Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) of Guildford, UK, shipped the last of the Galileo navigation payloads under its manufacture at the end of November 2020, the European Space Agency (ESA) stated. As a consequence of Brexit, the UK will no longer participate actively in Galileo.
By Inside GNSS
Volvo Penta announced its Assisted Docking system, integrating GPS dynamic positioning, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The Assisted Docking system gives the captain better control when docking a boat by automating his or her intentions, compensating for some dynamic variables, such as wind and current, and helping the vessel stay on its intended course.
By Inside GNSS
The European Union’s Enhanced Navigation in Space (ENSPACE project), coordinated by Qascom, announced significant progress in the development of a software GNSS solution that supports Galileo and is especially aimed at the rapidly growing small satellite market sector.
By Inside GNSS
The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Air Force Office of Scientific Research awarded 17 quantum information research science grants in late 2020, two of them with a focus on the use of quantum computing to overcome challenges in GPS-denied navigation.
By Inside GNSS
According to a statement on the UK Government’s official website, as of January 1 the United Kingdom will cease participation in the European Galileo and European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service(EGNOS) programs. British citizens and other private users are not affected, apparently: “devices that currently use Galileo and EGNOS, such as smart phones, will continue to be able to do so.”
By Inside GNSS
Here, in no particular order save vaguely chronological, are the editor’s picks for Top Twelve GNSS and PNT Tech Stories of 2020: those that heralded technical breakthroughs significant for their time, that will continue to roll out wide-reaching developmental advances in 2021 and beyond.
By Alan Cameron
Pursuant to the 6-hour Galileo system outage on December 14, the European GNSS Agency (GSA) issued an update stating that the “service incident,” while still under investigation, “is confirmed to be related to an abnormal behaviour of a ground atomic clock in the time determination function of the system.”
By Inside GNSS
Hexagon | NovAtel has released the new MarinePak7 GNSS+inertial receiver that delivers precise positioning and timing for demanding nearshore marine applications. It is certified for the marine environment and designed for hydrographic survey, marine construction and nearshore renewable energy operations.
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.
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.
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.
The European GNSS Agency (GSA) has started testing the Open Service Navigation Message Authentication (OSNMA) feature in the Galileo signals.
By Inside GNSS
In 2018, when the UK’s post-Brexit involvement in Galileo was still a point of contention between London and Brussels, UK ministers set aside £92m to study the feasibility of building a sovereign satellite-navigation system. Almost immediately, the UK Space-Based Positioning Navigation and Timing Program (SBPP) became something of a political football, or soccer ball if you prefer. Critics and supporters chimed in vehemently at any piece of news. Why an independent UK PNT system might be necessary remains a reasonable first question for some observers.
By Peter Gutierrez
