GPS World

Category: Applications

  • Calian GNSS launches advanced antennas for high-precision operations

    Calian GNSS launches advanced antennas for high-precision operations

    Calian GNSS, a leader in high-precision antenna technology, has introduced the Accutenna 4 (AC4) antenna family for increased accuracy, reliability and performance across the full GNSS spectrum.

    Based on a novel stacked composite patch antenna element, the AC4 element combines a robust and compact, full band quad-feed design, in half the weight of current patch antennas on the market. Its highly efficient radiating element and precise phase pattern associated with Calian’s proven eXtended Filtering (XF) technology will deliver clean and accurate signals, even in today’s crowded RF environment.

    Whether it’s surveying, autonomous systems, precision agriculture or defense, the AC4 ensures users can rely on GNSS data when it matters most.

    Designed with precision applications in mind:

    • Full GNSS band coverage. Supports GPS, Galileo, BeiDou, GLONASS, SBAS and correction services in one antenna, making it a versatile, future-proof solution.
    • Accutenna 4 technology. Four-feed compact stacked composite patch antenna minimizes multipath interference and keeps the phase centre stable, ensuring centimetre-level accuracy.
    • Lightweight, rugged options. Available as embedded (85 g) and in multiple mounting styles for diverse applications, from embedded systems to demanding field use.
    • Noise rejection. Integrated Extended Filtering (XF) technology blocks interference from new LTE and other signals that can disrupt GNSS performance.

    With the Accutenna 4, Calian GNSS expands its portfolio, reinforcing its role as a partner for organizations that depend on precision GNSS antenna innovation.

  • Honeywell launches alternative navigation software to counter threats

    Honeywell launches alternative navigation software to counter threats

    Honeywell has launched the Honeywell Alternative Navigation Architecture (HANA) — a software-based solution designed to ensure resilient navigation for crewed and uncrewed aircraft, as well as military surface vehicles, in environments where GNSS signals are degraded, jammed or spoofed.

    “Due to the proliferation of low-cost tools, the number of jamming, spoofing and blocking incidents is growing and is leaving more pilots and operators in the air without access to GNSS data,” said Matt Picchetti, vice president, Navigation and Sensors, Honeywell Aerospace Technologies. “HANA is our latest alternative navigation system designed to counter these threats by providing precise information on the aircraft’s position, velocity and orientation when GNSS signals are unavailable.”

    HANA is a multi-system navigation platform that includes:

    • Vision-aided navigation. Using live camera feeds to match ground imagery with map databases.
    • Magnetic anomaly-aided navigation. Detecting known variations in Earth’s magnetic field.
    • Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite navigation. Offering stronger, lower altitude signals more resistant to jamming..
    • Other modalities. Including light detection and ranging (lidar), radar, radios and star trackers.
    Photo:
    Photo: Honeywell Aerospace

    With this layered architecture, operators can mix and match modalities to meet mission-specific requirements, ensuring maximum resilience, system integrity and signal availability even in GPS-denied environments. To ensure efficiency and ease of use, HANA can run on the operator’s current computing platform or one that Honeywell provides.

    Initial release of HANA includes vision-aided navigation. Honeywell also plans to integrate magnetic anomaly and LEO satellite solutions into the platform in 2026.

    HANA’s launch marks a major milestone in Honeywell’s five-decade legacy of inertial navigation system innovation, reinforcing its leadership in aerospace navigation and its commitment to mission-critical resilience for defense and commercial aviation.

  • Geospatial Professional Network wants your feedback

    Geospatial Professional Network wants your feedback

    The Geospatial Professional Network (formerly URISA) is seeking respondents to its 2025 GIS Management Survey. The survey is part of a research project on geographic information system (GIS) management practices.

    The survey is designed to gather information from organizations using GIS technology, to learn about how they organize and GIS, and provide services to their users. 

    All respondents will receive a report of survey results. 

    To conribute to the survey, go to GIS Management Survey 2025.

  • NV5 to deploy Hexagon’s Leica CoastalMapper bathymetric lidar system

    NV5 to deploy Hexagon’s Leica CoastalMapper bathymetric lidar system

    NV5, a division of Acuren Corporation, has become the first geospatial company to acquire and deploy Hexagon’s Leica CoastalMapper, an airborne bathymetric lidar system for coastal and riverine mapping.

    The CoastalMapper, developed by Leica Geosystems, combines a bathymetric lidar module with topographic lidar and an imaging sensor in a compact pod. The system collects bathymetric and topographic lidar data simultaneously with high-resolution imagery during a single flight. It captures up to 1 million bathymetric points per second and 2 million topographic points per second, producing imagery at a 5-centimeter ground sampling distance at standard flying altitudes.

    The system can operate at higher altitudes than previous generation systems, enabling surveys of steep mountainous river terrain. Applications include infrastructure resilience, flood monitoring and environmental investigations in shallow and deep waters.

    Kurt Allen, president of NV5’s Geospatial Business Unit, said the sensor system will allow the company to deliver more comprehensive datasets in coastal and riverine environments and support environmental resilience and infrastructure planning.

    NV5 Geospatial will receive the Leica CoastalMapper from Hexagon by the end of the year, with a handoff that took place at Intergeo in Frankfurt, Germany, Oct. 7-9, 2025.

  • Closing the urban canyon: Why improving GNSS reliability will be vital for autonomous cars

    Closing the urban canyon: Why improving GNSS reliability will be vital for autonomous cars

    Content provided by Focal Point Positioning

    The term “urban canyon” was inspired by New York’s Canyon of Heroes — a stretch of Lower Broadway where tall buildings line the streets similar to a canyoenn. These human-built canyons can confuse GNSS receivers making it hard to accurately calculate a vehicle’s position. For autonomous cars, that’s not just inconvenient — it’s a major safety issue. However, with the right technology, the automotive world can “close’” these urban canyons, explains Manuel Del Castillo, vice president of business development at Focal Point Positioning.

    On open roads with a clear view of the sky, satellite navigation can be remarkably accurate. Signals from multiple GNSS constellations reach the vehicle’s receiver unimpeded, helping calculate position with impressive accuracy. However, this often isn’t the case in dense urban areas.

    Tall glass buildings, narrow streets, concrete bridges and overpasses all form urban canyons — and can be a barrier to even the most sophisticated navigation systems.

    The Challenge

    In cities and other urban environments, there are two common challenges for GNSS performance. The first is multipath interference, which occurs when signals bounce off buildings, glass façades and even parked cars before reaching the receiver. Rather than receiving one clean signal from the satellite, the receiver gets a clean signal and several delayed copies, leading to erroneous positioning estimates.

    Signal occlusion is another issue, which occurs when tall buildings and structures physically block some satellite signals from view. The signals that are actually received from that satellite are reflections. This makes it difficult for the receiver to lock onto a stable fix.

    In practice, both issues can cause sudden anomalies — enough to place a car on the wrong street entirely. For drivers, this is frustrating. For autonomous systems, it’s a safety risk.

    The Road to Autonomy

    Urban GNSS challenges aren’t new — taxi drivers in London and New York have long experienced their navigation systems getting “lost” among the towers. However, positioning accuracy is now more important than ever as automotive technology evolves and we hand over more control to our vehicles.

    Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) are now pushing the limits of conventional GNSS. Features such as lane-keeping, automated lane changes and intelligent speed adaptation all rely on knowing the vehicle’s exact position – not just the road it’s on, but which lane.

    As we move further towards autonomous driving, the stakes will be even higher. If GNSS references are unreliable, this could cause serious errors on the road. A sudden position jump in the middle of a complex urban manoeuvre is more than inconvenient — it’s dangerous.

    Closing the Canyon

    If autonomous cars are to drive safely and reliably in urban environments, GNSS must evolve. The answer lies in rethinking how satellite signals are processed — and in tackling the root causes of error. Traditional receivers rely heavily on hardware-based processing, meaning they integrate new technologies at a slow pace.

    To help overcome this challenge, we developed S-GNSS Auto — software that enhances GNSS receiver reliability and accuracy in autonomous vehicles. Delivered as a simple firmware upgrade, it transforms GNSS into a more powerful component of the ADAS stack in areas where traditional solutions fall short. 

    We recently integrated S-GNSS Auto onto STMicroelectronics’ Teseo GNSS devices, and tested the impact of the joint solution in some of the most challenging urban environments: Shinjuku in Tokyo, and Frankfurt and the Black Forest in Germany. The combined solution demonstrated an improvement in measurement accuracy by up to four times and position accuracy by up to three times in the challenging sections of these environments. By ignoring reflected or non-line-of-sight signals, S-GNSS Auto can also reject potential spoofing attacks, enhancing the security of the GNSS receiver.

    McKinsey reports that 12% to 20% of cars could have advanced autonomous driving capabilities by 2030. For automakers, this means expanding the roads and environments that can safely support these capabilities. S-GNSS® Auto helps make that possible by improving GNSS reliability and laying the foundation for advanced vehicle-to-everything (V2X) and ADAS technologies needed to support autonomous vehicle safety in challenging urban areas. Working directly from the chip, it provides a cost-effective and accessible way for automotive OEMs to upgrade their technology via a firmware upgrade.

    To see the impact of the integrated S-GNSS Auto and Teseo solution, download the latest data from our trials in Japan and Germany here.

    This article is contributed by Focal Point Positioning.

  • SmartNav makes GPS ultra-precise, even in tough urban canyons

    SmartNav makes GPS ultra-precise, even in tough urban canyons

    NTNU researchers have built SmartNav, a system that overcomes urban GPS errors using satellite corrections and Google’s 3D data. It achieves near-centimeter precision, paving the way for safer, more reliable self-driving cars. 

    Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) have created SmartNav, combining satellite corrections, wave analysis, and Google’s 3D building data for remarkable precision. Their method achieved accuracy within 10 centimeters during testing, and could make reliable urban navigation accessible and affordable worldwide, including autonomous vehicles.

    The paper is published in the Journal of Spaial Sciences, DOI: 10.1080/14498596.2025.2536567.

    “Cities are brutal for satellite navigation,” explained Ardeshir Mohamadi. “In cities, glass and concrete make satellite signals bounce back and forth. Tall buildings block the view, and what works perfectly on an open motorway is not so good when you enter a built-up area.”

    Mohamadi, a doctoral fellow at NTNU, is researching how to make affordable GPS receivers much more precise without depending on expensive external correction services. “For autonomous vehicles, this makes the difference between confident, safe behavior and hesitant, unreliable driving. That is why we developed SmartNav, a type of positioning technology designed for urban canyons,” Mohamadi said.

    To solve this problem, the researchers combined several technologies to correct GPS signals, resulting in a computer program that can be integrated into the navigation system of autonomous vehicles. The software developed by the researches uses PPP-RTK (precise point positioning – real-time kinematic), which combines precise corrections with satellite signals. The European Galileo system now supports this by broadcasting its corrections free of charge.

    An assist from Google

    Meanwhile, Google launched a new service for its Android customers that provides 3D models of buildings in almost 4,000 cities around the world. The company is using these models to predict how satellite signals will be reflected between the buildings, allowing users to see if they are walking on the correct side of he street.

    The researchers were able to combine all these different correction systems with algorithms they had developed. When they tested it in the streets of Trondheim, they achieved an accuracy better than 10 centimeters 90 percent of the time.

    The use of PPP-RTK will also make the technology accessible to the general public because it is a relatively affordable service.

    “PPP-RTK reduces the need for dense networks of local base stations and expensive subscriptions, enabling cheap, large-scale implementation on mass-market receivers,” Mohamadi said.

  • UTTO partners wih GEODNET for utility mapping

    UTTO partners wih GEODNET for utility mapping

    GEODNET, a decentralized real-time kinematic (RTK) network with more than 20,000 active stations worldwide, is now partnering with UTTO, a leading innovator in underground utility mapping and digital damage prevention solutions.

    The partnership enables UTTO to leverage GEODNET’s global RTK correction services across its solutions, bringing enhanced centimeter-level accuracy to the utility locating and GIS industries.

    UTTO is known for pioneering products such as the vLocate Mapper, which integrates directly with GIS platforms like Esri’s ArcGIS Field Maps to streamline underground asset mapping and verification. By adopting GEODNET’s RTK correction services, UTTO customers gain access to reliable, triple-band GNSS corrections delivered through a uniform, global network. This ensures consistent accuracy across regions and significantly reduces the complexity traditionally associated with GNSS corrections.

    The collaboration provides UTTO users with seamless access to GEODNET’s correction services out of the box, eliminating the need for manual RTK configuration and reducing deployment friction for field teams. This simplifies the process of achieving centimeter-level accuracy in mapping underground infrastructure, while maintaining scalability for large utility operators and municipalities.

    Key benefits of the partnership include:

    • Turnkey RTK Access. UTTO devices now integrate directly with GEODNET corrections, requiring no manual RTK setup.
    • Global Coverage. GEODNET’s network of 20,000+ stations ensures consistent high-precision positioning across multiple regions.
    • Utility Mapping Optimization. Enhanced accuracy for locating underground assets, reducing strikes and improving field efficiency.
    • GIS Integration. Seamless compatibility with platforms such as Esri ArcGIS.
  • EASA, IATA release 4-point plan to mitigate GNSS interference risks

    EASA, IATA release 4-point plan to mitigate GNSS interference risks

    The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) have published a comprehensive plan to mitigate the risks stemming from GNSS interference. The plan was among the conclusions of a jointly hosted workshop on the topic of GNSS interference.

    Given the continued rise in frequency of interference with GNSS signals, the workshop concluded that a broader and more coordinated approach is needed. focusing on four key areas: improved information gathering, stronger prevention and mitigation measures, more effective use of infrastructure and airspace management, and enhanced coordination and preparedness among relevant agencies.

    Reported incidents of interference with GNSS signals have been increasing across Eastern Europe and the Middle East in recent years. Similar incidents have been reported in other locations globally. The initial response focused only on containing those GNSS interference incidents.

    “GNSS disruptions are evolving in terms of both frequency and complexity,” said Jesper Rasmussen, EASA Flight Standards director. “We are no longer just containing GNSS interference — we must build resilience. The evolving nature of the threat demands a dynamic and ambitious action plan. Through collaboration with partners in the European Union and IATA, and by supporting the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), we are committed to keeping aviation safe, secure and navigable.”

    The number of GPS signal loss events increased by 220% between 2021 and 2024, according to IATA’s data from the Global Aviation Data Management Flight Data eXchange (GADM FDX). “With continued geopolitical tensions, it is difficult to see this trend reversing in the near term,” said Nick Careen, IATA senior vice president, Operations, Safety and Security. “IATA and EASA are working together to reinforce the redundancies that are built into the system, to keep flying safe. The next step is for ICAO to move these solutions forward with global alignment on standards, guidance and reporting. This must command a high priority at the ICAO Assembly later this year. To stay ahead of the threat, aviation must act together and without delay.”

    Detailed Workshop Outcomes

    The workshop concluded that four workstreams are critical.

    1. Enhanced Reporting and Monitoring

    • Agree on standard radio calls for reporting GNSS interference and standardized notice to airmen (NOTAM) coding, i.e. Q codes.
    • Define and implement monitoring and warning procedures, including real-time airspace monitoring.
    • Ensure dissemination of information without delays to relevant parties for formal reporting.

    2. Prevention and Mitigation

    • Tighten controls (including export and licensing restrictions) on jamming devices.
    • Support the development of technical solutions to:
      • reduce false terrain warnings;
      • improve situational interference with portable spoofing detectors; and
      • ensure rapid and reliable GPS equipment recovery after signal loss or interference.

    3. Infrastructure and Airspace Management

    • Maintain a backup for GNSS with a minimum operational network of traditional navigation aids.
    • Better utilize military air traffic management (ATM) capabilities, including tactical air navigation networks and real-time airspace GNSS incident monitoring.
    • Enhance procedures for airspace contingency and reversion planning so aircraft can navigate safely even if interference occurs.

    4. Coordination and Preparedness

    • Improve civil-military coordination, including the sharing of GNSS radio frequency interference (RFI) event data.
    • Prepare for evolving-threat capabilities, also for drones.

    The workshop was held at EASA’s headquarters in Cologne, Germany, on May 22-23, and was attended by more than 120 experts from the aviation industry, research organizations, government bodies and international organizations.

  • ANELLO’s silicon photonics optical gyroscope is enabling GPS-free navigation

    ANELLO’s silicon photonics optical gyroscope is enabling GPS-free navigation

    For decades, GPS has been the cornerstone of modern navigation, guiding aircraft, vehicles, troops and commercial systems across the globe. As digital warfare intensifies, satellite signals are increasingly unreliable. From the battlefield to underground tunnels, to dense forests, and urban canyons, global positioning signals are being jammed, spoofed, or simply blocked by the environment. In these GPS-denied zones, the risks to navigation, targeting and mission success grow exponentially.

    Without reliable positioning, systems lose their sense of location, direction and speed — making it impossible to navigate to their destination. Yet in modern warfare, autonomous systems and industrial automation depend on precise and continuous navigation. ANELLO Photonics is tackling this gap head-on with a breakthrough silicon photonics-based optical gyroscope (SiPhOG) technology — one that seeks to reshape how machines, soldiers and vehicles navigate across land, air and sea when satellites fall silent.

    A Battlefield Blind Spot

    In GPS-contested environments such as urban warzones, subterranean tunnels, dense forests or near hostile jamming equipment, traditional navigation solutions fail. Spoofing attacks can instantaneously displace autonomous vehicles by kilometers. Jamming can cripple UAVs mid-flight, causing them to crash. Even in civilian settings — especially in and around conflict zones — GPS signal loss can disrupt commercial fleets, emergency responders, and industries like mining or agriculture. These dropouts stall autonomous operations, reduce productivity, and increase the risk of severe damage.

    These issues aren’t hypothetical. Adversaries have demonstrated sophisticated GPS interference capabilities that can mislead or immobilize multi-million-dollar defense assets. The need for self-contained, spoof-resistant navigation has never been more urgent.

    Strategic-Grade Precision in a Chip

    ANELLO Photonics took a radically new approach to building gyroscopes when it built its Silicon Photonics Optical Gyroscope (SiPhOG) using the same semiconductor processes used for integrated circuits. This breakthrough makes it possible to deliver high-precision optical navigation in a chip-scale form factor — smaller than a fingernail. The SiPhOG harnesses the proven Sagnac effect — central to traditional fiber-optic gyroscopes (FOGs) — but ANELLO has reimagined it using advanced silicon photonics, integrating this into a compact silicon photonic chip.

    This innovation enables:

    • Bias drift < 0.5°/hr. A performance level previously only achieved by large, costly fiber-optic systems.
    • Nanoradian-scale angular sensitivity. Essential for accurate navigation over long durations.
    • Superior to MEMS. Resilient to vibration, thermal variation and EMI — ideal for combat zones and industrial environments.
    • Compact, coin-sized form factor. Easily integrates into existing systems and is small enough to be used for soldier-worn devices, embedded robotics and scalable mass-market applications.

    The ANELLO SiPhOG offers the precision of strategic-grade FOG systems, but with the size, weight, power and cost suitable for widespread tactical deployment to the mass market. This balance makes it uniquely positioned to serve both high-end defense missions and cost-sensitive commercial markets.

    The Full-Stack INS Advantage

    SiPhOGs alone aren’t enough. ANELLO integrates its SiPhOGs with accelerometers, magnetometers, GPS (when available) and onboard CPU logic into a full-stack inertial navigation system (INS). Additionally, these systems use the ANELLO AI-based sensor-fusion engine to intelligently reconcile data, validate signal integrity and detect anomalies, such as jammed or spoofed GPS locations or signal dropouts across land, air and sea. The ANELLO AI sensor-fusion engine processes and tracks in real time the inertial position and GPS position every ~10 ms. The system auto-corrects and seamlessly transitions the sensor modes without any human intervention — always determining what is correct and what is false or being spoofed. The ANELLO AI sensor-fusion engine is continuously being tested and optimized by the ANELLO team with various customers in the field.

    The result is a self-contained, intelligent navigation platform that maintains accurate heading, velocity and position — even in total GPS darkness. The modularity of the ANELLO systems also enables easy integration into various host platforms, from aerial drones to armored vehicles to autonomous boats and robots.

    Field-Proven Resilience in Defense

    During U.S. Department of Defense trials, ANELLO’s INS systems successfully identified and mitigated GPS spoofing attempts in real time. When a vehicle’s GPS feed suddenly shifted its perceived location by kilometers, ANELLO’s AI engine flagged the change as physically impossible, rejected the GPS input and seamlessly relied on ANELLO inertial data to maintain accurate positioning.

    Such robustness makes the ANELLO technology suitable for:

    • UAVs operating in jammed or contested airspace
    • Autonomous Ground Vehicles (AGVs) navigating GPS-denied terrain • Marine systems facing jammed or spoofed GPS signals
    • Land vehicles such as emergency responders and even delivery vehicles
    • Handheld soldier systems that demand compact, rugged navigation capabilities for on-the-move operations.

    Whether installed on armored vehicles, on drones, or embedded in next-gen infantry kits, ANELLO’s optical gyro-based solutions deliver location certainty when precision and accuracy matter.

    Cross-Sector Use Cases

    Autonomy Without Satellites: While defense remains a clear application, the broader commercial value is just as transformative. In agriculture, autonomous vehicles often lose GPS coverage under thick orchard canopies. In underground mines or port operations, satellites are blocked entirely. In these environments, ANELLO’s SiPhOG-powered INS continues to provide reliable localization and position, ensuring autonomous systems don’t stall, stray or crash.

    Commercial applications for ANELLO’s SiPhOG technology include:

    • Autonomous mining vehicles. Enables self-driving trucks and loaders to navigate through tunnels and signal-blocked environments with precision and safety.
    • Port automation and crane systems. Supports operation of automated cranes and cargo movers in GNSS-challenged port environments for uninterrupted container handling and improved throughput.
    • Industrial robotics and logistics. Powers warehouse robots and inspection systems with high-precision navigation in indoor and metallic environments where GPS is unreliable or unavailable.
    • Autonomous maritime systems. Facilitates reliable navigation for unmanned surface vessels (USVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) operating in coastal, harbor, or fully submerged missions where satellite signals are compromised.

    With rapid integration into commercial drones, robotic forklifts and construction fleets, ANELLO is extending military-grade navigation into everyday autonomy use cases.

    Smarter Navigation in Real Time

    At the heart of ANELLO’s platform is a sophisticated AI sensor fusion engine. Every 10 ms, the system ingests data from multiple sensors, validates physics-based plausibility and recalibrates its state estimates. This allows the system to detect and reject spoofed GPS signals, continue navigation autonomously through temporary GPS dropouts and identify signal degradation before failure occurs.

    This intelligence is what makes the system robust, not just a fallback, but a fully capable primary navigation method in harsh and dynamic environments. It also significantly reduces the operational risk and support burden typically associated with traditional inertial systems.

    Compact, Scalable, Mission-Ready

    As conflicts evolve and global infrastructure expands into GPS-hostile regions, inertial systems must become smaller, smarter and more affordable. ANELLO is advancing a roadmap toward fully integrated, chip-scale INS platforms with gyros, lasers, processors and algorithms all on a single platform. This enables faster deployment in the field, lower system power consumption and broader adoption across vast use cases for military and industrial systems.

    The company’s domestic chip fabrication capability also ensures supply chain security, an increasingly critical factor in national defense and industrial automation strategies. From soldier systems and UAVs to autonomous cargo vehicles and industrial robots, ANELLO’s technology is positioning itself as a cornerstone for resilient, GPS-independent autonomy.

    Navigatng a Standard for a Contested World

    The future of autonomous operations—military and civilian alike—will need to depend on navigation systems that do not falter when GPS disappears. With its SiPhOG-based inertial platform, ANELLO Photonics is offering not just a backup system, but a new standard: one that combines strategic-grade precision, compact design and AI-driven reliability that can be delivered to the mass market and installed into any vehicle or any moving platform.

    In an era where signal denial is not just a threat but a tactic, assured positioning is no longer optional—it’s essential. ANELLO is redefining the future of navigation, empowering not just autonomous systems but also the people who rely on navigation to operate with confidence and precision — anywhere, anytime — even when the sky goes dark.

  • BDStar unveils chip-cloud integrated business strategy

    BDStar unveils chip-cloud integrated business strategy

    BDStar Navigation Co. Ltd., a provider of positioning technology solutions, has announced its chip-coud integration strategy and introduced intelligent location digital base (iLDB) in Frankfurt, Germany.

    iLDB leverages a distributed chip-cloud architecture to create a unified technology and service system. Guided by the chip-cloud Integration paradigm, it combines focused R&D with cross-technology synthesis. This approach delivers robust positioning solutions and powers the integration of physical and virtual environments.

    By establishing the iLDB, BDStar has created a closed-loop ecosystem for its positioning products and services, encompassing algorithms, chips/modules, antennas and data services within a unified framework. The company’s solutions deliver on-demand positioning that is all-weather, all-scenario, secure, reliable and intelligently adaptive, serving a wide range of sectors, including intelligent driving, outdoor robotics (such as robotic lawn mowers), unmanned aerial vehicles, and smart wearables across industrial, automotive and consumer markets.

    Positioning for Europe. Aligned with the iLDB strategy, BDStar also introduced its new high-precision positioning data service for the European market. Built on network real-time kinematic (NRTK) technology, the service offers broad coverage across Europe and provides customers throughout the region with centimeter-level, real-time positioning accuracy within seconds.

    Founded in 2000, BDStar ranks among the world’s top ten suppliers of GNSS core components. In 2025, the company’s global GNSS chip/module shipments are expected to exceed 100 million units. Many leading international brands are already integrating BDStar’s GNSS chips, antennas, and data services into next-generation products designed to address changing market demands.

    David Zhou, vice president of BDStar, said the company’s chip-cloud integration strategy delivers multiple benefits through one-stop design, supply and support, enabling reduced cost, enhanced efficiency, assured security, single accountability, and rapid, effective troubleshooting.

    Ruxin Zhou, founder and chairman of BDStar, emphasized the company’s global vision. “With our chip-cloud integrated model, BDStar will strengthen worldwide partnerships and continue building a world-class, globally covered iLDB,” he said. “We are committed to creating long-term value for our customers and driving progress in the intelligent era.”

  • Orkid’s new VTOL drone integrates GNSS, lidar, photogrammetry and Starlink

    Orkid’s new VTOL drone integrates GNSS, lidar, photogrammetry and Starlink

    Drone-maker Orkid has unveiled a new variant of its Orkid 260 drone that incorporates four technologies to improve aerial data-capture technology.

    According to the company, the Orkid 260VTOL represents a leap forward in the integration of advanced sensing and communication technologies, setting a new benchmark for multi-mission drone capability across commercial and industrial applications. The company said it is the “first vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) drone to bring all four of the most advanced aerial data capture technologies together — onboard, fully integrated, and operating simultaneously.”

    The system combines lidar (YellowScan Surveyor Ultra), photogrammetry (Phase One P5 camera), GNSS/IMU (Trimble Applanix APX-RTX), and Starlink satellite communications integration in a single platform.

    Built on a 100% electric, NDAA-compliant architecture, the aircraft delivers an estimated 1.5 hours of flight endurance with a range of up to 75 miles. Designed for mapping, surveying, utilities, oil and gas, defense, and critical infrastructure inspection, the new model expands the operational scope for high-precision, long-range missions.

  • GEODNET launches survey-grade GNSS rover GEO-MEASURE

    GEODNET launches survey-grade GNSS rover GEO-MEASURE

    GEODNET, provider of a decentralized real-time kinematic (RTK) network, has launched GEO-MEASURE, a survey-grade GNSS rover that delivers centimeter-level accuracy at a consumer-accessible price.

    For decades, survey-grade GNSS rovers have been essential tools for precision applications, but high costs and complex configurations have limited access to survey-grade GNSS rovers to large firms and specialized professionals. GEO-MEASURE is an affordable fully equipped RTK rover integrating robust hardware, a dedicated mobile app, and a preloaded RTK corrections service into a single turnkey package.

    GEO-MEASURE is engineered for professional reliability with quad-frequency support across GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou, Its 1,040 tracking channels provide resilience under canopy or in urban environments. Its rugged, waterproof housing is built for daily use, while a 24-hour rechargeable battery and USB-C charging make it as convenient as a consumer device while still delivering survey-grade performance.

    Available for both iOS and Android, a free companion app simplifies setup, the company said. Once paired via Bluetooth, users can:

    • visualize survey points on maps
    • capture field notes
    • manage multiple projects
    • export data in standard formats (CSV, KML, GPX, GeoJSON) for integration with GIS platforms, CAD workflows, or drone mission software.

    By making centimeter-level accuracy affordable, accessible and scalable, GEO-MEASURE opens professional-grade GNSS workflows to new audiences in construction, GIS, drone operations, agriculture and environmental monitoring.