This year’s edition of the Copernicus Masters — Europe’s innovation competition for Earth observation (EO) — offers a prize pool of more than €1.5 million.
In addition, the European Space Agency (ESA) is opening the competition to upstream entries with its Sentinel Small Sat (S^3) Challenge.
The European Commission (EC) is hosting a total of six challenges thatenrich the overall Copernicus Masters prize portfolio.
Moreover, the EO innovation competition is now accompanied by dedicated Associated Regions that highlight its European regional dimension.
Finally, the Overall Winner will be invited to attend the satellite launch of ADM-Aeolus in Kourou, as well as receiving a cash prize.
Open to future-oriented teams and individuals from business, research and higher education, the Copernicus Masters is the largest international competition in the commercial use of Earth observation data. The competition is in search of outstanding ideas, applications and business concepts that make use of bespoke information in everyday life.
June 30 is the submission deadline.
“We’re very proud to have seen the Copernicus Masters develop into one of the innovation drivers for Earth observation in the last years,” said Josef Aschbacher, director of ESA’s Earth Observation Programmes. “The launches of additional Sentinel satellites will continuously boost the commercialization of related services.”
ESA Makes the Copernicus Masters Go Upstream
ESA has annually provided a challenge since the competition’s initiation. The 2017 challenge is the next level of growth.
The winner of the Sentinel Small Sat (S^3) Challenge will be awarded EUR 1 million for the design and development of the mission, and shall be provided with a launch service free of charge. In addition, the winner will receive EUR 10,000 cash prize.
The goal of this challenge is to stimulate ground-breaking satellite design, testing and manufacturing solutions leading to small missions complementary, or providing added value to current Sentinel family missions.
Six Additional EC Challenges
The EC is deeply involved in the Copernicus Masters with six new EC Challenges. Each challenge is topic-specific: sustainable development, government, big data, B2B, Copernicus services and security. The winner will be rewarded with a cash prize of EUR 5,000.
Moreover, the winner will benefit from a substantial satellite data quota worth the same value. These new features powered by the EC complement the EC program Copernicus Accelerator. The top 50 entrants of the Copernicus Masters have the opportunity to join the Copernicus Accelerator — a tailored business coaching service.
“The popularity of the Copernicus Accelerator program results mainly from its unique characteristic: involving future-oriented entrepreneurs as mentees and high-level professionals as mentors,” said Philippe Brunet, director of Aerospace, Maritime, Security and Defence Industries, EC. “The perfect interaction between these two core assets of the tailored business coaching service is what makes this EC programme so unique.”
With support from its international network, the Copernicus Masters aids participants in realizing their applications and business models. This year’s edition once again features challenges and corresponding prizes to be awarded by a series of prominent partners, including ESA, the EC, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Stevenson Astrosat Ltd., Satellite Applications Catapult Ltd., CGI, and the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure.
The University Challenge, meanwhile, is geared specifically towards students and research employees. The topics addressed by these challenges will include innovative uses of Earth observation data in the fields of upstream services, energy, health and the environment, disaster management, sustainable living, big data, digital transportation, and smart cities.
Copernicus Masters Value Chain Boosts Sinergise to Next Level
Sinergise is a significant startup that experienced a major boost through winning the Copernicus Masters and being part of the Copernicus Accelerator 2016. The Sinergise story showcases how smart use of big data from space enables new types of business.
Before submitting their idea to the Copernicus Masters in 2016, the Sinergise team already had a working solution, but only very few users. “Becoming the Overall Winner of the competition and benefitting from the follow-up coaching service provided by Francesco Liucci from Catapult, within the Copernicus Accelerator framework, helped us to boost our idea even further and to gain confidence from experts worldwide,” said Grega Milcinski, CEO of Sinergise. The company’s newly released EO Browser has the impressive number of 1.1 million processed requests by nearly 12,000 users.
Europe’s Leading Earth Observation Innovation Competition
Since 2011, the Copernicus Masters competition has evolved into the leading innovation platform for promoting user uptake of Earth observation data in a commercial and societal context. “The Copernicus Masters scouts and showcases new ideas and trends each year,” said Thorsten Rudolph, managing director, AZO. “Put into figures, the competition already selected a total of 50 winners from among more than 1,200 entrants from 50 different countries, who have submitted over 900 cutting-edge business ideas. Each year, we are honored to have Europe’s most renowned space stakeholders host their own prizes in topic-specific Challenges.”
Along with cash prizes, the winners will receive access to an international network, corresponding data, startup funding and other support valued at more than EUR 1.5 million in total.
For all of the details on this year’s prizes, partners and terms of participation, visit the Copernicus Masters website.
The workshop is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. CDT on May 8. It will bring the AUVSI and AIAA professional communities together to focus on the current civilian applications of UAS, to look at lessons learned during the Public Decade (2008-2017), and to look forward to defining the Civil Decade (2017-2026).
Key questions that will be addressed include:
What is the current state of civilian applications of UAS?
What are lessons learned from the Public Decade to be applied in the Civil Decade?
What are the critical technologies and regulatory environment that must be in place in 5 years, 10 years?
What are the roles of stakeholders in the industry, agency and academic communities to ensure U.S. leadership in the Civil Decade and beyond?
Stakeholder feedback will be collected during the half-day event to help UAS manufacturers, operators, policy makers and regulators begin to shape the Civil Decade.
The workshop is one of several events co-located with AUVSI XPONENTIAL. “XPONENTIAL’s co-located events shine a light on the technology developments, policy issues and business opportunities that will drive revenue in the unmanned systems industry, and help accelerate its evolution,” said Brian Wynne, president and CEO of AUVSI. “This year’s agenda features forward-looking leaders who can share critical insights and best practices for maintaining a competitive edge in our rapidly-changing industry.”
More than 7,000 industry leaders and professionals from 55 countries are expected to attend XPONENTIAL 2017. The exhibit hall will showcase more than 650 cutting-edge companies, representing more than 20 industries.
Tersus GNSS Inc., a GNSS real-time kinematic (RTK) manufacturing company, has launched its new GNSS RTK board, the Precis-BX306.
The launch of Precis-BX306 aims at facilitating the applications that need centimeter positioning accuracy and dynamic operation mode, enforcing effective observation data logging and management, and popularizing the adoption of high precision in aerial mapping and drone-related integration.
Compared with previous Precis GNSS RTK boards, Precis-BX306 further improves the reliability and continuity of positioning performance in challenging environments. It supports GPS L1/L2, GLONASS G1/G2 and Beidou B1/B2 with 192 tracking channels.
The Precis-BX306 can easily integrate into Pixhawk and other autopilots. The event mark and PPS features of the new board provide more possibilities for shutter synchronization.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is addressing national security concerns about unauthorized drone operations over 133 military facilities.
This is the first time the agency has instituted airspace restrictions that specifically apply only to unmanned aircraft. The authority, under Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR) § 99.7 — “Special Security Instructions” — is limited to requests based on national security interests from the Department of Defense and U.S. federal security and intelligence agencies.
The FAA and the Department of Defense have agreed to restrict drone flights up to 400 feet within the lateral boundaries of these 133 facilities. The restrictions are effective as of April 14. There are only a few exceptions that permit drone flights within these restrictions, and they must be coordinated with the individual facility and the FAA.
Operators who violate the airspace restrictions may be subject to enforcement action, including potential civil penalties and criminal charges.
To ensure the public is aware of these restricted locations, the FAA has created an interactive map online. The link to these restrictions is also included in the FAA’s B4UFLY mobile app. The app will be updated within 60 days to reflect these airspace restrictions. Additional information, including frequently asked questions, is available on the FAA’s UAS website.
Section 2209 of the FAA Extension, Safety and Security Act of 2016 also directs the Secretary of Transportation to establish a process to accept petitions to prohibit or restrict UAS operations over critical infrastructure and other facilities. The Department of Transportation and the FAA are currently evaluating options to implement such a process.
The FAA is considering additional requests from federal security and intelligence agencies for restrictions using the FAA’s § 99.7 authority as they are received.
Assessing the health of an entire industry is not an easy task, but talking with industry leaders and looking for examples of growth and investment can help. My inquiries have led to discussions with General Atomics, Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), Aeryon Labs and SensoFusion. Further viewpoints welcome; see the conclusion of this article.
Discussions included questions around these issues:
The level of maturity of common technologies in use on UAV platforms and systems
The level of maturity of integration of those technologies
A sketch portrait of the industry
Rough numbers or percentage of small players versus large ones
The rate of consolidation of companies: Has it happened, or has it yet to happen?
The financial underpinnings of the market: Does it have legs to go the distance?
If we start with a top-level overview of the industry, we find on the commercial side an industry trying to figure out what it is and who its customers might be. But a well-established military segment is quite mature. A large number of multi-rotor UAV suppliers use simple handheld controllers, all aimed at different applications where they are seeking a niche. The FAA’s release of regulations last year for use of small unmanned vehicle systems (sUAS) has provided a real boost to many more commercial pay-for-service ways these vehicles are now being used.
Multi-rotor UAVs are being put to use in surveying, filmmaking, newsgathering, real estate, crop and pipeline inspection, firefighting, law enforcement, security, search and rescue, and disaster monitoring and relief, just to mention a few applications. Of course, home and hobby flying your own drone in your backyard or open areas has fueled the Chinese DJI drone manufacturers’ growth significantly. While the FAA requires registration of private drones, this has not prevented an increase in commercial pilot reports of UAV incursions into controlled airspace, which appear to be on the increase.
Military Use. Then there are small, medium and large fixed-wing UAVs that appear to have been mostly developed for and used by the military. These include hand-launched surveillance drones for small groups of ground troops; mid-sized, longer range surveillance drones finding applications in commercial inspection; and the bigger GA Predator type aircraft that have become the U.S. military’s search and destroy long-range vehicle, which can carry significant ordinance.
At the top end, UAVs like Global Hawk are used for very high altitude, long-endurance surveillance. Finally, we have target drones like the Northrup Grumman BQM-74E, which earns its living pretending to be an enemy anti-ship cruise missile for the U.S. Navy.
Northrop Grumman’s BQM-74E Target Drone works for the U.S. Navy. (Photo: U.S. Navy)
Commercial Growth. Brian Wynne, president and CEO of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), believes for the commercial segment that, “The UAS industry is primed for incredible growth. UAS are being used in all 50 states by industries like real estate, agriculture and the oil and gas industry for more than 40 different types of business applications, including aerial photography, emergency management and utility inspection.”
More than 500,000 people have registered their UAVs with the FAA in the U.S., and around 20,000 of those are looking to start commercial operations. AUVSI expects more than 100,000 jobs will be created when UAS are integrated into and allowed to operate in the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS).
AUVSI analysis of initial UAS applications. (Source: AUVSI)
However, Wynne went on to comment, “This this can only happen if the government puts in place a true, holistic plan for full UAS integration that includes flights over people, as well as beyond line-of-sight operations, access to higher altitudes and platforms above 55 pounds.” AUVSI estimates that in the first decade after full UAS integration into the NAS, these commercial operations could generate more than $82 billion is economic impact.
Even before the FAA’s release of formal regulations (known as Part 107) for use of sUAS in June 2016, more than 5,500 businesses received approval to fly for commercial purposes. AUVSI published a report analyzing these applications: “Commercial UAS Exceptions By the Numbers” provides an overview of the developing commercial UAS industry in the U.S. (See auvsi.org/advocacy/exemptions70)
More than 90 percent of these businesses make less than $1 million in annual revenue and have fewer than 10 employees. This indicates that the engine behind this growth comes from small, independent business.
Nevertheless, big organizations such as CNN are also exploring visual line-of-sight operations over people and safely using UAS for newsgathering in populated areas, as part of the FAA’s Pathfinder Program. PrecisionHawk is testing extended visual line-of-sight operations in rural areas, aimed at precision agriculture, and BNSF Railway is testing beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations in rural and isolated areas for the inspection of rail system infrastructure.
Anti-Drone Systems. More recently, anti-drone systems have joined the party to help defend against unwanted UAV incursions into secure areas already protected by conventional systems like radar, acoustic and optical detection systems. Secure areas include prisons, government buildings/facilities, utility companies (including nuclear power stations) and airports. Sensofusion in Finland is one such company with its Airfence, one of three anti-drone systems tested last November by the FAA at Denver airport. The other systems were supplied by CACI International and Liteye Systems.
The Airfence drone countermeasure platform can automatically detect, locate, track and take over UAV controls as well as locate the operator.
Kaveh Mahdavi, VP of Operations for Sensofusion, thinks that, relatively speaking, the UAV industry is quite mature — what’s still being developed are systems to enable autonomous drone flight. The regulations published so far only address ground-pilot-controlled operations, even though BVLOS testing is progressing well.
On the other hand, the maturity level of anti-drone systems range from proven to embryonic. As many as 50 companies with different technical solutions are vying to succeed in this new segment.
As the UAV segment continues to grow, so does the need for detection and prevention of drone incursions.
These systems employ three basic technologies: radar, optical and RF. Radar and optical need direct line of sight and cannot see over the horizon. That makes them quite short-range, and detection and defense has to be exceptionally quick to prevent unwanted UAV visits. The Airfence RF system is omnidirectional and can even detect UAS preparing for take-off up to six miles away, as demonstrated at the Denver airport.
Thus, intrusion warnings at a geofence distance of 3–4 miles can be generated, and automatic defense/prevention is readily achieved. Some utility companies want to have detection, warnings and control of intruder drones within a mile of their facilities.
Mahdavi described how Airfence uses a library of drone control RF signatures for all known UAS, with new signatures added regularly. The system can detect, intercept and directly take control of the offending vehicle.
During the Denver tests, Airfence initially only detected one third of the target UAVs, but the RF signatures of all targets were acquired.
Using remote engineering updates to the library, by Day Three all were detected. With lower prices, consumer drones are becoming a real threat for these sensitive areas.
The anti-drone industry will no doubt face considerable consolidation over the next couple of years, but Mahdavi feels that Sensofusion is well placed, with significant military and government business funding its growth — “securing the right contracts with the right customers,” as he says — without external investment.
Mature Company. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI), makers of the well-known Predator, Reaper and other Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance (MALE) drone systems, has been in this business for almost 25 years. GA-ASI considers its products to be proven, mature and resilient for the military and government markets that demand them to be so. The company uses in-house products and technology across its range of air and ground systems.
SeaGuardian and SkyGuardian will be commercially certifiable versions of the Predator.
In an effort to align with European customer interest, GA-ASI has been investing in a certifiable version of the Predator-B, recently named SkyGuardian. A derivative for marine applications will be known as the SeaGuardian.
Just as military transport aircraft want to transit through civilian airspace and, in order to do so, have been equipping with certified navigation systems for a number of years, military drone operators want to be compatible with Europe’s high-density commercial flight regulations and to operate within existing air-traffic control corridors.
To arrive in time for these European programs, GA-ASI has invested to get ahead of the market. This has entailed assessment of all on-board and ground components, and has led to upgrades and redesigns where necessary.
“Nevertheless, on existing product lines, there is a large degree of commonality across common systems on multiple platforms,” said Mike Cannon, VP of international programs. Common systems include datalinks, avionics, de-icing systems, and some airframe components.
GA-ASI has developed and integrated its own flight control system in its aircraft for more than 20 years. This has proven to be a key element of the success for the Predator family of products. Because all these systems have been flying for so long, they have become proven elements of their unmanned systems.
Hughes Network Systems Defense and Intelligence and Systems Division (DISD) has been selected by GA-ASI to provide satellite communications on the type-certifiable Predator B remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) system. Working with GA-ASI, Hughes will customize the aircraft’s satellite communications system with modified Hughes HM series modems. The advanced modems will enable a significant increase in data transfer rates, using an enhanced waveform that ensures resilient and secure communications when operating in challenging environments.
Big Players. It is very difficult for new start-up companies to enter this top-level segment of the UAV market. It’s very expensive to develop, demonstrate and prove large airframes, control systems and avionics that customers can rely on. GA-ASI has a unique position alongside major suppliers such as Boeing, Northrup Grumman, Israel Aerospace Industries, and Lockheed Martin. However, viable Chinese UAS are beginning to show up in the marketplace, apparently as a result of significant, focused investment.
Nevertheless, with an enviable position as a major supplier of platforms used in multiple applications, with sufficient internal resources to fund initial vehicle developments, GA-ASI has secured a large number of programs with multiple follow-on orders and funding for increasingly more capable derivative UAS. As the company now looks toward the certifiable segment using another internally funded product launch, it is again reinforcing its leadership position in its chosen unmanned market segment.
Small Vehicles. Meanwhile, the world of small unmanned air vehicles (sUAS) continues to thrive, given the release of FAA regulations last year, and the blossoming of many commercial applications using increasingly capable small multi-rotor drones. David Koetsch, CEO and co-founder of Aeryon Labs in Ontario, Canada, thinks the sUAS segment is also quite mature.
Aeryon has been around for more than 10 years, so it has also had time to prove its platforms and internal systems. It also builds its own flight-control hardware and software, affording substantial power savings and longer endurance from automatically managing rotor speeds.
Aeryon Labs provides complete solutions, such as its SkyRanger sUAV partnered with AeryonLive Tools software.AeryonLive Tools software. by Aeryon Labs.
“The quad platform has been around since 1938, so the concept is hardly new; however, over the last decade, Aeryon Labs has substantially matured and ruggedized our platform, the Aeryon SkyRanger sUAS,” Kroetsch said.
The company’s focus is on not only on the UAV platform, but also in supplying complete systems meeting different customer needs. With electro-optical and thermal imaging camera payloads and an onboard georeferencing data collection/processing system, it provides integrated solutions such as AeryonLive Video and Telemetry and AeryonLive Fleet Management using real-time software tools.
For the oil and gas industry, providing compatibility for off-line flight planning software inputs and importing compatible aerial imagery into existing GIS systems is a significant feature. The SkyRanger UAS has benefited from many years of use in the field, and has been designed with modularity and ease of use with snap-on/off parts that make set-up and operating in bad weather a lot easier.
Aeryon’s business is currently 50% military, 25% oil and gas and 25% public safety (such as rapid traffic accident data gathering). Other entrants to these segments might find it easy to put together an unmanned system from parts bought on the internet; what comes considerably harder is proving reliability and interoperability with existing customer systems.
Actually, to develop an industrial-grade UAV takes lots of investment and requires experience gathered over many years. Customers have learned how to differentiate between those dabbling in the market and those with serious capabilities.
Consolidation. Consolidation is inevitable in this market segment — perhaps within the next six months, certainly over the next two years — because there are so many companies trying. Investment for these start-ups is getting harder to find, and it may be too late for most, as the leaders are already well established.
“It’s essential to pick a niche within the increasingly competitive UAV industry,” Kroetsch said. “This is why Aeryon chose early on to focus on enterprise-level offerings in commercial, public safety and military.”
Recall what happened to 3D Robotics. Even though 3D Robotics raised many millions in funding, its Solo quadrotor fell from grace, perhaps due to continuing design issues and being higher priced compared to rapidly declining DJI Phantom 3 prices. “Competition and consolidation look to be very similar to that which happened with digital cameras,” Kroetsch said.
For Aeryon, being Canadian appears to be an advantage, as U.S. export regulations seem to be handicapping U.S. drone manufacturers. Aeryon sells in 35–40 countries because its product does not contain military-restricted components and only uses commercial parts. Canadian regulations for drone system exports do not prohibit worldwide sales for such products, while U.S. regulations can be difficult for U.S. suppliers to negotiate.
Nevertheless, unexpected hurdles to adoption still exist, such as company policies related to health and safety, union restrictions, and potential internal clashes on responsibility for implementation. But with 100% test, and a hardened design for tough environments, Aeryon sees itself well positioned to grow in its chosen industrial sector.
Conclusion
This has been a brief overview of the UAV/UAS industry — a first try, if you will. Nevertheless, it’s a summary that we can use as a benchmark for where we are right now, and a departure point for future growth.
We have quite mature capability in both large and small UAS, with integration focused on flight-control and navigation systems. The larger UAS enjoy a relatively mature market with established suppliers of lower numbers of expensive systems, while the sUAS segment is larger, younger and less expensive, with fewer barriers to entry.
Nevertheless, the mature industrial segments with harder, more integrated requirements make it difficult for new entrants to climb the steps into more complex commercial operations. The recreational segment is dominated by DJI, and it remains strong with well-performing, easy-to-operate drones.
Because of the ease of access to smaller drones, despite FAA and other countries’ regulations, people seem to want to penetrate secure facilities like utilities, airports, military bases, prisons and other government locations. Therefore, anti-drone systems using optical, radar and RF are becoming available, and facilities are being equipped to prevent unwanted drone incursions.
AUVSI XPONENTIAL. In May, I’ll be roving the show floor at the XPONENTIAL show in Dallas, and I welcome your added insight, from all corners of the UAV industry. We will continue this assessment in an upcoming
Professional OEM + UAV newsletter column (subscribe free at gpsworld.com/subscribe).
Sierra Wireless, a provider of fully integrated device-to-cloud solutions for the Internet of Things, has completed the acquisition of GlobalTop Technology’s GNSS embedded module business for $3.2 million.
GlobalTop’s GNSS embedded module portfolio will become part of the Sierra Wireless OEM Solutions product line, and the GNSS staff from GlobalTop will join Sierra Wireless.
GlobalTop’s GNSS products generated $5 million in revenue in the last 12 months, and the business is break-even, Sierra Wireless said.
“Building on our portfolio of cellular, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules, we will have additional products to offer to our customers in markets where positioning data is critical, including high-value asset tracking, telematics, drones and automotive,” said Dan Schieler, senior vice president and general manager of OEM Solutions for Sierra Wireless.
The TitanX1 GNSS antenna.
GlobalTop GNSS modules include the Firefly, Ivory and Hummingbird series (GNSS standalone), and the Titan and Ladybird (GNSS with antenna). GlobalTop launched the Titan X1 module in February.
“With a wide array of modules and established sales channels, as well as a proven engineering team, we believe that the GlobalTop GNSS business is an important addition to Sierra Wireless,” Schieler said.
Narrowband IoT (NB‑IoT) is a new way of communicating with the “things” in Internet of Things that was standardized by 3GPP in June 2016.
The latest mobile broadband standard, NB-IoT is aimed at devices that need to communicate small amounts of data over long periods in hard-to-reach places. It connects devices through existing GSM and LTE spectrum networks.
NB-IoT uses the 3GPP-licensed network spectrum, which is secure and free from interference, and offers low power, long range, the ability to penetrate walls and metal barriers, and support for about 50,000 devices per single cellular cell.
“Narrowband IoT will be good for connecting devices in locations where the signal distance is in kilometers and for locations in basements and underground,” said Antenova CEO Colin Newman.
“It could be the enabler for some of the IoT applications that are emerging that are not suited to the established telecoms networks, where the data throughput is quite low and infrequent.
“We see these antennas being used for smart metering, agricultural technologies, building automation and smart-city applications with lighting, waste bins and parking spaces,” Newman said.
Digicom’s narrowband IoT GPS tracker has u-blox inside.
u-blox and Digicom. Chip-maker u-blox partnered with Digicom to develop its NB-IoT products, carrying out a series of innovative and successful field trials of the new NB-IoT technology.
Digicom offers solutions for industrial markets using NB-IoT, with a focus on connectivity solutions for smart cities, smart buildings, industry 4.0 in general and the automotive industry. Digicom platforms are designed for the protection of vehicles, people and pets, offer ultra-low-power consumption and several years of operation in battery mode.
Embedded in Digicom’s products are u-blox modules such as the SARA‑N2 NB-IoT.
CEVA Dragonfly. CEVA Inc. and Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute Company Limited (ASTRI) introduced Dragonfly NB1, a comprehensive NB-IoT solution with excellent performance and power consumption. It is easily integrated into a system on chip (SoC).
GMV Add-On for GNSS. Also, CEVA and ASTRI teamed up with GMV to offer integrated GNSS for smart devices with location tracking of logistics, assets, wearables and more.
The GNSS IP is available as an add-on software that runs on the CEVA-X1 together with NB-IoT and leverages ASTRI’s GNSS RF IP embedded in the solution.
GMV’s software IP supports all four GNSS constellations: GPS, BeiDou, GLONASS and Galileo, and allows seamless switching between constellations when required or to run multiple constellations concurrently to improve resolution and offer global asset tracking.
Antenova Latona. Antenova has developed a new NB-IoT chip antenna in the company’s lamiiANT antenna family named Latona. The antenna measures 20 x 11 x 1.6 mm, and is built to a novel design that allows it to perform well within a device while being easy to integrate onto a small printed circuit board (PCB), as with all of Antenova’s embedded antennas.
Suresh Ram has been appointed president of u-blox America, a wholly owned subsidiary of u-blox AG, a Swiss wireless and positioning technology company.
Ram’s appointment takes effect immediately. He is responsible for sales, marketing, field applications and operations aimed at supporting the growing regional customer base.
“The Internet of Things presents enormous opportunities for wireless technology,” Ram said. “As this emerging and rapidly developing application space matures, my focus will be on further strengthening our market position, investing in our technology, streamlining our operations and building new partnerships.”
Most recently, Ram served as head of the Americas’ RF and Sensors Business Unit within Infineon Technologies, and senior director of Global Marketing for Fluke Corporation.
Ram will be assisted by Nikolaos Papadopoulos, who has been appointed to the new position of senior vice president of strategy. Together, the management team will continue to develop key markets for u-blox’s range of positioning and wireless products.
“I look forward to Mr Ram’s contribution to develop and lead new strategies for introducing the class-leading range of u-blox products to meet the emerging demands and opportunities within the industrial, automotive and consumer IoT markets,” said u-blox’s CEO Thomas Seiler.
The new appointments strengthen the position of u-blox in the Americas, with a key objective of supporting the long-term needs of its customers and their markets. The appointments will help the company meet its medium-term goal of becoming a leading Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity company.
Ram has worked in the semiconductor and automation industries in roles that include general management, marketing and leading engineering teams to develop products for wireless infrastructure, consumer, medical, industrial automation, test equipment, military and aerospace markets. He holds a master of business administration from Santa Clara University and master of science in electrical engineering from Clemson University, South Carolina.
Using a newly developed computer model called CoSMoS-COAST (Coastal Storm Modeling System – Coastal One-line Assimilated Simulation Tool), scientists predict that with limited human intervention, 31 to 67 percent of Southern California beaches may become completely eroded (up to existing coastal infrastructure or sea cliffs) by the year 2100 under scenarios of sea-level rise of one to two meters.
Exposed bedrock on the beach, below the University of California, Santa Barbara, in February 2017. (Credit: Daniel Hoover, USGS.)
“Beaches are perhaps the most iconic feature of California, and the potential for losing this identity is real,” said Sean Vitousek, who was a post-doctoral fellow at the U.S. Geological Survey when he conducted this study.
“The effect of California losing its beaches is not just a matter of affecting the tourism economy,” Vitousek said. “Losing the protecting swath of beach sand between us and the pounding surf exposes critical infrastructure, businesses and homes to damage. Beaches are natural resources, and it is likely that human management efforts must increase in order to preserve them.”
Vitousek is now a professor in the Department of Civil and Materials Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and lead author of a new study accepted for publication in Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, a publication of the American Geophysical Union.
Installing large boulders as rip-rap to armor the shore against further erosion at Goleta Beach in Southern California. The tide is very low (negative). (Credit: Daniel Hoover, USGS.)
Although a majority (72 percent) of beaches in Southern California show historical trends of accretion or getting larger (due to large artificial beach nourishments since the 1930s), future predictions indicate that nearly all of the beaches will experience erosion (will get smaller) due to accelerated sea-level rise.
“Beaches in Southern California are a crucial feature of the economy, and the first line of defense against coastal storm impacts for the 18 million residents in the region,” said USGS geologist and coauthor, Patrick Barnard. “This study indicates that we will have to perform massive and costly interventions to preserve these beaches in the future under the erosive pressures of anticipated sea-level rise, or risk losing many of the economic and protective benefits beaches provide.”
Important for coastal hazard assessment and management planning, CoSMoS–COAST is a numerical model used to predict shoreline-change due to both sea level rise and changing storm patterns driven by climate change.
Exposed bedrock on the beach during very low (negative) tide at Isla Vista, California, in February 2017. (Credit: Alex Snyder, USGS.)
The model takes into consideration sand transport both along the beach (due to longshore currents) and across the beach (cross-shore transport) by waves and sea-level rise.
Although Southern California beaches are a complex mixture of dunes, bluffs, cliffs, estuaries, river mouths and urban infrastructure, the model is applicable to virtually any coastal setting.
Additionally, the CoSMoS-COAST model uses information about historical shoreline positions and how beaches change in response to waves and climate cycles such as El Niño, to improve estimates and improve confidence in long-term prediction of coastline changes in Southern California.

Although shoreline change is difficult to predict, scientists are confident in the accuracy and reliability of the model’s predictive capability applied to the forecast period (2010-2100), because of how accurately the model is able to reproduce the historical shoreline change between 1995 and 2010.
An example of the shoreline data for La Jolla Shores, used in the CoSMoS COAST model. The many squiggly colored lines indicate the changing location of the shoreline through time. [Basemaps from Google Earth] (Credit: USGS.)“The public already has to overcome obstacles in getting to the beach, from limited public transportation to illegally blocked pathways,” said California Coastal Commission Executive Director John Ainsworth.
“The prospect of losing so many of our beaches in Southern California to sea-level rise is frankly unacceptable,” Ainsworth said. “The beaches are our public parks and economic heart and soul of our coastal communities. We must do everything we can to ensure that as much of the iconic California coast is preserved for future generations.”
Remote GeoSystems Inc. has released a new LineVision Google Earth Extension. The extension is commercial software for UAV, airborne and terrestrial mobile inspection and survey projects requiring georeferenced video playback, analysis, collaboration and reporting using Google Earth and other GIS applications.
Unlike its stand-alone predecessor, the new LineVision Google Earth is a true application extension and gives users the full functionality of native Google Earth, including Pro edition. Now anyone with a GPS-enabled video camera, drone or geospatial DVR that can geotag video in the proper format can immediately load their videos and photos to Google Earth along with compatible KML and other traditional geospatial data.
As the video plays, a position marker moves along an aerial or terrestrial GPS track positioned three-dimensionally in Google Earth, continuously indicating where the current frames were recorded. Users may also geospatially “navigate” a video recording by simply clicking a single point along an aerial or terrestrial GPS track.
The video then automatically advances to that point in the recording so that users can visually interpret what was recorded at that specific place and time. If something of interest is detected in the video, users may also “snap” a still image from the video, which is geotagged and saved for future analysis.
The LineVision Google Earth Extension was designed to be an open and versatile tool for geotagged video analysis. The software is compatible with properly formatted georeferenced video files from a variety of consumer handheld and action video cameras, drones and specialized mobile geospatial DVRs, including Remote GeoSystems’ own geoDVR geospatial FMV recorder.
In addition to video, users can import oblique photos and KML data from survey and inspection projects. All these imported data types can be saved in a Remote GeoSystems geoProject file for data portability, reporting and future analysis in other versions of LineVision desktop, cloud and server applications.
Features include:
Playing videos from single and multi-camera data collection platforms
“Click-on-Map” video navigation
Setting a custom geo-fence around the moving position marker
Loading any Google Earth-compatible KML or shapefiles
Saving video and photo work as geoProjects for simple project reporting, archive and search
A new industry report provides a study of the global GNSS receiver market, forecasting growth and other factors for the period 2017-20.
The GPS & GNSS Receivers Market 2017 Research Report by Markets.biz provides a “thorough and complete study on receiver industry volume, market share, trends, growth, applications, utilization ratio, supply and demand analysis, manufacturing capacity and price.
The report concentrates on a complete analysis of present and past historical details of the market as well as the competitive landscape.
Vendors mentioned include:
Trimble
Topcon
Navipedia
Sokkia
Geo
NavtechGPS
JAVAD GNSS
CHC Navigation
SOUTH
ComNav Technology
Hemisphere GNSS
NovAtel
NavCom Technology
Leica Geosystems
Eos Positioning Systems
NVS Technologies
Suzhou FOIF
Pulse Engineering
CSR
Broadcom
Garmin
The report organizes the receiver market across the globe into divisions based on industry standards and on geographical regions. The report throws light on dominant players in each region: United States, European Union, China, Japan). Other regions can be added accordingly.
Discrete aspects of the receiver industry such as value-chain analysis, rules and policies, factors driving the growth of the market, and the constraints hampering the growth are explained.
The report mentions products currently available in the market along with their cost structures, manufacturing volume, requirement and supply analysis, import/export scenario and their overall global contribution to market revenue globally.
Further, the report analyzes the feasibility of investment and investment return analysis, and shows a complete picture of market development scope and business strategies followed by leading industry players along with their company profiles, market shares and contact information.
On March 9, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released its 2017 Infrastructure Report Card, giving the United States a D+ grade. Mapping company Esri has created a Story Map to help put the infrastructure issues into context.
The Esri Story Map “A Network Derailed” presents a comprehensive overview and analysis of all major transportation infrastructure systems and networks, including highways, bridges, railroads, ports, waterways and airports. Using interactive maps, users can pan and zoom to areas of interest.
The latest authoritative data is incorporated, including the ASCE report card and the 2016 National Bridge Inventory released in earlier this year. The story also cites the latest figures from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Congress and the Trump administration.
Some interesting facts:
In 2016, 47 percent of urban interstate vehicle miles traveled were over structurally deficient pavement.
The 10 worst trucking chokepoints for 2016 are displayed on the map (Atlanta, New York, and Chicago).
Bridges are scaled according to truck traffic and colored according to their structural status. Individual bridges are indicated.
Viewing rail bridges illuminates the fragility of the transportation system — one untimely bridge collapse could bring the regional rail system to a halt with few alternative routes.
The 50 busiest airports in the U.S. by total cargo landed can be viewed.
![An example of the shoreline data for La Jolla Shores, used in the CoSMoS COAST model. The many squiggly colored lines indicate the changing location of the shoreline through time. [Basemaps from Google Earth] (Credit: USGS.)](http://gpsworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/USGS-photo-socal-beaches.jpg)
