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The poll asks — and this is all it asks —
GPS/GNSS jamming.
GPS/GNSS spoofing.
Unintentional RF Interference.
RF interference from unknown source; unknown whether intentional or not.
None of the above.
Other, please specify.
Today, Rwandan President Paul Kagame launched what is considered world’s first national drone delivery service during a ceremony in the country’s centrally located Muhanga District.
Starting today, the Rwandan government will begin using drones to make up to 150 on-demand, emergency deliveries per day of life-saving blood to 21 transfusing facilities in the western half of the country.
The drones and delivery service are built and operated by Zipline, a California-based robotics company.
While Rwanda’s drone delivery service will initially focus on blood, an international partnership between UPS, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and Zipline will help the country quickly expand the types of medicines and lifesaving vaccines that can be delivered.
“Drones are very useful, both commercially and for improving services in the health sector. We are happy to be launching this innovative technology and to continue working with partners to develop it further,” said Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
Throughout the developing world, access to lifesaving and critical health products is hampered by what is known as the last-mile problem: the inability to deliver needed medicine from a city to rural or remote locations due to lack of adequate transportation, communication and supply chain infrastructure.
In Rwanda, postpartum hemorrhaging is the leading cause of death for pregnant women. Blood requires storage and transport at safe temperatures and spoils quickly. Because there are many different blood products and no way to accurately project future needs, many transfusion clinics do not keep all the blood they may need in stock.
During Rwanda’s lengthy rainy season, many roads wash out becoming impassible or non-existent. The result is that all too often someone in need of a lifesaving transfusion cannot access the blood they need to survive.
Rwanda’s national drone delivery program enables blood transfusion clinics across the Western half of the country to place emergency orders by cell phone text message. The orders are then received by Zipline at its distribution center located in the country’s Muhanga region where the company maintains a fleet of 15 drones, called Zips.
Each Zip can fly up to 150 km round trip — even in wind and rain — and carry 3.3 pounds of blood, which is enough to save a person’s life. Zips take off and land at the distribution center, and make deliveries by descending close to the ground and air dropping medicine to a designated spot called a “mailbox” near the health centers they serve. Zipline will make 50 to 150 emergency flights a day to 21 transfusion clinics across the western half of Rwanda and can fulfill orders in about 30 minutes.
Rwanda plans to expand Zipline’s drone delivery service to the Eastern half of the country in early 2017, putting almost every one of the country’s 11 million citizens within reach of instant delivery of life-saving medicines.
“The inability to deliver life-saving medicines to the people who need them the most causes millions of preventable deaths each year around the world. Zipline will help solve that problem once and for all,” said Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo. “We’ve built an instant delivery system for the world, allowing medicine to be delivered on-demand and at low-cost, anywhere.”
The commercial partnership between Rwanda and Zipline is expected to save thousands of lives over the next three years. Through this effort, Rwanda is using the technology to leapfrog the absence of road infrastructure and to provide healthcare access to all its 11 million citizens.
The work in Rwanda is being further supported by an international partnership between Zipline, UPS and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Thanks to a $1.1 million (USD) grant from the UPS Foundation, the partnership will study Rwanda’s blood drone delivery operation with an eye towards helping the country quickly expanding the types of medicines and lifesaving vaccines that can be delivered.
Leveraging UPS’s extensive global supply chain and logistics expertise, Gavi’s deep public health and vaccine knowledge, and Zipline’s cutting edge last-mile delivery technology, the partnership hopes to use the knowledge gained in Rwanda and export it around the world.
“Drones have the potential to revolutionise the way we reach remote communities with emergency medical supplies. The hours saved delivering blood products or a vaccine for someone who has been exposed to rabies with this technology could make the difference between life and death,” said Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. “This project will also act as an important test for whether drones are a viable way to improve targeted vaccine delivery around the world. Every child deserves basic, lifesaving vaccines. This technology could be an important step towards ensuring they get them.”
UPS’s logistics expertise and resources are expected to play a critical role in helping the partnership to expand the reach of this important work. The company was actually able to transport the entire Zipline system from California to Rwanda in record time in a “Browntail” cargo plane, helping to ensure Zipline’s distribution centre could be constructed in just four weeks.
“One of the most important focus areas for The UPS Foundation is to spark public-private partnerships that create powerful scale and drive demonstrable impact in support of global humanitarian aid and relief,” said Eduardo Martinez, president of The UPS Foundation and chief diversity and inclusion officer at UPS. “The shared belief in the ability to save lives through applied innovation, combined with Rwanda’s vision, is now not only poised to advance humanitarian logistics — and logistics as we know it — around the world, but also to save lives. Now is when our partnership between The UPS Foundation, Gavi and Zipline counts most, as we see the first operational missions dedicated to shipping lifesaving blood, and keep our eye on what the future can bring for other life-saving commodities, as well as for other parts of the world.”
Over the course of the next year, and with the support of the partnership with UPS and Gavi, Zipline plans to expand drone delivery services to countries across Africa and the Americas. Additionally, Zipline recently announced plans at the White House to expand its service to the United States, where it will serve Indian reservations in Maryland, Nevada and Washington State.
DJI and Datumate have begun offering a drone, software and app package that fully automates and expedites site surveys.
Tailored for professional surveying jobs, the DJI-Datumate Site Survey Solution simplifies the surveying and mapping processes, while maintaining superior accuracy. Shenzhen-based DJI is the world’s top aerial-imaging company. Israel based Datumate is a leader in automated “field-to-plan” surveying solutions.
The DJI-Datumate Site Survey Solution is a comprehensive and professional package of imagery and mapping tools that help surveying, construction, inspection and infrastructure companies quickly generate a working model, site visualization, analytics and plan.
The solution includes “Triple D” bundles of DJI Drone, DatuFly tablet app for an automated and expeditious aerial photography, as well as DatuGram 3D photogrammetry software that converts aerial and ground images to high-precision, geo-referenced 2D maps and 3D models.
“New drone regulations expedite the adoption of drones in a wide range of surveying related applications,” said Paul Xu, DJI’s director of enterprise solutions. “We believe that DJI-Datumate Site Survey Solutions offer a professional and cost-effective end-to-end solution for the surveying, infrastructure-mapping and inspection markets.”
DatuFly software generates a flight and image-taking plan for the DJI Drone, based on the best practice requirements of DatuGram 3D photogrammetry, ensuring survey-grade accuracy, high quality and quick results.
“We are excited to partner with DJI to automate and digitize the entire field-to-plan process. Our mutual solution brings site visualization and analytics quickly to the office, keeping field and office work effortless and safe,” said Datumate CEO Tal Meirzon. “DJI-Datumate Site Survey Solutions are an important step forward in professional surveying, construction infrastructure-mapping and assets inspection.”
DJI-Datumate Site Survey Solutions are available globally from the DJI online store, as well as through DJI and Datumate dealers.
Hemisphere GNSS has announced the Eclipse P328, the next offering in a line of new and refreshed, low-power, high-precision, positioning OEM boards.
The multi-frequency, multi-GNSS P328 is an all signals receiver board that includes Hemisphere’s new and innovative hardware platform and integrates Atlas GNSS Global Corrections.
Hemisphere GNSS is showcasing the Eclipse P328 OEM positioning board at Intergeo in Hamburg, Germany, October 11-13, in hall A1, stand F1.013.
Designed with this new hardware platform, the overall cost, size, weight and power consumption of the P328 are reduced. It offers true scalability with centimeter-level accuracy in either single-frequency mode or full performance multi-frequency, multi-GNSS, Atlas-capable mode that supports fast RTK initialization times over long distances.
The 60 x 100 millimeter module with 24-pin and 16-pin headers is a drop-in upgrade for existing designs using this industry standard form factor.
The latest technology platform enables simultaneous tracking of all satellite signals including GPS, GLONASS P-code, BeiDou, Galileo, and QZSS making it robust and reliable. The updated power management system efficiently governs the processor, memory, and ASIC making it ideal for multiple integration applications.
The P328 offers flexible and reliable connectivity by supporting Serial, USB (On-The-Go with future firmware upgrade), CAN, and Ethernet for ease of use and integration. Optional output rates of up to 50 Hz are also supported.
Powered by the Athena GNSS engine, the P328 provides best-in-class, centimeter-level RTK. Athena excels in virtually every environment where high-accuracy GNSS receivers can be used.
Tested and proven, Athena’s performance with long baselines, in open-sky environments, under heavy canopy, and in geographic locations experiencing significant scintillation is nothing short of cutting edge.
Together with SureFix, Hemisphere’s advanced processor, the P328 delivers high-fidelity RTK quality information that results in guaranteed precision with virtually 100% reliability.
Integrated L-band adds support for Atlas GNSS global corrections for meter to sub decimeter-level accuracy while new Tracer technology helps maintain position during correction signal outages.
The P328 also uses Hemisphere’s all-new aRTK™ technology, powered by Atlas. This feature allows the P328 to operate with RTK accuracies when RTK corrections fail. If the P328 is Atlas-subscribed, it will continue to operate at the subscribed service level until RTK is restored.
The P328 is ideal for land or marine survey, machine control, and any application where high-accuracy positioning is required.
Proteus Geo, a leading provider of satellite-based mapping services and data, together with DHI, the world renowned consultant group within water environments, has won the backing of the European Space Agency (ESA) to create a new bathymetry data service that leverages DigitalGlobe satellite imagery to allow everyone to explore the shallows around the world’s coastlines.
Over the last four years, Proteus Geo has worked in partnership with DHI to provide a vast range of customers with bathymetry data, derived from satellites.
This new and affordable service has allowed engineers, defense forces and environmentalists (among other users) to remotely learn about the sea and lake beds under shallow water, where access has previously been difficult and expensive.
ESA has now awarded Proteus Geo and DHI with substantial financial backing to improve the efficiency of the data processing chain and encourage the wider use of this source of vital information.
Starting now, the companies will use high-accuracy, high-resolution satellite imagery captured by DigitalGlobe’s satellite constellation to create a dataset that will show the depth of water in over 100,000 km2 of both salt and fresh water coastlines.
Alongside the creation of the data, Proteus Geo will also develop an online portal that will allow simple and fast access for customers from all over the world.
Richard Flemmings, director of Proteus Geo, explained the advantages of providing affordable, off-the-shelf bathymetry data to anyone who needs it. “There is currently a lack of bathymetry data around the world due to the high costs, lead-time, and health and safety issues involved in collecting this data using boats and aircraft.This project and service will be a practical step to break down the barriers to easily accessing the data in a standardized format.
“High-resolution imaging satellites are ideal for this purpose, as the data can be created quickly and consistently over large areas and leveraged for many applications. This exciting project presents a paradigm shift away from bathymetry data being delivered on a project-by-project basis, to data being available off-the-shelf through an instant online portal.”
The project is being supported by ESA’s ARTES 20 programme (Advances Research in Telecommunications Systems), which responds to users’ needs using a combination of different space assets such as Earth Observation, navigation and telecommunications.
Last year at InterGeo 2015, UAVs ruled, for at least the second year in a row, although some of its newest-thing gloss seemed to be wearing off. This year, sensor integration in both hardware and software is a dominant theme — and one with broader implications and applications.
GNSS positioning technology, aided in many cases by laser scanning, other imaging sensors, total stations, Lidar and camera systems, all collaborating as inputs to mobile mapping systems or machine-control systems, together form a durable platform for many present and future applications.
Among the GPS/GNSS companies exhibiting here: CHC Navigation, ComNav Technology, Eos Positioning Systems, Hemisphere GNSS, Navcom Technology, NovAtel, Septentrio, and Tallysman.
“I think it’s a must for every surveyor to participate and get updated with all the developments,” said Chryssy Potsiou, president of the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG), “to try to make the best combination of tools and software so that we can have the best output, in order to provide reliable services at affordable prices, in short time. The world needs solutions, cheap and fast.”
Smart Cities. Along with the roar of the four connected exhibition halls where many new products are being rolled out on this premier world stage, there is a lot of talk — a lot of talk — in the presentation auditoriums about vision, and smart cities, and connectedness in it many forms, electronic and otherwise.
The international trade fair for geodesy, geoinformation and land management, InterGeo can be overwhelming, with roughly 550 exhibits from 33 countries, and 16,000 visitors from 92 countries. It spans everything from surveying, geoinformation, remote sensing and photogrammetry to complementary solutions and technologies, processing, using and analyzing geodata over the Internet and exploring new applications and solutions — it’s all here. Themes include mobility, energy supply, climate protection, and liveable cities and rural areas. Citizen involvement, data protection, data security and e-government all play a key role in future developments. This year, the conference published a pre-show report on geodata and what it calls Business World 4.0.
Host city Hamburg, an economically strong, vibrant city and one of the top three shipping ports in Europe, embraced digital strategy at an early stage. Sustainable city planning, climate protection, an intelligent mobility concept and IT-controlled port management are all aspects of the city that could not work without geodata.
Making Connections. “Our [geospatial] industry is now more and more related, more and more embedded with many other disciplines,” said Nigel Clifford, CEO of Ordnance Survey UK, who gave one of the conference keynotes. “One of the key questions we are facing is: What skills will the workforce of the future need to have, in order to flourish in this interconnected world?
“Some of the more obvious ones are digital capability, looking at data sciences. Also we spoke about some of the softer skills: the ability to look across disciplines, the ability to work with different functions, and really importantly, the ability for our industry to explain its value and be part of the decision-making which is going on around us all the time.
“We’re beginning to see the first fruits of the Internet of Things. There may be some inflated expectations at this point. It’s our job to test that. I’m confident there are some brilliant use cases developing over the next five years in the fields of health, transport, and community engagement. Making a city more efficient, more livable, more secure, and more business-friendly, to draw tax dollars into the equation. What we’re able to do today is so much more data-rich, so much more connected, than we’ve ever been able to do before. ”
He cited pilot public-private partnership projects in Manchester and another unnamed UK city going forward in this regard, with involvement from Cisco, Siemens, and British Telecomm along with Ordnance Survey. “It’s a mixed economy coming together, because there isn’t one answer.”
Looking into the future, he said “Developing nations in particular require a fundamental geospatial fabric in order to boost themselves. I hope there will be a broadening of the focus from what we can do absolutely at the cutting edge of technology with reasonably affluent societies, to thinking about how we can take that into the less affluent societies, and raise all boats through the efforts of this great industry.”
Gorillas Enter Room. Intel has taken a stake in the commercial drone space with its new Falcon UAV. “Predominantly, we are looking at inspections, construction, agriculture, as well as 3D modeling.” The company was joined by Oracle and Autodesk as first-time exhibitors at the show, and they did not enter timidly; big stands.
UAV über Deutschland. In moves shadowing those in the United States, the German Minister for Transport spoke about introducing regulations to govern civil and commercial use of UAVs. The newly published draft foresees the introduction of mandatory registration for unmanned aerial systems. Pilots will need a valid license to fly drones above 100 meters.
NavCom Technology announced the release of the Onyx multi-frequency GNSS OEM board. Offering integrated StarFire/RTK GNSS capabilities, Onyx features 255-channel tracking, including multi-constellation support for GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo. It also provides high performance in GNSS receiver sensitivity and signal tracking as well as patented multi-path mitigation, interference rejection and anti-jamming capabilities.
The new Onyx GNSS OEM board is a fully upgradeable GNSS receiver, allowing the receiver to upgrade from free DGPS signal sources such as WAAS to increased accuracy services with integrated features StarFire with Rapid Recovery or RTK with RTK Extend through software optioning alone. The software-enabled features are sold in bundles, but can also be purchased individually, to suit changing application needs.
StarFire, NavCom’s Global Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS), provides real-time global 5-centimeter accuracy without a base station.
Integrated StarFire is now simply activated via an over-the-air licensing system that sends a StarFire License via satellite directly to the StarFire-capable receiver from NavCom’s StarFire operations center.
“The release of Onyx advances NavCom’s ability to grow products and services meeting the customer-driven demands of uptime, accuracy, and feature rich capabilities,” said Steve Ault, NavCom’s GNSS Product Marketing Manager. “NavCom continues to innovate the StarFire technology through the advanced capabilities inherent to Onyx which will be fully realized over the life of this new product.”
NavCom Technology, Inc. is exhibiting at InterGeo in Hamburg, Germany.
Navcom Technology, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Deere & Company.
We talk a lot about — and publish a lot of technical articles about — GPS/GNSS jamming, spoofing and unintentional RF interference in GPS World magazine and on this website. Clearly it is an emerging and potentially huge problem. How much of it goes on right now? Tell us very briefly (10 seconds it will take) if You are experienced with these incidents.
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Strategic alliances with Delair-Tech and Microdrones expand UAS platform options while leveraging Trimble software and data solutions.
Delair-Tech has acquired Trimble’s Belgium-based Gatewing unmanned aircraft system (UAS) engineering and manufacturing business.
Delair-Tech is a provider of long-range, fixed-wing UAS solutions for industrial inspection and asset management applications headquartered in Toulouse, France. Delair-Tech intends to grow the acquired business as part of its portfolio, according to a joint press release with Trimble. Financial terms were not disclosed.
“This transaction is part of our continuing program to tighten our corporate focus,” said Ron Bisio, vice president of Trimble’s Geospatial Division. “Trimble will remain actively engaged in the market by leveraging its brand-agnostic software technology for a broader range of UAS platforms.”
Gatewing has been reported as part of Trimble’s Engineering and Construction segment. The divestiture will not have a material impact on either overall or segment financial results.
Strategic Alliances Expand UAS Options. In addition, Trimble has entered into strategic alliances with Delair-Tech and Microdrones of Siegen, Germany. Microdrones is a provider of multi-rotor UAS solutions.
Under the agreements, Delair-Tech and Microdrones will become preferred providers of both fixed-wing and multi-rotor UAS solutions, with Trimble providing software, data processing and deliverables to UAS operators across multiple vertical markets.
“Trimble chose to partner with Delair-Tech and Microdrones to strengthen our UAS portfolio,” said Bisio. “Working together, Delair-Tech and Microdrones will deliver industry-leading UAS platforms and Trimble will focus on core software technology for UAS that integrates positioning, remote sensing and photogrammetry. The end goal is to deliver a complete solution to transform work processes and efficiency for our customers.”
“We are proud that Trimble selected us to be their fixed-wing UAS solution provider. With the addition of Gatewing to our portfolio, we can provide one of the most innovative and extensive portfolios of long-range, fixed-wing commercial UAS solutions to support Trimble and its distributors,” said Michael Delagarde, CEO of Delair-Tech. “The portfolio will continue to provide dedicated end-to-end solutions, from hardware to fully processed aerial data, which can then be turned into actionable business intelligence.”
“Microdrones complement the Delair-Tech fixed-wing lineup with one of the most resilient and stable Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft on the market today. This provides a complete product line of tightly integrated solutions for mapping,” said Microdrone’s president, Vivien Heriard Dubreuil. “We’re excited to support Trimble distributors to enable a one-stop shop for UAS mapping solutions and to enable their global customers to produce exceptional results on every job.”
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) has released National Transit Map data, a geospatial database containing the information from 270 transit agencies that provides open, machine-readable data about their stops, routes and schedules.
The national, openly available map of fixed-guideway and fixed-route transit service in America will allow the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to demonstrate the importance and role of transit in American society and to identify and address gaps in access to public transportation.
It will also support research, planning and analysis on the benefits of transit, such as the economic impacts of transit on a community’s economic development, or on reducing poverty in low-income neighborhoods.
The national Transit Map can be used to support DOT’s Ladders of Opportunity initiative to promote the use of existing transportation networks to connect residents to jobs, education, health, government and other essential services.
The initial National Transit Map consists of General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) data feeds registered with BTS in response to a March 2016 request for the data from U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. Data from 270 transit agencies provided information on more than 398,000 stops and stations and almost 10,000 routes.
This first version of the National Transit Map contains data for 84 percent of the top 25 urban transit agencies with fixed route service, 74 percent of the top 50 agencies, and approximately one-third of all urban transit agencies with fixed route service.
DOT is working to bring additional transit agencies on board for the second version of the map, scheduled to be released in late 2016. See Figure 1 for the locations of the transit agencies that are participating.
BTS has worked jointly with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the DOT Office of the Chief Information Officer to develop and release the inaugural map.
The National Transit Map includes the National Transit Layer — national data feeds that provide open, machine readable spatial and tabular data about the nation’s transit systems stops, routes and schedules. It also has a National Participation Map that shows which agencies have volunteered to take part in the National Transit Map. In addition, Interactive Mapping Apps that provide tools such as calculators for distances from transit stops, trip frequency and time of day coverage will be released shortly.
Figure 2 shows a sample of the New York City routes and stops data contained in the National Transit Layer. It highlights schedule and stop information for a specific bus trip that is available from the data.
The National Transit Map will be a National Geospatial Data Asset (NGDA) within the National Transportation Atlas Database (link is external) (NTAD), a set of nationwide geographic databases of transportation facilities, networks and associated infrastructure. It will be a substantial update to the previous transit-focused map, which was released in 2004 and only included the location of fixed-guideway transit such as rail systems. The new map includes fixed route systems such as bus.
Sensonor AS of Norway has partnered with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to supply current and future low- and near-Earth orbit space missions with inertial and gyroscope modules.
The Norway-based company first began supplying its standard inertial measurement unit (IMU) and gyroscope modules for low Earth orbit (LEO) space applications in 2012, Sensonor’s STIM300 and STIM210 inertial products now fly aboard several NASA spacecraft. Current projects using STIM inertial systems include the Raven technology demonstration and Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) Scout.
Raven, which launched to the International Space Station in September, will test key elements of an autonomous relative navigation system. Its technologies may one day help future robotic spacecraft autonomously and seamlessly rendezvous with other objects in motion, such as a satellite in need of fuel or a tumbling asteroid.
The NEA Scout is a robotic reconnaissance mission that will be deployed to fly by and return data from an asteroid representative of NEAs.
The STIM gyroscope modules are often used in combination with GPS or a Star Tracker and Kalman Filter to orient and stabilize the satellite, as well as to provide feedback on satellite motion induced by its reaction wheels. In some applications, the gyroscopes are used to stabilize satellite-to-satellite communications.
NovAtel debuted two new inertial measurement unit (IMU) products within its SPAN technology portfolio at ION GNSS+ 2016, which was held Sep. 12-16 in Portland, Oregon.
SPAN couples NovAtel’s GNSS precise positioning technology with robust inertial navigation systems (INS) to provide continuous 3D position, velocity and attitude solutions, the company says in a news release.
The compact IMU-µIMU-IC is a high performing, fully commercial MEMS IMU. Small in size, it is suitable for aerial and hydrographic survey and space constrained industrial applications. The µIMU is available as a complete assembly in an environmentally sealed enclosure or as a standalone OEM product, both compatible with the company’s OEM6 and OEM7 SPAN receivers.
NovAtel also developed an enclosure for its Honeywell HG1900 IMU, which was previously available only as an OEM product. The IMU-HG1900 IMU offers a hybrid package of Honeywell’s micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) gyros and RBA accelerometers. The enclosure provides system integrators with design versatility, offering LED indicators and simplified cabling that can be extended in length as required. Both cabling and connectors are available off-the-shelf, NovAtel says.
“These two IMUs are part of our new IMU enclosure family, which now provides four sizes of enclosures – from the small Litef- µIMU to our high performance IMU-ISA-100C,” says Neil Gerein, portfolio manager for NovAtel. “We’ve worked hard to bring our customers the very latest in IMU technology and to expand IMU choices to ensure the optimal positioning performance for their application.”
Shipments of the new IMU enclosures will be available in Q4 of 2016, according to NovAtel.