Trimble has acquired privately held 10-4 Systems, a provider of advanced, multimodal shipment visibility solutions and related technologies for shippers and transportation providers.
10-4 solutions offer real-time shipment visibility, regardless of provider or mode, to shippers, third-party logistics providers and carriers of all sizes, according to the company.
The acquisition expands Trimble’s portfolio of Transportation Management Systems (TMS) to include an established cloud-based solution for small carriers as well as a shipper RFP platform. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, 10-4 Systems offers a comprehensive, highly configurable information platform that provides visibility at the individual shipment level, driving collaboration between shippers and carriers for increased efficiency, improved compliance and reduced transportation costs. The solution includes SKU-level detail, dynamic ETAs and other capabilities needed to provide the detailed shipment visibility that is becoming a standard expectation of shippers and consignees.
“This acquisition will advance our mission to transform the way the world moves freight by providing innovative transactional, visibility, decision support and optimization solutions that benefit participants at every level of the supply chain,” said David W. Wangler, president of Trimble Transportation Enterprise. “With the addition of 10-4 Systems, Trimble will significantly enhance its ability to help the transportation industry optimize demand and capacity management and improve utilization of long-haul trucking assets.”
Gartner identified visibility as the “No. 1 supply chain initiative” based on results from its 2016 User Wants and Needs Survey. Demand for end-to-end visibility is being driven by the rise of online-only and omni-channel commerce, which is causing shippers to rethink traditional inventory positions and transportation networks.
“We are excited to bring the benefits of our advanced enterprise visibility platform to the thousands of supply chain partners that rely on Trimble’s Transportation Enterprise solutions,” said Travis Rhyan, president and CEO at 10-4 Systems. “Trimble has a clear commitment to offering leading-edge technologies and collaborative solutions that enable customers to increase efficiency, profitability and long-term competitiveness.”
Rhyan will continue to lead 10-4 Systems as executive vice president and general manager. 10-4 Systems’ business will be reported as part of Trimble’s Transportation Segment.
Rockwell Collins new generation GPS-4000-100 receiver
It’s still exceptionally difficult to qualify GNSS receivers for airborne use so there are only a few existing suppliers.
They include CMC Electronics with its line of OEM and enclosure products, Rockwell Collins with a new generation of airborne receivers just entering the market, Thales in Europe continuing to offer ARINC standard and multi-mode packaged receivers, Garmin still leading the panel-mount market for business aviation, Trimble/Ashtech continuing to promote its GPS/GLONASS airborne receiver, and newer entrants including Aspen/Accord with the NexNav GNSS line, and Avidyne with a home-grown embedded receiver in its flight management systems.
It’s been a while since we reviewed the status of certified airborne receivers, and I was prompted to do so by news that Rockwell Collins has a new generation of receiver which has just received Technical Standard Order (TSO) approval from FAA.
Rockwell Collins has fielded GPS products for 20+ years, and the GPS-4000S — with SBAS capability — has been fielded for more than 8 years, so parts obsolescence may become an issue. With new constellations, and with more countries implementing Space Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS), the 10 channel + 2 SBAS design needed an update. So Rockwell Collins undertook a bold step to develop and certify a radically new architecture for airborne applications — a software defined receiver.
Some Members of the Rockwell Collins Navigation Center of Excellence, in Melbourne FL (L-R); Jeremy Kazmierczak – Senior Systems Engineer; Eyal Wilamowski – GNSS Project Engineer; De Yao – Senior Electrical Engineer; Angelo Joseph – GNSS Architect, Technical Project Manager; and Principal Systems Engineer Vikram Malhotra – Senior Systems Engineer
A multi-frequency prototype first came together during two years of intense work by a couple of individuals, led by Angelo Joseph, an ex-NovAtel Aviation Group engineer with 15 years of GNSS design experience. When this proof-of-concept receiver demonstrated the required capability, a new GNSS receiver team was put together in Melbourne, Florida, to develop a fully qualified receiver, designed and built to stringent airborne standards.
Over the next six years, hardware was proven to meet performance, environmental, electrical, safety, high-integrity and reliability standards, and software was carefully developed and tested to meet the highest aviation qualification requirements — referred to as “Level A.”
In the process, a number of patents were generated — two have so far been approved in the United States:
Low-cost high integrity integrated multi-sensor precision navigation system, US 9513376 B1
Universal channel for location tracking system, US 9702979 B1
The universal-channel technique enables the new receiver to be configured to track any satellite navigation signal on all 14 + 4 SBAS channels (ultimately, this GNSS engine is anticipated to be able to track 100+ GNSS satellite signals), so the receiver is ready for when other constellations are approved for airborne navigation — for instance, European approval for Galileo use may be high on the list of new capabilities.
CMA-6024 GPS/SBAS/GBAS sensor
The new receiver is capable of LPV (localizer performance with vertical guidance) precision approaches to CAT I (down to ~200ft height in ~1/2 mile visibility). It features combined Required Navigation Performance (RNP) and approach capability, 10-Hz deviation output computations (20-Hz outputs), plug-and-play replacement for existing Rockwell Collins GPS receivers. It is Automatic Dependent Surveillance (ADS-B) compliant and has fast cold-start (<2 mins @ low SNR).
With production spooling up in Melbourne, Florida, it is available now for installation on business and regional aircraft.
An additional TSO application is underway to enable anticipated installations on Airbus and Boeing commercial transport aircraft. Work on the Rockwell Collins Next Generation Multi-Mode Receiver, the GLU-2100, is well advanced with an estimated availability at the end of this year.
In Europe, Thales markets the TopStar-C certified GNSS receiver solution for aircraft and helicopter navigation and approach, providing LPV, RNP and ADS-B, with Ground Based Augmentation System (GBAS) capability promised in the near future. Compliant with all these latest navigation functions, TopStar-C is available as both standard fit (installed as basic fit on a new aircraft) and for retrofit on aircraft and helicopters alike.
CMA-4124 GNSSA Precision Approach Receiver
The Thales Multi-Mode Receiver (MMR) is part of the TopFlight Line, which includes comprehensive solutions for communication, navigation and surveillance. The MMR is configured with GNSS landing system (GLS) and navigation capability, Instrument Landing System (ILS) and Microwave Landing System (MLS) receivers in one package.
ILS still provides Cat III precision landing system (effectively 700 ft visibility of the runway down to 50 ft) capability at a few key airports where severe weather can really disrupt scheduled airline operations. Nevertheless, ILS may encounters integrity problems due to FM interference and multipath reflection, which may degrade landing capabilities under low-visibility conditions — just when its most needed. MLS can provide Cat. III B (effectively 600 ft visibility of the runway down to 35 ft) landing alternative to ILS, but is fielded at very few airports.
Meanwhile, GLS is part of the international strategic plan to provide precision approach capability worldwide to an increasing number of runways. So airlines may soon have a number of precision-landing options at airports around the world — ILS, MLS or GLS — and the Thales MMR provides all three capabilities.
Garmin GTN-650 panel-mount Nav/Comm System
CMC Electronics introduced the CMA-6024 GPS Satellite Based Augmentation System and Ground Based Augmentation System (SBAS/GBAS) CAT-l/ll/lll Precision Approach Solution at the National Business Aircraft Association show in November 2016. CMC has been in the business of supplying certified GPS receivers for commercial air transport, business aviation and helicopter markets, either directly or through Honeywell and other partners for over 35 years — almost as long as GPS has been around! The CMC family of airborne receivers also has another connection with NovAtel — they were developed as a collaborative effort with NovAtel and incorporate patented Narrow Correlator signal tracking technology.
The CMA-6024 aviation GPS/SBAS/GBAS sensor has an embedded VHF Data Broadcast (VDB) receiver and an integrated GPS navigation sensor, is self-contained, and fully certified Precision Approach and navigation GBAS/GLS solution, certified to Design Assurance Level A.
Garmin GPS/Nav/Comm/Multi-Function Display.
The CMA-6024 provides a navigation solution that is fully compliant with Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) and Required Navigation Performance (RNP). It comes with SBAS Localizer Performance/Localizer Performance with Vertical Guidance (LP/LPV) and GBAS Global Navigation Satellite System Landing System (GLS) GAST-C/D Precision Approach guidance for all aircraft. And it meets or exceeds the most stringent environmental requirements set out in RTCA/DO-160G, meeting additional requirements for specific aircraft, such as higher vibration levels for helicopters.
CMC’s family of GPS products includes the CMA-5024 GPS Landing System Sensor that meets the requirements for Instrument Flight Rules (IFR), civil certified GNSS, and also the CMA-4124 OEM GNSSA receiver card for embedded applications.
An SBAS/WAAS-certified, 15-channel GPS with 5-Hz outputs is embedded in the Garmin GTN-650 Nav/Comm unit, enabling GPS-guided LPV glide-path instrument approaches down to 200 ft. The system also includes VHF navigation capabilities, with a 200-channel VOR (VHF Omnidirectional Range) and ILS receiver for approaches with ILS localizer and glideslope. VOR navigation using the extensive ground VOR beacon system uses radial direction and distance to each VOR beacon within receiver range.
FreeFlight FMS/GPS
In addition, course deviation and roll steering outputs may be coupled to compatible autopilots so that IFR flight procedures may be flown automatically. And, when coupled with a flight display and compatible autopilot, the aircraft can fly fully coupled missed approaches, including heading legs as well as holds and search and rescue patterns.
In 2015, Aspen Avionics acquired Accord Technology, an Indian company which claims to have developed the first GPS WAAS airborne sensor to be authorized under US FAA TSO-C145c. These receivers are now marketed as the ‘NexNav’ product line. This receiver was apparently the first to comply with FAA AC20-165A for ADS-B GPS position source and is also sold as an OEM GPS SBAS card-level receiver authorized to TSO-204.
There are currently three NexNav receiver versions:
Mini (TSO-C145c SBAS Class Beta-1 only)
Max (TSO-C145c SBAS Class Beta -1, -2, -3) and
Micro-i GPS SBAS for TSO-C199 TABS for aircraft and experimental aircraft.
SBAS/GNSS (WAAS/GPS) 1201 Sensor
All NexNav GPS WAAS receivers are compatible with other SBAS systems around the world, including the European EGNOS, Japanese MSAS and Indian GAGAN.
FreeFlight also markets two GNSS sensors and a suite of aircraft avionics.
The 1203C sensor houses a high-performance 15-channel GPS engine with advanced interference protection and quick update rates, and is designed for business, regional, airline transport and heavy rotary-wing aircraft. The 1203C is certified to TSO-C145c and meets position source requirements for ADS-B and Required Navigation Performance (RNP) and other L-NAV operations. Another 1201 Sensor GNSS is specifically for General Aviation aircraft.
Bendix/King KSN 770 Flight Information Management System
Bendix/King GNSS navigation capability, like other General Aviation avionics suppliers, is often buried within a cockpit display system that serves to tune radios, and display information from weather radar, Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS), XM Datalink Weather, Terrain awareness and warning System (TAWS) and Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS).
Nevertheless, the KSN 770 features Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) and Localizer Performance with Vertical Guidance (LPV), and is specified as a “WAAS GPS enroute and approach navigation system.”
Ashtech, now a Trimble subsidiary, still lists the venerable GG12 OEM GPS/GLONASS receiver on its website, now somewhat updated to include SBAS as the GG12W.
Ashtech is careful to describe its OEM receiver as “capable of being qualified” within a TSO-ed FMS systems — presumably the approach has been to provide all the required qualification data to integrator companies, who include this receiver within the FMS as the GNSS navigation and approach receiver. The integrator then submits the Ashtech data to FAA to support their system TSO application.
Avidyne now integrates its own in-house-developed GNSS receiver into its line of cockpit mount FMS and related GNSS navigation and approach systems. And here there is another connection with Angelo Joseph — his work at Avidyne before he went to Rockwell Collins was to develop this Avidyne receiver to replace a bought-out embedded OEM GNSS receiver. The FMS has been certified using this new receiver to TSO-C146d — Stand-Alone Airborne Navigation Equipment using GPS augmented by WAAS, including Airborne Supplemental Navigation Equipment using the Global Positioning System (GPS) — Gamma 3.
Avidyne IFD540 display
There are clearly other companies who supply avionics for GA and Commercial Air Transport aircraft, but this article has attempted to capture a cross-section of GNSS offerings. Other notables include Sagem/Safran in France, Universal Avionics in Tucson, and quite possibly several others that we will no doubt hear about shortly!
As aviation agencies move towards adding the use of other constellations beyond GPS into approved, international navigation standards, there surely has to be significant change across the board for aviation as a whole as improved integrity and availability provide more options and capability. The existing avionics suppliers should be able to maintain market by offering more capability, and there might even be more opportunity for new entrants to come into the market with disruptive products, but for sure the future looks good for the industry.
u-blox, Bosch, Geo++ and Mitsubishi Electric are establishing the joint venture Sapcorda Services to bring high-precision GNSS positioning services to mass markets, including autonomous driving.
Bosch, Geo++, Mitsubishi Electric and u-blox have created Sapcorda Services GmbH, a joint venture that will bring high-precision GNSS positioning services to mass-market applications.
The four companies recognized that existing solutions for GNSS positioning services do not meet the needs of emerging high-precision GNSS mass markets.
As a result, they decided to join forces to facilitate the establishment of a worldwide available and affordable solution for system integrators, OEMs and receiver manufacturers. Each partner brings its unique expertise to the joint venture Sapcorda Services.
Sapcorda will offer globally available GNSS positioning services via internet and satellite broadcast and will enable accurate GNSS positioning at centimeter level. The services are designed to serve high-volume automotive, industrial and consumer markets.
The real-time correction data service will be delivered in a public, open format and is not bound to receiver hardware or systems. More information will be made available later this year.
“We believe this initiative with Bosch, Geo++ and Mitsubishi Electric to create Sapcorda Services will bring a truly disruptive GNSS service offering to the market,” said Daniel Ammann, executive VP and co-founder at u-blox. “Key characteristics such as security, safety and mass-scalability, coupled with an attractive business model and an open approach — serving all interested GNSS receiver manufacturers alike — will be a game-changer across a large number of established and emerging applications.”
“We are looking forward to collaborating with our partners in this joint venture,” said Jumana Al-Sibai, member of the executive management of the Chassis Systems Control division of Robert Bosch GmbH. “Together, we want to create a GNSS positioning service that fully supports the requirements for positioning sensors in the automotive sector. Only with built-in safety and the highest levels of precision will we be able to make automated driving reality.”
“Geo++ anticipates defining the future of high precision positioning services with our partners at Bosch, Mitsubishi Electric and u-blox. The combination of the partners’ longstanding leadership in automotive and mass market solutions with Sapcorda’s commitment to push open formats will pave the way for a raft of next generation GNSS applications,” said Gerhard Wübbena founder & president of Geo++.
“Mitsubishi Electric aims to create a border-less global market for high-precision positioning systems where receivers will be able to enjoy real-time correction data services potentially interoperable with the Japanese government’s Centimeter Level Augmentation Service (CLAS) via the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System,” said Masamitsu Okamura, executive officer in charge of Electronic Systems at Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. “We believe that this venture will accelerate adoption of automated driving and safe driving support.”
A major new global-scale venture by China’s Internet giant Baidu aims to put artificial intelligence behind the wheel of fully autonomous vehicles on the road by 2020.
Regulatory considerations aside, the technical challenges are considerable, but like its U.S. counterpart Google, Baidu is pushing a big pile of chips onto its artificial intelligence (AI) bet.
Similar to Android, it has made much of the Apollo program’s code, which is completely open-source and available on Github.
The ecosystem, launched at the Baidu developers conference in Beijing in April, has enlisted at least 50 partners worldwide, with more anticipated.
A key participant is AutonomouStuff, which started out as an autonomous components supplier, but lately self-transformed into a full-fledged system integrator, with core GNSS and inertial capabilities drawn from manufacturers in the positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) industry.
Other Apollo partners include major Chinese auto manufacturers; tier 1 suppliers such as Bosch, Continental Automotive and ZF Friedrichshafen AG; components providers such as NVIDIA and Microsoft Cloud; mapper TomTom; and drive-sharing companies.
AutonomouStuff kitted out two standard Lincoln MKZ sedans for demonstration drives at the Beijing conference, with one technician completing each vehicle in about three hours — a task that would normally take a team of workers up to six weeks. The two Lincolns then drove simultaneously, driverless, around a test track.
The technology has been developed to be transferrable to other vehicles. Models already demonstrated include the Ford Fusion, a street-legal golf-cart-type electric vehicle called the Polaris GEM, and an off-road Ranger buggy platform.
AutonomousStuff presents the Apollo kit at the Baidu developer’s conference in April. (Photo: AutonomousStuff)
How It Works
Each car is modified by adding lasers, camera, radar sensors, GPS and inertial measurement unit (IMU), a drive-by-wire computer interface and computer engine.
Laser Sensors. A 64-beam lidar sensor on the roof gives a 360-degree field of vision for mapping, and lidar localization algorithms drawing on more than 2.2 million points of data per second generate a point cloud giving distance, angle and intensity values. This data is integrated with data from the GPS and IMU to generate a base map. Two smaller lidar sensors on the front corners of the vehicle provide obstacle detection and tracking.
Rotating four-beam laser sensors with 110-degree view and 200-meter range cover blind spots and facilitate fusing all raw data into one scan. Together, they detect other cars, trucks, bikes, pedestrians and background objects, and generate detailed data on their position, motion and shape. Distance and angular resolution data are used to offset camera and radar data.
Cameras. The platform uses two visible-light cameras mounted on the windshield, relying on laser sensors for nighttime operation. An image-processing chip provides real-time detection of lanes, vehicles and pedestrians, and measures dynamic distances from the vehicle.
Radar. Five radar sensors provide object detection, with various placements around the vehicle, and varying ranges and fields of view. Jointly, they provide a 360-degree bubble around the car.
Navigation. The kits provide GPS navigation combined with a tightly coupled IMU to provide data when GPS is not available.
Together, this provides accuracy to 2 cm, according to the company, when used with a real-time kinematic (RTK) base station; this obviously limits vehicle range. Another option is to use correction data from satellite-based correction services such as TerraStar, yielding achievable accuracies on the order of 4 cm.
Documentation
The aim of the Apollo project is to enable partners and customers to develop their own self-driving systems. The information supplied by Baidu encompasses a complete set of end-to-end instructions to convert a regular car to an autonomous-driving vehicle:
Software Instructions. A set of files that contain:
architecture of the classes and the files within each class.
code instructions for:
coordinate system
third-party libraries
calibration table.
Hardware Documents. Instructions to install the hardware and software for the vehicle include:
Vehicle:
industrial PC (IPC)
GPS
inertial measurement unit (IMU)
controller area network (CAN) card
hard drive
GPS antenna
GPS receiver
Software:
Ubuntu Linux
Apollo Linux kernel
Hardware reference guides:
vehicle
IPC
GPS
CAN card
https://youtu.be/eiSfP-Rn6n4
Manufacturers
The AutonomouStuff Apollo kit incorporates a choice, depending on user needs, of a selection of NovAtel GNSS receivers, including the ProPak6 GNSS receiver and the SPAN-IGM-A1 GNSS+IMU combined system, IMUs such as the IMU-ISA-100C incorporating Northrop-Grumman Litef GMBH’s inertial measurement technology, and antennas such as the GNSS-703-GGG-HV high vibration triple-frequency GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, and Galileo antenna.
A 64-beam Velodyne lidar sensor and 16-beam HDL-16E provide laser data.
The onboard computer system is the AStuff Nebula embedded controller, an IPC powered by an Intel Skylake core i7-6700 CPU. The CAN card used for the IPC is the ESD CAN-PCIe/402.
At the Baidu Create conference in Beijing, Baidu named NovAtel’s partner, AutonomouStuff, as a member of its autonomous driving ecosystem, Project Apollo.
Project Apollo has been initiated to provide an open, comprehensive and reliable software platform for Baidu’s partners in the automotive and autonomous driving industries. Partners can use the Apollo open software platform together with the reference hardware platform to accelerate development of their customized autonomous vehicle solutions.
Based on their extensive experience in autonomous system development, AutonomouStuff will provide the “Apollo Kit” to Baidu Apollo partners. The Apollo Kit includes the vehicle — a Lincoln MKZ with by-wire kit installed — and all hardware, software and services required for an Apollo partner to quickly begin developing their autonomous vehicle.
Accurate and reliable positioning is essential to any autonomous system. NovAtel SPAN GNSS/INS products will provide position, orientation and time as a critical component of the Apollo Kit.
“NovAtel is proud to support Baidu and Project Apollo with our high-precision SPAN GNSS+INS positioning solutions,” said Allan MacAulay, business development manager for NovAtel’s Safety Critical Systems Group, who was at the event in Beijing. “We were thrilled to be included in the off-the-shelf, ready-to-use 1.0 reference vehicle and hardware and Apollo Kit announcements by Baidu and AutonomouStuff at Baidu Create. Our technology is a key component on various Baidu autonomous and mobile mapping vehicles, demonstrating our extensive, long-standing support for Baidu and capability in the autonomous driving space.”
“This is a revolutionary movement that will have a major impact on the way developers utilize technology in the future,” said AutonomouStuff CEO Bobby Hambrick. “Apollo is a breakthrough. What used to take decades can now be available in one single day. NovAtel’s reliable GNSS/INS positioning technology is vital to accelerating autonomy development, and as our long-term partner, we are delighted to extend our collaboration to the Apollo Kit. The relationship between Baidu and AutonomouStuff, where NovAtel provides a key technology, is going to change the industry significantly.”
In early 2015, NovAtel took an important step towards delivering positioning solutions to the automotive and autonomous driving industries for serial production by forming a specialized Safety Critical Systems Group.
The group comprises highly skilled engineers with backgrounds in functional safety, as well as all aspects of GNSS and Inertial Navigation Systems technology. The Safety Critical Systems Group is focused on creating positioning products that will meet the exceptional performance and safety requirements of autonomous vehicles at the necessary production volumes and the required price point.
“Connect your compatible smartphone to the center display to access select apps, your calendar and playlists or navigate with Google Maps.”
That’s the description of the navigation offering on the official Chevrolet Bolt website. One of General Motor’s (GM) most advanced vehicles, the electric Bolt doesn’t offer native GPS navigation as an option.
As H. Kesteloo of Electrek blogs, almost all new vehicles for sale in the United States either come with GPS navigation or offer it as an option. GM is betting that Bolt drivers will prefer their smartphones over built-in GPS systems.
Is it a risk? Probably not, considering that apps such as Waze, Google Maps or Apple Maps are more frequently updated, offer real-time traffic information and are often easier to use than factory-installed systems. Plus, the apps are free (with a data plan, of course) compared to a feature that once cost as much as $2,000 on a new car.
Instead, Chevrolet is offering Android Auto and Apple’s CarPlay, which seamlessly integrate the Apple and Google built-in maps apps — all of which assumes the driver has a smartphone charged, ready and in range of a wirelss connection.
“Will this be the beginning of a new trend?” Kesteloo asks. “Are we going to see more vehicles without integrated GPS navigation offerings? Perhaps offering a built-in $300 iPad Mini makes sense — the Bolt already has its own wireless internet connection.
“With a future of self-driving cars quickly approaching, native GPS will still be a critical component,” he notes.
Renesas Electronics, an automotive semiconductor supplier, is offering an advanced driving assistance system (ADAS) and automated driving platform: Renesas autonomy.
As the first rollout under the new platform, Renesas released the R-Car V3M high-performance image recognition system-on-chip (SoC), optimized primarily for use in smart camera applications, as well as surround view systems or even lidars.
The R-Car V3M SoC complies with the ISO26262 functional safety standard, delivers low-power hardware acceleration for vision processing and is equipped with a built-in image signal processor, freeing up board space and reducing system manufacturers’ costs.
The R-Car V3M SoC for smart camera applications is on the Renesas autonomy platform.
Autonomous vehicles will be required to sense the environment, control the vehicle and conduct synchronized communications with the cloud. A wide range of technologies is necessary to realize these functions, and each technology needs to maintain high reliability to synchronize without any flaw.
At the same time, these technologies are continuously advancing, which is why there is a growing demand for a total end-to-end solution.
Renesas autonomy delivers a comprehensive portfolio that includes scalable hardware, software and IP building blocks. It consists of Renesas’ sustainable and scalable SoC and micro-controller (MCU) roadmaps.
The platform also gives system manufacturers access to Renesas’ 195 technology partners in its ADAS R-Car Consortium, improving development efficiency and speeding time to market.
For the implementation of demanding algorithms, the Renesas autonomy platform provides system manufacturers the option to select the most suitable IP cores, including hardware accelerators, offering functional safety and flexibility within an architecture capable of the highest performance at the lowest power consumption.
Australian tech firm Cohda Wireless has trialed its vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P) technology on city streets for the first time.
The technology was originally designed to allow cars and motorcycles to avoid collisions by talking to each other.
In collaboration with Telstra and the South Australian Government, Cohda Wireless has conducted the first test of V2P technology over a mobile network in South Australia’s capital, Adelaide.
The system uses mobile technology to provide an early-collision warning to a driver and also alerts a pedestrian or cyclist via a smartphone application.
This innovation could become available in the 16 million smartphones in use in Australia and could potentially be extended to the two billion smartphones worldwide, the company said.
Cohda Wireless CEO Paul Gray said the trials highlighted the impact of vehicle-to-everything communications on community safety.
“Giving vehicles 360-degree situational awareness and sharing real-time driving information is the only way we can create safer roads for the future,” Gray said. “Cohda’s ongoing partnership with Telstra also demonstrates Cohda’s ability to deliver Cellular-V2X (C-V2X) solutions, an important part of the complete V2X system.”
The technology makes use of available 4G networks to allow riders, drivers and pedestrians who are further away to reliably receive necessary information.
Before a driver turns a blind corner the system will notify them of any pedestrian or cyclist crossing the adjacent street.
It was tested using other common scenarios, such as a car and a cyclist approaching a blind corner, a car reversing out of a driveway, and a car approaching a pedestrian crossing.
The trial was funded in part by the South Australian government’s AU$10 million Future Mobility Lab Fund to boost local testing, research and development of connected and autonomous vehicle technologies.
Cohda commands about 60 percent of the global vehicle-to-vehicle communication market.
It previously developed a “digital protective shield” system, which transmitted information such as vehicle types, speed, position and direction of travel between cars and motorcycles, at a rate of up to 10 times per second to ensure a high level of accuracy.
This service could be transmitted to any device within a several hundred-metre radius.
Telstra Chief Technology Officer Håkan Eriksson said the technology would make Australian roads safer, more efficient, and better-prepared for the future of autonomous vehicles.
“The most important outcome of V2X technology is the increased safety for road users, as the impact of human error can be minimized by helping vehicles communicate with each other and react to their surroundings,” he said. “This is the first time V2P technology has been trialled in Australia on a 4G network, and is an important step on the journey to fully-autonomous vehicles on Australian roads.”
South Australia has a history of involvement with autonomous car research and in 2015 held the first driverless car trials in the Southern Hemisphere.
It hosts a number of leading autonomous car companies including Cohda Wireless and its innovative V2X (Vehicle to everything) technology and RDM Group, which opened its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Adelaide earlier this year.
South Australia is also a leading driverless car research hub and earlier this week the University of Adelaide managed to improve artificial vision systems by studying dragonflies and other insects.
The government of Australia has launched the first $50 million Defence Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), announced July 6 by the minister for Defence Industry, the Hon Christopher Pyne MP.
The Defence CRC is a collaborative program that brings together academia, publicly funded research agencies and industry (particularly small to medium enterprises) to create an interlocking research and innovation capability focused on driving a Defence outcome.
The first Defence CRC will focus on Trusted Autonomous Systems to deliver game-changing unmanned platforms that ensure reliable and effective cooperation between people and machines during dynamic military operations.
“Existing autonomous and robotic systems that operate in the manufacturing and mining sector are effective in controlled environments, but not suitable for the uncertain situations in which Defence operates,” Pyne said.
“To be effective, Defence needs autonomous systems to be highly trusted, robust and resilient and this initiative will bring together the best researchers from industry and universities to develop the intelligent military platforms of the future.”
The CRC for Trusted Autonomous Systems will receive annual funding of $8 million with a maximum of $50 million over a seven-year period.
The CRC will be chaired by Jim McDowell, a businessman who has had an extensive career in the defence industry, and most recently at the University of South Australia.
“As Chair, Mr. McDowell will be responsible for leading the development of the research program and business plan and work with industry on transitioning the research results into capability outcomes,” Pyne said.
This is the first of several CRCs that the Australian government is announcing. Further CRCs will be established on projects also aligned with priorities in the country’s Next Generation Technologies Fund.
Defence will be a member of each CRC along with universities, research agencies and industry. Participating members will be selected on the basis of their research excellence and technology expertise.
“The CRC environment offers excellent synergies for Defence, industry and universities to collaborate closely on Defence innovation,” Pyne said.
The CRC is an initiative of the Next Generation Technologies Fund which complements the Defence Innovation Hub as the two core initiatives of the new Defence Innovation System outlined in the Government’s Defence Industry Policy Statement. These two signature innovation research and development programs, together with the Centre for Defence Industry Capability, deliver on the Government‘s $1.6 billion commitment to grow Australia’s defence industry and innovation sector.
Lighthouse Technology and Consulting Co. Ltd. (LHTC) is starting a program to collect precise GNSS data on major highways in Japan. The data is intended to serve as a tool for high-precision positioning systems used in automated driving vehicles.
Automated driving on public streets has issues to overcome, and the competition to develop the technology among companies are gradually accelerating due to recent technologies’ progress in sensors, image recognition and artificial intelligence.
In addition, the Japanese Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) has brought attention to centimeters leveled high-precision positioning.
When dealing with satellite positioning technology for automated driving systems, it is inevitable to have a variety of high precision field data at the point of development, testing, and fine tuning prior to the driving test of the vehicles, and to have the reference position data at the point of evaluation.
LHTC is planning to finish the data collecting by December 2017, and after consolidating the data, will start the service to provide the data package Mobile GNSS Field Data Set and high-precision positioning system products for developing mobile vehicle applied technology.
Mobile GNSS Field Data Set is a package of field data and precise reference position data, intended to accelerate the development speed for consumers by decreasing the time and cost to systemize and do all the data collecting by themselves.
Detail of Mobile GNSS Field Data Set
ROUTE
ROAD
SEASON
Mileage
Eastern Japan
Western Japan
Urban Area
Major highways
Major toll roads
Local roads
Spring
Summer
Autumn
Winter
Total
20,000 mil
DATA SET NAME
INCLUDED
MAIN USAGE
On-board GNSS receiver data set
Raw observed data
LEX (L6) augmentation data
For replays
Precise reference position data set
Position
Velocity
Attitude
For evaluation
Surrounding obstacles data set
Point profiles
Pictural image
(Upwards, Frontal, Backside)
Northrop Grumman Corporation has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Air Force for technology maturation and risk reduction in support of next-generation navigation systems.
Under the $49 million contract from the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Northrop Grumman will provide the preliminary hardware and software architecture design for the Embedded GPS/Inertial Navigation System (INS)-Modernization, or EGI-M, technology. The modernized system is expected to be available for platform integration starting in 2019.
Northrop Grumman’s EGI-M will be based upon modular, open systems architecture to support the rapid insertion of new capabilities and adaptability based on unique platform requirements. Additionally, EGI-M will incorporate M-code-capable GPS receivers, which will help to ensure the secure transmission of accurate military signals.
“We are dedicated to ensuring mission success and the safety of warfighters by providing an EGI-M solution that offers robust, accurate and reliable positioning, navigation and timing [PNT] information, even in GPS-denied conditions,” said Dean Ebert, vice president, navigation and positioning systems business unit, Northrop Grumman Mission Systems.
EGI-M technology is designed for compatibility with current systems on legacy aircraft, allowing ease of integration and rapid adoption of new capabilities.
EGI-M will also comply with the Federal Aviation Administration’s NextGen air traffic control requirements that aircraft flying at higher altitudes be equipped with Automatic Dependence Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS‑B) Out by January 2020.
ADS-B Out transmits information about an aircraft’s altitude, speed and location to ground stations and to other equipped aircraft in the vicinity.
Applanix is collaborating on advanced research for autonomous vehicle guidance and control systems with the University of Waterloo Centre for Automotive Research (WatCAR) in Ontario, Canada. Applanix is a Trimble company.
Applanix will provide WatCAR with its positioning and orientation system for testing autonomous guidance and control systems in real-world conditions. Applanix will also provide the Trimble GNSS-inertial board set for integration with car systems and sensors to enable precise positioning.
The Applanix POS LV is a robust, reliable and repeatable positioning solution for on- and off-road vehicles. Applanix technology will be used by WatCAR to assess the performance of the guidance and control systems on board their autonomous vehicles.
The testing will take place in challenging weather conditions and environments including on roads under repair, with lane reductions and closures, are wet or covered in snow, and where there is poor visibility.
An SUV in an anechoic chamber at WatCAR.
Applanix will also provide WatCAR with Trimble on-board GNSS-inertial board set designed for high-performance, high-volume original equipment manufacturer applications. These products, currently used in a variety of autonomous vehicle programs, include the Trimble AP GNSS-inertial board set that includes a high-precision inertial measurement unit.
Small, rugged and low powered, the AP board sets provide the precise positioning needed for autonomous vehicle applications as they navigate their environment. Designed for use on all sizes and types of vehicles, the AP boards feature Trimble’s high-performance precision GNSS receivers and Applanix’ IN-Fusion GNSS-inertial integrated technology that produces uninterrupted position, roll, pitch and true heading measurements of moving platforms. Integrating easily with vehicle sensors, the AP board sets provide precise vehicle control when interacting with a constantly changing environment.
The relationship with WatCAR will aid in improving the core technologies that deliver high-end systems capabilities for a variety of Trimble markets.
The Waterloo Centre for Automotive Research in Canada conducts advanced research to further automotive innovation and competitiveness. From active safety to automated driving through lightweighting and advanced powertrains, 130 faculty researchers comprise the largest university-based automotive activity in the country. Leading-edge studies for industry partners around the world enhance vehicles, components and their materials with new approaches and integration of innovative technologies.
“We are excited to collaborate with the University of Waterloo and WatCAR on this leading research in autonomous vehicle technology,” said Louis Nastro, director of land products at Applanix. “Applanix has been committed to meeting the needs of autonomous vehicle manufacturers for more than a decade, as first demonstrated in the early days of the DARPA Grand Challenge. And today, we are also part of many autonomous vehicle programs deployed worldwide in commercial applications.”
“The Trimble AP products, first introduced in 2009, are designed for use in small, mass market vehicles where size, weight and cost factors are important,” Nastro said. “They have also been designed to easily integrate with the industry’s leading sensors, making them an ideal solution for autonomous vehicle navigation systems and sub-systems.”
“We welcome the opportunity to work with Applanix, a leader in reference systems. Their technology identifies, with very high accuracy, the exact location of our vehicle at all times,” said Ross McKenzie, managing director at WatCAR. “Applanix is a valued industry partner and their team is great to work with. Going forward we anticipate a solution that will enable autonomous vehicles to traverse the real world reliably and safely.”
