GPS World

Author: GPS World Staff

  • Hexagon acquires mobile app company Catavolt

    Hexagon, a global provider of information technology solutions, has acquired Catavolt, a U.S.-based mobile app platform provider. Catavolt, founded in 2009 with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, offers an end-to-end platform for mobile application development and delivery, secure cloud orchestration and edge computing (real-time).

    Catavolt’s team of experts are highly skilled in cloud and mobile technologies as well as enterprise software solutions — all fundamental to furthering Hexagon’s SMART X strategy, which is driven by the desire to make entire systems more efficient. Systems built around an information network with connectivity at the core, serving up data in the most intelligent and visually meaningful way, Hexagon said.

    “Connectivity platforms and mobile applications are essential to driving improvements in productivity and efficiency. Both must also integrate with legacy systems and on premise infrastructures as customers make the transition from old to new,” says Hexagon President and CEO Ola Rollén. “Catavolt’s technologies provide an open architecture and solid foundation for realising the transformative potential of both cloud and edge computing and will seamlessly connect to Hexagon’s connectivity platform — SMART Convergence.”

    Edge computing, or edge data-processing and analytics, accelerates response times by analyzing streaming data at the source, in real-time, versus transferring it to the cloud first. This is especially important in time critical scenarios like smart traffic systems and autonomous vehicles.

    Catavolt’s expertise will enable Hexagon to advance its digital transformation platform, HxGN SMART Convergence, which orchestrates connectivity (IoT), intelligence (AI) and visualization (VR/AR/MR) technologies according to industry-specific needs and user-specific workflows.

    The platform is managed by Hexagon’s Innovation Hub, a central R&D unit that develops enabling technologies for leverage by all of Hexagon’s divisions. This ensures platform development is based on standard protocols and easily customizable for different industry use cases.

    Catavolt’s cloud technology is fully open and runs on any cloud. Currently deployed across AWS, Rackspace and Microsoft Azure, the robust and mature platform supports more than 3,000 client applications.

  • NovAtel SPAN technology to provide land vehicle positioning

    NovAtel has released its SPAN Land Vehicle technology for fixed-wheel land vehicle applications. The announcement was made at AUVSI’s Xponential 2017.

    SPAN Land Vehicle optimizes integrated GNSS + INS performance for land vehicles during periods of extended GNSS outage, in low dynamic operating environments, or in dense urban canyons. SPAN Land Vehicle ensures that accurate position, velocity and attitude is maintained during such difficult operating environments.

    NovAtel uses intelligent vehicle dynamics modelling and its patented Antenna Phase Windup technology to achieve the exceptional performance of SPAN Land Vehicle. The intelligent vehicle modeling identifies inertial measurement unit (IMU) errors in the integrated GNSS + INS system that accumulate after extended GNSS outages, and reduces the impact of those errors within the SPAN solution. NovAtel’s Antenna Phase Windup technology is used to sense changes in direction, and when combined with intelligent vehicle modelling, corrects for IMU errors in attitude (roll, pitch, yaw).

    SPAN Land Vehicle performance can be enhanced even further by adding an external sensor such as a Distance Measurement Instrument (DMI), dual antennas or any other external position, velocity or attitude input. It is available on NovAtel’s entire line of SPAN supported IMUs.

  • IBM patents way to transfer packages between drones

    IBM’s inventors have been granted a patent for transferring packages between drones during flight.

    The invention, described in U.S. Patent No. 9,561,852: In flight transfer of packages between aerial drones, helps to extend the range of drones that are delivering packages from a warehouse to a customer’s home.

    IBM inventors developed this patented system using their supply chain expertise to enable precise delivery services to customers using drones.

    Drones are starting to be used to transport packages to customer locations, but there are still numerous challenges to this delivery method such as limited flight range, theft of unattended packages once delivered, and a lack of delivery network optimization.

    The invention can help to mitigate these challenges by providing in-flight drone-to-drone package transfers to extend package delivery range.

    For example, a customer expecting a package could dispatch a personal drone to receive and securely deliver the package to the customer’s home. Drone delivery network optimization could be provided to autonomous drones via the communications link described in the patent.

    “Drones have the potential to change the way businesses operate and by leveraging machine learning, drones could change ecommerce,” said Sarbajit Rakshit, IBM master inventor and co-inventor on the patent. “Our inventor team is focused on improving how the most valuable cargo is delivered globally. This could create opportunities such as managing drones to deliver postal packages and medicine in developing countries via the most direct route.”

    IBM inventors have patented other inventions related to drones and drone-enabling technologies. However, this is just one aspect of IBM’s Supply Chain and Logistics expertise. IBM manages supply chains for clients on a worldwide basis using IBM Watson Supply Chain. Learn more about IBM patents here.

  • Firm’s UAS experts provide runway data to Atlanta Airport

    Consulting firm Michael Baker International has partnered with the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) to use unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to inspect runway conditions.

    The mission’s use of drones on the airfield of an international airport in the United States during daily airport operations is a first, according to the company.

    Michael Baker is partnering with ATL on a pavement evaluation project and identified an opportunity for the innovative use of UAS to collect information on the condition of the runway pavement. This method provides a large amount of data for the teams to analyze and can help document the runway for future rehabilitation and improvement decisions.

    It also presents a time and cost savings for the airport as it would take less than half the time to complete compared to the traditional approach of manually photographing the physical condition of the runway, which can take more than four hours.

    The Michael Baker UAS team used a Topcon Falcon 8 aircraft to conduct the drone flight in mid-March and surveyed more than 3,000 linear feet of runway. The mission was conducted on the international Runway 9L/27R and was completed in less than 20 minutes, gathering approximately 630 photos of the airfield. This runway, the longest at the airport at 12,390 feet, typically carries the heaviest aircrafts, which cause the most pavement damage and safety concerns.

    “Michael Baker and the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport have had a strong relationship for more than 14 years, collaborating on innovative and effective projects,” said Quintin Watkins, aviation program manager in Michael Baker’s Norcross, Georgia, office. “This was a great opportunity for our experts in geographic information systems to assist the airport with a unique challenge. The information we successfully gathered during this flight will give the airport valuable insight on the ongoing safety and maintenance of the airfield. We hope to find ways to conduct similar missions with the airport in the future.”

    To plan for the project, Michael Baker obtained approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to conduct UAS operations in Class B airspace at ATL. The FAA waiver is active for four months and requires the airport to be in a west flow condition, to establish two-way radio contact and to close the runway at the time of the flight.

    During this and future missions, the team can generate contours, orthomosiac imagery, RGB 3-D textured mesh and a digital terrain model (DTM). This data can then be analyzed by the Michael Baker and airport teams using engineering software such as Autodesk, Esri and Bentley, and can help determine future needs to improve and maintain the runway conditions.

    Earlier this year, ATL also conducted a drone flight over its parking deck to identify areas for reconstruction. ATL, known as the world’s busiest airport, serves more than 104 million passengers annually and offers nonstop service to more than 150 domestic and nearly 70 international destinations.

  • Lockheed continues flight demonstrations of expeditionary UAS

    Lockheed continues flight demonstrations of expeditionary UAS

    Lockheed Martin’s advanced tactical Group 3 unmanned aerial system (UAS) Fury is regularly flying long-range endurance test missions as the company prepares it for low-rate production.

    In flight tests since May 2016, Fury has flown more than 200 hours and reliably demonstrated more than 12-hour endurance, while simultaneously operating 100 pounds of payloads, including electro-optical/infrared surveillance systems, voice communications relays, SATCOM links and multiple signals intelligence payloads.

    The ramp-up in flight tests and demonstrations has grown significantly. Fury has completed more than 400 flight test hours, with significant increase in the second half of 2016.

    “These flight tests have consistently proven that Fury is a true ‘anytime, anywhere’ tactical Group 3 aircraft,” said Kevin Westfall, director of unmanned systems at Lockheed Martin. “Fury can be deployed to execute strategic and tactical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions with endurance and capability previously found only in Group 4 systems. We continue to investment internally in Fury to deliver this proven, critical capability at the best value for our customers.”

    Lockheed Martin regularly flies Fury at its operating base at the Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona where the team inserts pre-planned product improvements to further the Fury capability. Fury can support multiple payload integration, making it possible to efficiently execute various missions with a single aircraft.

    Additionally, infrastructure is in place at Lockheed Martin manufacturing facilities to quickly deliver Fury and to rapidly scale up to full-rate production needs, Westfall said. Lockheed Martin is in discussions with potential domestic and international customers.

  • Live from AUVSI’s Xponential 2017

    Live from AUVSI’s Xponential 2017

    Xponential-logoThe GPS World and Geospatial Solutions staff reported live from the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International’s (AUVSI’s) Xponential 2017 May 8-11 in Dallas. The event convenes the global community of commercial and defense leaders in intelligent robotics, drones and unmanned systems.

    NEWS

    VIDEOS

  • Swift, Carnegie release Duro for ground robots

    Swift, Carnegie release Duro for ground robots

    Swift Navigation and Carnegie Robotics released their first joint product at AUVSI’s Xponential: the Duro, a ruggedized version of Swift Navigation’s Piksi Multi dual-frequency RTK GNSS receiver.

    Duro_Black BackgroundsmllerBuilt for outdoor operations, Duro combines a rugged enclosure with centimeter-accurate positioning. Leveraging design principles typically used in military hardware, the GNSS sensor is protected against weather, moisture, vibration, dust, water immersion and unexpected circumstances that can occur in outdoor long-term deployments. In addition to its ruggedness, Duro is ready to connect right out of the box. Primary industries for this product include: robotics, precision agriculture, mapping, military, outdoor industrial and maritime.

    Photo: Swift NavigationDuro incorporates:

    • Dual-frequency RTK GNSS
    • Tough, military-grade hardware
    • IP67 rating
    • Weatherproof external enclosure design with M12 standard-sealed connectors
    • On-board MEMS IMU and magnetometer
    • Future-proof hardware with in-field software upgrades
    • Protected IO, including RS232 Serial Ports, 100mbit Ethernet, Event Inputs, PPS, PV, CANBus
    • Durable UV and chemical-resistant powder-coating
    • Flexible mounting interfaces

  • Congress increases funding for UAS research, airspace integration

    More than $20 million for research on unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) was included in an appropriations package that Congress passed and the president signed into law last week to fund the federal government through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. The funding for UAS research is $2.67 million more than last year’s budget request by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to address a host of research challenges associated with integrating UAS into the national airspace system.

    The measure’s section on appropriations for transportation agencies also includes $20 million above the 2016 budget request for the FAA’s air traffic control organization. The increase will provide for the hiring and training of new controllers and accelerating UAS airspace integration. The agreement also includes $11.5 million more than was requested for aviation safety activities for UAS integration, including the addition of six full-time positions to support the certification of new technologies and advance the FAA’s organizational delegation authorization (ODA) efforts and strengthen safety oversight.

  • UAV testing facility selects Harris for BVLOS support

    Grand Sky Airfield Operations, a 217-acre UAS test facility in North Dakota, has selected Harris Corporation to provide an advanced solution to support beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) unmanned aerial systems (UAS) flight operations, reducing the need for chase planes to provide constant visual surveillance during flight. Grand Sky tenants will have the ability to conduct BVLOS UAS flights, enabling commercial and government operators to deploy their technologies, test and conduct operations. The announcement was made during AUVSI’s Xponential.

    Harris will provide a customized RangeVue sense-and-avoid solution that delivers real-time situational awareness of surrounding unmanned and manned aircraft traffic, with  multi-sensor surveillance for cooperative and non-cooperative vehicles. airspace situational awareness tool designed specifically for test-range operations for unmanned air systems (UAS). RangeVue puts real-time NextGen surveillance data, obstacle data, flexible background maps and weather information in the hands of the people who are actually in the field testing and validating UAS missions. The solution will cover the 217-acre unmanned aircraft business and aviation park located on Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota.

    It will enhance Grand Sky’s infrastructure for safe and efficient BVLOS UAS operations and testing, ensuring the FAA’s stringent safety requirements are met and eliminating the need for expensive chase planes to track UAS entering, exiting or operating within Grand Sky’s 60 nautical-mile radius airspace.

    Harris’ Grand Sky solution will combine available surveillance sources — including Grand Forks AFB’s radar feed, locally installed ADS-B Xtend and FAA NextGen surveillance data — into a single stream that offers  area coverage and airspace visualization for drone operators. Xtend supplements the FAA’s existing ADS-B nationwide network operated by Harris, which provides precise and reliable satellite-based surveillance for the nation’s air traffic control system.

  • Traffic management systems for UAS requested by UN agency

    The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a specialized agency of the United Nations, and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), announced a Request for Information (RFI) on traffic management systems for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). ICAO announced the RFI at AUVSI’s Xponential 2017, the  trade show for the unmanned systems and robotics industry.

    As UAS operations become more complex and are increasingly used for both commercial and recreational purposes, UAS traffic management systems, or UTM, are necessary to seamlessly integrate UAS into the airspace and existing air traffic management systems. ICAO will solicit proposals for a global framework for UTM ahead of its Drone Enable UAS Industry Symposium, which will take place in Montreal, Canada in September.

    “ICAO is the natural agency to be gathering together the best and brightest from governments and industry to define the problem so that global solutions can be proposed, debated and agreed,” said Leslie Cary, remotely piloted aircraft systems program manager at ICAO.

    An operational UTM will ensure the safe and efficient use of the airspace as UAS operations become more complex, such as with established navigation routes and point-to-point route segments requiring specific equipage requirements. UTM will integrate UAS into the existing airspace infrastructure to ensure the continued safety of the airspace.

    “Collaboration between stakeholders is key to addressing complex issues such as UTM,” added Brian Wynne, president and CEO of AUVSI. “AUVSI is pleased ICAO is taking steps to explore solutions for UTM that will allow companies to operate globally under the same standards, reducing barriers to innovation and improving safety and security for all aircraft – both manned and unmanned. We look forward to working with ICAO to draw awareness and facilitate industry engagement in the RFI process.”

  • VectorNav supplies IMU for military bomb-disposal robot

    VectorNav supplies IMU for military bomb-disposal robot

    VectorNav Technologies, a provider of embedded navigation solutions, announced at AUVSI’s Xponential that it will supply its surface mount VN-100 inertial measurement unit/attitude and heading reference system (IMU/AHRS) to Neya Systems for a custom version of that company’s UxAB module.

    The back-packable Advanced Explosive Ordnance Disposal Robotic System (AEODRS) with integrated Neya Systems’ UxAB module.
    The back-packable Advanced Explosive Ordnance Disposal Robotic System (AEODRS) with integrated Neya Systems’ UxAB module. Photo: VectorNav

    Neya Systems will in turn deliver its custom version of the UxAB platform to Northrop Grumman for that company’s Advance Explosive Ordnance Disposal Robotic System (AEODRS) Increment 1 delivery, an autonomous bomb-disposal robot, to the U.S. military. The AEODRS unmanned ground vehicle “back-packable” increment 1 system weighs less than 35 pounds and comprises the handheld operator control unit, communications link, mobility capability module, master capability module, power capability module, manipulator capability module, end effector capability module, visual sensors capability module, autonomous behaviors capability module and other minor components.

    The UxAB is a a fully self-contained semi-autonomy and autonomy capability module that includes GPS waypoint navigation, multi-joint manipulator control (with self-collision avoidance), retrotraverse, return-to-comms and optional obstacle avoidance behaviors.

    VN-100+SMD_LeftAbout the size of a postage stamp, VectorNav’s surface mount VN-100 is a temperature calibrated MEMS-based IMU/AHRS that includes 3-axis accelerometers, gyros and magnetometers. The module delivers to users a real-time 3D orientation solution that is continuous over the complete 360 degrees of motion at rates of up to 400 Hz. In addition to calibrated IMU and AHRS functionality, the VN-100 includes VectorNav’s Vector Processing Engine (VPE), a suite of proprietary sensor fusion algorithms running onboard the sensor that deliver real-time magnetic & acceleration disturbance rejection, adaptive signal filtering, dynamic filter tuning, and on-board Hard & Soft Iron compensation.

    The VN-100 surface mount module is being integrated directly into the electronics board of Neya Systems’ UxAB platform. Neya is using the calibrated pitch and roll estimates to assist in its controller functionality, for example to provide warning when the robotic module is in danger of tipping. The VN-100 AHRS magnetometer-based heading solution is used for waypoint navigation. VectorNav is providing platform specific hard/soft iron calibration expertise to ensure the magnetometer-based heading solution takes into account the magnetic signature of the UxAB module and provides accurate navigation in a variety of environmental conditions.

    AEODRS is the next generation of Explosive Ordnance Disposal robotic systems, designed as a follow-on and capability upgrade to existing deployed platforms. AEODRS is based on an open architecture, and Neya’s Autonomy Module will conform to the logical, electrical, and physical interfaces that are required by this architecture. Neya will be adapting its commercially available UxAB platform to comply with AEODRS Capability Module requirements.

     

  • TerraGo Magic enables design of custom applications without coding

    TerraGo Magic enables design of custom applications without coding

    Magic-Create-Note-Android-TerraGo-WWhile change is constant, one thing that has become standard is the use of handheld mobile devices. Smartphones and tablets are used by almost everyone and the professional surveying community is no different. The process of data collection for specific purposes often needs to be tailored to each project type, yet traditional surveying methods are not flexible in allowing customization easily.

    TerraGo Magic, a custom app designed for both iOS and Android platforms, simplifies the process of designing a custom application for specific clients and needs.

    Surveying firms can install this tool in their mobile device to enable the specific collection and sharing of important data that can vary as needed. This data can overlay Google and Apple Maps and allow attachments of images and video. Overall, the app avoids the time-consuming coding process, and could significantly improve workflow for many firms.

    Distribution for the customized app is through the App Store for iOS and Play Store for Android.

    A free webinar on Thursday, May 25 covers the TerraGo Magic App Platform-as-a-Service, which enables anyone to rapidly build private-label, custom Trimble apps without the expense of traditional app development and without writing any code. Users don’t need hours of training or professional development skills to do it. Using a zero-code enterprise app platform, users can create, build and deploy custom mobile app for any industry or workflow in minutes.

    The webinar covers:

    • creating custom mobile apps with branding and selected features using a click app studio
    • integrating custom mobile apps with Trimble GNSS and many other enterprise platforms
    • publishing to the AppStore, Google Play and the cloud with
    • deploying cloud-based or private-hosted enterprise servers
    • reducing development costs