Researchers at the Universität der Bundeswehr München (German Federal Armed Forces University, Munich) have performed real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning with dual-frequency smartphones, using the GNSS raw measurements to the user via the Android API.
The GPS III Contingency Operations Program (COps) successfully connected with the first GPS III satellite on orbit on October 21. The Air Force can now operationally command and control the powerful new GPS III satellites
Direct georeferencing improves the efficiency and accuracy of mapping from both manned and unmanned platforms. An upcoming 2-day workshop on this topic is designed for:
C5ISR Center computer scientist Zach Kjellberg conducts testing on a position, navigation and testing system at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., on June 13, 2019. Photo by Dan Lafontaine, C5ISR Center Public Affairs
The U.S. Army is reaching out to industry for the advanced inertial measurement unit (IMU) and timing technology it needs to support warfighters when GPS is unavailable or compromised.
Satelles, Inc. (www.satellesinc.com), provider of highly secure satellite-based time and location services, announced that it has raised $26 million in Series C funding. C5 Capital (www.c5capital.com) led the round, with participation from Iridium Communications (www.iridium.com) and existing investors. This new investment brings Satelles’s total funding since the launch of its platform to $39 million and will help the company expand its sales and marketing efforts, broaden its partner network, and accelerate product development.
For the first time, a sophisticated GPS-guided Naval Strike Missile fired from the deck of a U.S. combat ship sailing in the Indo-Pacific region.
The USS Gabrielle Giffords launched the precision strike weapon, which “can find and destroy enemy ships at distances up to 100 nautical miles away,” according to a U.S. Navy statement. The NSM flies at high subsonic speed an “at sea-skimming altitude, has terrain-following capability and uses an advanced seeker for precise targeting in challenging conditions.”
The NSM can navigate by GPS, inertial and terrain reference systems. It is able to fly over and around landmasses, travel in sea skim mode, and make random avoidance maneuvers in the terminal phase. An imaging infrared (IIR) seeker and an onboard target database give NSM independent detection, recognition, and discrimination capabilities for targets at sea or on the coast. Its design and materials endow it with stealth capabilities. It weighs slightly over 400 kg (880 pounds) and has a range of at least 185 km (100 nm).
Known for its “sea-skimming” capability, the Naval Strike Missile can fly at very low altitudes over water and land. Photo: Kongsberg
The Navy Strike Missile launch was part of exercise Pacific Griffin, in the Philippine Sea near Guam, an exercise conducted with the Singaporean navy. It marked the second time such a missile was launched, but the first time it was fired in the Indo-Pacific region, according to the Navy.
Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10) launches a Naval Strike Missile (NSM) during exercise Pacific Griffin. The NSM is a long-range, precision strike weapon that is designed to find and destroy enemy ships. Pacific Griffin is a biennial exercise conducted in the waters near Guam aimed at enhancing combined proficiency at sea while strengthening relationships between the U.S. and Republic of Singapore navies. U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Shannon Renfroe/Released.
The Navy awarded Raytheon a contract in 2018 for the weapons system, developed around the missile designed by Norwegian firm Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace.
Trimble and Qualcomm Technologies plan to provide sub lane-level accuracy to automotive OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers and other stakeholders considering absolute positioning as part of an autonomy solution.
A European aviation industry alliance will deploy new-generation GNSS-based landing systems, ground-based augmentation systems or GBAS, at airports across the continent, starting this year and gaining momentum in 2020. The GBAS Alliance includes airlines and aircraft manufacturers who will complementarily equip their planes with GBAS reception equipment. GBAS is recognized as a supplement to and future replacement of instrument landing systems (ILS).
The introduction of a new generation of mass-market chips based on multi GNSS dual frequency measurements, already being commercialized and integrated in smartphones by major manufacturers, is contributing to a new level of positioning accuracy in the mass-market location-based services.
Abstracts are now being accepted for the IEEE/ION Positioning, Location and Navigation Symposium (PLANS) 2020. The conference will take place April 20-23, 2020 at the Hilton Portland Downtown in Portland, Oregon. The deadline for submitting abstracts is October 30, 2019.
Pulsar Guardian is a new, state-of-the art facility built by Lockheed Martin in Colorado Springs that lets the Air Force and others simulate, test and train in a multi-domain environment that reflects today’s complex space environment.
In this article, the authors use a vector tracking approach to convert a software receiver into a software transceiver, showing that this effort is both feasible and easily realized. The basic concept is presented with an accuracy assessment of the error sources and generated signal quality is compared to theoretical lower limits.
Auto makers, ride-service providers and system integrators all anticipate the day—perhaps sooner than some think—when fully autonomous vehicles take the road. Many rigorous technical navigation challenges must be surmounted to reach that day: safety and reliability come first, before convenience and cost-savings can be realized. Innovative engineers who have solved these challenges share their lessons learned in a free webinar, Wednesday, October 2: “Inertial + SLAM: Creating the Roadmap for Autonomous Vehicles.”