Author: Tracy Cozzens

Government shutdown causes ION to reschedule autonomous conference

Due to the extended impasse between U.S. Congressional leaders and the White House that has created a partial U.S. government shutdown, the Institute of Navigation (ION) has decided to postpone the Cognizant Autonomous Systems for Safety Critical Applications (CASSCA) Conference, originally scheduled to take place Jan. 28-29 at the Hyatt Regency Reston in Reston, Virginia.

The government shutdown has impacted CASSCA speakers and attendees and brought uncertainty about the number of government officials working in autonomous systems who are currently furloughed, making this decision inevitable.

The CASSCA Conference has been rescheduled for Sept. 16-17 in Miami, in parallel with ION GNSS+.

“The ION is committed to this strong and dynamic technical program and is confident this venue will provide maximum exposure and networking opportunities for the highly esteemed invited speakers and conference attendees,” the institute said in a press release. A revised program is available.

The ION’s International Technical Meeting (ITM) and Precise Time and Time Interval (PTTI) Systems and Applications meeting will proceed as scheduled, Jan.28-31, at the Hyatt Regency Reston, Reston, Virginia. ITM/PTTI 2019 is heavily supported by academia, industry and the U.S. Department of Defense; ITM/PTTI pre-registration levels are currently trending ahead of 2018 and the technical program is strong.

January 8, 2019
Allystar offers GNSS antenna for high-precision positioning

The AGR6302/6303 antenna. (Photo : Allystar)

Allystar Technology Co. Ltd., headquartered in Shenzhen, China, is offering new patch antennas: the AGR6302 and AGR6303. Both GNSS antenna models are designed for precision dual-frequency positioning.

AGR6302 is capable of receiving L1/L2 bands, and AGR6303 is capable of receiving L1/L5 bands. They are designed for UAVs, precision agriculture, autonomous vehicles and other applications where precision matters.

The AGR6302/AGR6303 active antenna is designed by unique technology to cover GPS, BDS, Galileo, GLONASS, IRNSS and the QZSS system (see table).

Table: Allystar

The antenna features stable signal quality at low cost. It employs a stack four-feeds antenna architecture with hybrid to achieve the multi-band operation, lower axial ratio, wider half-power beamwidth and excellent right-hand circular polarization, the company said.

Antenna size. (Image: Allystar)

With its new architecture, the active part has two stages. It has two level low noise amplifiers (LNAs) —one for the lower bands, the other for the higher bands. Then, the combiner and the third-level LNA output the RF gain to receiver. With this architecture, the antenna provides an excellent noise figure/RF linear and LNA gain, and out-band rejection, resulting in good signal-to-noise ratio and anti-interference.

It is housed in a compact, industrial-grade waterproof and magnet mount enclosure. Using internal magnets, the antenna can be installed almost anywhere, allowing for greater flexibility.

January 8, 2019
Autonomous car hits autonomous robot in bizarre collision

In a unique car accident, a self-driving Tesla Model S hit and destroyed an autonomous Promobot, the robot model v4, on Jan. 6 in Las Vegas. The incident took place at 3000 Paradise Road, Las Vegas.

At 7 p.m., the Promobot’s engineers transported robots to the Vegas’s Congress Hall to prepare their booth at the Consumer Electronics Show, being held Jan. 8-11. All the robots were moving in a line. But one of them missed its way and drove to the roadway of the street parking lot.

At that moment, it was hit by a self driving Tesla car.

This video is property of Kevin Jenkinson, via Promobot.

After the clash, the robot was pushed aside and fell. The car continued to move and stopped 50 meters away from the accident. The passenger who was in the car while driving explains that he decided to try the self-driving mode (Full Self-Driving Capability) and chose an idle area for this test.

“There was nobody there, no men, no cars. I switched this Tesla into a self-driving mode and it started to move. And wow! A robot on the track! I thought the flivver would come round, but it bumped straightly into it! I am so sorry; the robot looks cute. And my sincere apologies to the engineers,” said George Caldera, a Tesla passenger.

As a result, the robot suffered serious damage. Parts of the body, the mechanisms of the arms, the movement platform and a head are destroyed. Now the robot is not able to take part in the exhibition and most likely there is no way to restore it.

This video is property of Steven Smith, via Promobot.

“Of course we are vexed. We brought this robot here from Philadelphia to participate at CES,” said Oleg Kivokurtsev, Promobot’s Development Director. “Now it neither cannot participate in the event not to be recovered. We will conduct an internal investigation and find out why the robot went to the roadway.”

The Tesla S reportedly uses the u-blox NEO-M8L GNSS chip. The company also in December 2018 received a patent for more accurate GNSS positioning using other vehicles as reference stations to share raw GNSS data and make positioning corrections.

Promobot is a manufacturer of autonomous service robots for business with development centers in Europe and Asia. Several hundred of Promobot robots operate in 26 countries around the world. They work as consultants, concierges, guides and administrators. At CES, Promobots will meet attendees at the Promobot booth, where it will give dance performances every hour.

The robot victim’s relatives have been notified. (Screenshot from video by Kevin Jenkinson)

January 7, 2019
Harman to demonstrate Autotalks’ C-V2X capabilities at CES 2019

Hagai Zyss, CEO of Autotalks. (Photo: Daniel Danilov)

Autotalks’ second-generation chipsets have been selected by Harman International to provide the vehicle-to-everything (V2X) chipset for the Harman telematics platform. The platform will be showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show, taking place Jan. 8-11 in Las Vegas.

With V2X, all vehicles share location, speed and trajectory, giving drivers warnings of on-road dangers. Autotalks’ second-generation chipsets are mass-market ready and support both DSRC and C-V2X direct communications (PC5 protocol).

Harman is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., focused on connected technologies for automotive, consumer and enterprise markets.

Harman will showcase a connectivity display of its telematics platform with C-V2X capabilities. The live demonstration will show a vehicle communicating with a motorcycle using C-V2X direct communications (the Autotalks chipset is used in both).

Harman’s solution consists of a modular telematics control unit (TEC) accommodating a cellular network access device (NAD) beside Autotalks’ second-generation chipset providing C-V2X capabilities. Autotalks C-V2X capabilities consist of a 3GPP compliant PC5 modem, with dual antenna and diversity for both transmission and reception, as well as an optimized closed-loop remote antenna solution for the highest radio performance.

“Autotalks is proud to work with Harman on their TCU with our secure and deployment-ready C-V2X solution,” said Hagai Zyss, CEO of Autotalks. “We are excited to have our chipset inside Harman’s telematics platform and to demonstrate the flexibility and maturity of our global V2X solution which has been chosen for series production by leading automakers.”

“Together with Harman, we will achieve deployment readiness before the mass-commercialization of C-V2X in China and elsewhere,” Zyss said.

“We are pleased to showcase Autotalks’ C-V2X capabilities in our Telematics platform at CES 2019,” said Mike Peters, president, Connected Car Division at Harman. “The Autotalks chipset provides us with the flexibility, security and performance needed in today’s worldwide market for telematics and V2X.”

Autotalks’ V2X chipset is now available for customer and partner demonstrations.

January 7, 2019
Quectel debuts location LTE Advanced module at CES

Image: Quectel

Quectel Wireless Solutions has launched the EM20, an LTE Advanced Category 20 module with location.

The EM20 will debut at Quectel Stand #2115 during the Consumer Electronic Show taking place Jan. 8-11 in Las Vegas.

EM20 offers the maximum LTE throughput of 2.0-Gbps downlink and is optimized specially for Laptop, PC and high-speed industrial internet of things (IoT) applications, the company said.

The EM20 features Qualcomm IZat location technology Gen8C Lite (GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo and QZSS). The integrated GNSS greatly simplifies product design, and provides quicker, more accurate and more dependable positioning capability, Quectel added.

Based on Qualcomm’s SDX24 chipset and fully compliant with 3GPP R13 specification, EM20 supports LTE wireless technologies such as up to 7 Carrier Aggregation (CA), 4×4 MIMO technology, 256-QAM as well as LAA (LTE Assistant Access) and CBRS (Citizen Broadband Radio System).

The new module supports FDD LTE frequency bands of B1/B2/B3/B4/B5/B7/B8/ B12/B13/B14/B17/B18/B19/B20/B25/B26/B28/B29/B30/B66 and TDD LTE bands of B38/39/B40/B41/B42/B43/B46 (LAA)/B48 (CBRS). This ensures that IoT devices with EM20 inside can operate on networks of nearly all the mainstream carriers worldwide.

Designed in M.2 form factor and measuring 42.0×30.0×2.3mm, EM20 is compatible with Quectel’s broad portfolio of LTE Advanced products including Cat 16 module EM16 and future 5G modules, which allow for smooth migration between different categories and to next-generation connectivity.

The EM20 is designed for ultra-high-speed laptop, PC, router, industrial gateway, in-vehicle video surveillance system, cloud-based 4K IP-camera and similar applications that require high throughput and low latency.

January 7, 2019
Regulus Cyber miniaturizes anti-spoofing GNSS receiver

Photo: Regulus

Regulus Cyber is showcasing its anti-spoofing GNSS receiver at the Consumer Electronics Show, being held Jan. 8-11 in Las Vegas.

Previously introduced in our Launchpad feature, the Regulus Cyber solves GNSS spoofing attacks that threaten the automotive, aviation, maritime and mobile industries with a unique technology applicable both as a fortified GNSS receiver, capable of detecting spoofing attacks, and at the chip level, allowing mobile phones, cars and internet of things (IoT) devices to receive GNSS spoofing protection for the first time, the company said.

The company was able to miniaturize its technology into a form factor that provides customers more flexibility with integration.

The Regulus Pyramid GNSS Receiver is a fully functional GNSS receiver, fortified with the spoofing detection capability. The receiver contains patented technology that enables it to differentiate between real GNSS signals and fake ones generated by an attacker.

The Pyramid GNSS receiver is a direct replacement to any automotive GNSS receiver. The upcoming chip-level technology offers both spoofing detection and spoofing mitigation to any GNSS-based device, including mobile phones, the company added.

The Spoofing Problem. Any vehicle guided by a GNSS system can be spoofed using open-source software and a software defined radio (SDR) legally purchased from Amazon for under $300. A spoofer can generate and transmit fake GNSS signals that can be used by the vehicle’s navigation system to calculate a false destination, directing the vehicle to an entirely different location, a potentially life-threatening hazard.

In addition, spoofing is a growing concern to any application or device that uses satellite positioning, navigation or time. While real attacks are expanding, anti-spoofing solutions remain a luxury that only high-end, defense markets can afford.

While current solutions are big, heavy and expensive, Pyramid GNSS offers industry-standard size and price. Industries such as automotive, aviation, maritime, and mobile phones can defend themselves against this sophisticated emerging threat, at an affordable price and relevant size, power consumption and weight, the company said.

“We designed our product to be a fraction of the size that is currently available on the market so that all types of companies – whether it is a car manufacturer or telecom provider relying on GNSS – can integrate it seamlessly,” said Yonatan Zur, CEO of Regulus Cyber. “GNSS spoofing will need to be a major security focus during 2019 since it leaves so many industries vulnerable to attacks.”

To meet Regulus Cyber at CES, visit booth #2602 at the Westgate.

January 7, 2019
Antenova’s Raptor antenna pinpoints location to within centimeters

Photo: Antenova

Antenova Ltd. has developed a new positioning antenna that it says can pinpoint a location to within centimeters in the GNSS bands. Antenova is a manufacturer of antennas and RF antenna modules for machine-to-machine and the internet of things.

Antenova will be showing samples of the Raptor antenna at the Consumer Electronics Show, being held Jan. 8-11 in Las Vegas, in booth #2220 in the Westgate hall.

The Raptor antenna utilizes the L2 1200-MHz satellite band that recently became available for civilian use.

The addition of the L2 frequency band combines multi-band satellite signal reception and GNSS correction data. This helps to mitigate position errors, greatly improving accuracy, especially in urban areas, the company said.

As well as improving tracking, the L2 band is beneficial for UAVs, drones, autonomous vehicles, agriculture, grid mapping and other emerging applications, Antenova added.

The antenna is the latest addition to Antenova’s lamiiANT range of rigid FR4 antennas which are designed for easy insertion onto a printed circuit board (PCB).

The antenna itself is very small. It is a GPS single-feed antenna in surface mount (SMD) form, measuring 16.0 x 8.0 x 1.6 millimeters, suitable for small PCBs within all kinds of small electronic devices.

“This is an outstanding antenna, because it achieves the same precision as a much larger, heavier ceramic patch antenna, but in a very compact SMD part,” said Colin Newman, CEO of Antenova. “A ceramic antenna would need to be 35 x 35 millimeters to achieve a similar level of accuracy and performance.” Raptor is supplied in tape and reel for ease in high-volume manufacturing applications.

January 7, 2019
Septentrio and Sapcorda to demonstrate GNSS positioning for autonomous driving

Septentrio, a high-precision GNSS company, and Sapcorda, a specialist in GNSS correction services, will conduct a live demonstration of a safe, high-accuracy positioning and correction solution for automated driving.

“We are running the demonstration during the course of this week just south of Las Vegas city center,” Neil Vacans told GPS World. Vacans is Septentrio’s vice president of global Sales. The demonstration is taking place in Las Vegas during the Consumer Electronics Show, being held Jan. 8-11.

Sapcorda and Septentrio have put together a solution that is ready for demonstration in Europe and North America.

The companies have combined their respective technologies to deliver the benefits of SSR (space state representation) technology seamlessly to OEM automakers and Tier 1 integrators. These benefits include decimeter-accuracy within seconds, anywhere over an entire continent, to support autonomy levels from lane keeping to full autonomy in a totally homogeneous coverage, the companies said.

The GNSS augmentation service is scalable through simple broadcast corrections, and safety-awareness is provided via Sapcorda’s integrity concept and Septentrio’s integrity monitoring engine.

In December 2018, Septentrio announced its mosaic compact multi-constellation GNSS receiver SiP (system-in-package) module, available in 2019. The Septentrio mosaic, a multi-band, multi-constellation receiver in a low-power surface-mount module with a wide array of interfaces, is designed for mass-market applications like robotics and autonomous systems. The mosaic module integrates the latest GNSS and RF ASIC technology, as well as the robust positioning engine from Septentrio.

All Septentrio GNSS receivers and modules feature AIM+ technology, an advanced on-board interference mitigation commercially available. Septentrio GNSS receivers can suppress the widest variety of interferers, from simple continuous narrowband signals to the most complex wideband and pulsed jammers.

“We are excited to be able to provide live demonstrations of Sapcorda’s safe and precise correction service especially designed for autonomous driving,” said Jan Van Hees, business development director at Septentrio. “Sapcorda provides a unique high-precision GNSS correction service designed for fast, homogeneous accuracy at continental coverage, thus ideal for autonomous and mass market applications.”

“Septentrio specializes in high-precision and high reliability GNSS positioning for a variety of industrial and commercial markets,” said Goran Jedrejčić, business development manager at Sapcorda. “They have developed a range of technologies, including unique jamming robustness and integrity positioning to support safety-sensitive applications in various challenging environments. Combining this with our safety-centered correction service, it is a unique solution for developers of autonomous driving systems.”

“With fast and efficient implementation of Sapcorda SSR-based correction service into Septentrio’s GNSS-platform, we were able to demonstrate the efficiency of the technology for automotive use in a robust & highly efficient way,” confirmed Jedrejčić. “Septentrio offers a unique blend of GNSS-based technologies and is an ideal partner for both traditional and new markets, with growing demand for high-precision positioning.”

January 7, 2019
NovAtel contracted to supply signal generators for FAA’s WAAS program

NovAtel has been awarded a contract from the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to design, produce and deliver 40 next-generation Ground Uplink Station (GUS) Signal Generators to support the FAA’s safety-of-life WAAS navigation service. The service provides safety-critical infrastructure for the North American aviation navigation network.

GUS signal generator. (Photo: NovAtel)

The contract also includes ongoing engineering support services for NovAtel’s complete portfolio of satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS) products deployed by the FAA, including the WAAS G-III reference receiver platform.

The FAA has relied on NovAtel’s safety-critical SBAS technology for more than 20 years, starting with NovAtel’s first-generation WAAS reference receiver that was created in the 1990s.

Developed by the FAA, the WAAS network is a safety-critical navigation aid that allows aircraft to use GPS for all phases of flight. Every time an aircraft takes off or lands within the WAAS coverage area, NovAtel technology is generating and processing data that allows aviators to make precision approaches to any airport.

Since the program’s inception, NovAtel has provided the FAA with technology that delivers high-precision GPS receiver measurements and navigation information from WAAS Reference Stations and the GUS infrastructure.

Under this new contract, NovAtel will help modernize the WAAS network by upgrading and extending support for the network’s GUS infrastructure. The next-generation of GUS signal generators, which are designed specifically for SBAS ground uplink systems, will include independent L1 and L5 signal paths to precisely control the frequency and phase of L1 and L5 code and carrier for dual-frequency SBAS.

A GUS receiver system based on the WAAS G-III receiver platform will also be released along with the signal generator to complete the modernized GUS control loop.

“We have a long history with the FAA and have worked very closely with the WAAS program team to develop multiple-generations of SBAS infrastructure,” said Jonathan Auld, vice president of engineering and safety critical systems at NovAtel. “NovAtel remains committed to supporting the FAA and their safety of life WAAS service and we are excited to deliver this critical next-generation technology for SBAS modernization.”

January 4, 2019
India to host GLONASS ground station for Russia

The Indian Space Research Organisation is getting ready to host a ground station for Russia’s GLONASS. The ground station will help the Russian navigation system become more efficient, reports the Times of India.

The ground station will be built in Bengaluru, a city that is already home to the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (Istrac). Istrac will host the Russian ground station as well.

A memorandum of understanding was signed between the two nations in October 2016. In return, Roscosmos will host ground-measurement gathering stations in Russia for India’s NavIC, which will boost the operations of the IRNSS satellites.

January 2, 2019
Spirent Federal’s SimMNSA granted security approval by GPS Directorate

Spirent Federal Systems, provider of GPS/GNSS test equipment, has announced that its new M-code solution, SimMNSA, has been granted security approval by the Global Positioning System Directorate.

Spirent Federal is the first company to provide such a solution for simulating classified GPS signals, and is currently taking orders, the company said.

The GSS9000 simulator. (Photo: Spirent)

In 2017, Spirent Federal Systems partnered with Rockwell Collins to develop new software that will use the Modernized Navstar Security Algorithm (MNSA). This new approach of M-code simulation adds to Spirent Federal’s portfolio of classified signal simulation solutions, and will be available to authorized users of the GSS9000 series simulators.

“With the increased focus on M-code by the GPS Directorate, we are pleased that our team has paved the way in the development of SimMNSA,” said Ellen Hall, CEO of Spirent Federal Systems. “It was a great challenge to get to this point, but we are excited about what we have accomplished.”

The new test solution continues Spirent Federal Systems history of innovation and being first to market with M-code simulation software, the company said. Spirent’s GPS/GNSS solutions have supported numerous government, military and U.S. Department of Defense programs for more than 30 years.

January 2, 2019
RINEX 3.04 supports new BeiDou, GLONASS and QZSS signals
RINEX 3.04 contains updates to support planned GLONASS CDMA signals, as well as new BeiDou III and QZSS II signals.

The International GNSS Service (IGS) and Radio Technical Commission Maritime Service, Special Committee -104 (RTCM SC-104) RINEX Working Group, announced the availability of RINEX 3.04.

RINEX 3.04 supports all publicly available signals from existing GNSS constellations: the U.S. GPS, Russia’s GLONASS, Europe’s Galileo, China’s BeiDou, Japan’s Quasi Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) and the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS).

In addition to the new signals, the RINEX 3.04 text has been edited to improve the description of messages, fields and overall readability.

The RINEX 3.04 data standard documentation is available here:

ftp://igs.org/pub/data/format/rinex304.pdf

http://www.rtcm.org/differential-global-navigation-satellite–dgnss–standards.html

RINEX 3.04 Updates and Changes
1. Added new signals to the GLONASS (Table 5), QZSS II (Table 8) and BeiDou III (Table 9) signal tables and updated Table A23
2. Added section 9.12 to describe new signals from the GLONASS, QZSS II and BeiDou III constellations and to describe the differences between QZSS I and QZSS II
3. Updated Appendix Table A2 SYS/#/OBS TYPES to show new signal codes for: GLONASS, QZSS II and BeiDou III
4. Modified Appendix Table A5 TIME SYSTEM CORR section to clarify the GNSS time system and UTC difference fields
5. Added numerous small corrections and text improvements as listed in the RINEX 3.04 Revision History section.
January 2, 2019