX1200 rover connected via NTRIP protocol with an EUREF reference station) and a set of different positioning techniques comparison in terms of accuracy will be performed:

� Standalone positioning vs. EGNOS positioning (using a low cost receiver and a professional receiver) vs. DGPS (code) positioning;

� Assisted GPS positioning for Time to First Fix (TTFF) assessment;

� EGNOS SIS vs. EGNOS SISNeT; � SISNeT from ESA server vs. SISNeT

redirected from INM CASTER;

� DGPS from a far reference station (TASI premises) vs. DGPS from a local element (INM local element connected to INM web CASTER).

Seamless navigation tests and HTL performance evaluations were performed in other testing areas (TASI premises and TASI urban surroundings).

Fig. 6 – Demonstration test area and path within EUR

district (Roma)

Fig. 7 – TASI urban surroundings scenario for AGPS

test

Fig. 8 – Seamless Navigation test environment

Some examples extracted from the data analysis report are illustrated in the following figures (From Fig.9 to Fig.14). The Fig. 9 represents a subset of control points and paths.

Fig. 9 – Control points and paths of interest

Fig. 10 – DGPS accuracy on measured baseline in

ENU reference system

Fig. 11 – DGPS accuracy on a control point

The different measurement chain were tested in parallel through the use of and antenna-splitter that divided the data streams in 2 or 4 different signals, comparing different HW Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) receivers (from low cost to professionals):

� EMTAC BTGPS (EGNOS enabled or standalone)

� u-blox AEKR � Septentrio Polarx2e configured as rover in

different modalities (EGOS enabled, SISNeT enabled, DGPS rover, RTK rover).

Fig. 12 – RTK loss of lock

Fig. 13 – SISNeT accuracy on known point through

different communication means

Fig. 14 – Estimated integrity level respect the real path

measured through RFID positioning techniques and IMU

The test on communication chains was be performed in terms of latency of transmission for the communication of the terminal systems with service Centres, INM (INM caster) and external information providers (AGPS servers, SISNeT data server) during the acquisition of:

� Maps GML files;

� RTCM 2.3 corrections; � Assistance data; � Users POI; � Emergency signalling.

The considerations resulting from the on field demonstration brought suggestion for the future project development. The verification and demonstration campaign demonstrated that the choice to select DGPS and EGNOS (and SISNeT) data processing strategy for the positioning of user system terminal suit best with the urban environment and the users requirements. Those technologies gave also better results once opportunely integrated with other technologies such as inertial measurement sensors or RFID for seamless navigation. Another success was to have feedbacks from Administrations, Public Entities and User Associations for the gathering of recommendation and indications. The users were the prime actors during the users validation phase: they used the terminals (Fig. 16) and the functionalities on their own and after a brief induction, showing satisfaction for the level of autonomy that the prototype provided.

Fig. 15 – A snapshot of the GUI of the terminal

Fig. 16 – A snapshot of users validation test performed in Roma (green area within EUR district) system for disabled on wheelchair NADIA FUTURE PERSPECTIVES The NADIA Project ended in July with the implementation of a demonstrator, that has been experimented and tested by the users in a real urban scenario. Users have actively participated to the project by supplying their needs and specifications and by remarking positively the initiative. To this day, ASI is considering the financing of a pre-operational project that, starting by the NADIA demonstrator, will allow to implement the engineered system and test services through extensive test campaigns involving both real and simulated users. Those campaigns will last some months and some areas of the city will be equipped and set up. In parallel, TAS-I is the Coordinator of a 7th Framework Programme project named INCLUSION. The project answers to the call “LBS Applications with Social/Public Dimension” and it will last 24 months. The main target of the INCLUSION project is to develop a solution for motor impaired people by delivering functionalities taking strong advantages by re-using and adapting existing developments already performed in past projects concerning disabled people and LBS. Another opportunity is represented by the ESA Integrated Application Promotion (IAP) initiative that

is aimed at promoting the development of integrated applications exploiting a synergistic use of space and non-space capabilities in order to deliver new services to citizens within four main thematic areas: safety, health, development and energy. Our wish is that these and other initiatives will extend the interest for this fundamental social thematic throughout Europe in order to be ready to launch on the market innovative solution for social welfare improvement. CONCLUSION The search of an optimum way to gather and present route information to different impaired (or not) users could be a never ending task depending on many heterogeneous aspects. Impaired users may have different capabilities, preferences, priority, etc.. Non technical constraints also impact on solution identification and development. In this paper we tried to provide an high level overview of the issue of autonomy and mobility within urban environment: we started from the identification of mission requirements, technical requirements and we tried to explain the approach we followed with the NADIA project, remarkable for us in term of future opportunities in the short and medium period. Besides technical approach, we tried to convey the concept that the NADIA project starts also from the emotional needs, and the user and his/her disability are never forgotten: this platform concept is based on different technologies, different experiences but, above all, it tries to create a network with the civil society sectors in an “open” approach. All the current and future solutions are useful only if integrated with the different layers of the civil society as Public Administrations, users Associations, etc. because, even if the technology development can provide very efficient, innovative and useful tools, only the integration with the civil society will lead to a universal design for a real inclusion. This concept can be highlighted by the following Fig. 17, that shows how a not impaired citizen (a mother with a baby carriage or a person with shopping bags) may face the same barriers of a disabled on wheelchair or a blind person, when moving in a urban scenario.

Fig. 17 – Accessibility requirement comparison (image from http://www.lacittaditutti.org)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors wish to thank the Italian Space Agency (ASI) for supporting research and development activities in this fundamental social thematic. The authors wish to thank all people from different enterprises, institutions and entities involved in the project: AIAS Ausilioteca (Bologna) EUROSOFT ITS Information Technology Services FISH (Federazione Italiana per il superamento dell’Handicap) SSI Space software Italia S.p.A. INNOVA Consorzio per l’informatica e la telematica Sistematica Soluzioni Informatiche Telespazio S.p.A. Università di Pisa Dipartimento Dell’Ingegneria dell’Informazione Elettronica, Informatica, Telecomunicazioni) A special thank to Danila Faiola e Valerio Serafini who supported us during the demonstration. REFERENCES Biader, U., Ceipidor, Medaglia, C.M., Rizzo, F., Serbanati, A. RadioVirgilio/Sesamonet: a RFID-based Navigation system for visually impaired. Bisnath, Dodd, Wells. Evaluation of recent developments in high-precision gps correction services. Bonci, A., Longhi, S., Monteriù, A., Vaccarini, M. Navigation system for a smart wheelchair. Journal of Zhejiang University SCIENCE. Cina. Le Reti nrtk alla luce del nuovo formato rtcm3. Cina, Manzino. Le stazioni permanenti GPS: caratteristiche e modalità di utilizzo.

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