Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
Working Papers explore the technical and scientific themes that underpin GNSS programs and applications. This regular column is coordinated by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Günter Hein, head of Europe’s Galileo Operations and Evolution.
Next-generation car navigation may well require the ability to identify the lane in which a vehicle is operating on a motorway. This could support advanced driver assistance in general as well as the observation and study of driver behavior and traffic flow. Such road vehicle applications call for sub-meter positioning accuracy, often in real-time — all this preferably at low-cost.
By Inside GNSS
Mike Rowe, host of the Discovery Channel series Dirty Jobs, gets behind the wheel with MVSC’s HUD system at the Makers Faire in San Mateo, California. MVSC CEO Chris Grabowski sits in the passenger seat; CTO Tom Zamojdo is in straw hat. Photo by Valerie Hall.A San Francisco Bay Area company — Making Virtual Solid–California (MVSC), which snared a trio of awards in a global GNSS competition for its novel approach to driver assistance, is still in early phases of development.
The origins of the company, however, go back more than 40 years to the Cold War era when its principals, Chris Grabowski and Tom Zamojdo, were studying physics and theoretical mathematics at the University of Warsaw, Poland.
But more about that later — first, the news.
By Inside GNSS
Although a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report on the risks posed by GPS disruptions has yet to be released, the analysis has inspired a proposal to create receivers capable of self-diagnosing spoofing attempts.
“The receiver is the first line of defense,” Logan Scott, president of LS Consulting, told members of the National Space-based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Advisory Board this week.
By Inside GNSS
IFEN GmbH has begun shipping its new NavX-NCS Essential, a multi‐constellation and single‐frequency GNSS RF navigation constellation simulator mainly targeting consumer and automotive applications.
The new simulator was developed in cooperation with WORK Microwave GmbH, of Holzkirchen, Germany, a long-time partner of Poing, Germany– based IFEN.
By Inside GNSS
NovAtel GPStation-6NovAtel Inc. has introduced its GPStation-6 GNSS Ionospheric Scintillation and TEC Monitor (GISTM) receiver designed for ionospheric monitoring and space weather applications.
By Inside GNSS
A United States Army specialist explains GPS system to a Croation soldier in their mine-resistant, hardened vehicle, Afghanistan (2011 Photo: Brian Henriksen, US Army)[Update November 9 2011] In an ex parte filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on November 8, a leading GPS advocacy group has asked that the agency “promptly rule” that LightSquared not be permitted to pursue high-powered terrestrial operations in the upper Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) band adjacent to the GPS L1 band.
By Inside GNSS
The Wedge, a surfer’s dream at Newport Beach/Corona Del Mar. The annual Institute of Navigation International Technical Meeting will take place January 30 through February 1 2012 in Newport Beach, California at the Marriott Hotel and Spa.
By Inside GNSS
MVS-California, the 2011 USA Challenge winner, grabs the top prize at European Satellite Navigation Competition (pictured: ESNC organizers Thorsten Rudolph and Ulrike Daniels with Bavarian state minister Martin Zeil and winners Tom Zamojdo and Juliana Carnes Clegg. (The two women on the right are unidentified.)
MVS-California, LLC, winner of the USA Challenge, took the top global prize in this year’s European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC) with the company’s True3D Head Up Display & Navigation System.
The company’s innovation is an augmented reality navigational display engine designed to provide non-distracting, translucent location guidance to untrained operators of any type of vehicle.
Galileo IOV satellites attached to their launch dispenser and encapsulated beneath the fairing of their Soyuz ST-B launcher Credit: ESA – P. CarrilLaunch of two Galileo in-orbit validation (IOV) satellites next week will bring Europe’s long-awaited (and much-delayed) GNSS program into a new phase.
Liftoff from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, is scheduled for Thursday, October 20, at 11:34 GMT (7:34 a.m. local time). Progress in the operations and news updates can be viewed online at the European Space Agency website.
By Inside GNSS
[Updated October 3] All five of the world’s major satellite navigation systems are poised to offer new capability — if the money comes through — program representatives told attendees at the recent Institute of Navigation’s GNSS 2011 conference in Portland.
The satellite navigation systems in China, Japan, and the United States have each recently had new satellites added, while those in Russia and Europe are poised for new launches. Budgets are in flux for most systems, however, so it remains to be seen how the systems will advance over the next year.
By Inside GNSS
Following a difficult 2009, the precision GNSS market is moving into a new period of sustained growth, resulting in a near doubling of shipments and revenues by 2016, according to recently completed study by ABI Research.
By Inside GNSS
The following was first of five finalists in the 2011 USA Challenge. The North American regional contest in the European Satellite Navigation Competition(ESNC) is part of a global search for the newest, best and most innovative GNSS application ideas. True 3D Volumetric HUD went on to win €20,000 in prize money as the international winner, the 2011 Galileo Master.
By Inside GNSS
