AVIS Project Update: Second pilot on the Danube complted! Discover results here!
Second AVIS pilot sucessfully completed!
From Seville to the Lower Danube: AVIS continues its operational validation journey
5/28/20262 min read
The AVIS project has reached another important milestone with the successful completion of its second pilot, carried out on the Lower Danube.
Building on the first pilot conducted at the Port of Seville on the Guadalquivir River, this campaign allowed the AVIS prototype to be tested in a different inland waterway environment, bringing new insights into the use of European space data for navigation support.
The pilot provided encouraging results while also highlighting some of the operational challenges that can arise in more complex river environments, including bridge crossings, narrow river sections and areas with limited connectivity.
Pilot scope
The pilot evaluated the AVIS system in real navigation conditions, combining satellite-based positioning, integrity monitoring, authentication services and Copernicus-based river monitoring tools.
The objective was to assess how these services can support inland waterway navigation and planning, while also testing their performance in a river environment that differs from the Guadalquivir pilot area.
Key observations
The pilot produced promising results across the tested components:
GNSS positioning results were encouraging and showed strong potential to support inland waterway operations
Satellite navigation services remained available throughout the pilot, with very high availability of authentication services during general navigation
Integrity information was available for most of the trip, supporting the monitoring of positioning reliability during navigation
Bridge crossings were found to temporarily affect system performance, mainly by limiting satellite visibility, but the equipment generally recovered quickly once the bridge had been passed
No spoofing was detected during the campaign, even when navigating towards areas where such events are known to occur
The pilot provided useful indications of possible signal interference, showing the value of testing the system in real operational environments
Copernicus-based alerts were successfully generated, although fewer alerts were observed than during the Guadalquivir pilot
The lower number of Copernicus alerts was consistent with the characteristics of the pilot area, including channelled river sections where river width changes are physically limited
The pilot confirmed the potential of Copernicus data to support planning activities by helping vessels and authorities identify areas where river conditions may require attention
Some limitations were also observed in narrower river sections, where riverbank interference can affect the accuracy of river edge detection
Limited 4G/5G connectivity in certain areas also affected the availability of Copernicus data overlays on the onboard system
Further validation in operational environments
With this second pilot, AVIS continues to progress from concept and simulation towards operational validation across different inland waterway environments.
The Lower Danube campaign confirmed the potential of European space technologies to support safer and more informed navigation, while also providing valuable lessons on the conditions that can influence system performance in practice.
Further analysis will be consolidated in the project report, and additional insights will follow as the project continues to validate AVIS capabilities in different operational contexts.
