Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
Golf fans watching televised coverage of the U.S. Open golf tournament will have a new outlook on what the professional golfer is facing, thanks to a camera and augmented-reality tracking system that includes a 1750 inertial measurement unit (IMU) from KVH Industries, Inc., of Middletown, Rhode Island.
NovAtel Inc. today (June 17, 2015) announced an agreement with NEC Corporation to supply reference receiver products for use in Japan’s Quazi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS).
The QZSS equipment will be based on NovAtel’s third-generation (G-III) family of reference receivers. Designed for integrity monitoring and reference measurement applications, the receivers track signals independently to provide precise code and carrier phase reference measurements as well as signal-quality measurements and other integrity monitoring metrics.
The United States’ top advisors on satellite navigation are split over the practical implications of identifying the GPS system as critical infrastructure.
At the heart of the issue is the additional protection such a designation could potentially afford the constellation particularly in the arenas of public and congressional opinion. That protection, however, could come with another layer of time-consuming and possibly constricting bureaucratic requirements.
By Inside GNSS
GPS contributed more than $68 billion to the U.S. economy in 2013, according to the preliminary results of a new study presented to the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Advisory Board.
And the study’s author, Irv Leveson, a consultant to ASCR Federal Research and Technology Solutions, LLC, described that figure as conservative because it did not fully incorporate a host of GPS applications including those depending on GPS timing information.
By Inside GNSS
Although media coverage of autonomous or self-driving vehicles has focused on their use by private car owners, an initial report on driver-assistive truck platooning (DATP) highlights the prospects for their use in the commercial freight sector.
Titled “Heavy Truck Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control — Evaluation, Testing, and Stakeholder Engagement for Near Term Deployment: Phase One Final Report,” the DATP project was funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Exploratory Advanced Research program.
By Inside GNSS
Dee Ann Divis, an Inside GNSS contributing editor who writes the magazine’s Washington View column, continues to garner journalistic awards.
On June 9 she received the Society of Professional Journalists D.C. Chapter’s award for 2015 “Washington Correspondent” for a series of articles on unmanned aerial systems (UAS) published in Inside GNSS last year.
Her 2015 award citation for the series entitled “Empty Skies” emphasized the “well-detailed and comprehensive handling of a complex subject. . . .”
By Dee Ann Divis
Belgian GNSS manufacturer Septentrio Satellite Navigation, of Leuven, Belgium, has announced the completion of the acquisition and integration of Altus Positioning Systems, based in Torrance, California.
Septentrio Satellite Navigation and Altus-PS started working together in 2007. The collaboration between the two companies has already resulted in a series of such surveying and GIS-focused products as the APS-NR2, APS-3, APS-U, and APS-GeoPod. The smart antenna form factors will form a separate product line in the Septentrio product portfolio.
OriginGPS has announced the launch of the Multi Micro Hornet, a patented, GPS/GLONASS antenna module targeting developers of “wearables” and other devices that require a small form factor, low power consumption, and high sensitivity.
The module measures 20x10x5.9 millimeters, has a signal tracking sensitivity of –165dBm, according to the company. It incorporates OriginGPS’s patented and proprietary Noise Free Zone (NFZ) technology designed to provide high sensitivity and noise immunity under marginal signal conditions.
By Inside GNSS
Septentrio has launched its AsteRx-m UAS, an OEM GNSS receiver specially designed for the unmanned aerial systems market.
According to the Leuven, Belgium–based company, the AsteRx-m UAS — Septentrio’s smallest receiver — provides real-time kinematic–level positioning accuracy with low power consumption, less than 600 milliwatts with GPS alone and less than 700 milliwatts with GLONASS.
When the nation’s top GPS advisors meet next month they will announce their new chairman — a former defense official, welcome four other new members, and begin with a freshly renewed charter.
By Inside GNSS
Work to integrate drones into the nation’s regular air traffic picked up speed over the last eight months as aviation regulators found new ways to permit unmanned flights while still keeping the skies safe for other aircraft.
In September 2014 the agency announced the first of what is now more than 450 waivers enabling commercial companies to begin for-profit operations in the United States.
By Inside GNSS
The federal Department of Transportation (DoT) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology has released the 2014 Federal Radionavigation Plan (FRP) signed by the U.S. secretaries of defense, transportation, and homeland security.
The FRP is published every two years and provides an overview of the current planning and policy for U.S. positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) systems.
