Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
The recent release of the 2010 Federal Radionavigation Plan (FRP) marks the passage of a recurring milestone for the U.S. positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) community.
By Inside GNSS
Mike Dyment, General Partner, NextGen Equipage Fund LLC» Air Traffic Control Modernization (PDF)
In between partisan confrontations around the 2011 federal budget and raising the U.S. debt limit, prospects are improving for federal legislation that would provide the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) with a regular full-year budget for the first time since Fiscal Year 2007 — including support for completing the transition to a GNSS-driven air traffic control (ATC) system known as NextGen and a “public-private partnership” to equip aircraft with the needed avionics.
By Inside GNSS
Trimble announced Thursday (April 28, 2011) that its first-quarter 2011 revenue was up 20 percent at $384.3 million as compared to the first quarter of 2010.
Operating income grew 21 percent to $43.7 million compared to the year-earlier period. Operating margin in the first quarter of 2011 was 11.4 percent, approximately flat compared to the first quarter of 2010.
First quarter 2011 non-GAAP operating income of $70.1 million was up 23 percent; the non-GAAP operating margin was 18.2 percent.
By Inside GNSS
Resolution of the between Congressional Republicans and Democrats that threatened a shutdown of the federal government has clarified the picture for military GPS programs in the coming year, although prospects for the civil side remain uncertain.
On April 15, 2011, President Obama signed the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011 (H.R. 1473, Public Law 112-10), the last in a series of government-wide funding measures for Fiscal Year 2011 (FY11).
By Inside GNSS
Pace High School “Catastrophic” team, the 2010 winnerTen Lego kits transformed into autonomous robotic vehicles will gather, with their high school student masters, on Saturday, May 21 at the Smithsonian for the 2011 national championship of the Institute of Navigation Mini-Urban Challenge.
It all happens from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Spark!Lab and first floor of the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation on the National Mall.
By Inside GNSS
Continuing a series of acquisitions in recent years, Trimble announced today (April 19, 2011) that the Sunnyvale, California–based company has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Ashtech S.A.S.
In announcing the its plans, Trimble said that it expects the acquisition of the Carquefou, France, company and its affiliates will expand the U.S. company’s Spectra Precision portfolio of survey solutions and allow the company to better address emerging markets worldwide.
By Inside GNSS
The demand for techniques capable of authenticating the GNSS signals and detecting simulation attacks (spoofing) has increased exponentially in the last years, mainly targeted to financial and safety critical applications.
Associated proposals and developments addressing these issues focused on two different approaches: user segment authentication services that leveraged existing services in order to detect signal spoofing and that integrated signal authentication services into the GNSS system itself.
By Inside GNSS
Enterprise Baseline ScheduleCol. Bernie Gruber, commander of the GPS Directorate since June 2010, works in a busy place.
Through its various incarnations since being established in 1974 — as Joint Program Office, Air Force Wing, and now Directorate — the GPS program at the Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC), Los Angeles Air Force Base, California, has been at the center of the action.
By Inside GNSS
Applanix POS MV V5Applanix has released Version 5 of the company’s POS MV (Position and Orientation System for Marine Vessels), the next generation of its georeferencing and motion compensation system for hydrographic surveying.
By Inside GNSS
Geneq SXBlue IIILGeneq Inc., a Montreal, Quebec, Canada, manufacturer, has introduced two new GPS products.
The SXBlue III-L is a compact GPS L1/L2 receiver in the world designed for use with OmniSTAR’s HP service to attain decimeter accuracy worldwide. Targeted at GIS mapping/surveying applications, the receiver measures 14 x 8 x 5.6 centimeters (5.57 x 3.15 x 2.22 inches) and weighs 517 grams (1.14 pounds) including battery.
By Inside GNSS
NavCom Technology’s SF-3040 ReceiverNavCom Technology, Inc., has launched its 66-channel, SF-3040 pole-mount receiver, featuring StarFire/real-time kinematic (RTK) multi-GNSS capabilities and optimized for surveying and mapping applications.
NavCom says its new product provides real-time kinematic (RTK)–level accuracy up to 40 kilometers away from the base station or decimeter-level accuracy anywhere in the world when using the company’s StarFire global satellite-based augmentation system (GSBAS).
By Inside GNSS
NovAtel Inc., Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and Raven Industries, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, have announced a new strategic partnership that will see NovAtel’s GNSS positioning technology integrated into Raven’s line of precision agriculture products.
By Inside GNSS
Talk about your bad timing.
The outcome of the LightSquared/GPS controversy threatens to make President Obama a three-time loser in technology policy matters.
In March 2010, his administration proposed to open for drilling for oil and natural gas extensive expanses along the Atlantic coast, in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and off the north coast of Alaska, many of those areas for the first time. Less than a month later the Deepwater Horizon oil well explosion unleashed the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.
By Inside GNSS
