Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
A new cloud-based, digital reality visualization platform in the Hexagon AB booth captured the attention of CES 2020 visitors in Las Vegas this week. HxDR creates accurate digital representations of the real world through the seamless combination of reality-capture data from airborne, ground and mobile sensors.
By Inside GNSS
The authors examine GNSS performance on 27,500 kilometers (17,000 miles) of North American highways to better understand the automotive positioning needs it meets today and what might be possible in the near future with wide area GNSS correction services and multi-frequency receivers.
International astronomers linked observations from eight telescopes, including the the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME), to pinpoint the location of a repeating fast radio burst (FRB), a little-understood and seldom-observed astronomical phenomenon that may hold keys to the origin of the universe. GPS played an important role in coordinating the telescopes and their milliseconds of data.
By Inside GNSS
Forward-deployed U.S. military personnel will soon benefit from warfighter localization sensor units that provide tracking information in GPS-denied environments in a bootstrap mode. The Army Product Manager Sets, Kits Outfits and Tools awarded a $16.5 million contract to Robotic Research of Clarksburg, Maryland for WarLoc units to equip four deployed U.S. Army Brigade Combat Teams in various locations. The first batch of systems has already been shipped, and should enable soldiers on foot to keep track of each other in terrain where GPS systems are less effective.
WarLoc provides localization and positioning data for teams of warfighters or first responders in signal-denied environments such as underground facilities and inside buildings and mega-cities, according to the company. The small sensor mounts on footwear. Multiple systems work together to further enhance accuracy and maintain the localization of teams.
[Heel-mounted warfighter localization sensor units, also known as WarLoc. Photo: Robotic Research.]
The tracking system augments its GPS receiver with an inertial measurement unit. The device connects with a smartphone through Bluetooth. Robotic Research fields two form factors of the WaLoc, one mounted over the top of the boot and another that wraps around the heel. Users view data readouts through an Android-based Tactical Assault Kit. The algorithms are reportedly robust to communications failures and dropouts, and the distributed nature works well in challenging communication environments.
By Inside GNSS
Septentrio and Analog Devices now combine their technology specialties, multi-frequency multi-constellation GNSS receivers and high-quality inertial measurement units (IMUs), respectively, to deliver centimeter-accurate positioning with 3D orientation (heading, pitch and roll), for applications such as automotive advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and industrial automation.
By Inside GNSS
A new European Union Agency for the Space Program (EUSPA) will succeed and expand the current European GNSS Agency (GSA), which has been managing the EU’s Galileo satellite system for 15 years.
By Inside GNSS
The European GNSS Agency (GSA) awarded a contract for the development of the Galileo-based TIming Receiver for CriticAl INfrastructure Robustness (GIANO) to Thales Alenia Space, for resistance against interference, jamming and spoofing.
By Inside GNSS
Reducing the number of GPS receivers installed or carried while tapping multiple PNT sources.
Prototyping and beta testing are techniques closely associated with Silicon Valley, the innovation engine admired around the world and, in particular, inside the Pentagon. Simply introducing a new idea has been known to take years in these halls; witness the long introductory saga of GPS itself in the 1970s.
By Dee Ann Divis
China threw two BeiDou satellites into space on Dec. 16. According to Yang Changfeng, BeiDou constellation chief designer, this brings to 24 the total of medium-Earth orbit (MEO) BDS-3 satellites in orbit, bringing completion to the core system. China has stated its mission to complete the BDS-3 constellation by 2020.
By Inside GNSS
There’s still time, barely, to sign up for this week’s webinar. Learn 3 key concepts for autonomous automotivery: lane level, antenna phase center offset and phase center variation.
By Inside GNSS
The previously-troubled program to build a new GPS ground control system has stayed on track for the last two and a half years and is moving along as planned, said Lt. Gen. John ‘JT’ Thompson, commander of the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC).
By Dee Ann Divis
Someone has updated 19th century American slang to resonate in the 21st century’s international commerce and shipping scene. A mysterious new electronic weapon has surfaced in China, spoofing GPS signals in a way that experts have never seen before.
By Inside GNSS
Calling all automotive engineers — and anyone involved in designing or promulgating the fast-oncoming world of autonomous driving.
For driverless vehicles, current GNSS meter-level positioning accuracy still serves for lane-level detection. But hazardous misleading information poses a serious, disruptive and critical safety concern.
By Inside GNSS
