Piksi is a low-cost, high-performance GPS receiver with real-time kinematic (RTK) functionality for centimeter-level relative positioning accuracy.
Its small form factor, fast position-solution update rate, and low-power consumption make Piksi ideal for integration into autonomous vehicles and portable surveying equipment. An open-source architecture with a high-performance DSP on-board and our flexible correlation accelerator make it the perfect platform for GNSS research.
Piksi is designed for autonomous vehicle guidance, such as formation flight and autonomous landing; GPS/GNSS research; and surveying systems.
Swift Navigation is a San Francisco-based startup building centimeter-accurate GPS technology for automotive, surveying, robotics, agriculture and drones.
The company says its products are 100 times more accurate than the GPS in a cell phone, at a tenth of the price of the competition.
In November, the company raised $11 million in a series-A investment round led by Pierre Lamond and Lior Susan at Eclipse Ventures. Swift Navigation plans to use the funds for taking current customers to scale and growing their team, with a focus on core engineering. Another focus continues to be research and development, with a second new product due out this year.
Bordelon Marine, providers of vessel services to operators in the Gulf of Mexico and around the world, has selected acoustically aided inertial navigation technology from Sonardyne Inc., Houston, for its new ultra-light intervention vessel (ULIV) Brandon Bordelon.
The dual Ranger 2 Pro DP-INS systems, the highest specification available, will be used to track remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs)during inspection, repair and maintenance activities and provide an independent position reference for the vessel’s Marine Technologies Class 2 dynamic positioning system.
Specialized vessels such as the Brandon Bordelon conventionally rely on GNSS and ultra-short baseline (USBL) acoustics as their primary sources of dynamic positioning reference data.
However, a vessel’s station-keeping capability can be compromised in the event that the USBL is affected by thruster aeration or noise and the GNSS signal is simultaneously interrupted. The latter is particularly common around equatorial regions and during periods of high solar radiation.
Sonardyne’s Ranger 2 Pro DP-INS system addresses this operational vulnerability. It aids vessel positioning by exploiting the long term accuracy of Sonardyne’s Wideband 2 acoustic signal technology with high integrity, high update rate inertial measurements. The resulting navigation output has the ability to ride-through short-term acoustic disruptions and is completely independent from GNSS.
The Brandon Bordelon was delivered at the end of 2015 and is under a 60-day contract with Tidewater Subsea. Designed to support complex inspection, repair and maintenance operations, the vessel features a high-capacity deep-water crane, infrastructure for two work-class ROVs and a large, reconfigurable back-deck area.
In addition to the system’s deep water positioning performance and safety benefits, DP-INS has been proven to deliver valuable time and cost savings for vessel owners. It does not need a full seabed array of transponders to be installed and calibrated before subsea operations can commence.
For most subsea tasks, positioning specifications can be met with only one or two transponders deployed on the seabed. Additionally, as the system needs only occasional aiding from the acoustics, transponder battery life is substantially increased and the need to task an ROV to deploy and recover transponders for servicing is reduced.
The equipment supplied to Bordelon Marine included Sonardyne’s ship-mounted inertial navigation sensor and two HPT 7000 acoustic transceivers. The HPTs have been installed on the Brandon Bordelon through-hull deployment poles and are optimised for tracking and dynamic positioning in ultra-deep water.
Wes Bordelon, President/CEO Bordelon Marine said, “Equipping the Brandon Bordelon with Sonardyne’s Ranger 2 DP-INS, reflects our commitment to providing high-tech, high-spec equipment on our fit-for-purpose Stingray vessels and ensuring our fleet is safe, efficient and cost-effective.
“Ranger 2 DP-INS is a mature, field proven technology that addresses operators’ need for a robust, independent DP reference that provides an update rate and accuracy on par with GNSS,” said Ralph Gall, Technical Sales Manager at Sonardyne in Houston. He added, “The Brandon Bordelon joins a significant fleet of vessels which depend upon our acoustically-aided inertial technology for safer and more efficient dynamic positioning operations.”
Insurance companies in the U.S. and Canada have jumped on the UAV bandwagon, with many now offering coverage for commercial drone users. The insurance usually covers liability for any damage caused by the drone, with comprehensive options covering damage to the drone itself.
Unmanned Risk Management, which also insures helicopters and other aircraft, has insured drones in all 50 U.S. states and in other countries, and has insured the seven film operators that received Section 333 exemptions.
ProSight Specialty Insurance, which operates in the U.S. and UK, was given a Best in Biz Award partly for creating insurance for drone operators. ”It’s so prescient and forward-thinking given the burgeoning use of drones in today’s business world,” said a Best in Biz judge.
AIG has developed commercial UAV coverage designed for the exposure faced by remotely piloted, semi-autonomous and fully autonomous aircraft.
In Canada, Intact Insurance’s UAV coverage caters to small and medium-sized businesses that use or plan to use drones in their business operations.
Meanwhile, a Chicago law firm is now specializing in federal commercial drone law. Antonelli Law became the first law firm in the U.S. to be invited by drone maker DJI to participate in the company’s referral program for commercial drone users to help them receive Section 333 exemptions from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). In 2015, Antonelli Law filed more than 50 petitions with the FAA.
The firm also launched a specialized drone law service for police and fire departments, community colleges, universities and municipalities obtain FAA exemptions.
u-blox has released new firmware, FW 3.01, for its u-blox M8 concurrent multi-GNSS platform.
u-blox M8 FW 3.01 now also supports Galileo, in addition to GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, QZSS and SBAS. It can track up to three constellations concurrently and makes use of all SBAS and QZSS augmentation systems at the same time.
With Galileo fully deployed, the European positioning system will provide access to 24 additional satellites, significantly increasing availability of GNSS signals and further improving position accuracy in challenging urban environments. u-blox M8 supports Galileo-based eCall, the European emergency call system, which will be required in new vehicles starting 2018. u-blox M8 is also compliant with ERA-GLONASS, eCall’s Russian equivalent.
In addition, with FW 3.01, u-blox M8 now boosts the BeiDou acquisition sensitivity and adds support to the Indian GAGAN augmentation system.
u-blox M8 chips and modules are able to operate reliably in difficult environmental conditions as well as in a security attack scenario. Because a growing number of wireless systems rely on GNSS positioning, the threat of attacks, such as diversion of drones or hijacking of car electronics, has become very real.
Security mechanisms are now embedded in FW 3.01, the result of years of intense research at u-blox R&D labs. An anti-spoofing feature detects fake GNSS signals, and a message integrity protection system prevents “man-in-the-middle” attacks. Yet another security function detects and suppresses jamming. Since all this functionality is already built into u-blox M8 FW 3.01, these security mechanisms are a lot more effective than an external system implementation.
Automotive-grade u-blox M8 products benefit from an extended operating temperature of -40 to +105°C and are AEC-Q100 Grade 2 qualified. The extended temperature range allows more flexibility in vehicle integration, such as by integrating a u-blox M8 GNSS receiver into a roof-top antenna where temperatures can reach 105°C.
Another feature of FW 3.01 is the 10 percent power reduction compared to earlier firmware versions of u-blox M8.
The u-blox M8 platform supports applications where navigation performance, reliability, and high accuracy are paramount, whereas the recently announced u-blox 8 platform addresses power sensitive applications such as wearables. u-blox M8 and u-blox 8 products are pin- and software compatible.
Firmware to upgrade existing flash-ROM based u-blox M8 products can be downloaded from the u-blox website. Products with FW 3.01 in ROM will become available in Q2′ 2016.
GPS timing issues have been reported from some user communities to the U.S. Coast Guard Navigation Center (NAVCEN) over the last 12 hours, according to an email sent by Rick Hamilton, executive secretariat of the Civil GPS Service Interface Committee (CGSIC).
“As a reminder, if you continue to experience problems, please report them immediately to NAVCEN,” Hamilton wrote. Report problems via the online GPS Problem Report form or call Navigation Information Service Watch at 703-313-5900.
Advanced Navigation has released its GNSS/INS post processing software Kinematica.
Kinematica is designed to be an easy-to-use GNSS/INS post-processing software that allows users to process raw GNSS and inertial data after collection and achieve higher accuracy position, velocity and orientation than is possible in real time.
Kinematica has been released as free software with a time lock to Aug. 1, 2016.
The software supports kinematic GNSS positioning, which provides a 200x increase in position accuracy over standard GNSS with 8-mm position accuracy. Dual antenna GNSS heading processing is also supported.
Kinematica processes data in forward and reverse six times, which allows it to fill any satellite outages and ignore errors that would normally affect a real-time solution. Both loosely and tightly coupled GNSS/INS processing is supported and the software automatically switches between each mode depending upon the environment.
Kinematica supports all of Advanced Navigation’s GNSS/INS products. Support for a wide range of third-party systems is scheduled for the next update in July.
Kinematica is targeted at surveying, scanning and aerial photography applications that need to squeeze the maximum performance out of their systems.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has awarded more than 3,000 Section 333 Exemption Grants to allow individuals, businesses, non-profits and governmental agencies to fly drones.
FAA Section 333 exemption grants allow unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operators to fly commercially and provide professional services. Companies use UAVs for bridge inspections, roof inspections, movie and television filming, aerial photography, pipeline inspections, engineering, precision agriculture, mapping and surveying, wedding photography, real estate photography and videography, public event recording, security and surveillance, live video feeds, training, education, and disaster and catastrophe events.
First responders such a police, fire and other governmental agencies use UAVs f0r search-and-rescue operations, aerial surveillance, security and arson and fire investigations.
Registration for Hobbyists
Nearly 300,000 owners have registered their small unmanned aircraft in the first 30 days after the FAA’s online registration system went live. Owners who registered in the first month received a refund for the $5 application fee.
“I am pleased the public responded to our call to register,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “The National Airspace System is a great resource and all users of it, including UAS users, are responsible for keeping it safe.”
The agency continues to see a steady stream of daily registrations. While the refund period expired today, the fee will still cover all the small unmanned aircraft that owners intend to use exclusively for recreational or hobby purposes.
“The registration numbers we’re seeing so far are very encouraging,” said FAA Administrator Michael Huerta. “We’re working hard to build on this early momentum and ensure everyone understands the registration requirement.”
The FAA’s registration rule, which took effect on Dec. 21, 2015, applies to small unmanned aircraft that weigh between 0.55 lbs. and 55 pounds. Owners of these aircraft must register before they fly outdoors. People who operated their small unmanned aircraft before December 21 must register by Feb. 19, 2016. The current online system is only available for owners who intend to use their small unmanned aircraft exclusively for recreational or hobby purposes. The FAA is working to make the online registration system available for non-model aircraft users — such as commercial operators — by March 21.
Registration is simple and is done online. Once the owner enters the required information — complete name, mailing address, physical address and email address — they receive a registration number and certificate that they can print out. The certificate includes the registration number that must be marked on all aircraft that meet the registration requirement. Registration is valid for three years.
In addition to being an education opportunity, registration helps new flyers become part of the safety culture that has been deeply embedded in traditional aviation for more than a century, while still allowing for the recreation and innovation that are staples of American aviation.
The U.S. Army’s Joint Precision Airdrop System (JPADS) has developed a new capability with a navigation alternative to GPS.
In recent tests, JPADS were dropped from planes, and immediately determined their location using optical sensors to compare local terrain with commercial satellite imagery. The new system demonstrated navigation to its intended point, using nothing but imagery to guide it.
The new JPADS also works with little knowledge of the aircraft’s location at the drop point.
JPADS, largely guided by GPS, has already proven its importance in supplying troops with necessary materials and equipment, relying less on vulnerable convoys.
Dropping critical supplies from the air has allowed the U.S. military to rely less on easily-ambushed truck convoys and helicopter resupply. Exposure to improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and ambushed convoys resulted in more than 3,000 causalities in Afghanistan and Iraq through 2007.
JPADS has proven to be an important tool in the Army’s logistics chain in many scenarios to supply troops with material and equipment in adverse terrain and remote locations when ground lines of communication are not possible or deemed too high a risk.
A JPADs pallet lands on target, followed by several others still in the air, during recent testing. (Photo: US Army)
The Army life cycle manager, Product Manager Force Sustainment Systems (PM-FSS), continues to improve the JPADS capability with technology enhancements being led by the Army’s Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC), including making JPADS more robust and versatile to environment, terrain and other factors. Investments are focused on significant increased accuracy, lower cost and lower retrograde weight/volume of the reusable JPADS at all weight classes.
The U.S. Army NSRDEC, with Draper and numerous other partners, recently began testing a new version of the JPADS guidance system that takes advantage of Draper’s technology to navigate precisely to its intended ground impact point using imagery alone, and having minimal knowledge about the aircraft’s location when the package is dropped. The accuracy is critical, as payloads that stray even slightly off course can force troops to expose themselves to enemy fire, or can tumble down mountainsides in rugged terrain, explained Chris Bessette, Draper’s JPADS program manager.
“This is a huge step forward for aerial resupply,” Bessette said. “The guided airdrop system is keeping U.S. forces from the danger that has killed thousands of their fellow troops. By enabling the system to operate using imagery alone when dropped as high as 25,000 feet above Mean Sea Level and upwards of 20 miles away from the target depending on winds, we can ensure that JPADS is even more versatile so troops receive supplies like fuel, ammunition, food, and water in the safest manner possible.”
Draper’s JPADS software autonomously flies the cargo-carrying parafoil to land at a user defined location, adapting in real-time to local environmental conditions, such as varying wind. The company’s work on JPADS takes advantage of its expertise in applying position, navigation, and timing algorithms to combine the outputs of precision instruments to enable highly accurate, long-duration navigation solutions.
The recent testing demonstrated the ability to accurately navigate JPADS to a pre-selected user position, using imagery alone, with almost no information about where the package was released from the plane. During testing in Arizona, the payloads were dropped from planes, and then JPADS immediately determined their own location by comparing terrain features spotted using optical sensors with commercial satellite imagery of the area.
The Army is also supporting Draper in developing upgrades to the vision-aided navigation system to address current limitations, including cloud cover, which degrades the system’s ability to correlate vision sensor inputs with satellite imagery.
The military can leverage the same technology to help guide military free fall paratroopers and unmanned aerial vehicles utilizing imagery data alone, Bessette said.
The U.S. Coast Guard issued a safety alert on Jan. 16, warning mariners of the potential detrimental impact to navigation caused by GPS interference or jamming. The warning emphasizes the importance of understanding how vessel equipment could be impacted by the loss of a GPS signal.
The Coast Guard states that this past summer, multiple outbound vessels from a non-U.S. port suddenly lost GPS signal reception. The net effect was various alarms and a loss of GPS input to the ship’s surface search radar, gyro units and ECDIS, resulting in no GPS data for position fixing, radar over ground speed inputs, gyro speed input and loss of collision avoidance capabilities on the radar display.
Fortunately, the vessels were able to safely continue theirvoyage using radar in heads up display, magnetic compass and terrestrial navigation. Approximately six nautical miles later, the vessels’ GPS units resumed operation. Although the vessels had back-up systems to allow a safe transit, the consequences could have been severe, warns the Coast Guard.
Full content of the alert appears below.
Global Navigation Satellite Systems – Trust, But Verify Report Disruptions Immediately
Do you know what equipment relies upon the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) signal? How would you respond if you lost the signal? This past summer, multiple outbound vessels from a non-U.S. port suddenly lost GPS signal reception. The net effect was various alarms and a loss of GPS input to the ship’s surface search radar, gyro units and Electronic Chart Display & Information System (ECDIS), resulting in no GPS data for position fixing, radar over ground speed inputs, gyro speed input and loss of collision avoidance capabilities on the radar display. Fortunately, the vessels were able to safely continue their voyage using radar in heads up display, magnetic compass and terrestrial navigation. Approximately 6nm later, the vessels’ GPS units resumed operation. Although the vessels had back-up systems to allow a safe transit, the consequences could have been severe. These types of events highlight the potential detrimental impact to navigation caused by GPS interference or jamming and the importance in understanding how your vessel’s or facility’s equipment could be impacted by a loss of GPS signal.
Whether walking through the city, driving across town or navigating the world, Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) have become an integral part of everyday life. However, at times, the positioning signals may be impacted by interference from both natural and human-made sources. The most common types of interference are reception issues, usually due to bad installations, poor antenna positioning or faulty equipment. Jamming devices, while illegal in the U.S. and a threat to safety, have been used for nefarious or deceptive purposes. Interference can also be unintentionally caused when operating GNSS in close proximity to other radiating devices, such as amplified TV antennas (see our Safety Alert 11-02). Therefore, it is important to remember to use all available means for navigation and maintain proficiency so you can still navigate should your primary GPS fail.
Indicators of positioning systems interference include an intermittent signal, no signal, or an incorrect signal. Suspected or suspicious disruptions should be reported immediately. Critical information to take note of during a disruption event includes location, time, and period of outage.
Commercial operators are reminded, should your navigation or other equipment onboard (e.g. AIS) be impaired as a result of a disruption or interference, this should be reported to the nearest U.S. Coast Guard Captain of the Port, District Commander or Vessel Traffic Center as soon as possible; and, await further directions (per 33 CFR 164.53).
All operators should be aware, vigilant, and immediately report GPS disruptions to the U.S. Coast Guard Navigation Center (NAVCEN). The report will be disseminated to the U.S. Air Force GPS Operations Center and the Federal Aviation Administration in an attempt to identify the problem and correlate with any other GPS incidents in the same general geographic location. Depending on the severity of the report, NAVCEN may refer it to law enforcement and/or other federal agencies for further investigation.
Reporting a disruption — or other navigation hazards or aids to navigation outages — is simple, and can be done electronically (http://www.navcen.uscg.gov, the preferred method) or via phone call to the NAVCEN (703- 313-5900), 24 hours a day.
On Feb. 3, the Air Force plans to launch the 12th, and last, satellite in the Block IIF series of modernized GPS spacecraft. The Air Force has produced 12 IIF satellites, featuring new clocks, new civil and military signals, and other upgrades for enhanced accuracy and robustness.
Currently, 31 GPS satellites are in operational service, including 11 Block IIF satellites and 20 spacecraft from previous generations.
The Air Force Second Space Operations Squadron (2SOPS) indicates that IIF-12 (SVN-70/PRN-32) will replace SVN-41/PRN-14 in the F plane, slot F1. SVN-41 will be re-phased from the F1 location to a newly defined F7 node (GLAN = 45°) once SVN-70 is set healthy.
Meanwhile, SVN-23/PRN-32 (IIA-10) will be taken out of the operational constellation before IIF-12’s launch and sent to Launch, Anomaly, Resolution, and Disposal Operations (LADO).
“SVN-23, launched on Nov. 26, 1990, has been an ‘Iron Bird’ workhorse in the E-plane and has successfully served the world’s GPS users for over 25 years,” said Rick Hamilton, CGSIC Executive Secretariat, in an email. “This is over 18 years past its designed service life, having operationally outlasted (and, in many cases, outperformed) its peers on-orbit due to the diligent efforts of the men and women of the U.S. Air Force.”
PRN-04 is tentatively scheduled for assignment to the first of the new generation of GPS-III satellites, available for launch sometime in 2017.
Date/Site/Launch Time: Wednesday, Feb. 03, 2016, from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. 18 minute launch window opens at 1347Z, 0847 EST.
Rocket/Payload: A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 will launch the GPS IIF-12 mission for the U.S. Air Force.
Eos Positioning Systems has introduced a comprehensive RTK NTRIP app for Android that works with its Arrow line of RTK GNSS receivers. An Arrow GNSS receiver combined with the NTRIP app turns an Android smartphone or tablet into a powerful data collector capable of recording 1-centimeter accurate GIS data in real-time.
“We designed Eos Tools Pro for the RTK user,” said Chief Technology Officer Jean-Yves Lauture. “It is, by far, the most comprehensive NTRIP app for Android on the market today, turning smartphones and inexpensive Android tablets into powerful high-precision GNSS data collection devices.“
The app, named Eos Tools Pro, has user-configurable audible and visual alarms to alert the user of high PDOP, lost RTK correction, unacceptable correction age and several other important metrics. It supports all current and future constellations (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and Beidou).
To eliminate any confusion as to which GPS/GNSS device the user’s app is using, Eos Tools Pro features a dropdown menu so the user may select any receiver the Android device has been paired with.
“The Eos Tools Pro app enables Android devices running Esri’s Collector app on Android smartphones and tablets to collect data as accurate as 1cm when connected to an Arrow GNSS receiver,” said Esri Product Manager Jeff Shaner. “It’s a big leap forward to enable Collector to serve the high-precision GNSS user.”
Google Maps is tightly integrated with the app to display the user’s location anywhere in the world. Detailed satellite information such as a skyplot that plots each visible satellite, whether it’s being used or not, and signal strength bar graphs from each constellation are also displayed. Finally, a Terminal screen displays the NMEA data flowing and allows the user to send commands to the receiver.
Eos Tools Pro and Arrow receivers are targeted at high-accuracy applications like GIS; environmental; agriculture; electric, gas, water utilities; surveying; machine control; and federal, state, and local government.
Antenova Ltd., manufacturer of antennas and RF antenna modules for machine-to-machine (M2M) and the Internet of Things, is adding two new positioning antennas to its range of flexible FPC antennas.
Bentoni is a positioning antenna for all of the global public satellite constellations: GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo. It is designed to be used in trackers, portable devices, network components, drones and wearable electronics.
Asper is a dual antenna with two separate antenna systems in a single form factor. It combines a 1559–1609 MHz antenna with a 2.4–2.5 GHz antenna in the same part for positioning applications with wireless connectivity as well. This antenna is suitable for sports cameras, trackers, dash cams, portable devices, network devices and wearable electronics.
Both antennas offer high performance and maintain good isolation in situ within a device.
Bentoni and Asper are the latest flexible FPC antennas in Antenova’s flexiiANT product range. They are supplied with an I-PEX MHF connector and a 1.13 mm RF cable in a choice of three lengths. They can be folded to save space in operation within a device.
Antenova’s antenna design team aims to create antennas that a product designer can integrate with the other circuits in a design in a convenient way, rather than designing a product to fit around the antenna. The aim of these antenna designs is plug and play simplicity — they are self-adhesive mounted so that they can easily be fixed inside an electronic device.
Bentoni antenna and Asper antennas are available to order now.
