Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
Nominal architecture of a GPS/Galileo PRS receiverThe United States and the European Union are talking about how U.S. agencies might use the secure signal planned for Galileo to better fulfill their various responsibilities.
By Dee Ann Divis
The nation’s top GPS experts pressed the Air Force this week to turn on the full capability of the L2C civil GPS signal that the military has been broadcasting without a navigation message despite having had signal-equipped satellites on orbit for years.
By Inside GNSS
To help counter pressures from federal budget cutters and wireless advocates searching for more broadband spectrum, the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Advisory Board is crafting a study documenting the economic benefits of GPS.
“We have a new assignment . . . to discover and disclose the economic contributions of the Global Positioning System,” Chairman Jim Schlesinger told the board at an August 15, 1012 meeting of the advisory board.
By Dee Ann Divis
Trimble AP20-C GNSS/inertial OEM board with MEMS sensorsTrimble introduced its AP20-C, the latest addition to its AP Series of embedded GNSS-inertial OEM boards, at AUVSI’s Unmanned Systems North America 2012 Conference and Exhibition today (August 7, 2012).
Incorporating a compact, custom-built inertial measurement unit (IMU) based on commercial micro-electromechanical mechnical system (MEMS) sensors, the AP20-C enables system integrators to achieve high-rate position and orientation measurements with exceptional accuracy, according to the company.
By Inside GNSS
A congressional committee overseeing activities at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appears poised to push the agency into a more substantive role in overseeing the use of drones in the United States — a move that could force DHS to move more forcefully to protect GPS users from spoofing.
The Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigation and Management within the House Homeland Security Committee is looking to DHS to manage the civil use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones.
By Dee Ann Divis
Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0Both Congress and the Pentagon are putting money on the table to bridge the gap created by delays in the development of the new GPS ground system.
As Inside GNSS first reported earlier this year the Next Generation Operational Control System, or OCX, is running roughly two years behind schedule. It had been expected to be delivered in 2015, however, General William L. Shelton, the commander of Air Force Space Command, said this spring that OCX would be delayed until 2016 or 2017.
By Inside GNSS
Members of Congress — who have not finished next year’s appropriations, face half a dozen major tax and program fixes set to expire, and have their own re-elections to worry about — must quickly decide how to handle a tsunami of federal budget cuts that experts say could sweep the economy back into recession.
By Dee Ann Divis
Return to main article: "Drones to the Rescue!"
By Inside GNSS
Return to main article: "Drones to the Rescue!"
Following a route defined by application requirements and remotely sensing the environment in order to analyze and interpret the outcome on- and off-line: this is the axioma of every aerial remote-sensing mission and, indeed, also for search missions. Yet, the specific requirements for navigation might vary according to the application.
By Inside GNSS
University of Texas–Austin droneIn June a research team from the University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin) demonstrated for the first time that a civilian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can be commandeered in mid-flight by a civil GPS spoofing attack. The result will likely factor into the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) plans to draw up rules for integrating UAVs into U.S. airspace by 2015.
By Inside GNSS
Q: What are the tradeoffs between using L1-only and L1+L2 for PPP?
A: Precise point positioning (PPP) is a technique that can compute positions with a high accuracy anywhere on the globe using a single GNSS receiver. It relies on highly accurate satellite position and clock data that can be downloaded from the International GNSS Service (IGS) or obtained in real-time from a number of service providers, using either the Internet or satellite links.
By Inside GNSS
TOP PHOTO: Antenna configurations on trials vehicle: Dual GPS antennas for the INS under test and single GPS antenna for the CIMU; BOTTOM PHOTO: Commercial IMU/DGPS system used for reference (left), FOG-based INS configuration (middle), and MEMS-based INS configuration 2 (right) The automobile versus the horse and buggy. Cloud computing opposite desktop software. The trend is predictable, yet it is always surprising when one technology takes over the market space of another. After all, television did kill off the radio star.
By Inside GNSS
August 1994, early morning. Spain’s Central Pyrenees Mountains still in darkness.
At the outset of an ascent to a 3,000-meter peak along the international border, one of the co-authors encounters a group of tourist hikers who have begun searching for a colleague who had left the camp the previous evening. In the pre-sunrise gloom, helicopters cannot yet operate.
A week later, the body of the hiker is found. The rescue efforts came, unfortunately, too late.
By Inside GNSS
