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BDS in Mass Consumption

The BDS is a key space infrastructure that supports the economic and social development of China. After BDS-3 was put into service, advancing the BDS industrial supporting capability and expanding and popularizing BDS applications have become a key task for China to promote the development of the BDS industry and guarantee its national security. In recent years, BDS has witnessed a great number of achievements in the field of consumer application as related applications have been widely and profoundly expanded in a continued manner. For this phenomenon, the series report of BDS in Mass Consumption will probe into the new trends, opportunities and challenges faced by the development of BDS in mass consumption in the perspective of the development of different industries, with a focus on aspects such as intelligent terminals, vehicle terminals, and smart agriculture.

1. BDS aids high-precision positioning of intelligent terminals

In recent years, the application of BDS has witnessed full-scale breakthroughs in mass consumption represented by smartphones and smart wearables, as evidenced by the receipt of BDS ground-based enhanced information by smartphones and the adoption of BDS-compatible chips in some brands of wearables.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China issued the Opinions on the Promotion and Application of BDS in Mass Consumption this January, in which it is proposed to enrich BDS location services provided by smart terminals, carry out the pilot demonstration program of smartphone high-precision positioning, and create positioning application scenarios at sub-meter level, etc. The Fourteenth Five-Year Plan period comes as a critical phase for the promotion and application of BDS, as well as a key stage for application expansion, ecosystem cultivation, and integration advancement, during which BDS will face new trends, opportunities and challenges especially in its development in mass consumption.

BDS-3 is able to provide satellite-based augmentation (SBAS), ground-based augmentation (GAS), and precise point positioning (PPP) services for China and its neighboring regions. The measured accuracy of BDS in horizontal and elevation positioning is within five meters. With the ground-based augmentation system (GBAS) composed of 2,600 ground-based augmentation stations across China, the BDS is capable of providing augmented positioning services with accuracy in meters, decimeters, and centimeters.

As the build-up of BDS has been sped up, comprehensive breakthroughs have been achieved in relevant key technologies, and the application of BDS navigation and positioning has also entered the life of ordinary people, alongside increased number of manufactured products such as dual-frequency BDS high-precision smartphones and smart wearables. Smart products like mobile phones and wearables are able to provide high-precision navigation and positioning services with the help of BDS, and can achieve higher precision if integrated with satellite positioning. In addition to meeting the daily needs for location-based services, such products can also play an important role in precise positioning under certain special scenarios where emergency alarms and strayed children and the elderly are involved.

2. BDS aids the speed-up in the autonomous driving industry

In recent years, BDS has witnessed a great number of achievements in the field of consumer application as related applications have been widely and profoundly expanded in a continued manner. The positioning and guidance of the navigation system are indispensable for the realization of automatic driving.

In the Opinions on the Promotion and Application of BDS in Mass Consumption issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China, it is proposed to promote and apply the BDS high-precision positioning technology on the Internet of Vehicles in combination with the BDS GBAS and high-precision maps. In the realization of advanced autopilot applications of intelligent connected vehicles (ICVs), the positioning accuracy should be escalated to the centimeter level; on the other hand, real-time and stable service capabilities must be guaranteed in terms of reliability. If ICVs are only able to support a certain single positioning system, bottlenecks will appear in the research and development of advanced autopilot applications. Support to the integrated positioning solution provided by BDS will help improve the accuracy and reliability of navigation and positioning services. In combination with positioning technologies such as real-time dynamic differential and ultra-high-precision inertial measurement units, BDS can also help improve the effectiveness of autonomous driving in complex traffic environments, for instance under overpasses and in tunnels and underground garages, and unfavorable weather like rainy, snowy, and foggy days. Autonomous driving, automatic parking, high-precision positioning at centimeter level, and other functions were achieved in L4-level pilotless automobiles with combined technology of BDS and 5G communications at the Beijing Winter Olympics.

In addition to navigation, the precise timing capability of BDS has become a key element for guaranteed multi-sensor time synchronization of the autopilot system. Specifically, there is a clock in each sensor, and initial alignment in time must be achieved among individual sensors. Moreover, the timing system inside the sensor will have errors to a certain extent after it has been used for some time. If any time deviation occurs, there will be deviation in the position of the obstacle to be detected and perceived. Consequently, the path planned under decision-making planning will not match the path in reality, thus resulting in collision with the obstacle. Thanks to the high-precision atomic clock in BDS, its time system is extremely stable and can be used to send time correction references to various sensors on the vehicle.

In addition to passenger vehicles, BDS has been applied to such limited and closed scenarios as parks and mines on a large scale. At present, the application of BDS on special vehicles has become more and more popular, as evidenced by its application in logistics trucks and mining trucks. In the future, with the continuous iteration and development of technology, autonomous driving will enter the life of ordinary people to play a greater role in reduction of costs and boost of efficiency for both society and various industries.

High-precision positioning is indispensable for accurate location perception of vehicle-mounted terminals. Inaccurate positioning is common in complex scenarios where satellite signals cannot be received or are unstable, for instance under overpasses and shades of trees and in tunnels and urban canyons. However, positioning services at centimeter level can be achieved by establishing a “BDS + 5G” high-precision positioning network, so as to further forge and enrich 5G ecosystem applications.

In the Opinions on the Promotion and Application of BDS in Mass Consumption issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China, it is proposed to explore the one-button emergency rescue mode that is featured by vehicle BDS positioning + short message + 4G/5G. This mode not only conforms to the trend of integrated development of various industries, but is also in line with the goal of developing technology for its application in real life and subsequent improvement of the quality of life. The positioning function of BDS is able to improve positioning accuracy. Thanks to its short message function, it can transmit and receive information, without the support of communication networks, in the wild and other special places where it is unfriendly to communications. Moreover, with faster 4G/5G transmission, it is able to guarantee favorable timeliness. Therefore, vehicle BDS positioning + short message + 4G/5G can help realize real-time and accurate vehicle positioning. Applied in an appropriate manner, this mode can help achieve accurate and efficient search in emergency rescue and reduce losses.

3. BDS aids intensive cultivation in smart agriculture

In recent years, BDS has been widely applied in intelligent agricultural systems and systems of automatic agricultural machinery. In the process of agricultural production, “alignment” stands out as the biggest problem faced by unmanned or autopilot agricultural tools. Subsequent steps of planned operations can be implemented under favorable conditions only when relevant coordinates are arranged with accuracy.

The Office of Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China, and the National Rural Revitalization Administration jointly issued the Key Elements in the Development of Digital Villages in 2022 on April 20, in which it is proposed to push forward the application of BDS smart terminals in agricultural production.

A series of emerging technologies, for instance BDS unmanned driving, high-precision positioning and navigation, and system supervision have contributed to extra reduction of manpower and material and financial resources in agricultural production processes such as ridging and sowing, soil deep scarification, crop harvesting, and straw incorporation. Compared with traditional agricultural machinery, a single BDS autopilot tractor, which relies on intelligent technology for guaranteed quality of operation and improved operational efficiency, is 30% higher than a manned tractor in terms of averaged daily quantity of work. With accurately linked borders of soil strips after operation, the lines for sowing are so straight and regular that the sowing precision can be reached to 2.5 cm. In the meanwhile, it can also substantially lower labor intensity and realize easy and convenient operation at the same time.

BDS has also given rise to a number of new business forms in the field of agriculture in addition to autopilot agricultural machinery and park monitoring. With the help of BDS terminals, it is also possible to improve the logistics and distribution system for agricultural products, especially for fresh agricultural products, and realize real-time perception of the conditions of agricultural products. The customers’ needs for quality and logistics traceability of agricultural products can be met by popularizing the application of the “vehicle/ship-mounted BDS + environmental sensor + background monitoring and management” system and collecting, transmitting, and reporting the data on temperature, humidity, vibration, smoke, and time and times of opening and closing the door during the transportation. In addition, the data of logistics companies can be backed up synchronously to improve their operational efficiency.

The increasingly precise positioning capability of BDS will definitely have an impact on the development of the next-generation Internet of Things. The development of the Internet of Things calls for the storage, exchange, and communication of massive data, which can be realized on the strength of 5G communication technology. On top of that, BDS is able to provide positioning services with higher precision. As the application of BDS is expanded nonstop in the future, location-based services will become more and more convenient and efficient.