Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
The Army is in the midst of testing new assured position, navigation and timing equipment (A-PNT) as it searches for more ways to thwart jamming and spoofing and stay operational if GPS is denied or unavailable.
By Dee Ann Divis
The U.S. Army selected Collins Aerospace Systems, a unit of United Technologies Corp. to provide a next-generation Mounted Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing System (MAPS) for the Army’s increasingly sophisticated manned ground vehicles. Known as “MAPS Gen II,” the system will maintain the integrity of positioning and timing during operations in GPS-contested environments.
By Inside GNSS
A live demonstration in the North Sea used the Galileo Search and Rescue (SAR) service to initiate an emergency rescue in three and a half minutes after a “person in distress” operated her Galileo-enabled personal locator beacon (PLB) from a small life raft, adrift on the open water.
By Inside GNSS
While many industries benefit from GNSS, others have not though their need cries out loud. Manufacturing, indoor transportation and logistics, to name a few. Massachusetts-based Humatics furnishes indoor navigation systems for areas where GNSS technology does not perform well. Its core concept is “constellation” installations of high-frequency radio transmitters to enable centimeter- and millimeter-scale microlocation technology for positioning, navigating and collaborating.
By Inside GNSS
Sensonor has announced at AUSA in Washington, DC, a new high-accuracy tactical grade Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) — STIM 318. Designed for increased accelerometer performance to support demanding guidance and navigation applications, STIM 318 features:
By Inside GNSS
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.
By Inside GNSS
The global wireless communications standards body 3GPP has accepted the interface specifications of NavIC, India’s regional satellite navigation system. With this permission, NaVIC can be integrated into devices like smartphones and tablets. The announcement givea a big boost to India’s mobile telecom industry while also encouraging use of NavIC throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
By Inside GNSS
Positioning with 5G next-generation cellular technology, based on higher bandwidths and frequencies, promises to open up new possibilities for localization services. As GNSS receivers share their position awareness across more powerful cellular networks, smart traffic management, asset tracking and personalized drone-based delivery will be just three examples of expanded capability. A European Space Agency (ESA)-sponsored test recently simulated this broadening PNT potential.
By Inside GNSS
Autonomous vehicle research firm VSI Labs took its show on the road in September, as a three-member team was driven—by their autonomous car—on a thousand-mile journey from Minneapolis to Washington D.C. The Drive East employed Trimble’s precise point positioning (PPP) technology, Trimble RTX, delivering GNSS corrections via satellite or cellular.
By Inside GNSS
The Institute of Navigation’s (ION) Satellite Division presented Dr. Santiago Perea Diaz with its Bradford W. Parkinson Award at the recent ION GNSS+ Conference in Miami, Florida.
Dr. Perea Diaz was recognized for graduate student excellence in Global Navigation Satellite Systems in his thesis, “Design of an Integrity Support Message for Offline Advanced RAIM”.
By Inside GNSS
Ivan Revnivykh’s life and experience encompass the far frontiers of his homeland, Russia, from the magnifi cent landscapes of the country’s Pacifi c coast to research stations in Antarctica, to the great capital city of Moscow where he lives and works today. To everything he does he brings a sense of excitement and adventure.
By Inside GNSS
Every GNSS has experienced a failure. On January 26, 2016, an error in the GPS data upload system caused incorrect data to be transmitted from the satellites on the L1 band used by most commercial GPS receivers. Th e problem was resolved within six hours, although some users experienced problems for as much as twelve hours. Th e next day, the US Air Force (USAF) released a full statement explaining that the problem was caused by ground system soft ware when one satellite was decommissioned.
By Inside GNSS
Seventeen years after federal regulators restricted a promising wireless technology to protect GPS and other spectrum users, they are being asked to loosen those limitations. Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) proponents insist the strictures are too tight and cut off their ability to innovate. In June, Robert Bosch LLC formally requested the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) do what it said it would do back in April 2002: reexamine controls on UWB that the FCC itself called “extremely conservative” when they were written. The request is not to change the rules—not just yet anyway—but for the FCC to launch a rulemaking process that could eventually lead to changes in the rules. And Bosch wants a lot of changes.
By Inside GNSS