The Radio-navigation chair was founded in 1989. Education and research are focused on an optimal link between the position determination and navigation and the operational demands of potential users. Characteristically, the user groups on land, at see or in aviation increasingly utilize the same techniques. First, the navigation demands an efficient and safe plan to travel from the point of departure to the point of destination. For that, the navigation system uses a wide range of sensors that determine position, speed and heading of the vehicle. A single sensor is often not adequate to determine these parameters with sufficient accuracy and integrity. When integrating the information of these basic sensors, demands are made on accuracy, integrity, availability and continuity. These demands differ per user group. Land vehicles often operate in areas where radio links are problematic and low cost is vital. In maritime and aviation applications the emphasis is on performance while cost is less an issue. For different transportation modes, the performance of the radio-navigation system has different influences on economical, safety and environmental risks. This affects the design of these systems.

The radio-navigation sector covers navigation systems from the signals in space to the information in the human brain. The leading motive: to meet all requirements from users and operators within the regulators’ constraint. Navigation systems are becoming even more complex. More sources of data that can be used to aid in the position determination become available, along with ever increasing processing power to manipulate data and signals. In this complex environment, it is required to bring together expertise from many different fields, such as signal processing, software engineering, telecommunications, statistics and parameter estimation. The radio-navigation sector provides a framework for fruitful multidisciplinary collaboration between experts in these fields, in order to cope with the complexity of modern navigation systems.

The radio-navigation chair is responsible for a part of the Electrical Engineering Curriculum.