Tag: Rockwell

Defense takes center stage at 2018 GPS World Leadership Awards Ceremony

An Air Force professor was honored for years of work exploring every PNT technology imaginable in conjunction with GPS; Rockwell Collins launched a new MicroSTRIKE multi-GNSS chip for military and professional applications, available globally on a non-ITAR basis; and Spirent Federal previewed its SimMNSA, a new M-code simulation option delivering to authorized customers by the end of the year.

John Raquet, AFIT, accepts 2018 Leadership Award for Services from Justin Eldredge, Spirent Federal. (Photo: Melanie Beus)

John Raquet, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Air Force Institute of Technology, received the 2018 Leadership Award for Services. Raquet was recognized for work he and his team at the Autonomy & Navigation Technology (ANT) Center developed on PNT sensors and systems utilizing almost every available source, including GPS, GNSS, inertial, vision, lidar, magnetic field, pseudolites, radar, terrain mapping, signals of opportunity, star trackers, radio ranging, 3D audio, X-ray pulsars, clocks, and more.

Raquet has co-authored many defense-oriented technical papers over the past three decades. See the list at the end of this article for some of the most recent ones.

His articles in GPS World magazine include “Correlator beamforming for low-cost multipath mitigation,” January 2017; “Chip Transition-Edge Based Signal Tracking for Ultra-Precise GNSS Monitoring Applications,” August 2015; and “A Vision-Aided Integrity Monitor for Precision Relative Navigation Systems,” July 2015.

MNSA

Justin Eldredge from Spirent Federal introduced Raquet and bestowed the award, after updating the audience on Spirent’s most recent advance: “This year we maintain our position of being first to market with new signals, with the launch of SimMNSA. We’re currently in the final test phase of this new M-code option and it will delivering to several authorized customers by the end of the year. If M-code signals aren’t in the spectrum of testing for you, we offer products that simulate all other GNSS signals, plus a variety of other sensors.”

SimMNSA was demo’d at the Spirent Federal Systems booth at the neighboring ION GNSS+ conference. A video presentation of SimMNSA (for Modernized Navstar Security Algorithm) is available here. Spirent’s new software will support M-code using MNSA. M-code is an updated GPS military signal that is being rolled out as part of the modernization of the current GPS constellation. Until now, AES and SDS have been the only methods authorized to be used within a GNSS simulator to produce M-code. As the long-awaited MNSA M-code signals become available, Spirent Federal Systems will make this capability available to authorized users on the GSS9000 series simulator.

ANT

After receiving the 2018 Leadership Award, Raquet spoke about his work at theAutonomy & Navigation Technology Center. “Sometimes I called the ANT the Crazy Idea Factory. We’ve tried lots and lots of things. I think I have the best job in the world, because I get to experiment with many, many things, and work with amazing people.”

John Raquet, U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology (Photo: Melanie Beus)

“This is not the kind of community where you build something once and you’re done, you put it away. This is a growing worldwide enterprise that takes new talent to come in and fill the spots that many of the people in this room have occupied. I’m privileged to see some of the students that we’ve worked with to then go on and fill some of the gaps, really do some amazing things.”

MicroSTRIKE, a non-ITAR GPS chip

Two awards prior to Raquet’s Services award, Phil Froom from Rockwell Collins, UK, spoke about an innovative venture from Rockwell and partners QinetiQ UK as he bestowed the Satellites award.

“For many years most of you here this evening will have known Rockwell Collins as a reliable partner in the delivery of Secure (encrypted) GPS receiver, and indeed, we are still the largest producer of encrypted military GPS solutions in the world. Our partners QinetiQ also have great expertise in the design and delivery of high assurance low SWAP GPS receivers, bringing together many years of expertise of our two companies in this new venture.

Phil Froom, business development lead for Rockwell Collins, Europe, Middle East and Asia (Photo: Melanie Beus)

“However, over the past few years we have seen our military and professional (government) users looking to greater flexibility in their use of GNSS, as new capabilities and constellations come on line. But with that flexibility, a retention of assurance and where possible, mitigation of threats. For this reason, last May, Rockwell Collins and QinetiQ signed an Alliance Agreement in London, to produce a new family of high-assurance, multi-constellation GNSS receivers for professional and military use.

“This new family of receivers is aimed to be complementary to the current encrypted family of Rockwell Collins receivers in service across the globe, but allow the customer to select his level of capability and protection based upon his operational, political or even financial needs. The new “MICRO” family of GNSS receivers will offer a multi-constellation open service (MCOS) GNSS capability, which will initially provide two receivers; the first, to be known as the Q40-MicroPNT, will address dismounted low dynamics requirements, and the second, the Q40-MicroSTRIKE, will be a gun hard, high dynamics receiver.

“You will note I said they are MCOS receivers. Therefore, they will not include an encryption device, will be Non-ITAR and will actually be produced in Europe, under the control of Rockwell Collins UK. QinetiQ are today working on the Q40 ASIC and, once available, this will be incorporated into these first two Micro Family receivers.

“These receivers will be of a common format to our existing and highly successful SAASM based MicroGRAM receivers and will offer users and OEMs the ability to select an MCOS receiver, or a SAASM (or ultimately M-Code) receiver, of a common form – factor, to meet their mission or platform needs. Thus allowing OEMs to reduce costs in integrating different form-factors, and to allow users to hold common hardware, but mounting mission specific receivers.

“We are of course extremely excited about this Alliance with QinetiQ and equally by the prospect of what it will bring to our existing and future users as we all move forward into this new era of GNSS capability.”

Check out videos from the event below. Click on the icon in the top left hand corner to choose which video you’d like to watch.

Recent technical papers co-authored by John Raquet.
• “Magnetic field navigation in an indoor environment,” Ubiquitous Positioning Indoor Navigation and Location Based Service, (Aiding an inertial navigation system when GNSS signals are not available, by taking advantage of the uniqueness of magnetic field variations);
• “Comparison of two image and inertial sensor fusion techniques for navigation in unmapped environments,” IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, (navigation of miniature aerial vehicles (MAVs) couplimng information from an IMU with visual information from an electro-optical camera);
• “Real-time UWB-OFDM radar-based navigation in unknown terrain,” IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems (a signal processing algorithm and simulation study for aerial navigation with an ultrawideband orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (UWB-OFDM) radar in GPS-denied environments;
• “Navigation in GPS denied environments: Feature-aided inertial systems,” Air Force Research Lab, Eglin AFB FL Munitions Directorate (latest alt-nav trends for navigating in difficult urban, indoor, and underground environments where typical GPS receivers do not function;
• “Coded aperture aided navigation and geolocation systems,” US Patent office #8577539 (A micro air vehicle having a navigation system with a single camera to determine position and attitude of the vehicle using changes the direction to the observed features);
• “Multisensor navigation systems: A remedy for GNSS vulnerabilities?” Proceedings of the IEEE (A multisensor navigation approach to GNSS-challenged environments using inertial measurement units (IMUs), barometers, magnetometers, odometers, and digital compasses);
• “Large scale image aided navigation,” IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems (images from an airborne camera match features against a reference image to compute global position);
• and many more.

October 10, 2018
Rockwell, GPS Source Demonstrate M-Code GPS Receiver in DAGR Distributed Device

The Rockwell Collins GB-GRAM-M (pictured here) is the product of one of the MUE card development contracts, awarded by the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center. The program is developing the next generation of GPS user equipment to include a new military signal and enhanced security architecture

GPS Source and Rockwell Collins have successfully demonstrated the ability of the Military-Code Ground-Based GPS Receiver Application Module (GB-GRAM-M) receiver card to fit within the Defense Advanced GPS Receiver (DAGR) Distributed Device (D3).

GPS Source and Rockwell Collins are the first to provide this capability for the M-code signal, which is one of the key elements in the modernization of military GPS capabilities.

The initial fit checks confirm that the Rockwell Collins GB-GRAM-M Type II receiver fits within the volume of the D3 and is able to acquire, track and navigate using C/A, Y and M-code while enclosed in the unit. Initial testing also validated backwards compatibility of the IS-GPS-153 serial port interface of the GB-GRAM-M receiver.

“These outstanding initial results confirm our confidence that the MGUE integration with the D3, when authorized to proceed, will be achieved in short order and with a very high probability of success,” said GPS Source CEO Robert Horton.

Mike Jones, vice president and general manager of Communication and Navigation Products for Rockwell Collins, added, “This demonstration paves the way for the D3 to incorporate the next-generation GPS capability that our GB-GRAM-M provides.”

GPS Source’s D3 supports new or retrofit programs integrating radio or communications equipment. It removes the burden of multiple SAASM GPS receivers or antennas. As a Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module GPS router, it is designed to meet the U.S. Army’s DAGR Distributed Device (D3) performance requirements, mounted into an existing DAGR vehicle mount, utilizing standard DAGR accessories.

The Rockwell Collins GB-GRAM-M is the product of one of the MUE card development contracts, awarded by the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center. The program is developing the next generation of GPS user equipment to include a new military signal and enhanced security architecture.

August 31, 2015
Rockwell to Provide Secure GPS Receivers for Harris Tactical Radios

Rockwell Collins has signed a contract to provide its MicroGRAM GPS receivers (pictured here) for Harris Corporation’s tactical radios, bringing secure, jam-resistant GPS capability to products such as the Falcon III AN/PRC-158 and AN/PRC-117G.

Rockwell Collins has signed a contract to provide its MicroGRAM GPS receivers for Harris Corporation’s tactical radios, bringing secure, jam-resistant GPS capability to products such as the Falcon III AN/PRC-158 and AN/PRC-117G.

The contract, which represents the largest annual purchase of MicroGRAM, calls for Rockwell Collins to provide 5,000 GPS receivers to Harris over the next three years. Deliveries began in January.

“MicroGRAM enables Harris Corporation to meet military customer demands for embedded, secure GPS,” said Mike Jones, vice president and general manager of Communication and Navigation Products for Rockwell Collins. “MicroGRAM protects warfighters from the growing jamming and spoofing threats on the battlefield, while enhancing survivability and mission success.”

With this selection, Jones said Harris is one of the first major original equipment manufacturers to commit to using MicroGRAM to meet the Department of Defense’s (DoD) requirement to use Selective Availability/Anti-Spoofing Module (SAASM) technology in its products.

“Harris is pleased to continue our long relationship with Rockwell Collins as our provider of GRAM SAASM GPS modules. Integrating the MicroGRAM receiver into a number of our new tactical radios allows us to reduce the size and weight while extending the battery life of our products,” said George Helm, president, Department of Defense business, Harris RF Communications. “The end result is delivering reliable situational awareness down to the individual warfighter.”

MicroGRAM is the world’s smallest, lightest, lowest powered SAASM-based GPS receiver. It enables military micro-users who require secure Position, Navigation & Timing (PNT) to comply with U.S. DoD policy that all combat and combat support systems use SAASM-based GPS devices. This capability is critical at a time when threats to commercial GPS are increasing. The use of unprotected commercial non-SAASM GPS devices has inherent vulnerabilities which introduce a false sense of situational awareness on the battlefield.

March 18, 2015
New Report Considers GNSS Market Outlook 2015-2020
Research and Markets has added the report “Global Navigation Satellite Systems Market Outlook 2020” to its offerings. The global core GNSS market is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 9 percent during 2015-2020.

In the report, the analysts have identified and deciphered the market dynamics in important GNSS industry segments, highlighting the areas offering promising possibilities for companies to boost their growth, according to Research and Markets. The report studies the market by sectors including location-based services (LBS), transportation (further divided into road navigation, rail navigation, air navigation and marine navigation), surveying and agriculture. The GNSS application market is further studied by region: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of World.

The report provides a complete overview of the GNSS market globally. All the current trends and drivers, coupled with potential growth areas of the GNSS industry, have been evaluated in the report. Furthermore, the report provides information on opportunities in the industry for different companies in the chapter titled Opportunity Assessment.

Additionally, to provide an exhaustive knowledge of the prospects for GNSS players on the geographical front, the report provides comprehensive knowledge of the 10 most worthwhile GNSS markets around the world (U.S., Canada, UK, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, China, South Korea and India). It includes information about the present state and future outlook of the LBS and telematics markets in these countries along with information about their personal navigation systems such as GPS, BeiDou,Galileo, GLONASS, QZSS and IRNSS.

The report also looks into the competitive landscape covering business overviews, key financials, product analyses, recent developments and strengths and weaknesses of each of the players.

Key trends considered in the report include:
- Driverless Car: New GNSS Technology Use
- Indoor GNSS Positioning Poised for Growth
- People, Pets and Thing Finder: The Next Attraction
- GNSS Based Products: A Burgeoning Market Opportunity
- GNSS Jamming Gaining Attention
Companies mentioned include:
- AgJunction
- CSR
- Furuno Electric Co Ltd.
- Garmin Ltd.
- MiTAC International Corp.
- Raytheon Company
- Rockwell Collins
- TomTom NV
- Topcon Corporation
- Trimble Navigation Ltd.
March 13, 2015
Out in Front: Ten Big Ones in Five

At the opposite end of this book, my esteemed colleague Eric Gakstatter gives you his Top Five news stories of the recently passed year, from a system point of view. Spend five minutes here in this column, and I’ll toss up the Top Ten for GNSS business, as reported in this magazine.

Not the biggest money deals or revenue generators, at least not in the short term. But the most significant in terms of breaking new ground, pushing out frontiers, integrating with other technologies — the modes through which industry grows and prospers.

I’m leafing through my back copies in reverse order. This listing goes not by prominence, but by reverse chronology.

PNDs Up, Then Down By 2015. When you are doing well, rest assured that someone is gaining on you. Smartphones will gradually take over the personal nav market. Stay flexible, innovate, and be prepared to change horses in midstream.

Rockwell Delivers New MUE. While military user equipment gave this industry its start, the receivers themselves have always lagged behind product available to civil users. Still, security features in the GB-GRAM-M foreshadow what all receivers may eventually require.

Triumph V.S. from JAVAD. Supercharged with capabilities, a veritable surveyor’s arsenal, and probably a gamechanger — whether or not it makes it in the marketplace. A visionary product.

NovAtel OEMV-1DF. Almost every month, another smallest-yet consumer-grade GPS receiver emerges. But when high-precision, dual-frequency receivers grind down their footprint and power requirement, you know this is a future wave that will sweep everything along. Not the only tiny high-performance OEM receiver, mind you, just the latest.

LLC Rusnavgeoset. The joint venture between Trimble and a Russian company will help drive the commercialization of GLONASS, an aspect that system has not yet truly seen. We all talk about the second GNSS of choice, but the second commercialized GNSS is what we really want.

Smartphone Explosion. The flipside to the first story. This year’s models from Apple iPhone, Google Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone 7, and all their kin, if not built around location as Apple claimed, certainly have it as core feature. The flip of the flipside: pricing for the GPS component is cut-throat. Absolutely the worst you’ve ever seen.

GPS-Enabled USB Drive. That’s all it takes — well, download some software and buy a contract — to make a laptop location-aware.
Spirent Assisted-GLONASS Testing. One more sign that the Russian system, against betmakers’ odds, may yet become the trusty sidekick. Soon, if your mobile doesn’t have it, it’s not  top-of-class.

One-Chip Receivers-Plus. Hardly breaking news, since it’s been talked about and even done, sort of, for years. TI, Broadcom, Qualcomm, CSR, and silent runners like Sony and Panasonic are all adding some communication transceiver(s) to GPS and squeezing them onto a single piece of silicon.

No News Is Big News. Actually not reported here or anywhere, because neither party wants to reveal anything, but some of the biggest deals are cut by chip manufacturers (such as STMicroelectronics, to name just one), with automobile makers around the world. Like it or not, the car/truck is the dominant mechanical paradigm of our age. And if location is in it . . .

We are indeed fortunate to be part of, and partners in, such a vital scene. Best wishes for this New Year.

January 1, 2011