In September 2020, Route Masters, based at the European Space Agency BIC UK in Harwell in Oxfordshire, has signed up to the national SPRINT business support programme to develop an innovative transport management solution for African cities.
Funding from SPRINT will enable Route Masters to collaborate with the University of Leicester on building a full suite of technology tools and algorithmic data models. This will help the company to achieve its aim of becoming the largest integrated public transport platform for emerging African megacities.
Route Masters is developing an algorithm based on single-band Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning within cities. The solution will deliver transport flow models superimposed on satellite-based city maps. The technology utilises applied mathematics to build digital route maps that will accurately deliver journey times and modes for city planning tools and mobile navigation applications for consumers.
This data fusion project will combine dual-band GNSS with single-band GNSS and satellite-derived city maps. The solution will be leveraged to deliver planning and control intelligence services and consumer services and, after University of Leicester validation, it will be tested and deployed as an active prototype in Lagos, Nigeria.
The University of Leicester will provide Route Masters with expertise in algorithms and software development for data-driven space projects as well as high-performance computational (HPC) facilities.
The project will be funded by a grant from the £4.8 million SPRINT (SPace Research and Innovation Network for Technology) programme that provides unprecedented access to university space expertise and facilities. SPRINT helps businesses through the commercial exploitation of space data and technologies.