B: Applications

November 20, 2014

New Technology Could Enable UAVs to Fly Vertically

Imagine an unmanned multi-copter that doesn’t just fly horizontally, but that has the capability to fly vertically as well.

This UAV would have the ability to transition from the horizontal orientation most rotor drones fly in, and rotate its body to a vertical orientation, offering access to tight and irregular spaces conventional drones just can’t reach—a capability that could drastically improve search and rescue efforts in collapsed buildings.

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By Inside GNSS

Using Unmanned Systems to Fight Wildfires

Large wildfires can create their own weather and a dynamic, uncertain environment, and that is one of the reasons they’re so dangerous, says Manish Kumar, an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Toledo.

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By Inside GNSS
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November 17, 2014

Europe Prepares Its Part of GNSS-Enhanced Search & Rescue Service

The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced completion of tests that indicate the readiness of the European component of a modernized, GNSS satellite–aided search and rescue service known as Cospas-Sarsat.

ESA has completed construction and testing of a trio of located on three islands at the far corners of the continent, ready to pick up distress calls via satellite from across Europe and its surrounding waters.

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By Inside GNSS

Reliable GPS-Based Timing for Power Systems

Efficient power transmission and distribution would benefit from synchronized near–real-time measurements of voltage and current phasors at widely dispersed locations in an electric power grid. Such measurements also could enable effective real-time system monitoring and control, which are considered to be the key to preventing wide-scale cascading outages like the 2003 Northeast Blackout.

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By Inside GNSS
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Multi-GNSS Precise Positioning

The availability of carrier phase tracking — counting the cycles of GNSS signals between satellites and a receiver — has long enabled high-precision users to achieve greater accuracy than using the navigation messages or pseudoranges. Improvements in high-end receivers and techniques such as real-time kinematic (RTK) and precise point positioning (PPP) have made once inconceivably accurate results almost routinely accessible.

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By Inside GNSS
November 14, 2014

First GPS III Launch Slips to FY17

The launch of the first GPS III satellite could slip to as late as March 2017, further delaying a modernization program that already has been pushed back repeatedly by budget cuts and technical problems.

“The first GPS III launch is tentatively considered for the first half of FY17, based on booster availability and Air Force launch priorities,” a spokesman for the Space and Missile Systems Center told Inside GNSS.

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By Inside GNSS
October 8, 2014

OxTS Offers Lightweight INS OEM Board

Oxford Technical Solutions Ltd. (OxTS) has announced its first inertial navigation OEM board set with integrated GNSS — the xOEM500, which the company is promoting at this week’s (October 7–9, 2014) Intergeo trade show in Berlin, Germany.

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By Inside GNSS
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