Category: Events

ION GNSS+ 2023: Day two recap

ION GNSS+ 2023 is underway at the Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center. On the second day, industry leaders and show attendees gathered for the 63rd meeting of the Civil GPS Service Interface Committee. During a break, a cake was wheeled out to celebrate 50 years of GPS. GPS World staff wanted to highlight some key parts of the event.

(From left to right) Rick Hamilton, GPS Info Analysis Team Lead, U.S. Coast Guard; Harold “Stormy” Martin, Director, National Coordination Office for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing; Dr. Bradford Parkinson, Edward Wells Professor, Emeritus, Aeronautics and Astronautics (Recalled), Co-Director, Center for Position, Navigation and Time, Stanford University; Capt. Scott Calhoun, Commanding Officer, U.S. Coast Guard Navigation Center (NAVCEN) and Karen Van Dyke Director, PNT and Spectrum Management, U.S. Department of Transportation, gathered around a cake to celebrate the 50th anniversary of GPS.

Image: Matteo Luccio

Image: Matteo Luccio

A closer look at the 50 years of GPS cake. Learn more about the history of GPS here.

Image: Matteo Luccio

Lt. Colonel Robert Wray, Commander, Second Space Operations Squadron, U.S. Space Force (second from left), who was featured on the May cover of GPS World. Click here to read our May cover story, featuring an exclusive interview with Lt. Colonel Wray about the training and duties of his team, the challenges they face, and more.

Image: Matteo Luccio

Dr. Bradford Parkinson (left) and Dr. Robert Hampshire, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Research and Technology and Chief Science Officer, U.S. Department of Transportation (right). Click here to learn more about Dr. Bradford Parkinson, who is nicknamed “The father of GPS.”

Image: Matteo Luccio

Col. Andy Menshner, GPS Space and Ground (SML), Space Systems Command, U.S. Space Force, speaking about GPS acquisitions and development updates during the Civil GPS Service Interface Committee.

Image: Matteo Luccio

(Second from left) Karen Van Dyke, Director, PNT and Spectrum Manager, U.S. Department of Transportation Deputy Chair, serves as chair of the 63rd Civil GPS Service Interface Committee. Read more from the Department of Transportation here.

Image: Matteo Luccio

Attendees gathered to hear speakers from the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Space Force, and other departments and agencies.

Click here to stay up to date with our show coverage!

September 14, 2023
Join GPS World at ION GNSS+ 2023

Image: ION website

Institute of Navigation (ION) GNSS+ is the world’s largest technical meeting and showcase of GNSS technology, products and services. This year’s conference will bring together international leaders in GNSS and related positioning, navigation and timing fields to present new research, introduce new technologies, discuss current policy, demonstrate products and exchange ideas.

ION GNSS+ 2023 is scheduled for September 11-15, at the Hyatt Regency in Denver, Colorado.

GPS World, a proud media partner of ION GNSS+ 2023, will be attending the conference and will be located at booth 214 next to CAST Navigation.

If you are attending the conference, feel free to stop by the GPS World booth.

To view the full ION GNSS+ Technical Program click here.

September 11, 2023
MWC returns to Las Vegas
Image: GSMA

The Mobile World Conference (MWC) returns to the Las Vegas Convention Center on September 26 to 28, 2023.

The event will feature exhibition from major U.S. operators, including AT&T business, T-Mobile business, and Verizon business as well as new sessions dedicated to sports and entertainment, software developers and the GSMA’s SEC CON event.

MWC, in partnership with the Cellular Telephone Industries Association (CTIA), invites industry leaders and attendees to connect and discuss topics such as the industry’s transition to a circular economy, the future role of artificial intelligence (AI) in society, and what comes after 5G.

To reflect the United States’ position as a global technology hub and a market at the forefront of 5G innovation, the event is centered around four key themes:
- 5G Acceleration, as adoption explodes to become the most common mobile technology in North America by 2025.
- Age of AI, as the world awakes to the opportunities and challenges of generative AI.
- Digital Everything, as the expansion of digital technologies is felt across every industry, from sports and entertainment to manufacturing, financial services and smart mobility.
- Enterprise Mobility, as the revolutionary phase of 5G in enterprise is well underway.
The event will feature a variety of keynote speakers, including Amanda Toman, the director for the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) within the U.S. Department of Commerce.

For the first time, the GSMA will bring its SEC CON event to MWC Las Vegas on day two, welcoming leading security experts to explore the importance of keeping telecoms infrastructure secure in times of conflict.

A full directory and registration can be found on the MWC Las Vegas website.
September 7, 2023
AUVSI Defense 2023 is quickly approaching
Military officials from across all branches, federal security personnel, and industry leaders are set to convene for the second installment of AUVSI Defense 2023 on September 14 at the United States Army General Gordon R Sullivan Conference and Event Center in Arlington, Virginia.

The forum encourages industry leaders and attendees to connect with decision-makers and program managers across various agencies — as well as accelerating the development, funding, and acquisition of critical uncrewed technologies.

AUVSI Defense is where military and industry can set the course for innovation to support critical missions. This specialized program equips the armed services and their partners with the information and relationships they need to meet constantly shifting threats around the globe.

This year, the event will focus on the role that autonomy and AI play in U.S. Defense uncrewed/unmanned systems scalability and technology development, and why this is essential to strategic competition.

Program highlights include:
- Keynote by Brent Ingraham, Deputy Assistant, Secretary of Defense Platform and Weapons Portfolio Management, OUSD
- Keynote by Dr. Matt Turek, Deputy Director I2O, DARPA
- Panel Discussion – Autonomy and AI Intelligent Systems Development and Integration for Strategic Advancement of Military Uncrewed Systems.
  - Moderated by: Dr. Jaret Riddick – Senior Fellow, Center for Security and Emerging Technology, Georgetown University
  - Panelists including: CAPT Daniel Malatesta, Program Manager PMS 408, U.S. Navy; Dr. Randy Yamada, Vice President Digital Battlespace Autonomy, Booze Allen Hamilton; and Dr. Jordan Fletcher, Chief Engineer, Army Platforms, MITRE.
For more information and registration, visit the AUVSI Defense website.
August 21, 2023
JNC 2023 & HxGNLIVE Global recap

PNT for the warfighter

Image: Institute of Navigation

The Institute of Navigation’s Military Division hosted the 2023 Joint Navigation Conference (JNC 2023) for the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security, in San Diego, June 12 to 15. JNC, the largest U.S. military positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) conference of the year, was attended by 1,162 people. The theme of this year’s conference was “Enhancing Dominance and Resilience for Warfighting and Homeland Security PNT” and it focused on technical advances in PNT with emphasis on joint development, test and support of affordable PNT systems, logistics and integration. GPS World was one of the event’s media partners. For information on future JNC events, click here.

Image: Institute of Navigation

Image: Institute of Navigation

Autonomy & sustainability

Image: HEXAGON

More than 3,600 professionals, business owners, thought leaders and media analysts from 77 countries met in Las Vegas on June 12 to 15 for HxGN LIVE Global, Hexagon’s largest event of the year. In his opening keynote address, the company’s president and CEO, Paolo Guglielmini, announced an exclusive new collaboration between Hexagon and Nvidia to transform industrial digital twin solutions that unite reality capture, manufacturing twins, AI, simulation and visualization to deliver real-time comparison to real-world models using NVIDIA Omniverse, a platform for developing and operating industrial metaverse applications. The conference included panel discussions, general sessions and break-out sessions with presentations by industry experts, as well as hands-on demonstrations in the exhibit hall, called The Zone. Other events included a Women in Tech lunch and a huge party on Wednesday night.

Image: HEXAGON

Image: HEXAGON

July 27, 2023
GPS World takes flight: XPONENTIAL 2023

Photo: Maddie Saines

On May 8-11, GPS World staff attended the AUVSI XPONENTIAL show at the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver. There were more than 600 booths in the exhibit hall, and the staff was able to visit several of the exhibitors, including Tualcom, SBG Systems, Inertial Labs and Honeywell. They also attended educational sessions lead by industry leaders and participated in insightful discussions about the future of UAVs and overall autonomy. For highlights from XPONENTIAL, click here.

June 27, 2023
EUSPA to hold Galileo HAS Days

Image: ESA

On June 28-29, the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) will host Galileo High Accuracy Service (HAS) Days for users, industry stakeholders, application developers and international experts to learn more about HAS. This event provides an opportunity for all attendees to discuss and share expectations of Galileo HAS, its challenges, and benefits.

Over two days, participants will learn more about the status of Galileo HAS, including current performance, evolution plans and key user applications. There will also be dedicated user sessions, including live demonstrations allowing participants to experiment the Galileo HAS capabilities.

In addition, participants will visit the European GNSS Service Centre (GSC), the single interface between the Galileo system and the users. The GSC is a center of expertise, knowledge sharing, custom performance assessment, information dissemination and support to the provision of value-added services enabled by the Galileo services.

The GSC hosts the high accuracy data generator, which computes the HAS orbit and clock corrections as well as the signal biases that are broadcast through the Galileo constellation and over the internet.

This first edition of the Galileo HAS Days will be held as a hybrid event, so attendees can join either online or physically at the Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA), in Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain.

The draft agenda is available here.

Registration for the event is open until June 16 for those willing to attend onsite. Click here for more information.

May 31, 2023
WGIC announces executive board members and president for 2023-25
Image: WGIC

The World Geospatial Industry Council (WGIC) at its annual general meeting announced the members of its board who will serve from May 2023 to April 2025. The board is comprised of 20 senior geospatial industry professionals drawn from WGIC’s patron, corporate and associate member companies. The board will provide strategic guidance to WGIC in pursuing its mission and achieving its programmatic goals during the next two years.

WGIC Executive Board Members
1. Theo Agelopoulos, Senior Director (Autodesk)
2. Zubran Solaiman, Director (Bentley Systems)
3. John Renard, President (Cyient)
4. Bushra Zaman, Director (Deep Spatial)
5. Elshan Musayev, EKM Global
6. Dean Angelides, Corporate Director — international (Esri)
7. Robert Hoddenbach, Global Director (Fugro)
8. Jean-Francois Gauthier, Vice President (GHGSat)
9. Adina Gillespie, Vice President (Hexagon)
10. Steven Sawdon, Director (IIC Technologies)
11. Paul Granito, Senior Vice President (Maxar Technologies)
12. Harsh Govind, Principal Product Manager (Microsoft)
13. Jayant Sharma, Senior Director (Oracle)
14. Agnieszka Lukaszczyk, Vice President (Planet)
15. James Van Rens, Senior Vice President (RIEGL International)
16. Willy Govender, CEO (Terra Analytics)
17. Marius Swanepoel, Director (TomTom)
18. Bryn Fosburgh, Senior Vice President (Trimble)
19. Joseph Seppi, Senior Vice President (Woolpert)
20. Sanjay Kumar, CEO (Honorary Member) (Geospatial World)
The bi-annual election for the office of WGIC president has witnessed a unanimous vote for Bryn Fosburgh, Senior Vice President, Trimble. Brian Nicholls, Vice President — Asia Pacific, Woolpert, was elected unopposed as the treasurer. To ensure business continuity, John Renard, President, Cyient — Europe, will continue as secretary general till April 2024.

For more information, click here.
May 18, 2023
XPONENTIAL 2023: Final thoughts

AUVSI XPONENTIAL 2023 has officially concluded. GPS World had the opportunity to visit several booths during the conference and attend a variety of educational sessions while in the heart of beautiful, downtown Denver.

See below for some takeaways from XPONENTIAL.

“Protecting the Homeland: The future of C-UAS” was presented by industry leaders and highlighted capabilities available for detecting, intercepting, and mitigating UAS encroaching or threatening covered facilities, critical infrastructure, and other high-value targets in the National Airspace System.

GPS World stopped by infiniDome to hear more about its solutions, including GPSdome.

Harxon had its new helix antenna series on display at its XPONENTIAL booth.

“Autonomous Exploration and Mapping of Unknown Environments with UAS” dove into the development of simultaneous localization and mapping, world modeling and exploration-based planning algorithms. This session was led by Eric Thorn, manager in the Intelligent Systems Division at Southwest Research Institute.

Honeywell shared the ground station that it is developing.

While CGConnect has already been launched overseas by Advanced Navigation, its first debut in the United States was at XPONENTIAL.

May 15, 2023
Winners named for AUVSI XCELLENCE Awards

AUVSI XCELLENCE Awards winners. (Image: AUVSI)

The Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) has named the winners of the sixth annual AUVSI XCELLENCE Awards.

The awards recognize the accomplishments of companies, organizations and individuals across the uncrewed systems community. The winners were recognized during an awards ceremony at XPONENTIAL 2023 which is being held this week at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado. This year’s 50th anniversary event is co-hosted by Messe Düsseldorf North America.

AUVSI’s XCELLENCE Awards honor innovators with a demonstrated commitment to advancing autonomy, leading and promoting safe adoption of uncrewed systems and developing programs that use these technologies to save lives and improve the human condition.

These are the finalists in those categories:

XCELLENCE in Academic Research

First Place: University of Colorado Boulder, 20 Years of UAS Research XCELLENCE
Second Place: Virginia Tech’s Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership, Robert Briggs
Third Place: Ocean Alliance, Tagging Whales with Drones

XCELLENCE in Innovation

First Place: Skydio, Skydio Dock, Automated Inspections of Sites with Autonomous, Remote Drone Operations
Second Place: Plus, PlusDrive, An Industry-defining Driver-in, Highly Automated Driving (HAD) Solution
Third Place: Sentera, Eliminating Stitching with the Sentera DGR System

XCELLENCE IN OPERATIONS – Enterprise Application

Advanced Navigation’s Cloud Ground Control featured at XPONENTIAL 2023.

First Place: JobsOhio and the Ohio Department of Transportation, Propelling AAM in Ohio
Second Place: Advanced Navigation, Cloud Ground Control
Third Place: City of Pendleton, Pendleton UAS Range

XCELLENCE IN TECHNOLOGY

Enabling Components & Peripherals
First Place: infiniDome, infiniDome’s GPSdome2
Second Place: Elsight, Elsight Halo
Third Place: MatrixSpace, MatrixSpace Networked Radar

Hardware & Systems Design
First Place: D-Fend Solutions, EnforceAir
Second Place: Advanced Navigation, Hydrus
Third Place: Connect Tech, Anvil Embedded System with NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin

Software Design and Coding
First Place: BlueSpace.ai, Scalable and Explainable AI for Autonomy, powered by 4D Predictive Perception
Second Place: Skydio, Skydio Scout, Situational Awareness for Moving Convoys
Third Place: AlarisPro, Inc., AlarisPro Safety Ecosystem (ASE) – Advancing UAS Reliability Through Shared Data Across UAS Operators and Manufacturers

The infiniDome booth at XPONENTIAL 2023 showcased their XCELLENCE award.

XCELLENCE in Workforce Development

First Place: Laurel Ridge Community College, Laurels Take Flight
Second Place: DroneUp, with partner, Richard Bland College, Established the First Commercial Drone Workforce Training Program for College Credit
Third Place: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide and Warren College, Better Together: Producing Effective Educational Opportunities for the UAS Workforce

The recipients of the 2023 AUVSI XCELLENCE Humanitarian and Public Safety Awards have established themselves as leaders in the application of uncrewed technology to provide solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. Each awards category recognizes organizations that have made a significant impact using uncrewed systems to serve in humanitarian or public safety efforts. The six organizations will equally divide a $6,000 prize for their humanitarian and public safety efforts.

This year’s recipients are:

XCELLENCE in Mission

Humanitarian Project/Program
First Place: ArroTech, Dr. Stephen Dunnivant
First Place: MissionGO, Inc., Operation Healing Eagle Feather
First Place: The David McAntony Gibson Foundation (GlobalMedic), GlobalMedic RescUAV Response to La Soufrière Volcano in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Public Safety

First Place: DRONERESPONDERS, DRONERESPONDERS Public Safety Alliance
First Place: Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Department of Public Safety
First Place: United States Forest Service, Testing and Scaling New Technologies for Operations and Safer Mixed Airspace Ops

May 12, 2023
XPONENTIAL 2023: Day two recap

AUVSI XPONENTIAL is underway in Denver, Colorado, at the Colorado Convention Center. After the second day of touring the XPO Hall, GPS World staff wanted to highlight some key parts of the day.

Jamie Marraccini, president and CEO of Inertial Labs, sat down with GPS World for an exclusive interview regarding new upgrades to its products, its new partnership with Hesai Technology, and more. Check back soon for the video interview.

GPS World visited the Omnetics booth and spoke with Bret Newton, Business Development.

Staff of OxTS, a GPS World marketing partner, at their booth.

Jia Xu, CTO and senior director of UAS/UAM engineering at Honeywell, gave GPS World an exclusive interview regarding the company’s most recent developments, partnerships and more. Check back soon for the video interview.

May 11, 2023
XPONENTIAL 2023: First day recap

Attendees crowded the show floor during the first day of AUVSI XPONENTIAL 2023.

AUVSI XPONENTIAL is underway in Denver, Colorado, at the Colorado Convention Center. After the first day of touring the XPO Hall of more than 600 exhibits and attending educational sessions lead by industry leaders and speakers, GPS World staff noticed a key theme: mitigating GNSS jamming and spoofing by advancing technology for UAVs.

Educational Sessions

Franck Boynton, Vice President of NavTachGPS, highlighted Tallysman ‘s HC871SXF during his “Real World GPS/GNSS Protection from Start to Finish,” presentation.

“Real World GPS/GNSS Protection from Start to Finish,” was presented by Franck Boynton, Vice President of NavTechGPS. He discussed why anti-jam equipment is needed and how to mitigate jamming. Boynton mentioned several anti-jam products, such as NovAtel’s OEM series product line, Septentrio’s AIM+, Tallysman’s HC871SXF and more.

Additionally, GPS World contributing writer, Dana Goward, received a mention for his article regarding the GPS jamming incident on Jan 21, 2022, at Denver International Airport, which can be found here. Boynton also suggested checking out the RNT Foundation, which is a nonprofit, public benefit corporation that helps protect critical infrastructure by promoting resilient navigation and timing, of which Goward is the president and director.

“The Importance of GNSS Security in UAV Applications,” featured a panel of speakers that included (from left to right) Captain Joe Burns, CEO of the Airo Group and member of the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Advisory Board, Jeff Horne, vice president of security at Skydio Abigail Smith, executive director of UAS security at the FAA, Gustavo Lopez, market access manager at Septentrio, and moderated by Michael Glutting, sales manager at Septentrio.

“The Importance of GNSS Security in UAV Applications,” featured a panel of speakers that included Abigail Smith, executive director of UAS security at the FAA, Captain Joe Burns, CEO of the Airo Group and member of the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Advisory Board, Gustavo Lopez, market access manager at Septentrio, Jeff Horne, vice president of security at Skydio, and moderated by Michael Glutting, sales manager at Septentrio. During the panel discussion, the speakers explained types of GPS interference, including jamming and spoofing, and the risk they pose to UAVs. The latest methods for strengthening both GNSS receivers and control units to design secure and robust UAVs was also discussed.

Day-of highlights

Maddie Saines, managing editor, and Jesse Khalil, digital media specialist, had the opportunity to stop by several booths in the XPO Hall on the first day of XPONENTIAL. A few highlights from the day included speaking with Ahmet Salih Erdem, deputy general manager at Tualcom, getting an in-depth look at SBG Systems’ Quanta Mirco and Ekinox Micro with Yoann Plenet, head of product management, and getting a first-hand look into the newest products from Tallysman Wireless — such as SSL889XF — from Ken MacLeod, product manager for Tallysman.

SBG System’s Quanta Mirco and Ekinox Micro.

Ken MacLeod, product manager for Tallysman, showcasing the AJ977XF.

Tualcom’s booth at XPONENTIAL 2023 showcased new products such as ANTY, its GPS anti-jamming device.

May 10, 2023