Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
Col. Steve Whitney now heads GPS DirectorateColonel Steve Whitney was sworn in Wednesday (July 8, 2015) as the director of the Global Positioning Systems (GPS) Directorate, Space and Missile Systems Center, Air Force Space Command, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California.
By Inside GNSS
Aerial view of Boulder in OctoberThe tenth meeting of the International Committee on GNSS (ICG) will take place in Boulder, Colorado from November 1 through 6 2015. It will be hosted by the United States and organized by University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) on behalf of the U.S. State Department.
It will take place at UCAR headquarters on the Center Green Campus in Boulder.
By Inside GNSS
IPIN 2015 will take place October 13-16 at the Banff Centre, a conference center and school for the arts location in the Rocky Mountain resort town of Banff, a 90 minute drive west of Alberta, Canada.
The indoor postioning and indoor navigation conference includes experts in electronics, surveying and informatics who will discuss this key issue in many emerging applications.
By Inside GNSS
Google has agreed to integrate into its mapping services geographic information system (GIS) data from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) that pinpoints the location of the nation’s approximately 250,000 public and private railroad crossings.
By Inside GNSS
Valérie Renaudin’s Compass Points
Geomatics engineer Valérie Renaudin now directs a major research laboratory in Nantes, France, working on the future of personal navigation and intelligent transportation systems (ITS).
By Inside GNSS
The availability of several GNSSes promises advanced positioning, navigation, and timing services with higher availability and improved accuracy. According to a European GNSS Agency (GSA) market study, nearly 60 percent of receivers, chipsets, and modules already support at least two GNSS constellations, showing that multi-constellation is becoming a standard feature across all market segments. That development brings up questions of law and regulation that require careful handling by GNSS manufacturers, service providers, and policy makers.
By Ingo Baumann
A few studies (by universities and industry) have shown the feasibility of simulation of real-time digital intermediate frequency (IF) signals based on a graphics processor unit (GPU). And a couple of articles have also demonstrated use of a universal software radio peripheral (USRP)–based software-defined radio (SDR) as a simulator (in playback mode) in real test environments.
By Inside GNSS
Figure 1The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) is an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) initiative to build an independent satellite navigation system that provides precise position, velocity, and time (PVT) to users across the Indian region.
The primary objective of IRNSS is to achieve position accuracy of 20 meters (2σ) for dual-frequency users over India and the primary service area (a region extending to about 1,500 kilometers or 930 miles).
By Inside GNSS
Fushimi Inari Taisha, Kyoto, JapanThe 16th International Symposium On GNSS 2015 will be held November 16 – 19, 2015 at Miyakomesse in Kyoto, Japan.
ISGNSS 2015 will be co-located with the Asia and Pacific Rim meeting of the CGIC (Civil GPS Service Interface Committee) to help improve understanding of the world trends in developing and deploying GNSS. The program will include keynote addresses, oral presentations, interactive poster sessions, panel sessions, open interactive forums and a trade exhibition.
By Inside GNSS
eLoran signalWith worries mounting about jamming and other disruptions of GPS signals, officials took a step Friday (June 19, 2015) toward possibly establishing a backup for satellite navigation users in the United States.
By Inside GNSS
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.
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
Block diagram of driver-assisted truck platooning (DATP) system. From “Heavy Truck Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control” Phase 1 reportAlthough 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
