China’s first subway BeiDou satellite navigation system starts construction in Beijing

Young students take a close look at a model of the BeiDou global navigation network on Tuesday in Nanjing, capital of East China’s Jiangsu Province. The space science popularization exhibition was officially opened to the public Tuesday. Photo: VCG

 
China’s first subway BeiDou satellite navigation system on Sunday started construction along the Beijing Capital International Airport line, which is the country’s largest indoor space navigation and positioning system. It is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

The subway BeiDou satellite navigation system, covering 30 kilometers of the Beijing Capital International Airport line and five stations, is a key project for the country to ensure safe and efficient transportation throughout mega-cities.

Experts noted that the construction of this system will play an important role in accelerating smart service and maintenance of urban rail transportation, improving commuter experience, as well as increasing operational efficiency while reducing management costs.

BeiDou satellite navigation system can provide positioning, navigation and time services, and is an important component of the country’s space infrastructure. However, in spaces such as underground, underwater and inside buildings, the satellite signals cannot be received due to occlusion, which is an area where navigation and positioning applications need to be expanded.

Lin Luzhou, Vice President of GNSS and LBS Association of China was quoted as saying in an interview with China Media Group that they use BeiDou system in outdoor spaces, while deploying indoor positioning base stations using 5G to achieve indoor positioning signals, thus users can achieve high-precision positioning via signals.

Experts have stated that the subway Beidou positioning system will improve the positioning accuracy of subway stations, which can be used not only for vehicle scheduling, passenger organization and emergency disposal, but also allow commuters to use cell phone maps to access navigation and positioning in subway stations through three-dimensional navigation.

Global Times