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  • Raquet accepts 2018 Services Leadership Award

    Raquet accepts 2018 Services Leadership Award

    John Raquet, director, Autonomy and Navigation Technology Center (ANT), U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology. (Photo: Melanie Beus)
    John Raquet, director, Autonomy and Navigation Technology Center (ANT), U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology. (Photo: Melanie Beus)

    John Raquet’s team has developed PNT sensors and systems utilizing GPS, GNSS, inertial, vision, lidar, magnetic field, pseudolites, radar, terrain mapping, signals of opportunity, star trackers, radio ranging, 3D audio, X-ray pulsars, clocks, and more. Raquet, director of the Autonomy and Navigation Technology (ANT) Center at the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology, received the 2018 GPS World Services Leadership Award for his achievements. Check out his acceptance speech below.

    I feel like I have the best job in the world, because I get to try to implement many new ideas and work with amazing people as I do so. We have developed and tested lots of new ideas, to the point that I sometimes call the ANT Center the “crazy idea factory” — we love to turn crazy ideas into really good ideas that will make a difference.

    But there’s another part of my job that I feel especially proud of: the students we produce. Ours is not the kind of community where you build something once and then the job is done. Rather, this is a growing worldwide enterprise that takes new talent to come in and eventually fill the spots that many of the people in this room have occupied.

    I’m privileged in my role as a professor to be able to fill some of those gaps, and it’s rewarding to see students that we’ve worked with go on and do some really amazing things, and to know that we had a small part in helping them to do that.

    I’m grateful to GPS World, to the sponsors, and to my ANT Center colleagues. It’s a great honor to receive this award — thank you very much.


  • Scott accepts 2018 Signals Leadership Award

    Scott accepts 2018 Signals Leadership Award

    Logan Scott, principal, LS Consulting. (Photo: Melanie Beus)
    Logan Scott, principal, LS Consulting. (Photo: Melanie Beus)

    Logan Scott, principal at LS Consulting, is the inventor of an asymmetric navigation security paradigm for civil GPS signals that avoids the need for secure key storage in civil receivers and allows for widespread adoption in applications without physical security capabilities. Scott received the 2018 Signals Leadership Award from GPS World magazine. Read his acceptance speech below.

    A crucial first step in developing resilient responses is to recognize that there is a problem so you can isolate it. Otherwise, an overly trusted element can contaminate the solution.

    I am honored to accept this award from GPS World and our sponsors tonight. It has been a long journey from my initial vision of how civil signals might be authenticated to where we are now, with a draft Chimera signal specification nearing readiness for review.

    I’d like to thank the Air Force Research Laboratory for sponsoring these efforts, and I would also like to acknowledge the outstanding efforts of the entire signals working group without whom this milestone would not have been reached: Captain Katie Carroll, Jon Anderson, Joanna Hinks and Nate DeVilbiss who brought me in on the project; Joe Rushanan and Jim Gillis who taught me so much about cryptography; Renee Yazdi and Brady O’Hanlon who pushed for no compromises. Working with this team has been one of the highlights of my professional career.

    We have a solid design that fully realizes the benefits of chip-level binding with both fast and slow authentication capabilities. Chimera can offer security benefits far beyond the security theater of data message signing only. Moreover, it is a first step towards proving location.

    Moving forward, the challenge I offer to you all is this: how can we establish the integrity and truthfulness of position and time reports both locally and remotely? How can we prove location, not only to ourselves but also to remotely located entities? In a world of autonomous vehicles, geofenced capabilities and information access, and an insecure supply chain, it is not enough to say that “I saw it on the C/A code.”

    Complementary and overlapping techniques are essential in establishing the veracity of any claims. In support of this, we can and must provide assured spectrum protections for all GNSS systems.

    Again, thank you very much for this award.


  • Benedicto accepts 2018 Satellites Leadership Award on behalf of Gatti

    Benedicto accepts 2018 Satellites Leadership Award on behalf of Gatti

    Javier Benedicto (left), Head of the Galileo Programme and Navigation-related Activities, European Space Agency, accepted the award and delivered these remarks on behalf of Giuliano Gatti (right). (Photo: ESA)
    Javier Benedicto (left) and Giuliano Gatti. (Photo: ESA)

    Javier Benedicto, head of the Galileo Programme and Navigation-related Activities at the European Space Agency, accepted the 2018 Satellites Leadership Award and delivered these remarks on behalf of Giuliano Gatti at the 2018 GPS World Leadership Awards Ceremony. Gatti, the space segment procurement manager at the European Space Agency, received the award for his contribution to setting up the Galileo constellation from GIOVE-A and -B precursors through all Galileo operational satellites: Soyuz and Ariane 5 launches, a total of 26 Galileo satellites deployed in 7 years.

    On behalf of Giuliano Gatti, I express his gratitude for this award.

    After a 20-year career in microwave equipment for satellite application, working in Italy, Canada and the Netherlands, Mr. Gatti started working on navigation satellites at end of the 1990s as ESA Galileo Space Segment Manager.

    He went through the initial difficulties of the program, namely the uncertainty on financing and the technical lack of maturity of critical units such as atomic clocks. At the time, joining the Galileo team of the European Space Agency was risky and challenging.

    In spite of these issues, he was a key player in the developments of the first two Galileo experimental satellites, GIOVE-A and GIOVE-B, and he was in charge of their launches in 2005 and 2008, respectively, on Soyuz rockets from Baikonour, Kazakhstan.

    He then followed the development and launch of the 4 IOV satellites, two in 2011 and two in 2012, from the European space port in French Guyana, on a Europeanized version of the Soyuz rockets. The first IOV launch was actually the first launch with this version of the launcher, and interface and schedule coordination issues were challenging tasks for him.

    He then was instrumental for the procurement of the following generation of satellites, the 22 FOC satellites. He struggled to make sure that satellites would be produced and launched in line with the program deployment plan. Another challenge in this phase was ensuring that the adaptation of the Ariane-5 ES rocket to the Galileo satellites would converge in time and comply with all technical requirements.

    Under his guidance and responsibility, the 22 satellites were put in orbit with 5 Soyuz launches and 3 Ariane-5 launches. Here the most difficult event was the launch that put two Galileo satellites in the wrong orbit, and the subsequent recovery of the satellite mission. In addition, a number of failures affected some of the in-orbit atomic clocks, and hedrove the investigation that led to the discovery of the root causes and their resolution.

    Mr. Gatti then initiated the procurement and production of the follow-up recurring satellites, the so-called Batch-3 satellites. These 12 satellites have stringent schedule requirements and their first launch is planned for late 2020 or early 2021.

    In parallel, he contributed to the definition of the next generation of satellites, the Transition Satellites: heavier spacecraft with improved performance and high level of re-configurability and flexibility. They will be the first step moving from the existing first generation of satellites to the second generation. In this phase, his experience and competence have played a fundamental role to arrive at the definition of the appropriate procurement requirements.

    After 20 years on the development and deployment of Galileo, being in charge of the launches of 28 satellites, from the first GIOVE-A satellite in 2005 to the launch of the last 4 FOC satellites in July 2018, Mr Gatti will retire in mid-2019.

    He is delighted and honored that all his efforts and contributions to develop and launch the Galileo constellation have been recognized in this important GNSS event.

    Thank you.


  • GPS World 2018 Leadership Awards overview

    GPS World 2018 Leadership Awards overview

    The 2018 GPS World Leadership Awards, presented in September, recognized significant recent achievement in Satellites, Signals, Services and Products. The Awards Dinner and Ceremony was sponsored by Harris Corporation, Rockwell Collins and Spirent Federal Systems.

    Check out a photo slideshow and videos from the event below, as well as speeches from each of the award winners.

    Satellites Leadership Award

    Giuliano Gatti | Space Segment Procurement Manager, European Space Agency

    Gatti received the award for his contribution to setting up the Galileo constellation from GIOVE-A and -B precursors through all Galileo operational satellites: Soyuz and Ariane 5 launches, a total of 26 Galileo satellites deployed in 7 years.

    Javier Benedicto, head of the Galileo Programme and Navigation-related Activities, European Space Agency, accepted the award and delivered these remarks on behalf of Gatti.

    Check out his speech here.

    Signals Leadership Award

    Logan Scott | Principal, LS Consulting

    Scott is the inventor of an asymmetric navigation security paradigm for civil GPS signals that avoids the need for secure key storage in civil receivers and allows for widespread adoption in applications without physical security capabilities.

    Check out his speech here.

    Services Leadership Award

    John Raquet | Director, Autonomy and Navigation Technology Center (ANT), U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology

    Raquet’s team has developed PNT sensors and systems utilizing GPS, GNSS, inertial, vision, lidar, magnetic field, pseudolites, radar, terrain mapping, signals of opportunity, star trackers, radio ranging, 3D audio, X-ray pulsars, clocks, and more.

    Check out his speech here.

    Products Leadership Award

    Andrew Simsky, Wim De Wilde, Jean-Marie Sleewaegen and Tom Willems | Navigation Algorithms Software Engineer, System Designer, System Architect, and Senior Researcher, Septentrio

    The Septentrio team received this award for developing the versatile PolaRx5 receivers, enabling many Earth-observing applications including worldwide ionosphere monitoring.

    Sleewaegen offers an acceptance speech on behalf of the team here.

    Photos

    Videos

    Click the symbol in the top left hand corner to choose the video you’d like to view.

    Words from our sponsors

    Satellites. “We have seen our military and professional users looking to greater flexibility in their use of GNSS, as new capabilities and constellations come on line. But with that flexibility, a retention of assurance and where possible, mitigation of threats. For this reason Rockwell Collins and QinetiQ signed an agreement to produce a new family of high-assurance, multi-constellation GNSS receivers for professional and military use.

    “This new family of receivers, complementary to the current encrypted family of Rockwell Collins receivers in service across the globe, allows the customer to select level of capability and protection based upon their operational, political or even financial needs. The new MICRO family of GNSS receivers will offer a multi-constellation open service (MCOS) GNSS capability, which will initially provide two receivers; the Q40-MicroPNT will address dismounted low-dynamics requirements, and the Q40-MicroSTRIKE will be a gun-hard, high-dynamics receiver.”
    —Phil Froom, Rockwell Collins

    Signals. “For over thirty years, we’ve overcome challenges and delivered GPS payloads that provide a technology the world uses every day. We’ve gotten to the point where we can honestly say, almost nothing works without GPS. The challenge that I see [for the future] is to overcome the politics: Where do governments of GNSS draw the line between doing what’s right for a PNT solution for the common good of humanity globally versus addressing your national security and protecting your own country? Truth is, because of politics, year after year our government has been forced to start the fiscal year with a continuing resolution because our politicians can’t approve a budget.”
    —Joe Rolli, Harris Corporation

    Services. “We’ve been manufacturing GPS simulators for the past 30 years. This year we launch a new product, SimMNSA. We’re currently in the final test phase of this new M-code option and we’ll be delivering to several authorized customers by the end of the year. We also offer products that simulate all other GNSS signals, plus a variety of other sensors.”
    —Ellen Hall, Spirent Federal

  • New multi-rotor UAV can lift 200 pounds

    New multi-rotor UAV can lift 200 pounds

    Mobile Recon Systems is offering an unmanned aerial vehicle that can lift more than its own weight.

    At 78 pounds, the Dauntless multi-rotor UAV has lifted an additional payload of 100 pounds as a tethered quadcopter, the company said. It is designed to lift more than 200 pounds as an octocopter, with a generator-powered flight time of several hours.

    Photo: Mobile Recon Systems
    Photo: Mobile Recon Systems

    “Drones have proven to be great for videography. But uses beyond that have been limited by low lift capacity, limited flight time and narrow functional capability,” said Mobile Recon Systems founder Mike Dowell. “With the Dauntless, that is no longer the case.”

    Not only can the Dauntless carry up to 160 pounds of supplies in a climate-controlled transport box, it is a multi-functional platform. It can be outfitted with sensors, radiation detectors, radar, weather stations, multi-spectral, thermal and infrared cameras, and other devices. It can perform eight or more different functions at once. Plus, users can easily swap or combine devices to meet their needs.

    Those capabilities enable this model to deliver high value services previously out of reach for UAVs, the company said.

    “The Dauntless is ideal for border and perimeter security, as well as natural disaster response, medical emergency first response, routine inspections and aerial analysis, and mapping,” Dowell said. “With its lift capacity, it can carry high-end lidar and cameras, as well as supplies. Our flexible platform offers a myriad of possibilities.”

    To illustrate, the Dauntless can carry an MSOP and four multi-axis gimbals, mounted on top and bottom, to accommodate optical, thermal and multispectral cameras, including a RED Epic. high-end digital camera. These can simultaneously capture multiple types of images from below, front, overhead, right and left of the flying platform.

    The Dauntless has a full 3K (military-grade) carbon-fiber body and titanium and aircraft aluminum frame. The propellers are carbon fiber, and are safely surrounded by the body. It is waterproof and sandproof.

  • Global Mapper SDK updated for greater geospatial intelligence

    Version 20 of the Global Mapper Software Development Kit (SDK) is now available, along with the accompanying Lidar Module SDK. Mirroring the most important capabilities of the desktop version of the software, the powerful developer’s toolkit provides software engineers with the means to embed the latest geospatial technology into their custom applications, according to software maker Blue Marble Geographics.

    An elevation contour image in Global Mapper SDK. (Screenshot: Blue Marble)
    An elevation contour image in Global Mapper SDK. (Screenshot: Blue Marble)

    Among the highlights of the version 20 release are dramatically improved vector data performance in both the 2D and 3D environments, updated 3D mesh rendering with colors now displayed in the 2D view, and faster display and export of online tiled datasets, the company said.

    For more than 25 years, Blue Marble’s affordable, user-friendly GIS software has been meeting the needs of users in industries including software, oil and gas, mining, civil engineering, surveying and technology companies, as well as government departments and academic institutions.

    The Global Mapper GIS application can display, convert and analyze virtually any type of geospatial data. The Global Mapper SDK and Lidar Module SDK provide software developers with a toolkit for accessing much of this functionality from within an existing or custom-built application.

    The SDK also enables the creation of custom toolbars and extensions to enhance the data processing and analysis functionality of the standard version of Global Mapper. This capability allows in-house developers to create a unique version of the application to meet their specific needs or for software companies to build custom products for commercial distribution.

    The functional highlights of the latest version of the SDK effectively illustrate the continued evolution of 3D GIS technology and Blue Marble’s commitment to providing a superior data processing engine for managing, visualizing and analyzing increasingly large 3D datasets. Such is the case with the improvements that have been made to the display performance of vector files with faster rendering in both 2D and 3D Views.

    The display of 3D meshes or models, such as those created in Global Mapper’s Pixels-to-Points tool, has been improved with the photo-realistic colors now displayed in the top-down view. Online data processing has also seen improvements with significant speed increases when loading and exporting tiled data sources.

    Additional upgrades to the SDK functionality include improved box resampling of color images, especially those with palettes; several new supported formats, including Cyclone PTX and Autodesk Recap (RCP and RCS) point clouds; new projections and datums, including GDA2020 (Australia) and TUREF (Turkey); and support for Intermap’s online NextMap worldwide elevation dataset.

    For users of the Global Mapper Lidar Module, the version 20 SDK release also introduces a wealth of new and updated functionality. Point clouds can now be thinned, from both a 2D and 3D perspective, reducing file size and improving efficiency; a gridded layer can now be created from the classification values associated with lidar points; and a new scripting option has been added to apply colors to a point cloud from underlying imagery.

    “The Global Mapper SDK has become one of the most important components of Blue Marble’s suite of geospatial products,” stated Patrick Cunningham, Blue Marble President. “Motivated by the rapid emergence of the desktop software as a major player in the GIS industry, developers are increasingly turning to the corresponding SDK to leverage the software’s powerful geoprocessing tools in a wide variety of third party applications. The improved data handling capability of the version 20 release demonstrates our commitment to providing tools that work efficiently with even the largest datasets.”

  • Abstract submissions open for ION GNSS+ 2019

    Abstract submissions open for ION GNSS+ 2019

    Logo: ION GNSS+ 2019ION GNSS+ 2019 organizers are accepting abstracts for the conference, which is set to take place Sept. 16-20 in Miami.

    The conference, themed, “GNSS + Other Sensors in Today’s Marketplace,” will feature two tracks: the commercial and policy tracks and research track.

    The commercial and policy tracks cover mass market and commercial applications, current status and future trends in GNSS, and high performance and safety critical applications. The research track will cover autonomous systems technology, robust multi-sensor navigation and advanced GNSS.

    According to show organizers, authors whose abstracts are accepted in these sessions (either as a primary or as an alternate presenter) will have the option to have their paper peer-reviewed.

    View instructions on submitting an abstract here.

    ION GNSS+ is a technical meeting and showcase of GNSS technology, products and services. The show gathers international leaders in GNSS and related positioning, navigation and timing fields to present new research, introduce new technologies, update current policy, demonstrate products and exchange ideas.

    Check out GPS World‘s ION GNSS+ 2018 coverage here.

  • Research studies method of fighting fire with UAVs

    By Sharon Rabinovich, Renwick E. Curry and Gabriel H. Elkaim, University of California, Santa Cruz

    Figure 1. Greedy uncertainty suppression (GUS). (Chart: Authors)
    Figure 1. Greedy uncertainty suppression (GUS). (Chart: Authors)

    Exploring a wide area in search of a hazardous substance emitting source or expansion of a fire front is an ideal UAV mission. Wildfire monitoring missions exemplify such a problem.

    Most multi-UAV systems address problems related to search in an environment of interest. The UAVs cooperate and share data to obtain information within a certain aspect of the environment.

    Regardless of the number of UAVs and size of the area of interest (AOI), cooperative systems deliver a perfectly up-to-date picture of the environment with coordination.

    This paper investigates a coordination scheme for missions facing uncertainty about the periphery in the AOI. It takes into account the UAVs’ state, observations, the overall mission, and allocates each UAV to a specific task, enabling the multi-UAV system to act in a coordinated manner.

    If a coordination algorithm for an environment with uncertainty is available, the overall system still leans on sensing capabilities. Even if the system uses the most advanced sensors, sometimes the environmental conditions are restrictive; that is, UAV sensors cannot reach far enough, and measured data can only be local and quantized data.

    The goal of quantized estimation is to develop techniques to effectively reconstruct the data. The research approach relies on a technique for estimation of propagated boundary with quantized measurements and proposes a new class of one-dimensional estimator: the Greedy Uncertainty Suppression (GUS) strategy.

    The monitoring application involves large numbers of possibly randomly distributed inexpensive sensors, with limited sensing and processing. The estimator incorporates observations gathered by multiple observers and uses the quantized kalman filter estimation to update the expected location and unobserved spreadrate.

    More info at www.ion.org/publications/ browse.cfm.

  • Registration open for 35th Space Symposium

    Registration open for 35th Space Symposium

    Logo: Space FoundationRegistration has opened for the 35th Space Symposium, sponsored by the Space Foundation and taking place April 8-11 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Space Symposium provides a forum to discuss, address and plan for future achievements in space.

    According to show organizers, the event represents all sectors of the space community from multiple spacefaring nations, including space agencies; commercial space businesses and associated subcontractors; military, national security and intelligence organizations; cyber security organizations; federal and state government agencies and organizations; research and development facilities; think tanks; educational institutions; space entrepreneurs and private space travel providers; businesses engaged in adapting, manufacturing or selling space technologies for commercial use; and media that inspire and educate the general public about space.

    The event will feature a number of speakers from NASA, Raytheon, the U.S. Air Force, the Canadian Space Agency, the Mexican Space Agency, the Korean Aerospace Research Institute and more.

    Attendees can also choose from a number of sessions, as well as purchase tickets for a variety of networking opportunities, including the Corporate Partnership Dinner, General James E. Hill Lifetime Space Achievement Award Luncheon, Women’s Global Gathering Luncheon and Space Technology Hall of Fame Luncheon.

  • Lidar USA integrates Z+F scanners for mobile mapping

    Lidar USA integrates Z+F scanners for mobile mapping

    The Z+F Profiler is the latest addition to Lidar USA's HiWay Mapper series. Photo: Lidar USA
    The Z+F Profiler is the latest addition to Lidar USA’s HiWay Mapper series. Photo: Lidar USA

    Lidar USA has integrated Z+F scanners for mobile mapping into its product line.

    According to the company, the Z+F Profiler is a high-speed, 360-degree scanner that provides more than 1 million points per second at up to 200 profiles per second with a range of nearly 120 meters. This product is the latest addition to the company’s HiWay Mapper series.

    The company also integrated the Z+F Imager, which can be transformed into a mobile system to maximize the use of the scanner. This allows companies to provide mobile mapping services with the highest accuracy — at a reduced cost — while maintaining backward compatibility for static scanning, the company said.

    Lidar USA, also known as Fagerman Technologies and based in Huntsville, Alabama, specializes in laser scanning, photogrammetry, instrumentation and geomatics.

    Z+F USA, Inc. is the United States subsidiary of Z+F GmbH Germany. It manufactures high quality control equipment, wire ferrules and laser scanners.

  • Drones speed inspections, push boundaries of cinematography

    Septentrio, Kespry share UAV advances; Game of Thrones, Mission Impossible also highlighted in GPS World webinar.

    The UAV inspection industry continues to grow, as evidenced by these case studies of end-user application, presented in a free webinar available to readers of GPS World. As unmanned systems follow precise flight paths to gather data needed for missions in — to cite just a few examples — insurance, mining, construction and the pulp paper industry, they drastically reduce project time, workload and costs.

    Narratives of how these tasks and other inspections are performed, and the requirements and challenges for positioning technology they pose, made up the October webinar, “Development Trends and Challenges for UAV Inspection Applications.”

    Four expert speakers covered commercial applications in urban and remote areas, including issues generated by obstruction, interference and spoofing. The full webinar audio and slides are available for download.

    Septentrio. Gustavo Lopez, product manager for Septentrio, introduced the webinar and covered the main technical challenges and requirements for UAS inspection applications: reliable and accurate relative positioning and orientation; power efficient, vibration-robust technology; fail-safe systems; all-weather flying capability; long-duration precision flying; small data compression; sense and avoid mechanisms; and network centric infrastructure.

    Lopez specified the capabilities an onboard GNSS receiver must have: interference monitoring and mitigation, and anti-spoofing — and briefly displayed the company’s products tailored for UAS inspection.

    These include: AsteRx-m2, a single-antenna RTK/PPK base and rover; AsteRx-m2a, a dual-antenna RTK chip with 2D orientation; AsteRx-m2(a) UAS, an auto-pilot ready device for easy UAS integration; and AsteRx-i, a GNSS/inertial solution with RTK and 3D orientation.

    Multi-Drone Mapping. Todd Humphreys from the University of Texas presented recent research developing the concept of collaborative mapping with multiple drones, creating a 3D display with decimeter accuracy. Ultimately the products from this prototype will serve in autonomous driving applications.

    Humphreys displayed the Sensorium, an automobile equipped with stereo cameras, dual-antenna triple-frequency software-defined GNSS, an industrial-grade IMU, automotive radar, LTE connectivity — and a companion deployable UAV for reconnaissance.

    Representing “eyes in the sky” for difficult or dangerous intersections. This little fellow carries a dual-antenna GNSS-IMU system developed in-house based on a software receiver delivering centimeter-accurate 2-degree UAV pose estimates.

    The webinar then progressed to several Septentrio clients who are out on the leading edge of UAS inspections.

    Kespry provides a complete solution for construction and engineering companies to better manage proposed and active earthwork operations. Without using multiple, cumbersome ground control points, survey-grade field data can be collected for an entire site in as little as 30 minutes. (Photo: Nathan Stump/Kespry)
    Kespry provides a complete solution for construction and engineering companies to better manage proposed and active earthwork operations. Without using multiple, cumbersome ground control points, survey-grade field data can be collected for an entire site in as little as 30 minutes. (Photo: Nathan Stump/Kespry)

    Kespry. UAV manufacturer Kespry provides a complete solution for construction and engineering companies to manage proposed and active earthwork operations. Without using multiple, cumbersome ground-control points, survey-grade field data can be collected for an entire site in as little as 30 minutes.

    Attendees learned how drone technology is being used to:

    • Validate proposed earthwork – reduce rework and extra earthmoving costs before the job begins
    • Safely measure earthwork activity – ensure subcontractor work and delivered material are constantly measured
    • Perform regular earthwork progress topos – accurately document completed grading and drainage phases.

    Applied to insurance claims for inspections of roof damage, Kespry’s autonomous system improves safety, reduces loss adjustment expenses, and delivers more accurate assessments, while reducing overall costs.

    For commercial property, the UAV solution helps prevent losses and informs underwriting decisions with high-resolution aerial and thermal imagery to identify exposures. Mobile tools are provided to review inspection imagery within minutes of flight; artificial intelligence technology generates fully dimensioned wireframes and 3D roof models.

    Flying Cam. The webinar links to a YouTube video presentation by Flying-Cam CEO Emanuel Previnaire, showing exciting film footage from popular entertainment. Flying-Cam was closely involved in Game of Thrones, season 7, filming in Los Barruecos Natural Park in Spain; and Mission Impossible 6, filming in the heart of Paris.

    The footage, delivered by the company’s UAVs flying very exact, high-speed pre-programmed flightpaths, was used to cinematically recreate flying dragons and exciting helicopter stunt work has been recognized over the years with two Oscars and one Emmy.

    The Flying-Cam SARAH E unmanned helicopter, with a payload capability of 10 kg, is open to many sensor integrations. Recent projects have included several high-end sensors: magnetometer, hyperspectral camera system, lidar and more.

    Flying-Cam introduced the specific use case of their customer Altametris, in a solution for rail inspection applications. Flying-Cam’s SARAH E successfully performed a lidar aerial survey in a populated area, the train station of Marseille Saint-Charles.

    Altametris. A subsidiary of the French National Railway (SNCF), one of the densest and most complex networks in Europe, Altametris participates in monitoring and inspecting a system encompassing 58,000 kilometers of track, 1,700 tunnels, 27,000 bridges and 3,000 stations by using non-intrusive measurement methods (UAVs, robots and more).

    Challenges for beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) inspections of this vast network include countless obstructions, safety and regulations governing flights over populated areas, and the need to avoid interference with railway operations.

    A typical rural scenario of long-range inspection involves a fixed-wing UAV with camera, lidar, multispectral camera and other sensors, flying at 150-meter altitude over a 50- to 100-kilometer stretch. Urban inspection uses rotary-wing UAVs with camera and lidar at even lower altitude (50 meters), along a 5-kilometer corridor.

    Employing GNSS/INS solution for positioning and georeferencing combined with lidar leads to precise and valuable data (high-density point cloud, up to 1000 points/square meter). A highly accurate and robust GNSS system is also mandatory for safety and security as it could help to monitor and avoid drone fly-away.

    Robust GNSS systems are therefore a key technology for the UAV industry and could open new business opportunities, through safe deployment in inhabited areas, high quality data for metrology,and more.

    For full details on all the above, download the free webinar audio and slides.

  • NASA releases satellite damage map of Camp Fire

    The Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena has produced a map showing the damage caused by the Camp Fire in Northern California.

    After two and a half weeks of historic destruction, the fire is now 100 percent contained. Teams continue to search the destruction — including the destroyed town of Paradise — for remains. As of Sunday, the death toll is 85, making it California’s deadliest fire.

    The map shows the damage as of Nov. 16.

    Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
    Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

    The map was developed using synthetic aperture radar images from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites operated by the European Space Agency.

    The map covers an area of 48 miles by 48 miles (78 by 77 kilometers), outlined in red on left. A closeup view of damage to the town of Paradise is inset on right, outlined in white. The color variation from yellow to red indicates increasingly more significant changes in the ground surface.

    The ARIA team creates its maps by comparing before-and-after satellite images of the fire region to see the extent of change between the two images. For this map, they compared the data for the image to a Cal Fire map for preliminary validation.

    Although the maps may be less reliable over vegetated terrain, such as forests, they can help officials and first responders identify heavily damaged areas and allocate resources as needed.

    Sentinel-1 data were accessed through the Copernicus Open Access Hub. The image contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2018), processed by ESA and analyzed by the NASA-JPL/Caltech ARIA team.