Averna and Physik Instrumente (PI) have formed a new partnership to deliver advanced automation solutions that meet the growing need for flexible, scalable and high-throughput manufacturing and test equipment.
Physik Instrumente (PI) is an international group of companies focusing on high-precision motion and positioning solutions, and Averna is a global test and quality solutions provider.
With significant overlap in several markets — industrial automation, automotive, consumer electronics, communications and life sciences — PI and Averna each offer expertise in different areas. Their goal is to expand each offering to their clients by integrating PI’s unique precision positioning and micro-robotics systems into Averna’s customized quality and assembly turnkey solutions.
To date, the two companies have delivered numerous joint projects, improving results for a variety of applications including camera and projector assembly, laser alignment, fiber alignment and optical wafer scanning.
“We are very excited to begin this partnership,” said Niels Davidts, vice president of Europe at Averna. “Having worked with PI products in the past, we understand the power of what they offer. They are unique in what they do, and we know how to make them work best for our clients. A closer partnership will open a lot of opportunities for both parties.”
Scott Jordan, long-standing photonics expert and business developer at PI emphasizes, “Working with Averna has been very rewarding. We have always been impressed with the systems they design for test, quality, and precision assembly. Combining our knowledge with Averna’s skills, we can now approach customer challenges in ways that have never been done before.”
ComNav Technology now provides a GNSS high-precision positioning solution for navigation and positioning of autonomous lawn mowers. Environmentally friendly and intelligent robotic lawn mowers are growing more popular, making the mowing task easier, safer and more convenient.
R&D background
It is difficult to develop autonomous lawn mowers because they obtain navigation information by means of visual and acoustic sensors, usually through embedded cables in the working area and detection through eddy current sensors. The shortcomings are obvious: before the mower starts, it must be set up with cables and other equipment. Cable requirements differ in various countries, and cable laying can be complicated, wasting resources and money.
With these difficulties in mind, ComNav applied its K8 series of GNSS high-precision modules to lawn mowers to break through the application limit. It solved this accuracy problem to make the lawn mower achieve centimeter-level driving according to the setup path in an open field. With ComNav’s other technologies — quantum algorithm and LAI, HighLock, PPP, RTK-KEEP — the law mowers continues to operate under trees, around corners or in other obscured areas.
Introduction of ComNav’s solution
With the K8 series module, ComNav facilitates the lawn mower’s fieldwork with position data provided by GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou, QZSS, IRNSS and SBAS.
The high-precision positioning system for lawn mowers consists of a base station and a rover station. Three solutions are recommended for the terminal to obtain differential data from the base station.
Base and rover datalink. A base station acquires differential data through a datalink and provides corrections to the rover. The rover station — comprising the parts installed on the lawn mower, including the GNSS antenna, the GNSS high-precision module, datalink and UHF antenna — enables centimeter-level positioning and navigation.
Image: ComNav
Local CORS network. Utilizing existed local CORS, the rover station obtains differential data from the CORS service, enabling the lawn mower to achieve positioning and navigation accuracy on a centimeter level.
Image: ComNav
Self-built CORS network. Base stations can be placed anywhere based on requirements. Doing so eliminates the worry about prevailing conditions and makes high-precision positioning and navigation of lawn mowers possible.
Image: ComNav
Technology Features
LAI technology. ComNav’s patented low-power anti-interference (LAI) technology provides a jamming-to-signal ratio of up to 50 dB. Power consumption is only 0.1 W when turned on. By quickly detecting and eliminating interference with simple settings, LAI technology can reduce failure time and ensure safe operation. The technology can generate a spectrum diagram of interference sources, enabling identification of interference types and potential interference sources.
Quantum algorithm. ComNav’s quantum algorithm has sophisticated technology for detecting and repairing cycle slips. It uses full-constellation and full-frequency tracking capabilities along with multi-frequency combination, model and parameter estimation. Quantum is able to eliminate errors caused by the ionosphere, the troposphere and multipath in seconds. As a result, the initialization time of real-time kinematic (RTK) is greatly shortened and precision and reliability are improved. Meanwhile, the extra-long baseline calculation capability expands the operation range.
RTK-KEEP technology. By estimating model and parameter values, RTK-KEEP Technology can reduce errors caused by satellite orbit, clock difference, ionosphere and troposphere when the base station’s data is lost. Centimeter-level accuracy can be kept for more than 10 minutes, greatly improving the availability of RTK.
Benefits of ComNav’s Solution
ComNav’s solution allows the lawn mower to achieve centimeter-level positioning and reduce mowing repetitions. It helps the lawnmower to operate safely and reliably in the corners, under trees, or in other places where satellite signals are weak or lost. With its strong anti-interference capabilities, the lawn mower can maintain continuous and effective positioning in complex environments, meeting the needs of a variety of applications.
The partnership will help to grow global adoption of the u-blox PointPerfect high-precision positioning service, in particular for automotive applications.
U-blox and Geespace have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the expansion of their respective augmentation services for high-precision applications.
Geespace is a provider of aerospace information and communications infrastructure and application solutions. Both partners will be able to extend their service offering to the U.S., European and Chinese markets, primarily in the automotive sector.
The rise of reliable and cost-effective high-precision positioning has improved the accuracy of GNSS solutions to the order of tens of centimeters, enabling a plethora of new applications in automotive, as well as industrial and robotics segments. Global adoption has, however, been hampered by a fragmentation of the augmentation services landscape, thee companies said.
For global adoption to become a reality, worldwide coverage is required, as is unified pricing and business models designed to serve mass-market high-precision solutions for automotive and industrial customers operating on a global scale. The resulting differences in technical specifications have also made development of such solutions requiring different services complex.
The MoU between u-blox and Geespace seeks to create a combined offering that will enable both companies to offer full-stack high-precision positioning software and hardware solutions to customers across the U.S., European and Chinese markets.
Also, it will enable Geespace, which provides automotive GNSS augmentation services to its parent company Geely Group, to use the u-blox PointPerfect GNSS augmentation service to grow its coverage to serve Geely’s automotive brands. Headquartered in Hangzhou, China, Geely Group brands include Geely Auto, Lynk & Co, Zeekr, Volvo Cars, Polestar, Lotus, London Electric Vehicle Company, Farizon Auto and CAOCAO Mobility.
The MOU also will enable u-blox to expand coverage of PointPerfect to offer customers a comprehensive high-precision solution for products sold in China, and benefit from simplified development and logistics efforts.
U-blox and Geespace have signed a memorandum of understanding to expand their respective augmentation services for high-precision applications. Both partners will be able to extend their service offering to the U.S., European and Chinese markets, primarily in the automotive sector.
Geespace is provider of aerospace information and communications (AICT) infrastructure and application solutions.
The agreement between u-blox and Geespace seeks to create a combined offering that will enable both companies to offer full-stack high-precision positioning software and hardware solutions to customers across the United States, Europe and China. It will enable Geespace, which provides automotive GNSS augmentation services to its parent company Geely Group, to use the u-blox PointPerfect GNSS augmentation service to grow its coverage to serve Geely’s automotive brands.
Meanwhile, it will enable u-blox to expand the coverage of the PointPerfect service to offer customers a comprehensive high-precision solution for products sold in China, and benefit from simplified development and logistics efforts.
The rise of reliable and cost-effective high-precision positioning has improved the accuracy of GNSS solutions to the order of tens of centimeters, enabling new applications in the automotive, industrial and robotics industries. Global adoption has, however, been hampered by a fragmentation of the augmentation services landscape, the companies stated in a press release.
For global adoption to become a reality, worldwide coverage is required, as is unified pricing and business models designed to serve mass-market high-precision solutions for automotive and industrial customers operating on a global scale, the companies said.
Guangzhou Asensing Technology Co. Ltd, which specializes in high-precision positioning technology for intelligent transportation, demonstrated HD-MapBox at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which took place Jan. 5-8 in Las Vegas.
HD-MapBox integrates high-precision map data based on high-precision positioning.
The device can achieve lane-level positioning and 1+ mile (2 km) predictive cruise control (PCC), providing a decision basis for advanced assisted driving to better meet the demanding positioning requirements of autonomous vehicles.
“As the premise for autonomous driving safety, high-precision positioning is of great importance for integrating positioning technology based on inertial measurement units (IMU), GNSS signals, visual perception systems and high-definition (HD) maps,” said Situ Chunhui, Asensing Technology CTO. “High-precision positioning is becoming the preferred choice due to higher positioning accuracy and improved redundancy as well as an enhanced passing rate under all scenarios.”
Under any driving scenario, autonomous vehicles must accurately interpret their own lane-level location information to better predict and prevent risks and make safe driving decisions. As a result, positioning is not only part of the autonomous driving process, but also the premise of autonomous driving.
However, any single positioning technology has its own limitations, especially in certain scenarios such as in tunnels and underground garages where the perception system may be adversely affected by changes in the amount of light and low GPS signal, thereby affecting driving safety.
Fusing data from a GNSS receiver, IMU, ADAS camera, vehicle dynamics and HD maps, the HD-MapBox can achieve a lateral error of less than 8 inches (0.2 meters) and a longitudinal error of less than 6.5 feet (2 meters) with a 95 percent confidence interval, providing an accurate reference for highway pilot (HWP) and automated valet parking (AVP). Even if both GNSS and lane line detection are not available, the HD-MapBox can still enable vehicles to keep in lane for at least a quarter mile (400 meters).
New modules enable users to develop high-precision solutions for heavy machinery, ground robotics, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
U-blox’s latest multi-band high-accuracy timing modules concurrently support L1 and L5 GNSS signals. The ZED-F9T-10B and LEA-F9T-10B timing modules, and the RCB-F9T-1 timing card, deliver nanosecond-level timing accuracies required to synchronize cellular network base stations and smart power grids. The ANN MB1 L1/L5 multi-band antenna completes the offering.
The multiband capability compensates for ionosphere error from all GNSS satellite constellations and reduces the timing error under clear skies to less than 5 ns without the need for an external GNSS correction service. To achieve maximum performance, the modules track signals from as many satellites as possible.
Image: u-blox
With satellite constellations transmitting signals on the L5 band nearing completion, the L1/L5 signal combination is becoming a viable option to complement products based on L1 and L2 signals. Modernized L5 signals are expected to deliver improved performance, especially in difficult urban conditions. Because L5 signals fall within the protected aeronautical radionavigation service (ARNS ) frequency band, they are also less subject to RF interference.
The LEA-F9T-10B provides a temperature range extended to –40 to +105° C. Both timing modules include a suite of advanced security features, including:
Improved anti-jamming and anti-spoofing technologies detect and flag malicious RF interference.
Secure boot ensures that the modules can only boot with authentic firmware.
Secure interfaces prevent intruders from tampering with the messages between the receiver and the host system.t
The ANN-MB1 L1/L5 multi-band antenna supports the GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou, and addresses the scarcity of options in the nascent L1/L5 high-precision antenna mass-market, simplifying testing and deployment of L1/L5 multi-band GNSS solutions. Magnetic and fixed mounting options help meet diverse installation needs.
The new products targets developers in industrial navigation and robotics interested in high-precision positioning technology to locate UAVs, ground robots and agricultural equipment accurately and in real time.
Engineering samples of the u-blox ZED-F9T-10B, RCB-F9T-1 and ANN-MB1 will be available in May, followed by the LEA-F9T.
Averna and Physik Instrumente (PI) have formed a new partnership to deliver advanced automation solutions that meet the growing need for flexible, scalable and high-throughput manufacturing and test equipment.
