Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
As 2020 ended, the Ligado project stood still. The FCC proceedings in the case had stagnated, while Congressional action, funds and filings flowed.
As 2020 comes to a close, the Ligado Networks LLC’s (Ligado) mobile satellite services (MSS) project remains at a standstill. While actions in the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) proceedings in the case have stagnated, Congressional action, funds and filings have flowed.
By Dawn M.K. Zoldi (Colonel, USAF, Ret.)
For decades, artificial intelligence and machine learning have advanced at a rapid pace. Today, there are many ways artificial intelligence and machine learning are used behind the scenes to impact our everyday lives, such as social media, shopping recommendations, email spam detection, speech recognition, self-driving cars, UAVs, and so on.
By Inside GNSS
The second of a two-part article explains how an initial system using existing Earth-GNSS constellations may be augmented with dedicated lunar orbiting satellites as well as lunar beacon ranging sources. A gradual deployment leads to a full autonomous lunar navigation system.
The advent of large LEO constellations is a game-changer for navigation. A key feature of these constellations is their potential to allow simultaneous measurement of Doppler shifts from a large number of satellites.
A framework to seamlessly navigate people from urban road traffic to indoor foot traffic uses the phone’s inertial measurement unit, GNSS chipset and camera, aided by an extended Kalman filter and ORB-SLAM. Tests show the framework performing well in both phases, guiding the phone’s user, behind the wheel on a city street, to a spot in an underground parking garage and walking to a meeting inside a large building.
By astral definition, every dawn is new. In the human condition, we see its possibility, its growing brightness bringing hope. Or, in our best selves, we bring hope to it.
By Alan Cameron
The United States Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) uses Hexagon | NovAtel technologies, including reference receivers and signal generators, to provide the accuracy and integrity necessary to safely operate civil aircraft. Here’s a look at the updated technologies and how they enable GPS as a safety of life service for aviation.
Ambiguity resolution combined with multiple constellations and multiple frequencies proves very effective in reducing Precise Point Positioning convergence time. Such a solution with a 30° mask has a shorter convergence than a float multi-GNSS solution without any obstructions, despite the latter using more satellites.
By Inside GNSS
Research has focused on methods to analytically determine bounding probability distributions and parameters and identify the conditions under which such bounds are guaranteed to hold. This column summarizes several important examples from this research to highlight the most useful principles and techniques.
By Sam Pullen
As a significant number of people and robotics venture into space, infrastructures providing critical services such as GNSS must be considered on a large extra-terrestrial scale to support these explorations and settlements.
By Inside GNSS
Laboratory tests explore how commercially available receivers respond to meaconing and spoofing, with the goal of developing useful test methodologies and metrics to assess receiver robustness and resilience to real-world spoofing threats.
There are interesting tradeoffs to consider in placing navigation satellites at various orbital heights, including signal power, availability, cost, orbit prediction, receiver computational load and manufacturer motivation.
By Inside GNSS
