Catapult, a sports performance technology company, says that it helped athletes at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo win 24 medals. Catapult athletes took part in rugby, football and rowing, representing various countries. Among athletes using Catapult were members of the Canadian women’s football team, who helped Canada win gold for the first time in the sport.
“We strive every day to find the improvements that unleash the full potential of all our athletes and teams, and we’re proud to see our customers’ hard work pay off on the world stage,” said Will Lopes, CEO of Catapult. “Following an unprecedented year of delayed and disrupted training, athletes were able to use our technology to continue to compete at the highest level and perform at their best.”
The athletes were wearing the Vector system, which provides data to aid decisions on performance, risk and return to play. The Vector GNSS/LPS device combines advanced GNSS capability with Catapult’s ClearSky LPS to deliver tracking data both indoors and outdoors.
Rohde & Schwarz has expanded the capabilities of its R&S SMBV100A/B GNSS simulator and R&S CMW500 LTE network simulator to operate with Vector CANoe .Car2x, a software tool for simulation, development and test of V2X-based communication applications.
Image: Rohde & Schwarz
The solution enables engineers to easily verify critical end-to-end safety-related V2X scenarios in a lab environment. It uses the C-V2X software package for the R&S CMW500 to simulate the physical- and MAC-layer, transmitting and receiving data over the simulated PC5 interface. This covers ideal, faded and congested channel conditions to the device under test (DUT). In its current form, the solution supports both GNSS and PSSS/SSSS sidelink synchronization options.
Rohde & Schwarz and Vector have successfully demonstrated its solution, which is designed to configure and run traffic scenarios to comprehensively test the physical layer 3GPP Rel. 14 up to the application layer of C-V2X ECUs in a lab environment.
Rohde & Schwarz is demonstrating the test solution at Mobile World Congress 2019 in Barcelona in hall 6, booth 6C40, Feb. 25-28.
The automotive industry is evolving toward connected and autonomous vehicles that offer many benefits, such as improved safety, less traffic congestion, reduced environmental impact, and lower capital expenditure. With the trend to equip vehicles with 3GPP Release 14 C-V2X ECUs, peer-to-peer data transfer in ad-hoc networks between vehicles will be realized. All vehicles share location, speed and trajectory, enabling warnings regarding on-road dangers to be shared between drivers.
Applications cover use cases such as vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, data exchange with roadway infrastructure (V2I), and interaction with vulnerable road users such as pedestrians (V2P). Data communication is implemented in the 5.8 GHz and 5.9 GHz intelligent transportation system (ITS) spectrum bands.
Traffic scenarios
CANoe .Car2x offers a range of functions designed to configure and run traffic scenarios. This allows the stimulation of a C-V2X control unit according to a defined traffic situation that tests the implemented application in a structured manner.
The included Car2x Scenario Editor supports the creation of traffic scenarios using a graphical interface. CANoe .Car2x generates the corresponding ITS communication based on the test scenario. The scenario is then played back with the R&S CMW500 providing the radio access layer with the specific physical interface. This verifies data transmission and reception over the PC5 interface so that the functions of the ECU can be tested comprehensively.
The combined solution covers all layers – the complete stack, 3GPP Radio Access Layers for C-V2X Mode 4, region specific ITS protocol layers such as EU ITS-G5 and U.S. WAVE and the ITS application message sets.
This enables testing of specific use cases such as Emergency Electronic Brake Light (EEBL), Left-Turn Assist (LTA) or Intersection Movement Assist (IMA), as well as more complex scenarios with multiple simulated vehicles such as a congested highway.
Additionally, security mechanisms could also be verified running simulations with both valid and invalid signed certificates. On top of this CANoe supports all common automotive bus connectivity such as CAN, LIN, MOST, FlexRay and Automotive Ethernet, enabling the test engineer to analyze or stimulate the ECU within an entire system from their desk.
By extending the solution with the VN4610 interface from Vector, customers can access IEEE 802.11p and CAN (FD) networks as well. This enables users to analyze and test C-V2X and IEEE 802.11p (DSRC) communication and related applications with a single setup and a common user interface.
“C-V2X device testing through the application layer is a significant step towards achieving the goal of having fully connected vehicles to improve road safety,” said Anton Messmer, vice president of Mobile Radio Testers at Rohde & Schwarz. “Our efforts in developing and verifying C-V2X end-to-end application scenarios are enabling user equipment manufacturers and OEMs to reduce the time needed to roll out C-V2X technology on a worldwide basis.”
“CANoe .Car2x has a strong focus on testing V2X based protocols and ADAS applications. This combined solution, CANoe .Car2x with the R&S CMW500, enables our customers to stimulate the V2X ECU with real scenario data in order to perform tests from physical layer up to the application,” said Stefan Krauß, director of Tools for Network and Distribution Systems at Vector. “The collaboration on this solution shows what can be achieved when leading players from the automotive and telecommunication industries work hand in hand.”
Hemisphere GNSS has released its RTK-enabled Vector V500 smart antenna. The company made the announcement at the Oceanology International conference being held this week in London, U.K.
The V500 supports multi-frequency GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo, QZSS and IRNSS (with future firmware upgrade and activation) for simultaneous satellite tracking. The V500 is powered by Hemisphere’s Athena RTK (real-time kinematic) engine and is Atlas L-band capable.
Using Hemisphere’s Eclipse Vector technology, the all-in-one V500 is a complete compass system that offers GNSS-based heading, pitch, roll, heave and RTK positioning, the company said.
The V500 introduces support for Ethernet, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi in addition to NMEA 0183 and NMEA 2000 and offers unmatched ease of installation.
Purpose-built for challenging applications, the V500’s rugged enclosure works reliably in harsh environments and is designed for professional marine applications requiring high-precision heading combined with RTK or Atlas positioning.
The V500 is Hemisphere’s flagship rugged smart antenna. It combines the recently announced Eclipse Vector H328 OEM board with two superior multipath- and noise-rejecting antennas (spaced 50 cm apart) in a single enclosure.
The V500 requires a single power/data cable connection, allowing for fast and reliable installations even in the presence of strong radio transmissions.
According to Hemisphere GNSS, the V500 delivers 0.17 degree heading accuracy along with RTK positioning and Atlas L-band accuracies of up to 8 cm (95 percent).
“The Vector V500 combines our expertise in GNSS, smart antenna design, and our new technology features such as Atlas,” said Lyle Geck, senior product manager at Hemisphere GNSS. “With very competitive RTK performance and the simplicity of installation offered by the all-in-one smart antenna design, it is an incredible product.”
Atlas GNSS Global Correction Service. Atlas is a flexible and scalable GNSS-based global L-band correction service providing robust performance and correction data for GPS, GLONASS and BeiDou, the company said. Atlas delivers correction signals via L-band satellites to provide accuracies ranging from sub-meter to sub-decimeter levels, and leverages approximately 200 reference stations worldwide, providing coverage to virtually the entire globe.
Atlas is available on all Hemisphere Atlas-capable single- and multi-frequency, multi-GNSS hardware and complements third-party GNSS receivers by using Atlas corrections with Hemisphere’s SmartLink and BaseLink capabilities. Atlas creates fast convergence times, and is robust and reliable near wharfs, piers, offshore rigs, cranes and other overhead obstructions.
Atlas Basic provides users of both single- and multi-frequency Atlas-capable hardware the ability to achieve better than SBAS performance anywhere Atlas correction service is available. Atlas Basic offers accuracy of 30 cm (pass-to-pass 95%) to 50 cm (absolute 95%) and offers instantaneous sub-meter accuracy.
The Vector V500 is featured in the Hemisphere GNSS booth (G500) at the Oceanology International exhibition and conference in London, UK, March 13-15. The new V500 will be available soon through Hemisphere’s global dealer network.
