Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
A Russian software company, Navigation Expert, has announced its newly upgraded Nav Sensor Recorder v3.2, a free application for Android that enables users to read and save measurements of smartphone sensors.
By Inside GNSS
A software-driven navigation engine makes consistent, reliable navigation possible in tunnels, garages and urban canyons.
In difficult GNSS signal environments for driving—and here urban canyons, tunnels and parking structures are the standouts—GNSS performance may be severely degraded or completely denied. Inertial aiding has become the standard for ground vehicle navigation. Requirements for autonomous navigation in these circumstances will be rigorous, but those for map-matching, telematics and fleet vehicle tracking are much less so.
By Inside GNSS
Forward-deployed U.S. military personnel will soon benefit from warfighter localization sensor units that provide tracking information in GPS-denied environments in a bootstrap mode. The Army Product Manager Sets, Kits Outfits and Tools awarded a $16.5 million contract to Robotic Research of Clarksburg, Maryland for WarLoc units to equip four deployed U.S. Army Brigade Combat Teams in various locations. The first batch of systems has already been shipped, and should enable soldiers on foot to keep track of each other in terrain where GPS systems are less effective.
WarLoc provides localization and positioning data for teams of warfighters or first responders in signal-denied environments such as underground facilities and inside buildings and mega-cities, according to the company. The small sensor mounts on footwear. Multiple systems work together to further enhance accuracy and maintain the localization of teams.
[Heel-mounted warfighter localization sensor units, also known as WarLoc. Photo: Robotic Research.]
The tracking system augments its GPS receiver with an inertial measurement unit. The device connects with a smartphone through Bluetooth. Robotic Research fields two form factors of the WaLoc, one mounted over the top of the boot and another that wraps around the heel. Users view data readouts through an Android-based Tactical Assault Kit. The algorithms are reportedly robust to communications failures and dropouts, and the distributed nature works well in challenging communication environments.
By Inside GNSS
In early December, Qualcomm made its annual announcement of a new chip for phones and wearables in the coming year. Qualcomm’s flagship system-on-chip will power a range of devices launching in 2020, with lots of new and exciting (to smartphone addicts) capabilities; just not much — make that nothing — new in satellite-based navigation derivatives.
By Inside GNSS
Hours before an impending government shutdown, the President signed both the defense appropriations and authorization bills on Friday, December 20. The bills funded nearly all of the Air Force’s GPS program but made substantial cuts in Army GPS receiver development.
By Dee Ann Divis
By Inside GNSSIn lead position on a sleigh rising from the North Pole to a height of 200 meters — standard cruising altitude for global package delivery — at 2100 hours UTC on December 24 — the youngest will hopefully be asleep by then and there’s plenty of territory to cover before dawn breaks, time’s a-wasting — navigator Rudolph will see between 40 and 45 GNSS satellites glistening in the night sky.
Reducing the number of GPS receivers installed or carried while tapping multiple PNT sources.
Prototyping and beta testing are techniques closely associated with Silicon Valley, the innovation engine admired around the world and, in particular, inside the Pentagon. Simply introducing a new idea has been known to take years in these halls; witness the long introductory saga of GPS itself in the 1970s.
By Dee Ann Divis
There’s still time, barely, to sign up for this week’s webinar. Learn 3 key concepts for autonomous automotivery: lane level, antenna phase center offset and phase center variation.
By Inside GNSS
The previously-troubled program to build a new GPS ground control system has stayed on track for the last two and a half years and is moving along as planned, said Lt. Gen. John ‘JT’ Thompson, commander of the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC).
By Dee Ann Divis
The antenna may qualify as the most overlooked element in high-precision positioning in automotive applications, which increasingly these days denote potentially autonomous applications. Yet it all starts there.
By Inside GNSS
Someone has updated 19th century American slang to resonate in the 21st century’s international commerce and shipping scene. A mysterious new electronic weapon has surfaced in China, spoofing GPS signals in a way that experts have never seen before.
By Inside GNSS
In a letter made public late Friday, the point person for all federal agency use of frequencies told commercial spectrum regulators his agency could not support approval of Ligado Networks’ request to use satellite frequencies for a terrestrial wireless network.
By Dee Ann Divis
Calling all automotive engineers — and anyone involved in designing or promulgating the fast-oncoming world of autonomous driving.
For driverless vehicles, current GNSS meter-level positioning accuracy still serves for lane-level detection. But hazardous misleading information poses a serious, disruptive and critical safety concern.
By Inside GNSS