GPS World

Tag: ION-ITM

  • Registration opens for ITM/PTTI 2022 in Long Beach, California

    Registration opens for ITM/PTTI 2022 in Long Beach, California

    Photo: ION

    ION’s winter meeting, the International Technical Meeting (ITM), is a more intimate conference with a technical program related to positioning, navigation and timing and includes the ION Fellows and Annual Awards presentations.

    In 2022, ITM will take place in Long Beach, California, Jan. 25-27, and will be co-located with the Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting. ITM will house more than 150 in-person and virtual technical presentations, two keynote addresses, six tutorials, and an exhibit hall filled with the latest PNT solutions.

    A commercial exhibit and pre-conference tutorials are held in conjunction with the conference.

    Tutorials will be offered as part of this year’s in-person technical program on January 26 and will be open to all in-person PTTI and ITM attendees. Tutorials cover novel systems for time distribution from space, atomic clocks, Kalman filtering for clock estimation, and specific implementations for time distribution from space.

    The ITM/PTTI plenary session will be recorded and uploaded to the website for on-demand viewing. No other ITM/PTTI sessions (including tutorials) will be recorded for on-demand viewing. All presenters are required to provide a video presentation for on-demand viewing. On-demand presentations will be available through the ITM/PTTI meeting portal for 30 days.

    To view the ITM/PTTI 2022 technical program and to register, go to https://www.ion.org/itm/registration.cfm.

  • ION award winners honored for GNSS and PNT contributions

    ION award winners honored for GNSS and PNT contributions

    ION logoThe Institute of Navigation (ION) presented its annual awards during the ION International Technical Meeting (ITM) and Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications (PTTI) meeting in San Diego, California, Jan. 21-24.

    The ION Annual Awards Program is sponsored by The Institute of Navigation to recognize individuals making significant contributions or demonstrating outstanding performance relating to the art and science of navigation.

    Ramsey Faragher received the Per Enge Early Achievement Award for outstanding innovations in mobile positioning and navigation, and in particular for pioneering the revolutionary SuperCorrelation technology. The Per Enge Early Achievement Award is presented in recognition of outstanding contributions made early in one’s career.

    Pascal Rochat received the Distinguished PTTI Service Award for advancing the state-of-the-art in high stability atomic clocks and for producing the only space-based H-maser in the world, operating on all Galileo satellites. The Distinguished PTTI Service Award is presented to recognize outstanding contributions related to the management of PTTI systems.

    Jordan D. Larson, Demoz Gebre-Egziabher and Jason H. Rife received the Samuel M. Burka Award for their paper “Gaussian-Pareto Overbounding of DGNSS Pseudoranges from CORS” published in the Spring 2019 issue of NAVIGATION, Journal of The Institute of Navigation, Vol. 66, No. 1, pp. 139-150. The Samuel M. Burka Award recognizes outstanding achievement in the preparation of a paper advancing the art and science of positioning, navigation and timing.

    Joseph J. Rushanan received the Captain P. V. H. Weems Award for sustained contributions to the design of GPS, including M-code, the L1C signal, and the promotion of assurance concepts for all GPS users. The Captain P. V. H. Weems Award is presented to individuals for continuing contributions to the art and science of navigation.

    André Hauschild received the Tycho Brahe Award for outstanding and sustained contributions in the field of GNSS-based navigation, timing and attitude determination of space vehicles. The Tycho Brahe Award is given in recognition of outstanding contributions to the science of space navigation, guidance and control.

    James J. Miller received the Norman P. Hays Award for exemplary leadership in establishing and sponsoring the National Space-based Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) Advisory Board to serve the worldwide user community. The Norman P. Hays Award is given in recognition of outstanding encouragement, inspiration and support contributing to the advancement of navigation.

    Zaher (Zak) M. Kassas received the Thomas L. Thurlow Award for foundational work in the theory and practice of exploiting signals of opportunity for accurate and reliable positioning, navigation and timing. The Thomas L. Thurlow Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the science of navigation.

    Suneel I. Sheikh received the Distinguished Service Award in recognition of his visionary leadership in promoting positioning, navigation and timing education through the establishment, promotion and administration of the ION Satellite Division’s Autonomous Snowplow Competition. The Distinguished Service Award recognizes extraordinary service to The Institute of Navigation.

  • Research Online: Integer ambiguity resolution in GPS/INS, UAV multiple laser-inertial nav

    Illustration of the contemplative real-time (CRT) window measurement timeline. The window contains a prior for the initial state, K GPS measurements, and many IMU measurements between each pair of GPS measurements. IMU measurement times are indicated as dots on the timeline. All of these items yield constraints on the estimated trajectory ˆX during the CRT window.
    Illustration of the contemplative real-time (CRT) window measurement timeline. The window contains a prior for the initial state, K GPS measurements, and many IMU measurements between each pair of GPS measurements. IMU measurement times are indicated as dots on the timeline. All of these items yield constraints on the estimated trajectory ˆX during the CRT window.

    Integer ambiguity resolution in multi-epoch GPS/INS

    A novel integer ambiguity resolution approach over a time window of GPS/IMU data enhances the reliability of obtaining high-accuracy position estimation, using carrier phase measurements, even in challenging environments. The method focuses on reducing computational cost. The achievable savings should be on the order of 104, while 600 has been demonstrated. The theoretical approach shows that the cost function can be decomposed into one part that determines the shape and vicinity of the trajectory, but is insensitive to the carrier phase integers and a position shift vector, and a second part that is sensitive to the carrier phase integer and can be solved to determine the required position shift so that the location of the trajectory is accurately known.

    By Yiming Chen, Sheng Zhao, and Jay A. Farrell, University of California, Riverside.

    Presented at IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology 2015.

    UAV multiple laser-inertial nav

    Graphic: By Yiming Chen, Sheng Zhao, and Jay A. Farrell, University of California, Riverside.Indoor Flight Demonstration Results of an Autonomous Multi-copter Using Multiple Laser Inertial Navigation, by Adam Schultz, Russell Gilabert, and Maarten Uijt de Haag, Ohio University.

    This paper discusses aspects of autonomy on a small-size multi-copter UAS for challenging environments, addresses in detail the modified proposed navigation algorithm, its integration with the flight controller for autonomous flight and the actual implementation on the multi-copter platform. The paper includes flight test results of a multi-copter UAS operating in an outdoor/indoor environment and shows some navigation and mapping performance results.

    Presented at ION-ITM 2016.

  • Research Online: Multi-sensor SLAM key to tactical situational awareness

    Rescue and military applications require rapid, accurate and reliable information about unknown environments.

    Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) is a key technology for providing an accurate and reliable infrastructure-free solution for indoor situational awareness.

    The researchers’ approach is to integrate a monocular camera, multiple inertial measurement units (IMUs), a barometer and a ranging sensor to obtain a solution for SLAM, as well as tactical motion information, such as detecting whether a rescue person or a soldier is running or crawling.
    In their paper, the authors discuss a particle filter implementation for integrating measurements from visual perception, a foot-mounted IMU, a barometer and sonar.

    The method developed is tested via experiments done in an office environment. Test setup and results are discussed in the paper.
    The results obtained using the developed method are anticipated to show improvement on the accuracy and reliability of monocular SLAM compared to previous methods.

    The proposed data fusion approach is expected to yield a vertical accuracy sufficient for floor identification in the test environment without utilizing Wi-Fi or other local infrastructure.

    The method is anticipated to advance the state of the art in infrastructure-free SLAM solutions based on a monocular camera.

    Also, the research will make significant progress towards a functioning infrastructure-free situational awareness system, which is desperately needed in the application areas in question.

    By Laura Ruotsalainen, Martti Kirkko-Jaakkola, Liang Chen, Simo Gröhn, Robert Guinness, Heidi Kuusniemi, Finnish Geospatial Research Institute (FGI), National Land Survey of Finland.
    Presented at ION International Technical Meeting 2016.

    Miniature Atomic Clocks

    “Enhanced Quantum Miniature Atomic Clock (MAC) Performance and Applications,” by Paul R. Gerry III, Will Krzewick, John Malcolmson, Microsemi.
    Microsemi has been developing small form factor atomic clocks for several years. These products have smaller size, lower power and higher performance than traditional atomic clocks.

    The recently enhanced Quantum Miniature Atomic Clock (MAC) is a small-size high-performance atomic clock with low power and low weight enabling a new range of applications previously not possible. The paper discusses the MAC performance, the performance grades and some of the applications that the MAC enables.

    Presented at the Precise Time and Time Interval (PTTI) Meeting, co-location with ION-ITM 2016.