The growing threat of spoofing and jamming remains a chief concern, with many talks at the symposium focused on how these threats impact highly automated transportation systems (HAVs) and the importance of developing and adopting CPNT technologies.
GPS interference isn’t a new threat, but until recently, it’s mainly been academic and military concerns. Now, it’s becoming a civilian concern as well, with aviation impacted more every day.
There’s a new sense of urgency to combat these threats, with groups like the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)’s Center for Automated Vehicle Research with Multimodal AssurEd Navigation (CARMEN+) leading the charge to develop and adopt complementary PNT (CPNT) technologies to strengthen and augment GNSS.
CARMEN+, led by Ohio State University (OSU) and Director Zak Kassas, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at OSU, is focused on addressing the PNT and cybersecurity challenges highly automated transportation systems (HAVs) face. Along with OSU, the consortium is made up of the University of California, Irvine; University of Texas at Austin; and North Carolina A&T. Experts in cybersecurity, PNT, automotive and transportation are studying the risks to HAVs, offering solutions and making recommendations for future standards and guidelines for cyber resilient PNT solutions.
CARMEN+ University Transportation Center (UTC) held its annual symposium on October 23 and 24—kicking off the event on International GNSS Day—to showcase how CARMEN+ is addressing the critical need for CPNT and cyber resiliency. Attendees gathered at the Blackwell Inn and Pfahl Conference Center on OSU’s campus to hear from various keynote speakers, take in lively panel discussions and view student poster presentations. There was also a cake to celebrate ION’s GNSS day, tours of facilities including the ElectroScience Laboratory, the Center for Automotive Research (CAR), the Transportation Research Center (TRC) SmartCenter and the OSU Aerospace Research Center. Attendees were also treated to dinner and a tour at the OSU Buckeye’s football stadium, “The Shoe.”
CARMEN+’s Impact
Kassas kicked off the symposium with an overview of CARMEN+ and the growing threat of spoofing and jamming. He highlighted the first incident of GPS spoofing impacting civilian aircraft, which happened in September 2023, and how the threat has continued to grow since. He also talked about recent work OSU has completed in collaboration with the Air Force, where researchers demonstrated how terrestrial signals can be used for navigation, particularly cellular. An article about that work, “Protecting the Skies: GNSS-Less Aircraft Navigation with Cellular Signals of Opportunity,” was featured in a recent issue of Inside GNSS.
Kassas also gave an overview of CARMEN+ and its four main thrusts: identifying existing and emerging cybersecurity threats; analyzing threats and cybersecurity risks; developing cyber resilient mitigation methods; and testing and validating solutions in real-world cyber compromised environments.
During his talk, Kassas announced CARMEN+ was recently awarded funding for a demonstrator.
“The aircraft will be a living lab,” Kassas said, “to demonstrate CARMEN+ research for how to navigate without GPS.”
Balasubramaniam Shanker, chair of electrical computer and engineering at OSU, followed Kassas with an overview of the ElectroScience Lab and the work done there, with CAR Director Giorgio Rizzoni also providing a program overview and update.
The Future of Transportation
Karen Van Dyke, director, Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) and Spectrum Management in the DOT’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology (OST-R), provided an update on what the agency is doing to advance CPNT technologies. She talked more about the growing spoofing and jamming threat, setting the stage for why the work CARMEN+ is doing is so important.
PNT is at the heart of the future of transportation, she said, and imperative to reaching goals like net zero fatalities. Today, there are about 40,000 vehicle deaths a year in the U.S.
DOT is putting together a strategic PNT plan that should be published by the end of the year, Van Dyke told the group, with goals that include building resiliency, addressing PNT cybersecurity and ensuring spectrum availability and protection for PNT.
DOT embraces the Protect, Toughen and Augment (PTA) principles developed by the National Space-Based PNT Advisory Board, but also recognizes it needs to go a step further. Developing CPNT technologies doesn’t do much good if they’re not put into use, making adoption a critical factor.
Van Dyke also discussed the U.S. Government’s Executive Order 13905 on Strengthening National Resilience Through Responsible Use of PNT Services, the CPNT Request for Information (RFI) and Request for Quote (RFQ), and the contract awards given to nine vendors to further develop and test CPNT technologies.
“The Executive Order,” she said, “challenged us to be able to withstand any disruption, denial or manipulation to any GNSS service.”
Van Dyke stressed the importance of live sky spoofing and jamming tests and said she’s excited to have the CARMEN+ demonstrator airplane available for future testing as well.
DOT released a CPNT action plan last year based on feedback from a roundtable where stakeholders discussed the barriers to adopting CPNT. The plan addresses those barriers and promotes widespread adoption of CPNT technologies, focusing on five areas: developing safety-critical PNT standards for transportation services; developing a PNT vulnerability and performance testing framework on demonstrated and suitable complementary technologies; conducting vulnerability performance assessments; developing PNT performance monitoring capabilities to ensure PNT services provide operational resilience and achieve safety critical standards; and establishing a Federal PNT Services Clearinghouse.
The RFI and RFQ came after that action plan was released, with vendors awarded contracts from the Volpe Center to test their technology at three different test ranges—federal, critical infrastructure and commercial—as part of the plan’s Rapid Phase. In the next phase, additional vendors will be awarded contracts, Van Dyke said.
Through a partnership with the Department of Defense, DOT is working to create a GNSS Operational Awareness Tool (GOAT) that will determine where interference is occurring in real time. Users will still be asked to report outages, but with the tool, the government will be able to confirm there’s an interference issue in that area or that something else may be causing the disruption.
“The Dallas [airport spoofing incident] really sparked a fire at the U.S. Department of Transportation,” Van Dyke said. “We’ve made good progress in the last two years, but there’s more work to be done.”
Harold “Stormy” Martin III gave a U.S. Space-based PNT Policy update, going over the age and capabilities of in-orbit GPS satellites, Space Policy Directive 7 and what that entails, the executive order and the U.S. Government’s National Standards Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technology, which includes PNT.
Improving Intersection Safety
Chris Atkinson, the DOT’s deputy director for technology, Advanced Research Projects Agency—Infrastructure (ARPA-I), gave an overview of the Intersection Safety Challenge and how combining sensors, including navigation sensors, could help reduce accidents at intersections. Perception, vision, AI and machine learning are among the technologies being explored to protect vulnerable users. Currently, about 27% of roadway fatalities happen at or near intersections, he said.
“We’re deploying low cost sensors, cameras, radars, LiDAR and infrared, to develop a system that can predict the paths of all actors,” Atkinson said, “and then send an alert if there’s a potential conflict.”
The program is now in stage 1B, data collection. If at least one system emerges as viable (which Atkinson expects will happen) there will be a stage 2 for field testing, with the goal of deploying a solution in five years. The 15 project teams selected to compete tested emerging technologies at the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center (TFHRC) as part of stage 1B. The highly instrumented intersection offers a realistic, safe environment for testing various scenarios and collecting a large amount of data.
Safety is the No. 1 priority, Atkinson said, and these emerging technologies add another layer of protection that can be used alongside other safety initiatives, such as improving lane layouts and sight lines.
Engaging Panel Discussions
The symposium continued in the afternoon with two panel discussions: one on PNT and cybersecurity and another focused on automotive and transportation. For both panels, CARMEN+ PIs gave two-minute lightning updates on their areas of focus, and then opened it up to the audience for questions. The format led to lively discussions about safety, promising CPNT technology, AI and other topics.
After the sessions, the group enjoyed cake in honor of ION’s GNSS Day before taking in student poster presentations and then tours of the ElectroScience Lab and CAR facilities. Attendees had the opportunity to talk with researchers about the facilities and the projects they’re working on, as well as learn more about successful CAR student-led projects and how they’ve fared at competitions over the years (the answer is very well).
Day one ended with attendees enjoying time taking pictures on the field at The Shoe. The symposium concluded the next day after tours of the TRC Smart Center and the OSU Aerospace Research Center.
Get Involved
Groups like CARMEN+ are helping to advance the solutions needed to protect GNSS. The research they do has become even more critical as GPS interference events continue to rise and impact civilian applications. To learn more about the group or how you can get involved, visit utc.engineering.osu.edu.
