China's first Beidou positioning system for subways begin construction in Beijing

(ECNS) -- China's first Beidou positioning system for subways began construction on the Beijing Subway Capital Airport Express line Sunday.

The largest indoor space navigation and positioning system in China is expected to be finished within this year.

This project will cover a 30-kilometer-long section of the Beijing Subway Capital Airport Express and five stations on this line.

The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), an essential space infrastructure of China, will provide services that include positioning, navigation and timing.

However, in some spaces where satellite signals are blocked and cannot be used, such as underground, underwater or in buildings, positioning and navigation need further improvement.

"We will combine indoor and outdoor positioning in subways, that is, Beidou and its augmented reality technology will be used outdoors to achieve high-accuracy positioning, and indoor positioning technology integrated with 5G will be used to allow users to receive indoor positioning signals," said Lin Luzhou, vice president of GNSS and LBS Association of China.

The system will improve the positioning accuracy in subways to less than two meters, making it available for vehicle dispatching, passenger transport organization, and emergency response.

In addition, it allows passengers to use their phones to navigate and position in complex environments in subway stations through three-dimensional navigation.