Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
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 GNSSOne of the first feature articles I wrote as a newly minted GNSS magazine editor 26 years ago was about an advanced rail traffic management system based on GPS that Burlington Northern, with the help of Rockwell Collins, had designed and implemented.
By Inside GNSS
Registration has opened for the 22nd World Congress and Exhibition on Intelligent Transport Systems and Services to be held in Bordeaux, France, on October 5–9, 2015.
By Inside GNSS
Francisco Rovira-Más, Agricultural Robotics Laboratory, Universidad Politécnica de ValenciaNow that we have had GNSS-driven precision in the fields for nearly 20 years, with widespread and growing acceptance by farm vehicle manufacturers and farmers, what lies ahead for precision agriculture?
By Inside GNSS
Global navigation satellite systems provide position, velocity, and time (PVT) solutions to users whose receivers calculate position based on one-way ranging from satellites. As is well-understood, a key step in the positioning process involves a determination of the difference between the time of signal transmission identified in the satellite’s broadcast navigation message and the time of its reception by user equipment.
By Inside GNSS
Equations 2, 7, 8, 9, 10 & 11Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are finding increased application in both domestic and governmental applications. Small UAVs (maximum take off weight less than 20 kilograms) comprise the category of the smallest and lightest platforms that also fly at lower altitudes (under less than 150 meters).
Designs for this class of device have focused on creating UAVs that can operate in urban canyons or even inside buildings, fly along hallways, and carry listening and recording devices, transmitters, or miniature TV cameras.
By Inside GNSS
The House Appropriations Committee voted May 13 to cut the White House request for civil GPS funding and a number of other GPS-related program at the Dept. of Transportation.
By Inside GNSS
GPS III satellites and their new ground system, both years behind schedule and hundreds of millions of dollars over budget, still may not be on track despite corrective actions, Air Force Secretary Deborah L. James told a U.S. Senate hearing recently.
By Inside GNSS
GPS Block IIF-5 on its way from Cape Canaveral on February 20, 2014. Photo by Ben Cooper, United Launch Alliance[Updated May 26, 2015] The U.S. Air Force released a draft request for proposal (RFP) yesterday (May 13, 2015) for GPS III Launch Services, including launch vehicle production, mission integration, and launch operations. The Space Exploration Technologies Corporation — better known as SpaceX and headed by Elon Musk — may well enter the competition.
By Inside GNSS
Trimble’s BD935-INS (left) and BX-935-INSTrimble has introduced the BD935-INS module that combines a multi-frequency, multi-GNSS receiver with an integrated 3-D microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) inertial sensor package.
As part of Trimble’s GNSS OEM portfolio, the new compact module augments real-time precise positioning with 3-D orientation, connectivity, and configuration capabilities designed to enable system integrators and OEMs to add GNSS and attitude to specialized or custom hardware solutions.
By Inside GNSS
In April, Lockheed Martin fully integrated the U.S. Air Force’s first next-generation GPS III satellite at the company’s Denver, Colorado–area satellite manufacturing facility. The first in a design block of new, more powerful and accurate GPS satellites, GPS III Space Vehicle One is now preparing for system-level testing this summer. Lockheed Martin photoLockheed Martin has finally been able to announce victory in its effort to complete integration of the first GPS Block III satellite.
Integration took place last month at the company’s GPS III Processing Facility near Denver, Colorado, bringing together the system module — which includes the navigation payload that performs the primary positioning, navigation, and timing mission — the functional bus containing the electronics that manage all satellite operations, and the propulsion core that enables the satellite to maneuver for operations on orbit.
By Inside GNSS
The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) is considering legislation that would fully authorize the White House’s funding request for GPS and possibly add provisions aimed at evaluating the new, troubled GPS ground system and pushing the Pentagon to look at a global backup for GPS.
By Inside GNSS
Navigation technologies appear to be losing their charm among new car buyers in the United States.
Twenty years after Detroit introduced the first in-vehicle car navigation systems, employing GPS and digital map technology, collision avoidance appears to be the common theme among the most popular automotive technologies, according to a new J.D. Power study released last Wednesday (April 22, 2015).
