June 30, 2016

CNES and Geoflex sign cooperation agreement on satellite precise point positioning

At the Toulouse Space Show, CNES signed an agreement with Geoflex regarding a commercial service designed to augment satellite precise point positioning in real time to centimetre level, all over the globe.

Tuesday 28 June at the Toulouse Space Show, Lionel Suchet, CNES’s Director of Innovation, Applications and Science, and Romain Legros, Chairman of Geoflex, signed a cooperation agreement to spin off software developed by CNES that employs satellite precise point positioning (PPP) technology. Under the agreement, CNES is granting Geoflex a licence to use its patented technologies in this field with a view to offering a global commercial operational service. This partnership ties in with the agency’s strategy of spinning of its research and development results.

The Geoflex team were able to draw on more than 10 years’ experience in GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) precise positioning when they founded their start-up to pursue this project. Through this cooperation agreement with CNES, Geoflex is set to benefit from significant opportunities worldwide in real-time precise positioning, navigation and timing, serving a broad customer base employing applications such as topographic mapping, construction and civil engineering, agriculture, shipping, rail, driverless vehicles and unmanned aerial systems.

After the signing of the agreement, Lionel Suchet commented: “Today’s space technologies will drive revolutionary changes in usage in the future. Through their commitment to developing a global GNSS precise positioning service, CNES and Geoflex are showing that France has a key role to play in innovating and in growing our future economy. The people at this start-up are looking to shake up the status quo, so it was natural that CNES should support them.”

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Contacts
Pascale Bresson Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 75 39 pascale.bresson@cnes.fr
Julien Watelet Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 78 37 julien.watelet@cnes.fr