GPS World

Tag: public comment

  • DJI urges FAA to reconsider ‘flawed’ remote ID rule in 89-page response

    DJI urges FAA to reconsider ‘flawed’ remote ID rule in 89-page response

    Photo: iStock.com/valio84sl
    Photo: iStock.com/valio84sl

    Drone-maker DJI has filed an 89-page formal comment urging the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to allow drone pilots to choose which method of remote identification to use with their drones.

    DJI’s filing includes an independent economic study that concludes the FAA’s Remote ID proposal would prove nine times as costly as the FAA’s estimates, imposing $5.6 billion worth of burdens on society over the next decade. The analysis finds many of those costs could be obviated if drone pilots could choose between two different methods of compliance, rather than doing both as the FAA proposed.

    The economic analysis was prepared by Christian Dippon, Managing Director at NERA Economic Consulting, who considered the societal costs of the FAA’s proposed rule. He concluded the average monthly cost of a remote ID network-based service for a drone user would be $9.83, rather than the FAA’s $2.50 estimate; that demand for drones would fall 10 percent if the FAA’s proposals were imposed as written; and that total costs over 10 years would be $5.6 billion instead of the FAA’s $582 million estimate.

    “We have known for years that Remote ID will be required by governments worldwide and will provide members of the public with confidence in productive drone uses, but the FAA’s deeply flawed proposal poses a real threat to how American businesses, governments, educators, photographers and enthusiasts can use drones,” said DJI vice president of Policy & Legal Affairs Brendan Schulman. “We hope our detailed economic analysis and comments, as well as tens of thousands of comments from other concerned parties, will encourage the FAA to develop a more risk-based, balanced and efficient remote ID rule, so our customers and the entire industry are not hurt by the final outcome.”

    DJI’s comment was one of more than 53,000 filed by the FAA’s March 2 deadline, available at this link. DJI’s comment is also available for download.

    Remote ID allows authorities to identify and monitor airborne drones in near-real time, so they can see the location of the drone as well as a serial number to identify its owner. Congress tasked the FAA in 2016 with exploring consensus-based technology standards that could lead to Remote ID regulatory solutions.

    In late 2019, the FAA proposed that almost all drones should broadcast that information directly to nearby receivers, as well as transmit it over wireless networks to a service provider’s database, with an anticipated monthly subscription fee for that service.

    DJI and many other drone stakeholders have instead said the FAA should let drone operators choose whether to use broadcast or network solutions for Remote ID. Any new Remote ID rule is unlikely to take effect before 2024.

     

  • GPS Directorate requests additional public comment

    Following the 2018 Public Interface Control Working Group (ICWG) in September, the GPS Directorate invites additional public comments on the following Proposed Interface Revision Notices (PIRNs) due to the nature of changes since the June 2018 review.

    The documents are available in the Public ICWG section of GPS.gov.

    • PIRN-IS-200J-001, v2: NAVSTAR GPS Space Segment / Navigation User Interface
    • PIRN-IS-705E-001, v2: NAVSTAR GPS Space Segment / User Segment L5 Interface
    • PIRN-IS-800E-001, v2: NAVSTAR GPS Space Segment / User Segment L1C Interface
    • PIRN-ICD-240B-001, v2: NAVSTAR GPS Control Segment to User Support Community Interface
    • PIRN-ICD-870C-001, v2: NAVSTAR GPS Control Segment to User Support Community Interface

    Comments are due Dec. 18. Submit all comments following the directions found on GPS.gov.

    The minutes for the 2018 Public Interface Control Working Group (ICWG) held in September are also available on GPS.gov.

  • ION requests final comments on GNSS SDR Metadata Standard

    ION requests final comments on GNSS SDR Metadata Standard

    Logo: ION

    The Institute of Navigation’s GNSS Software Defined Radio Metadata Standard working group is seeking its second and final public comment on the standard through Nov. 30.

    In recent years, there has been a proliferation of software-defined radio (SDR) data-collection systems and
    processing platforms designed for GNSS receiver applications or those that support GNSS bands.

    For post-processing, correctly interpreting the GNSS SDR sampled datasets produced or consumed by these systems has historically been a cumbersome and error-prone process. This is because these systems necessarily produce datasets of various formats, the subtleties of which are often lost in translation when communicating between the producer and consumer of these datasets.

    The GNSS SDR Metadata Standard standardizes the metadata associated with GNSS SDR sampled data files and the layout of the binary sample files.

    The standard defines parameters and schema to express the contents of SDR sample data files. It is designed to promote the interoperability of GNSS SDR data-collection systems and processors. The metadata files are human readable and in XML format.

    A compliant open-source C++ API for reading metadata and binary samples is also officially supported to promote ease of integration into existing SDR systems.

    Comments can be made by going to sdr.ion.org and clicking on “Submit a Comment.” Public comments are being accepted through Nov. 30.

  • ION requests comment on GNSS SDR Metadata Standard

    ION requests comment on GNSS SDR Metadata Standard

    The Institute of Navigation’s GNSS Software Defined Radio Metadata Standard working group is seeking public comment on the standard through Dec. 31.

    In recent years there has been a proliferation of software-defined radio (SDR) data-collection systems and processing platforms designed for GNSS receiver applications or those that support GNSS bands. For post-processing, correctly interpreting the GNSS SDR sampled datasets produced or consumed by these systems has historically been a cumbersome and error-prone process.

    This is because these systems necessarily produce datasets of various formats, the subtleties of which are often lost in translation when communicating between the producer and consumer of these datasets.

    This specification standardizes the metadata associated with GNSS SDR sampled data files and the layout of the binary sample files.

    The GNSS SDR Metadata Standard defines parameters and schema to express the contents of SDR sample data files. The standard is designed to promote the interoperability of GNSS SDR data collection systems and processors.

    The metadata files are human readable and in XML format. A compliant open source C++ API for reading metadata and binary samples is also officially supported to promote ease of integration into existing SDR systems.

    Review the formal standards document and click on Submit a Comment to provide feedback. Comments will be accepted through December 31, 2017.

  • OGC seeks public comment on conceptual hydrography model

    The membership of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) seeks public comment on its WaterML 2 – Part 3, Surface Hydrology Features Conceptual Model.

    The OGC WaterML 2 – Part 3, Surface Hydrology Features Conceptual Model (HY_Features) is part of an intended ‘OGC WaterML 2’ suite of standards that groups water-related OGC standards. The candidate standard follows Part 1: Timeseries, and Part 2: Ratings, Gaugings and Sections.

    The candidate standard is available for review at portal.opengeospatial.org/files/?artifact_id=72353&version=3. Comments are due by Feb. 16 and should be submitted to [email protected].

    The candidate HY_Features standard defines a common feature model for the identification and description of surface hydrologic features. The feature model is based on established models and patterns in use in the Hydrology domain and endorsed by WMO and UNESCO, such as those documented in the “International Glossary of Hydrology.”

    The candidate HY_Features standard also defines a common conceptual information model for surface hydrologic features independent of their geometric representation and scale. The model describes fundamental relationship types that exist among major components of the hydrosphere. This includes relationships such as hierarchies of catchments, segmentation of watercourses, and topological connectivity of hydrologic features based on the flow and conservation of water.

    The standard is intended to be used to document and share information about real-world objects that are studied in a wide range of hydrologic study types. The original design goal for HY_Features was to link hydrologic information across the scientific and technical programs of organizations with local to global scope, and to assist in discovery, access, and use of hydrologic data from different sources.

    The HY_Features model is designed to support many types of hydrologic information and sub-disciplines. The model supports referencing information about a hydrologic feature across disparate information systems or products, thereby improving data integration within and among organizations.

    Similarly, the model can be applied to cataloging of observations, model results, or other study information involving hydrologic features. The ability to represent the same catchment, river, or other hydrologic feature in several ways is critical for aggregation of cross-referenced or related features into integrated datasets and data products on global, regional, or basin scales.

    Agreement on common concepts and methods is necessary to enable semantic interoperability of hydrologic data and services. The HY_Features model was developed in order to formalize concepts and relationships of hydrologic and hydrographic features using the WMO/UNESCO “International Glossary of Hydrology” as a starting point.

  • OGC seeks comment on land and infrastructure standard

    The membership of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) seeks public comment on its candidate OGC Land and Infrastructure Conceptual Model Standard (LandInfra). Deadline for comments is March 2.

    LandInfra defines concepts for land and civil engineering infrastructure facilities.This conceptual standard will provide a basis for one or more implementation standards for encoding infrastructure data. Developers will use the encoding standard to implement software and services that enable users of diverse technologies and vendor platforms to efficiently exchange information about land and civil engineering infrastructure facilities.

    The extended stakeholder community for this standard spans civil engineering (such as road and rail) and surveying; land parcel; facility and asset management; and government information communities. It is applicable throughout the entire facility lifecycle, including planning, design, construction, operations, maintenance, and removal. It represents a seminal venture into GIS-CAD-BIM integration.

    After evaluating the LandXML 1.2 schema, the OGC Land and Infrastructure Domain Working Group (LandInfraDWG) recommended the development of an alternative standard to be part of the OGC standards baseline. With shared interest by the buildingSMART International Infrastructure Room, it was agreed that this would be a concepts-only document — encodings such as GML, IFC, and possibly others would follow as separate implementation standardization efforts. An anticipated GML encoding will be compatible with other GML standards such as CityGML. Having a common underlying Conceptual Model across all LandInfra encodings will help ensure compatibility across multiple encoding standards.

    The OGC is an international consortium of more than 515 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OGC standards support interoperable solutions that “geo-enable” the web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. OGC standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled.