Hexagon’s Positioning Intelligence division has achieved a milestone toward its goal of safe autonomy on the road. The division is developing functionally safe positioning technologies for fully autonomous vehicles and other applications.
A third-party audit has been completed that confirms process compliance with key automotive specifications ISO/TS 16949 and ISO 26262 Functional Safety Design Assurance. This is an important step toward the development of functionally safe new technology that meets the exceptional safety standards set by the automotive industry, Hexagon said.
“We’re thrilled to have our core engineering processes updated to meet the requirements of automotive applications,” said Jonathan Auld, vice president of Safety Critical Systems, Hexagon’s Positioning Intelligence division. “We are building on a 25+ year history in safety of life solutions for the marine and aviation industries, and we expect this leadership to serve us well in automotive.”
Q: How will safety issues raised by increasing autonomous traffic — in the air and on roads — affect the GNSS industry?
Sanchit Agarwal, VP, Field Operations, Nearmap
A: Due to increasing autonomous traffic, the GNSS industry will have to adopt the concepts of collective tracking mechanisms in the shared ecosystem. Inherently, all the cars/drones (rovers) will have the sensors to track the traffic “on-the-fly” and make intelligent navigation decisions, but in case of any system malfunction, the collective tracking of devices can facilitate “social” interactions between the rovers. This will serve as an added layer of security in case an autonomous social member goes rogue!
Zak M. Kassas, Assistant Professor, University of California, Riverside
A: Future autonomous vehicles will demand full situational awareness and extremely reliable, accurate and secure navigation systems. GNSS will not meet the stringent demands of these autonomous vehicles. To address the inevitable situations where GNSS signals become unusable (due to attenuation or interference) or untrustworthy (due to spoofing), receivers should be coupled with sensors such as IMUs, lidar and cameras, and exploit the plenitude of ambient signals of opportunity such as cellular, digital TV and Wi-Fi.
Jonathan Auld, VP of Engineering and Safety Critical Systems, Novatel
A: Safety issues raised by increasing autonomous automotive and airborne traffic will escalate the product development standards and performance requirements of GNSS software, hardware, and correction services used. The GNSS industry is challenged to increase accuracy on lower cost platforms by utilizing multi-frequency, multi-constellation, sensor fusion and precise point positioning. To be able to rely on GNSS in auto-guidance applications, the industry also needs to incorporate GNSS integrity functionalities into our products.
Esterline CMC Electronics and NovAtel Inc. have entered a new strategic partnership, extending their collaboration in GNSS positioning technology that started in the late 1990s.
The partnership will see NovAtel’s GNSS measurement technology integrated into a new Esterline CMC-designed multi-constellation, multi-frequency chipset for certified aviation use.
The DO-254 Level A certified chipset will allow both companies to develop new GNSS receiver solutions for use in a variety of safety critical applications, including DO-178C Level A certified products designed for commercial aviation, military and unmanned aerial systems (UAS).
Combining the capabilities of NovAtel’s GNSS expertise with Esterline CMC’s aviation and certification experience will allow the companies to bring innovative solutions to the market, meeting the requirements of new and evolving industry standards as the modern age of multi-constellation, multi-frequency GNSS positioning in aviation is ushered in, the companies said.
NovAtel and Esterline CMC plan to combine their resources to deliver competitive solutions with a new standard for excellence in this application space.
“Esterline CMC and NovAtel have a highly successful and growing relationship built on the strengths of both companies often described as ‘1+1 yields 3,’” said John Studenny, director, aviation GPS products at Esterline CMC. “While Esterline CMC Electronics is an acknowledged industry leader with its reliable, dependable, DAL-A certified CMA-5024 and CMA-6024 landing system receivers, our company will usher in a new generation of high-performance Multi-Constellation-Multi-Frequency (MCMF) GNSS products certified to the highest levels, supporting current and new aircraft GNSS precision approach.”
“We are proud to extend our long-standing and successful collaboration with Esterline CMC Electronics,” said Jonathan Auld, vice president of engineering and safety critical systems at NovAtel. “We believe that this partnership will strengthen the technology portfolio of both companies. NovAtel is a major supplier of precise GNSS technology to mission-critical military and civilian UAS, for example, and with this new, certified chipset we will extend our solution portfolio with assured positioning solutions to meet the emerging industry standards.”
The May issue of GPS World carries these three expert opinions on the question: How are autonomous vehicles and V2V technologies driving innovation within the GNSS industry?
Chaminda Basnyake
Chaminda Basnyake
Principal Engineer, Market Development,
Locata Corporation
We still have technical and cost versus performance challenges to meet the PNT needs of V2V and AV. Positioning and even timing expectations in deep urban areas are still not met reliably. As a result, ad hoc methods such as HD map-based nav — methods that work but are not scalable — have emerged. Innovations to deal with multipath, signal visibility and geometry are critical. Solutions that enable real-time mapping will be essential for scalable AV deployment.
Curtis Hay
Curtis Hay
Technical Fellow, GPS & Maps,
General Motors
Four key areas the commercial GNSS industry is pursuing include: low-cost, high-volume dual-frequency chipsets; broadly available PPP and network RTK corrections delivered either through mobile IP or satellite; precise maps for highways, urban centers and trunk roads that achieve 10-cm localization relative to WGS-84; and improved integrity monitoring and fault detection. The National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration also released a proposed rule-making with tight standards for GNSS performance: 1.5 meters, 1-sigma confidence.
Jonathan Auld
Jonathan Auld
Director, Safety Critical Systems,
NovAtel
Unlike traditional GNSS applications, automotive positioning requires high-precision accuracy at extremely low cost and size. Most importantly, this performance must be achieved with high reliability while operating in the toughest environments. Solving this positioning challenge is driving innovation in the system engineering of multi-frequency receivers and antennas along with extending performance through sensor fusion with lower cost devices. Additionally, there is significant work in the area of safety and integrity for land-based applications.
Here’s a preview of the V2V countdown article from the May issue, introduced by Chaminda Basnyake, an engineer at Locata Corporation:
The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in December 2016 for the deployment of Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC)-based vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) safety applications as part of the connected vehicles (CV) and automated vehicles (AV) initiative. If all goes well, this mean a V2V deployment mandate for new passenger vehicles likely starting in 2021 and reaching all new vehicles within 2–3 years.
Standards required for V2V deployment were published in 2016 or before, including the V2V Minimum Performance Requirements SAE 2945/1, leading the way for commercial product development. The USDOT, which has been the catalyst behind V2V industry R&D starting from the automaker collaboration CAMP (Crash Avoidance Metrix Partnership) in 2001, is conducting CV Pilot programs in New York, Wyoming and Florida. These offer the opportunity for state DOTs, vendors and all other stakeholders to test the technology in real-life scenarios.
Automotive OEMs have been developing this technology for more than a decade, and the NPRM is the beginning of a race toward integrating V2V to production vehicles. Deploying V2V technology requires the close cooperation of OEMs, their suppliers and many other stakeholders.
This article captures the views of major players in the CV marketplace on expected deployment timelines, remaining challenges such as reliable positioning technology, integration with existing systems, and the implications on AV technology.
