Magazine Section Archives - Page 42 of 66 - Inside GNSS - Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design

March 9, 2013

Assessing GNSS Data Message Performance

Working Papers explore the
technical and scientific themes that underpin GNSS programs and
applications. This regular column is coordinated by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Günter Hein, head of Europe’s Galileo Operations and Evolution.

By Inside GNSS

GNSS Filtering Options

View equations 1-4
View Equations 5-13

Q: What are the differences between least-squares and Kalman filtering?

By Inside GNSS

Mike Veth: Engineering Meets the Wild Blue Yonder

Veth proudly poses with his RV-8A fuselage components securely fastened in a jig. The RV-8A is a two-place, tandem, experimental aircraft that is home-built from kit components. When completed, he plans to use the aircraft as an experimental navigation testbed.

SIDEBAR: Mike Veth’s Compass Points

Over the course of Lt. Col. Michael Veth’s 20-year career in the U.S. Air Force (USAF), certain navigation technologies may have changed dramatically, but working toward increased accuracy has remained a constant.

By Inside GNSS

[uam_ad id="183541"]

RedBlade

Anyone who has gone to college is probably familiar with the idea of a capstone course. A final hurdle to clear in receiving a degree, students take such a course to demonstrate their practical knowledge by pulling together all of the main concepts taught throughout the program of study.

By Inside GNSS

The PNT Boom

FIGURE 1: Potential components of a multisensor integrated navigation system

The navigation world is booming with new ideas at the moment to meet some of the greatest positioning challenges of our times. To realize demanding applications — such as reliable pedestrian navigation, lane identification, and robustness against interference, jamming and spoofing — we need to bring these different ideas together.

By Inside GNSS

From Fledgling to Flight

Allure Shadow (top), structural clearances (bottom)

The Boeing Company initiated the Unmanned Little Bird (ULB) program in the fall of 2003 to create a developmental platform for an optionally manned, vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Initial flight test activity employed a modified MD530FF helicopter, with the first flight taking place on September 8, 2004. Six weeks later the program achieved a fully autonomous multiple waypoint demonstration flight from takeoff through landing.

By Inside GNSS

January 25, 2013

GNSS Hotspots | January 2013

One of 12 magnetograms recorded at Greenwich Observatory during the Great Geomagnetic Storm of 1859

1996 soccer game in the Midwest, (Rick Dikeman image)

Nouméa ground station after the flood

A pencil and a coffee cup show the size of NASA’s teeny tiny PhoneSat

Bonus Hotspot: Naro Tartaruga AUV

Pacific lamprey spawning (photo by Jeremy Monroe, Fresh Waters Illustrated)

“Return of the Bucentaurn to the Molo on Ascension Day”, by (Giovanni Antonio Canal) Canaletto

The U.S. Naval Observatory Alternate Master Clock at 2nd Space Operations Squadron, Schriever AFB in Colorado. This photo was taken in January, 2006 during the addition of a leap second. The USNO master clocks control GPS timing. They are accurate to within one second every 20 million years (Satellites are so picky! Humans, on the other hand, just want to know if we’re too late for lunch) USAF photo by A1C Jason Ridder.

Detail of Compass/ BeiDou2 system diagram

Hotspot 6: Beluga A300 600ST

1. TIMING IS EVERYTHING
Washington, D.C.

By Inside GNSS

[uam_ad id="183541"]

GNSS and Ubiquity

Chris Rizos, University of New South Wales

GNSS is in a class of its own and the positioning/navigation/timing (PNT) technology of choice for most applications. Why wouldn’t we always use it?

It is affordable, it is a mature technology with many form factors, and its level of performance spans several orders of magnitude — millimeters to meters. There are a bewildering number of permutations of user equipment, augmentation solutions, processing algorithms, and operational procedures to choose from.

However. . . .

By Inside GNSS