(ESA) Here are seen at the award ceremony (from left) Emilia Müller (Bavarian Minister for Economics), Christine Edwards (Sci-Tech), Peter Hall (Sci-Tech), and Ann Sta (Head of Galileo Programmes at UK Department for Transport).
Person Overboard Idea Wins Two International Prizes
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JANUARY 21, 2009
ESA

Christine Edwards and Peter Hall of the British company, Sci-Tech, were awarded the Galileo Master prize in the European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC) 2008. Their winning idea is a novel tracking system for seamen falling overboard. It is made up of a navigation device installed onboard the ship and mobile modules that are worn by all crew members. The system constantly sends the position of the man overboard to the ship, which is thus shown relative to the ship. The ship can then be navigated to this position.
The position of ‘man overboard’ is updated constantly by receiving real-time data from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), in the first instance by the Global Positioning System (GPS) and the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS). In the future it can work with the European satellite navigation system Galileo which will provide greater accuracy.
Edwards and Hall were also awarded the special prize for the best application of EGNOS by the European GNSS Supervisory Authority GSA.
The POB system won two first prizes in this year's European Satellite Navigation Competition: the overall Galileo Master prize out of 300 submitted ideas, and the European Global Navigation Satellite System Supervisory Authority (GSA) special prize for being the best application taking advantage of using the improved localisation provided by the EGNOS overlay signal on GPS.
"The status of the system is that all the circuitry is known and we have tested all the concepts. We need some help from an antenna manufacturer and a chip manufacturer to make it small, and to bring down battery consumption. We are also looking for a funding partner for the next stage," says Christine Edwards. "We should be able to get our POB system to the market within 12 to 18 months."
The system is targeted at commercial fishing boats, merchant shipping, offshore exploration (oil rigs), passenger vessels, and the leisure yachting market.
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