Visual Intelligence has announced that its iOne Software Sensor Tool Kit Architecture (iOne STKA) is available for purchase or licensing by manufacturers of unmanned airborne vehicles (UAVs) who want to deliver an integrated UAV/geospatial imaging solution to customers.
Capturing high-resolution imagery for applications in engineering, construction, urban planning, military missions and other uses is a significant emerging market for UAV manufacturers, and Visual Intelligence’s iOne STKA makes it possible to bring high-resolution geospatial sensors to UAVs, the company said. By purchasing or licensing Visual Intelligence’s geospatial imaging platform, UAV companies can meet emerging demand for geoimaging solutions that combine the benefits of UAVs with the imaging capabilities of a geoimaging platform.
iOne STKA provides the technology foundation to configure a variety of multi-purpose sensors, including miniaturized 2D/3D applications, for the emerging UVS and mobile/handheld markets. The iOne STKA received the Geospatial Forum 2013 World Technology Innovation in Sensors Award, is the first to be considered for NEANY’s Arrow UAV, and is field-proven by the commercial large-format 2D/oblique/3D multipurpose metric mapping systems iOne IMS, iOne Stereo, and iOne n-Oblique.
With the iOne STKA, the same UAS/UAV sensor system architecture can be used for agricultural and forestry mapping, pipeline or corridor monitoring, utility assessments, aerial surveys, research, persistence surveillance and other metric 2D/3D professional applications. The iOne STKA is a modular multipurpose sensor platform reconfigurable for UAVs of any size. With the iOne STKA, UAV manufacturers are no longer limited to offer monolithic, single purpose DSLR type cameras. Using the iOne STKA technology, UAV end users can economically collect high-quality color or infrared NADIR, oblique, or video imagery as well as co-mount and co-register e.g., LiDAR and thermal sensors using the same system architecture.
“By providing UAV manufacturers and end-users with one reliable and performing end-to-end standard digital sensor system solution for MANY applications, we are empowering our customers with a more efficient and standard technology foundation and paradigm to grow their business, enhance their products, and maximize their return,” said Visual Intelligence President and CEO Dr. Armando Guevara.
At the core of the iOne STKA is Visual Intelligence’s Patented Advanced Retinal Camera Array (ARCA). Developed using open systems and object-oriented software engineering principles, the ARCA is “encapsulated” with a rich set of advanced proprietary software methods that integrate camera components. The ARCA enables the collection of different types of imagery, fused in one pass, producing low-cost, extremely accurate, high-resolution products. It also enables unprecedented array-based collection and functional scalability sensor fusion. The arrays made of these varied imaging devices perform like a single camera, producing one single metric, radiometrically and geometrically correct image, or set of co-registered and fused images; such as a Virtual Frame, of higher accuracy, resolution and quality than DSLR-based monolithic cameras.
Adds Guevara, “UAV manufacturers can take advantage and offer bundled with the iOne sensors Visual Intelligence’s advanced computing technology for fast cloud-based basic and advanced actionable information product generation. As a fully automated solution (from the sensor to the cloud), the iOne STKA includes processing software that uses streamlined workflows and processes imagery faster with multicore/multithreaded/GPU computing technology, making it easy to quickly produce and analyze products in a device-content eCosystem environment. This technology/business model is designed to provide UAV manufacturers and users recurrent ROI.”
UAVs built using sensors based on the iOne STKA have the following features and advantages:
Strong digital obsolescence resilience, extending the useable life of the system while improving operational efficiencies and reducing operating costs for an even better ROI.
In the field:
Collection scalability
Functional scalability
Sensor reconfiguration, e.g. increase collection or functionality as needed or per mission requirements.
Large cross-track and FOV collection through smaller aperture (ARCA enabled).
Ability to collect different sources of metric imagery that can be fused in one pass.
Sensor fusion: Ability to co-mount and co-register in a “small and tight packaging” the EO capability with any other EO or active sensor such as LiDAR, Thermal, IR, etc.
The iOne STKA software architecture is normative across all ARCA-based products; that is, the software is the same for different array configurations or sizes. This reusable component approach yields economies of scale in the manufacturing and use of multipurpose UAV/sensor configurations.
GAINS-10 provides accurate inertial navigation in the presence of mechanical shock, transient platform vibrations and extreme magnetic interference. It features high speed, synchronous sampling of all inertial systems combined with high rate coning and sculling compensation and is fully calibrated across temperature.
“The GAINS-10 delivers precise performance in complex environments,” said Jim Lackemacher, Group vice president of Sparton’s Defense & Security Engineered Products. “Sparton’s GAINS-10 provides flexible integration options and platform customization.”
High-speed synchronous sampling of all inertial sensors
Customizable on-board high speed digital filtering
Sculling and coning compensation
High-speed data logging capability to off-board uSD card
Ruggedized, shockproof design, with proprietary seals that allow barometric pressure sensing combined with IP67 performance
Low power consumption with power management functionality (Sleep Mode)
Interface to external GPS receiver
External data interface via Multi-GPIO connectivity
Powerful user programmable customizations via NorthTek(TM) Forth interpreter
Sparton AUVSI 2014 Events Schedule: Sparton Navigation and Exploration will be featured at the “Beyond the Booth” showcase Wednesday, May 14th at 11:30am (EDT).
Throughout the AUVSI show, Sparton will host in-booth presentations along with live demonstrations.
Carrier Phase Compensates for Wind and Wave Motion
Limited landing area as well as interference due to wind disturbance and wave motion make shipboard landings of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) extremely difficult. Use of UAVs at sea can enhance the efficiency of intelligence gathering and surveillance, and could also increase long-range air-strike capability. To successfully land aircraft in such a challenging environment requires a high-precision navigation system; this prototype applies RTK measurements.
By Chiu-Jung Huang and Shau-Shiun Jan
UAVs can perform functions such as surveying, imaging, detection, sensor work, rescue, and geographic information systems (GIS) data collection. The exploitation of UAVs with portable launching and recovery systems using an automatic guidance equipment can enhance their flexibility in many practical applications. In particular, UAVs can achieve great effectiveness from launch and recovery aboard ships at sea. However, the landing area is narrow on a ship, and interference related to the maritime environment due to wind disturbance and wave motions varies greatly, making maritime UAV landings quite difficult. Recovering these aircraft in such a rapid-dynamic environment requires a high-precision UAV navigation system.
Generally, UAVs use a differential GPS (DGPS) aiding station to continuously transmit positioning correction information during landing approach; this method can provide about 0.7 to 1-meter accuracy. However, shipboard landings require more stringent accuracy. According the Joint Precision Approach and Landing System (JPALS), the requirements of shipboard landing include vertical accuracy on the order of 0.3 meters, and the requirement for the vertical protection level is 1.1 meters. To fulfill these accuracy requirements, we have chosen the real-time kinematic (RTK) technique. Recently, researchers have studied the use of RTK satellite navigation. The Boeing Unmanned Little Bird program has been examining shipboard launch and recovery using related navigation techniques.
The accuracy of using RTK navigation is 1 centimeter + 1 part per million.
Figure 1. Flow chart for software-in-the-loop.
Since development of shipboard landing is costly in terms of time and many resources, including human resources, this research is an attempt to evolve a software-in-the-loop (SIL) simulation system to analyze the accuracy of using RTK for landing navigation. The SIL system uses the MATLAB Simulink interface becasue of its helpfulgraphic user interface and block diagrams. A flowchart of the SIL system is shown in Figure 1.
The simulated RTK message provides the navigational data used as the analysis results from the experiments. To ensure the stability of the landing process, the aircraft models were control by a linear quadratic Gaussian regulator (LQG), which is able to reject the environmental disturbances encountered in the landing process. The ship motions were simulated using the factors and the model formulated by the International Towing Tank Conference. A combined position error consisting of the aircraft controls and ship motions was calculated and then fed back to the RTK navigation message.
RTK Performance
RTK navigation provides high positioning performance in the range of a few centimeters; the technique can eliminate main errors, including ionospheric and tropospheric errors and satellite clock errors, among others. A base station and a rover station can cover a service area of about 10 to 20 square kilometers. The data transition should be in real time using a wireless VHF or Wi-Fi modem.
Because data for shipboard landings are difficult to acquire, the navigation message in the SIL was simulated using experiments involving a variety of conditions. In this article, four kinds of experiments were included to help verify the availability and reliability of using RTK information as a navigational message.
We started with a basic kinematic experiment, which was simply used to assess the RTK performance. Next, a relative positioning experiment was conducted to ensure the RTK relative positioning accuracy was adequate. After that, an antenna reversal experiment was designed in order to understand the ship’s swing effect in which aircraft altitude might cause a lack of common view satellites. Finally, an antenna forward flip experiment was conducted intended to show the different RTK positioning results for a variety of sea state effects.
All of the experimental data were collected by a workshop computer through a program data file. The analyses of the results included the mean, standard deviations of positioning error, unavailable RTK percentages and the positioning accuracy when RTK was unavailable. All of the analysis results were imported to the SIL simulation using the Gaussian random variable model.
Figure 2. Kinematic experimental setup.
Kinematic Experiment. The base station setup included an antenna, tripod, and receiver. The rover station setup included a portable vehicle with a battery, antenna, and receiver placed as shown in Figure 2. The data were transmitted and received using a wireless modem for which the transmitted rate was 115200 bps. The receiver was connected to a laptop used as a workshop to monitor satellite quality and collect the data. The region in which the experiment took place is shown in Figure 3: on the roof of the Aeronautics and Astronautics department building at National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan. The red star is the known position of the base station. The broken rectangular red line is 25 meters by 10 meters along which the moving rover station moved clockwise.
Figure 3. Kinematic experimental region.
However, it is difficult to show the true positions of the experiment. In this article, we tried to get the true position by using a linear regression method which used the time, t, as the explanatory variable and the position, y(t), as the dependent variable. The linear regression used the past five epoch positions as the dependent variables by which to obtain the linear polynomial, and the fifth position was put into the polynomial to get the position error. For example, in order to calculate an error at t=4, the position results from t=0 to t=4 must be taken into Equation (1) to form the second order polynomials with parameters P, Q, and R
(1)
The experimental results are shown in Figure 4, which is the ENU positioning error, and Table 1 shows the analysis error mean and standard deviations. The experimental results show that the horizontal positioning accuracy is 0.037 meters (95 percent).
Figure 4. ENU error results for the kinematic experiment.Table 1. Positioning results for the kinematic experiment.
Relative Experiment. This experiment had one base station as before and included two rover stations which were placed on a T-bar, the relative distance being known, on a portable cart as shown in Figure 5. The region of the experiment is shown in Figure 6, where the star marks the location of the base station, with the rover station moving along the black arrow.
The relative error was calculated using a known distance, 0.72 meters, to compare the two rover station positions. Figure 7 shows the relative results of the experiment for which the mean value and standard deviations were recorded in Table 2. In this experiment, only about 4.5 percent of the positioning results failed to meet the requirement of 0.3 meters.
Figure 7. Relative error results.Table 2. Positioning results for the relative experiment.
Common-View Satellite Experiment. Aircraft landing altitude and the ship’s swing motion caused by the state of the sea might affect GNSS information received by the antenna. This experiment had one base station and one rover station at fixed positions as before, but we attempted to flip the antenna of the base station toward the north by 80 degrees, as shown in Figure 8, and the rover station changed direction according to Table 3. The antenna directional change of 80 degrees were chosen for the extreme case that the base station and rover station could experience completely different satellites in view.
Table 3. Common view satellite experimental setup for antenna.Figure 8. Common view satellite experimental setup.
Results of the experiment are shown in Figure 9, in which the vertical lines indicate antenna directional changes. For this experiment, every change is 30 seconds. This experiment demonstrates that the position performance definitely varies. The position analysis is shown in Table 4, which shows a horizontal error of 0.116meters (95 percent).
Figure 9. ENU results of the common view satellite experiment.Table 4. Positioning results for the common view satellite experiment.
Sea-State Experiment. In this experiment, one base station and one rover station were required in a fixed position, but the rover station changed the direction of the antenna, as shown in Figure 10, where the angle of x is decided according to the sea state in Table 5. On the other hand, the antenna changing toward a different direction simulated the swing motion of the boat.
Figure 10. Swing experimental setup.Table 5. Antenna angle in the swing experiment.
The experimental results shown in Table 6 are the mean values, and Table 7 shows the standard deviations. The simulation provides the analysis results in order to authenticate the integration simulations. The results show that the sea state slightly influences RTK positioning.
UAV and Ship Motion Simulations
During shipboard landing processing, many complicated conditions must be taken into account, including crosswinds, an air-wake model, wind gusts, and deck motion. The ship deck motion and crosswind effects are two key factors that further increase the difficulty of ship-borne operations.
For this reason, the UAV controller must have anti- interference features. An LQG controller is able to reject the environmental disturbances encountered during landing in a lateral motion. For the ship deck motion, the chosen spectrum (the International Towing Tank Conference, or ITTC two-parameter spectrum) was used as the power spectrum of the sea waves to be simulated.
Aircraft Simulation. The aircraft was in the simulation, the SP.X-6, was designed by the Remotely Piloted Vehicle and Microsatellite Research Laboratory of National Cheng Kung University (see opening photo and cover). For the longitudinal motion, a combination of a linear quadratic integral (LQI) controller and a Kalman filter in the inner-loop system was used to control the vertical velocity and height mainly using an elevator. For the lateral motion, the LQG autopilots were designed with guaranteed robustness properties that allowed quick return to the designed point.
The SP.X-6 aircraft state functions are shown in Equation 2, in which the x, u, y, w, and v mean the system state vector, input, measurement, process error vector, and the measurement error, respectively. A, B, C, and K refer to the system state matrices, which can be evaluated by the system identifications that are derived by using the subspace identification to obtain an initial model. After that, the initial model will feed into the recursive prediction error method algorithm in order to arrive at further refined models.
(2)
Figure 11. Linear quadratic Gaussian regulator block diagram.
After obtaining the aircraft’s model, the LQG controller is used, a block diagram for which is shown in Figure 11 and for which the close-loop dynamic is given by Equation 3. The means the estimated states are feedback by which to form the optimal control law, u=−K. The y means the output command with the LQG variables F, G, K, and L.
(3)
The aircraft landing controls were divided into the longitudinal and lateral dynamics. For the longitudinal dynamics, the landing command was the vertical discrete height. In the case of the lateral dynamics, the stable condition was used when disturbances were encountered.
Up till now, navigation of SP.X-6 relied solely on the GPS signal. Using RTK technique for the landing process will enhance navigation accuracy. The navigation method is the point-to-point guidance law illustrated in Figure 12.
Figure 12. The point-to-point guidance law.
The basic concept of the point-to-point guidance law can be derived from the aircraft initial position A and the target position B in two-dimensional coordinate frame at every epoch. Desired heading angle θT and the distance between two points d can computed at each control loop via Equation 4.
(4)
The navigation signal used in the simulation is of 20 Hz.
Deck Motion Simulation. Variations in waves are formed by the wind, and waves do not propagate only in one direction; the other direction will also affect wave propagation. The wave always is set as a stationary random process for the purpose of processing. The Longuet-Higgins model assumes that random waves are composed of many different wavelengths and harmonic amplitude superposition. Assuming the wave travels in a fixed direction, the peaks and troughs of the wave lines are parallel to each other and perpendicular to the forward direction of the waves, which are called two irregular waves or crested waves. Crested waves cause greater ship motion. The crested wave model indicates that point a at t epoch on a random sea wave height can be expressed as Equation 5, where ai-th represents harmonic waves with ωi frequency and εi initial condition.
(5)
It can be seen that the wave function can be expressed as a superposition of individual harmonics, so as long as waves establishing harmonic amplitudes and harmonic frequencies can be simulated in order to create the wave model. In this research, the amplitudes and the initial conditions are obtained from the sea wave spectrum of the ITTC model:
(6)
Four different sea state conditions were designed, as shown in Table 8 in the integrated simulation. Using the parameters from the spectrum analysis and the frequency divide method, the sea wave simulation could be obtained. Figures 13 and 14 show the simulation results of sea state A. Figure 15 shows all four state spectrum simulations results, and Figure 16 shows the sea wave height.
Figure 13. Sea State A spectrum.Figure 14. Sea State A wave height.Figure 15. Wave spectrum simulation results.Figure 16. Wave height simulation results.
Integrated Simulations
In the integrated simulation, first the health of the RTK information was examined, and then, according the environment parameter settings, sea wave simulations were conducted. Subsequently, the aircraft landing process errors were presented using the experimental positioning analysis.
The integrated simulation system is shown in Figure 17; it can be divided into three parts. The first part is the sea state options shown in the black line region, and the sea wave change is displayed and the maximum changing rate is calculated after the sea state option is selected. The second part is shown in the green line region that is the landing analysis which includes RTK health status, ENU error size. The last part is the landing animation which is enclosed in the red line region.
Figure 17. Integrated simulations graphic user interface.
Four sea-wave height simulation statuses can be selected, and the chosen sea state can be used to determine the corresponding landing environment, as shown in Figure 18, which illustrates the ship motion simulated by the wave height.
Figure 18. Sea wave change.
RTK health information was simulated according to the experimental results in Table 9, in which the RTK information unavailability was 1.1 percent. A random Gaussian number was used to simulate the health of the RTK satellite information.
After the sea-wave simulation and the RTK health simulation, the second concern was the landing process simulation. The landing process simulation has two conditions, namely the “normal landing” condition and the “landing with common-view satellite problem” condition. The normal landing process errors were presented using the Sea State Experiment results, while the landing with common-view satellite problem process errors was simulated by the result of Common View Satellite Experiment positioning analysis.
For example, a ship was traveling at a velocity of 10 m/s in East, and an aircraft was cruising at a velocity of 20 m/s toward the East. The initial position of the ship was at (ES, NS, US) = (200, 0, 0) and the aircraft was at (EA, NA, UA) = (0,150,100). In the landing process, the desired heading angle and the distance to the waypoint were evaluated every epoch. The simulated landing process example is shown in Figure 19; the blue line is the ship’s trajectory and the red line indicates the aircraft’s trajectory.
Figure 19. The simulated landing process example.
The guidance accuracy includes the control accuracy and the navigation sensor measurement accuracy. In the simulation result, the control accuracy (that is, controller error) was neglected. Therefore, the error for the landing process becomes only the navigation sensor measurement error which was the RTK error in this article. Users have the options to add different controllers as well as the controller error in the simulations.
The landing positioning error was simulated using the imported analysis results in the correspondence sea state included in the RTK status shown in Figure 20 and the landing ENU errors are shown in Figure 21.
Figure 20. RTK state simulation results.Figure 21. The ENU errors of the simulated landing process example.
Red stars in Figure 20 indicate the warning window when the simulated RTK statuses were unhealthy. For example, the 114th, 126th, 169th and 240th epochs in Figure 21 indicate that RTK data is unavailable during this time simulation. The unhealthy RTK signal might cause interruptions in navigation service in the landing process, as shown as the red stars in Figure 21. For the epochs with red stars, the simulated position results were exceeding the performance requirement for RTK shipboard landing. When this situation happened, the monitoring system might raise a flag to the aircraft’s guidance system not to use the RTK signal for landing at this period of time. Excluding these unhealthy RTK epochs, the simulated landing errors were well met the performance requirement for RTK shipboard landing, as shown in Figure 22.
Figure 22. The ENU errors of the simulated landing process after excluding the unhealthy RTK results.
An overall simulation result is illustrated in Figure 23, when the successful landing message was shown in a pop-up window, the landing information of the whole landing process would be shown in the graphic user interface.
Figure 23. Example simulation result.
Conclusions
Experimental results showed that 99 percent of the horizontal positioning was in the range requirement of 0.3 meters. Using the common view satellite experiment and the sea state variation experiment conducted in this study, the limitations of RTK positioning can be understood. Monitoring the RTK status can provide high-quality accuracy with regard to guidance of the landing process. We hope that the results of this study will become a reference for building a shipboard landing system in Taiwan.
Manufacturers
All of the experimental data were collected by a workshop computer through a NovAtel (www.novatel.com) Connect program data file. The base station setup included a NovAtel GPS-703-GGG antenna with a Sokkia tripod and the NovAtel Propak-V3 RT2-G receiver. The rover station setup included a portable vehicle with a battery, a NovAtel GPS-703-GGG antenna and the NovAtel Propak-V3 RT2-G receiver.
Chiu-Jung Huang received her B.S. degree from National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) in Taiwan. She is currently studying for her M.S. degree in aeronautics and astronautics at NCKU.
Shau-Shiun Jan is an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at NCKU. He directs the NCKU Communication and Navigation Systems Laboratory (CNSL). His research focuses on GNSS augmentation system design, analysis, and application. He received his Ph.D. degree in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University.
The Department of Defense announced that U.S. Air Force Space Command will begin broadcasting Civil Navigation (CNAV) messages on all operational GPS satellites capable of transmitting the L2C and L5 signals. L2C and L5 are the first of several new civil capabilities being added to GPS as part of the GPS modernization program announced in 1999. The L2C signal is designed to meet commercial needs and L5 meets safety-of-life transportation requirements.
“We have been working in partnership with the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to enable early delivery of two more civilian frequencies from the GPS satellite constellation,” said Maj. Gen. Robert E. Wheeler, DoD deputy chief information officer, C4 and Information Infrastructure Capabilities. “These new CNAV messages will enable manufacturers to develop and test advanced civil receivers and make for a more robust Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) solution available to the civilian public. We do not anticipate any GPS satellite outages or legacy degradations as a result of the pre-operational deployment of these frequencies, and those currently using the GPS Standard Positioning Service should not be impacted,” he added.
The implementation will take place in two phases. First, on April 28, 2014, the initial broadcast of CNAV message-populated L2C and L5 signals will occur at a reduced data accuracy and update frequency compared to the legacy GPS signals in wide use today. Second, in December 2014, CNAV data updates will increase to a daily rate, bringing L2C and L5 signal-in-space accuracy on par with the legacy signals. However, derived position accuracy cannot be guaranteed during the pre-operational deployment of the frequencies. These pre-operational signals are primarily used to test various equipment and should be employed at the users’ own risk; not used for safety-of-life or other critical purposes.
The Air Force will broadcast L2C messages with the health bit set “healthy,” as was the case during a June 2013 test. L5 messages will be set “unhealthy,” but as greater experience with the L5 broadcast and implementation of signal monitoring is achieved, this status may change upon review. The public will receive ample notification before any decision to set the L5 health bit to “healthy.”
“The U.S. Department of Transportation is pleased with the collaborative effort and work of the CNAV tiger team, formed between the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Air Force Space Command, and the U.S. Department of Transportation, to address concerns about implementation of a pre-operational CNAV capability on the GPS L2C and L5 signals,” said Greg Winfree, assistant secretary for research and technology at USDOT.
For additional information about the testing, contact the Air Force Space Command public affairs office at 719-554-3731.
Tallysman Wireless, Inc., is offering a family of very low power, compact, high-performance GNSS antennas for precision, commercial, and military applications.
Based in Ottawa, Canada, Tallysman Wireless, is a designer and manufacturer of high-performance GNSS, Iridium, and Globalstar antennas and associated components.
The TW4327 and TW4329 are low-power GPS L1 + GLONASS G1 antennas that feature current consumption of 1.75 mA typically and parametrically invariant performance over a supply range from 2.5V to 12V.
The TW4327 o ffers a 21-dB gain minimum, and the TW4329 includes a narrow pre-fi lter to prevent front end saturation by near out-of-band interfering signals.
Both antennas are more tolerant to detuning eff ects caused by the operational environment, thanks to a 40% thicker patch element that provides wider bandwidth than conventional antennas. These antennas are also very compact (38mm x 38mm x 14.4mm), making them ideal for use in a wide range of locations.
The TW4027 and TW4029 are equivalent antennas for reception of GPS L1 signals.
“These products are ideal for any battery operated applications where low power is a pre-requisite,” said Gyles
Panther CEO of Tallysman Wireless, “and the wider patch element bandwidth will minimize detuning in non-ideal
environments, such as in covert applications.”
Tallysman Wireless has recently added an authorized distributor of its products for Russia (Aurora Mobile Technologies), and another distributor for Asia (Advanced Information Technology, Inc.), for the countries of Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Indonesia, and India.
GPS IIF-5 was launched on February 20 and turned over to the 2nd Space Operations Squadron (2 SOPS) for operations on March 5. This was the 10th successful launch and initialization using Braxton Technologies‘ Launch, Anomaly Resolution, and Disposal Operations (LADO) system.
LADO has performed all the mission planning, commanding and telemetry processing necessary to prepare all GPS satellites for operational use since October 2007. Developed and sustained by Braxton Technologies, LADO was built using Braxton’s ACE Premier commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) product line for spacecraft control, astrodynamics and simulation.
“Braxton is proud to be a key partner on the GPS program,” said Ken O’Neil, Braxton’s President and Chief Operating Officer. “As a small business, we greatly value our partnership with the US Air Force and enjoy quickly delivering innovative capabilities to support the U.S. military and the GPS worldwide user community.”
The GPS IIF-5 replaces the GPS IIA-15 satellite launched in 1994. The 19th Space Operations Squadron (19 SOPS) will control the GPS IIA-15 using LADO, where the spacecraft will be stored as a spare available for reactivation within the x-plane for the remainder of its useful life.
Art Kalinski, Geointelligence Editor, interviewed USGIF CEO Keith Masback about GEOINT 2013*, being held this week in Tampa, Florida. Mossback discusses new technology, future combat systems, and plans for the 2015 conference. Watch the interview above.
Kalinksi has been reporting from GEOINT* 2013 all week, with video reports. His coverage of Day Three includes visits with experts at six booths in the exhibit hall, including a demonstration of the Occulus Rift 3D glasses and an inkjet printer that produces 3D terrain models, as well as an interview with USGIF CEO Keith Mossback about the show and plans for next year.
Coverage of Day Two includes a press briefing with Lettitia Long, director, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA); a demonstration by Airbus; and a visit to the Skyline booth.
Read his coverage of Day One of the symposium here. Included are videoclips from a DigitalGlobe presentation about the TomNod crowdsourcing efforts to find Malaysian Airlines Flight 370.
“What can we do to reduce the vulnerability [of GPS] and ensure that the expectations of the public are going to be met?” asked Dr. Bradford Parkinson as he opened his presentation this morning (Tuesday, April 15) at the European Navigation Conference, ENC-GNSS 2014 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Parkinson went through his 61-slide, 50-minute briefing on what he called “PTA” — Protect, Toughen, and Augment — a proposal concerning not only GPS but PNT systems globally. An article by Parkinson based on this talk will highlight the special 25th Anniversary edition of GPS World, to appear in conjunction with this year’s July issue.
Brad Parkinson
After briefly overviewing the many worldwide applications of GPS and its penetration and participation in several vital markets, Parkinson stated “If we want to ensure the economic benefits of GPS, there are some essential needs that a user has. The first need is availability, and I’m defining availability in a certain way. It’s at the required accuracy for the application involved, and it has a bound on the random events that happen out there.
“The second required aspect is integrity, as in ‘I know I’m getting this accuracy, the system is not lying to me.’ In many cases, it’s required that the system not lie to you more often than once in 10 to the seventh (10 million) times.”
Parkinson developed his Protect, Toughen, and Augment proposal in part in response to a remark he heard from a high U.S. government official who opined that “GPS is much too vulnerable, we need to replace it.” While agreeing that the system is vulnerable, Parkinson has strived for a more constructive approach to the problem.
At the end of his presentation, Parkinson introduced one of his colleagues in the audience, from his early days on the GPS Program, and stated that if it was not for Hugo Fruehauf’s expertise with atomic reference systems in 1973, there might never have been a GPS program.
Parkinson was among attendees at an ENC event at City Hall hosted by the Mayor of Rotterdam, The Netherlands. From left are Hugo Fruehauf, Mrs. Bradford “Ginny” Parkinson, Professor Bradford Parkinson, Don Jewell — GPS World Defense Editor, Jac Spaans — Chairman of the Organizing Commitee of the ENC, and Adrianna Spaans.
Calling it an “unprecedented and deeply worrying total disruption . . . [that] shook the industry,” Locata Corporation reiterated its call for redundant terrestrial systems to back up GNSS in the wake of the April 1 11-hour GLONASS system outage.
Nunzio Gambale, Locata CEO, said “We have been telling the industry for years that you cannot have a critically important capability like GPS without also having a backup! What is Plan B if the satellite systems fail? What replaces the space signal when there is a problem? If anyone needed a sign to understand why Locata has spent years inventing and developing the world’s first local terrestrial equivalent of the GPS system, then last week’s meltdown of a complete global satellite navigation system is it. This event should terrify every nation, government, and company that depends on navigation satellites for their business or, in some cases, their very lives.”
The navigation and timing functions of the global positioning systems underpin the world’s banking systems, stock exchanges, digital TV and Internet, cell phone networks, and, in some cases, the national electricity supply, Locata pointed out. GPS, in particular, plays a crucial role in transportation, shipping, and logistics, serving as the enabling technology for critical functions like air traffic control. Reliability is therefore not just important; it is essential across all applications. Locata, the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation (RNTF) in Washington, D.C., and others have persistently called attention to the need for redundant terrestrial systems that will back up expensive, vulnerable, and aging global satellite navigation constellations while simultaneously providing the local control and resiliency that satellite-based systems cannot deliver.
Professor Chris Rizos of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of New South Wales stated that “This catastrophic failure of one of the world’s two global satellite navigation constellations is a wakeup call for all of us. We ignore the possibility of these ‘Black Swan’ events at our own peril.”
The GLONASS disruption was felt around the world, immediately upon its origination, especially in professional applications, such as tractor automation for farming, machine control and robotics in mining and heavy industry, and in the national infrastructure used by surveyors and industry across many countries.
“This shows just how interlinked the physical and cyber worlds have now become,” added Professor Brett Biddington, a space and cybersecurity expert from the School of Computer and Security Science at Edith Cowan University, Australia. “The prospect of a software glitch, whether unintentional or intentional, seems highly likely [as a cause for the failure]. If it was a deliberate attack, however, it points to a changing face of warfare where the real enemy may be impossible to detect and deter until very damaging strikes, such as an attack on the GPS system, have already taken place.
“The vital point here is that this is no longer just a question for scientists and technologists. A locally controlled backup system for this essential signal is a national policy question of the highest order.”
Locata Corporation and other industry authorities have long testified on global satellite navigation vulnerabilities and the need for diverse technology options to strengthen and back up GPS, GLONASS, and other systems. Locata developed a robust solution and has been awarded a sole-source contract by the U.S. Air Force (USAF) to provide its terrestrially based alternative positioning for military applications where GPS has been completely jammed. The first wide-area Locata system is being deployed now at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The USAF demonstrated that the White Sands Locata network delivers what has been extremely high accuracy over a 2,500-square mile area, positioning aircraft flying up to 35 miles away to an accuracy of better than six inches.
A pair of LocataLite transmit antennas overlook a section of the White Sands Missile Range blanketed by the Locata high-precision ground-based positioning system.
“There is no other technology that can do this, and it’s delivered in the complete absence of GPS,” continued Gambale. “What is being demonstrated at White Sands is that Locata supplies precisely the same function as GPS, even when there is no GPS available. That’s exactly what you need if the satellites fail.
“If this event had been a GPS failure instead of a GLONASS failure – and it could very easily have been – then the entire world would have plunged into a catastrophe. This event is the navigation equivalent of a ‘close call moment,’ and from here on out no one can even question that this is a really serious problem that must be addressed. Another industry expert recently told me, ‘If there was a sustained GPS outage, it would cause a global financial nuclear winter from which it would take us decades to recover.’”
Gambale concluded, “We need action to develop local backups like Locata around places like airports and other strategically important areas – now! We must not wait until we are faced with another seemingly impossible event like a complete satellite constellation failure. We may not dodge this bullet a second time.”
Locata terrestrial positioning technologies complement GPS by setting up ground-based transmitters, called LocataLites, to create a local constellation called a LocataNet. Once properly deployed, Locata’s unique nanosecond-accurate TimeLoc system synchronizes the network, which allows it to replicate the positioning capabilities of GPS, locally. LocataNets operate today in environments ranging from small warehouses to open-cut mines, wide-area aircraft approach-and-landing systems, and wider areas for aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) uses.
In consulting my notebooks for the spring of 2014, I find many remarkable cases that engaged the attention of my intimate friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes. Among them stand out the tragedy of the ancient British barrow, the disappearance of Pemblestoke the magician, and the curious facts associated with the giant rat of Sumatra, a tale for which the world is still not prepared. Perhaps none of these so well illustrate, however, the advanced technical insights and consultative powers of the great detective as did the intrigue into which we were drawn by the brilliant young American scientist, Geo. P. Hess.
“Watson, we have a new client,” Holmes announced over breakfast, “a friend, actually, upon whom I have depended for many years. He has always proved reliable, helping me navigate the highways and by-ways all across the land.”
“His name?” I inquired.
“The Right Honorable George Parkinson Hess from California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Florida, and doubtless many other parts of the American nation. I have watched G.P. Hess grow these last 36 years into a prodigiously successful entrepreneur, known the world round for his ubiquity, openhanded generosity to all, and, equally, his devotion to his own country. Now it seems he needs my advice, and I cannot refuse him.“
“I wonder that an American should be able to find his way here this morning,” I replied. “There’s a beastly fog about, and London streets are no friendly environment under the best of conditions.”
“Have no fear, Watson,” Holmes chuckled. “I have never known G. P. Hess to be late for any function. Since a lad he was always on time, right to the second. You can set your watch by him, and as far as I know he has never been lost. He has an uncanny sense of direction and is indeed a fount of knowledge concerning maps and directions. I believe I hear his ring at the bell even now.”
Mrs. Hudson ushered in our American visitor, and Holmes introduced us. “It is always good to see you, G.P. How are you — in good health, I presume?”
“Indeed, Mr. Holmes, things are neither as well they may seem on the surface, nor as well as they could be. I am troubled of late, severely troubled by potential gaps in my future. Not to mention the seismic activity lately in Los Angeles. In the last 18 months, the magnitude of the tremors has grown from 3.1 to 5.1 on the Richter scale. I just can’t understand why they thought to have our major acquisition headquarters in a place that is constantly threatened by tremors, outright quakes, wild fires, floods, landslides, and tsunamis. Not to mention the traffic. It would have been much better to co-locate acquisition with the main headquarters in Colorado. All they have to worry about there are blizzards, high winds, and an occasional wildfire.
“While I could not agree with you more, G.P., I fail to see what I can do, try as I might, about Mother Nature.”
Fire in Florida
“Right you are, Mr. Holmes. I’ll get to the heart of the matter. I am deeply concerned about several of our business ventures: expansion and modernization efforts, if you will. You may have heard about a small but rather serious fire at the U.S. Air Force’s Cape Canaveral radar tracking facility and the subsequent launch delays. That small fire at a single tracking facility has already delayed a National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) launch, and a resupply mission to the International Space Station, currently manned by U.S. and Russian crews who, whether or not they are still speaking to one another, really need the replenishments. Now we aren’t allowed use Russian engine cores for space launch any more. A blessing, actually, as the Russians have put more malfunctioning GLONASS satellites into salt water lately than into the vacuum of space, when they aren’t simply blasting them to kingdom come.
“With all the troubles besetting Cape Canaveral, Elon Musk is burning figure eights in his Tesla, and SpaceX is a very happy company — in the right place at the right time, what? Able to launch its Falcons and Falcon Heavies from Vandenberg as well as Canaveral.
“Imagine, one little fire has caused the cancellation of several space launches, and those still on the manifest are moving to the right daily. We had hoped to put into orbit four new IIF models this year, but that looks next to impossible now. Plus it appears the GPS III payload has hit a snag. It is delayed six to nine months.”
GPS III Delay
“A delay in GPS III had not been looked for, had it?” queried Holmes.
“No sir, it had not. Everything was proceeding smoothly, but now the satellite payload is in question. Subcontractor Exelis has provided every GPS payload since 1978 and all have worked marvelously well, some of them for more than 23 years. But now — there is a problem. Some say it is signal crosstalk, some say it is with the new rubidium clocks. One thing for sure, it is demoralizing. I am given to understand the powers that be in Colorado Springs and Los Angeles are calmly but firmly looking for some competition or even an alternate payload provider.
OCX Delay
“And then there is the GPS ground segment. It has moved one month to the right for every month it has been in existence, it has gone over budget, and now is on its third program manager in three years. Whatever happened to the days when a capable leader conducted a program from beginning to end, knew it intimately from top to bottom, from soup to nuts? What is this world coming to? Where are our leaders?
“And don’t get me started on the effects of ‘seques-castration’!” fumed the young man.
“And the Chinese!” he continued, gathering steam. “Just who do they think they are? Do you know they called their regional system a PNT gold standard? Gold standard! Don’t make me laugh!”
“Now G.P., don’t despair,” soothed Holmes. “There are still excellent leaders out there, you just have to look a bit harder nowadays. In the space arena, Elon Musk, General William Shelton, Wild Bill Cooley, Frank Kendall, and Keoki Jackson are just five of many that come immediately to mind. Of course I would not want to play poker with any of them, but I digress.”
Solutions Appear
“I have been reading and thinking about the alternative payload issue,” the detective continued, “and I have other sources of information as well. Dr. Watson calls them my Baker Street Irregulars, and they are both resourceful and quite knowledgeable. These sources tell me there is another Colorado company, with excellent leadership, that is really on the ball, can move mountains (or huge boulders, anyway), and mark my words, they have top-notch crews, expertise, and even some past performance where an alternative GPS payload is concerned. They might be worth watching.
“As far as OCX goes, frankly I am hearing there are indeed backups and alternatives. My sources have confirmed the existence of a bracket of applicable technologies belonging to a small residual company, run by an Irish clan, believe it or not, with considerable past performance and expertise. Once officially launched to work on the real-time issues, they should be able to help the ground-segment team get back on the fast track.
“As for as the Chinese and their claims, all I can say is no one believes their gold standard rhetoric, although it obviously has a purpose.”
“Mr. Holmes, I hope you are right,” the American replied with an assuaged look. “I knew that if I talked with you I would feel better about these perplexing issues.
“I must resume my journey to Rotterdam, where I will hear a lot more about the Galileo program meeting its launch dates — or not — and the GLONASS outage. As rough a shape as we are in, we’re still far better off than the rest! In the meantime, I’ll pop over to Greenwich to synch up and universally coordinate with those folks before I move on to the Continent.”
G.P. Hess carefully scrutinized his pocket watch. “Now Mr. Holmes, Dr. Watson, I must depart. As you know I have a reputation to maintain: always precisely on time, never lost, and as far as I know, I have never blacked out. Cheerio!”
“What a remarkable fellow, Holmes!” I said after our client had left. “He is certainly full of energy.”
“Yes,” my friend replied, “energetic and very successful. If you had observed him more closely, Watson, you would have noticed his pocket watch. Ah, you did not remark upon it? Standard-issue, atomic-reference version, crafted of solid gold. You might say, and rightly so, that where time is concerned, G.P. Hess is the undisputed holder of the Gold Standard.”
So ends our brief visit with Holmes and the illustrious Watson. Stay tuned for further adventures, and until next time, Happy Navigating! G.P. Hess and I hope to see you all next week in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, at the European Navigation Conference, ENC-GNSS 2014. Drop by and say Hello!
If you can’t drop by and say hello in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, then please join me at the 30th Space Symposium, which is slated for May 19-22, 2014, at The Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs. The Space Symposium is considered by many of us in the Space business to be the premier gathering of space professionals in the world.
In June, I will be attending the 39th NIST Time and Frequency Seminar. It has a great lineup of speakers this year to include: Judah Levine who is the NIST civilian time leader, David Allan who is the original creator of the famous Allan variance, and Neil Ashby, an expert in relativistic timing effects. The seminar takes place in Boulder, Colorado, June 3-6, 2014.
What Is Don Reading?
I had very little time for reading this month, or so I thought — then I had a brief but enlightening correspondence and conversation with local author George E. Nolly, who also lives in Colorado. George sent all four of his wonderful books direct to the Kindle app on my iPad. I had told George I was so swamped I would save his books to read on the airplane on my way to Rotterdam and report on them after the European Navigation Conference.
Then I read just one chapter of the first book and I was hooked. There was nothing for it but to devour all four volumes of the escapades of young Vietnam era USAF pilot, Hamilton “Hamfist” Hancock. Hamfist Out: The Chill Is Gone; Hamfist Over Hanoi: Wolfpack on the Prowl; Hamfist Down! Evasion, Survival and Combat in the Jungle; Hamfist Over The Trail: The Air Combat Adventures of Hamilton “Hamfist” Hancock
It will be like going back in time for many readers of a similar age. George Nolly writes with such an easy-going grace and fluidity that reading of these often stressful and life-threatening times, while sitting in my lounge chair, was, for me anyway, indeed a pleasure.
Certainly I can remember undergoing many of the same flying and ground ordeals, and Nolly tells his tales with such honesty and clarity that it brought back vivid memories. In fact I have never read such accurate descriptions of what it was like to fly the old T-29 with radial engines and all that entails. George actually brought back the unforgettable sound and smell of those two Pratt & Whitney R-2800 radial, air-cooled engines. They are from a long-forgotten era of aviation, but those of us who heard them will never forget them.
T-29A Aircraft, Vietnam era, restored. Courtesy of CONVAIR T29A.
George also makes wonderful plugs for GPS, possibly without knowing it, when he describes using LORAN maps under red lights in a cramped cockpit. This, along with all the time he spent just trying to figure out where he was or where the target was located, just screams for a GPS solution. In truth, in the Vietnam era we airmen spent a great deal of time trying to figure out exactly where we were, where our target was, and where the enemy was located, especially if he was shooting at us. Today all those tasks are made infinitely simpler with the use of GPS and modern electronics. However, this also highlights the amazing feats of airmanship accomplished in the Vietnam era, all while being constantly targeted by the enemy, all the more incredible.
Radial engine.
Just between us veteran airmen, the author relates the tales with such clarity and detail I suspect many of them are autobiographical. George E. Nolly, after graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy here in Colorado Springs, served as a pilot in the United States Air Force, flying 315 combat missions on two successive tours of duty in Vietnam, winning three Distinguished Flying Crosses and 24 Air Medals, flying O-2A and F-4 aircraft, so he knows whereof he writes.
Even if you are a few generations younger than George Nolly and me, and don’t undergo a nostalgic experience as you read, you will certainly enjoy these fabulous books. Be sure to read them in order, as they are actually one running story that brings to life the trials, tribulations, and joys of Hamilton “Hamfist” Hancock for all of us and vividly recreates the way things were back in the 1960s and ’70s in the United States, the USAF, and what it was like flying in combat in Southeast Asia. I highly recommend these tales. I hope there are more to come.
Upcoming Conferences
If you can’t drop by and say hello in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, then please join me at the 30th National Space Symposium, which is slated for May 19-22, 2014, at The Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs. The National Space Symposium is considered by many of us in the Space business to be the premier gathering of space professionals in the world.
In June I will be attending the 39th NIST Time and Frequency Seminar. It has a great lineup of speakers this year to include: Judah Levine who is the NIST civilian time leader, David Allan who is the original creator of the famous Allan variance, and Neil Ashby, an expert in relativistic timing effects. The seminar takes place in Boulder, Colorado, June 3-6, 2014.
A new defense market report from Strategic Defence Intelligence has been released. “The Global Military GPS/GNSS Market 2013-2023 – SWOT Analysis: Market Profile“ provides readers with an exhaustive analysis of industry characteristics, determining the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats faced by the Military GPS/GNSS market.
This SWOT analysis of military GPS/GNSS market is designed for industry executives and anyone looking to gain a better understanding of the market. It utilizes a wide range of primary and secondary sources, which are analyzed and presented in a consistent and easily accessible format. SDI strictly follows a standardized research methodology to ensure high levels of data quality and these characteristics guarantee a unique report, the company said.
The report provides these features to readers:
Quickly enhance your understanding of the global Military GPS/GNSS market.
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Applied EM’s anti-jam GPS antenna, AJGPS045, has achieved a four-channel Controlled Radiation Pattern Antenna (CRPA) in a very small size, weight and power (SWAP) particularly suitable for airborne platforms. Its footprint is the same as a standard GPS Fixed Radiation Pattern Antenna (FRPA), the FRPA-3.
This is a key enabler to bringing greatly improved anti-jam performance to smaller platforms and to GPS-equipped platforms that have inadequate anti-jam capability.
When integrated with appropriate four-channel antenna electronics and a military GPS receiver, the AJGPS045 enables L1 and L2 anti-jam performance of typically >80 dB. This is achieved with a passive compact antenna (.7” x 4.6” x 4.6”) that weighs 9 oz.
