The RFI is an opportunity for industry and governments to submit ideas to define the issues so that global solutions can be proposed, debated and agreed on.
As UAS operations become more complex and are increasingly used for both commercial and recreational purposes, UAS traffic management systems, or UTM, are necessary to seamlessly integrate UAS into the airspace and existing air traffic management systems.
An operational UTM will ensure the safe and efficient use of the airspace as UAS operations become more complex, such as with established navigation routes and point-to-point route segments requiring specific equipage requirements. UTM will integrate UAS into the existing airspace infrastructure to ensure the continued safety of the airspace.
Any framework for a UTM will include many components, three of which are fundamental and will therefore be addressed as a matter of priority:
Registration system from which data is accessible in real time to allow remote identification and tracking of each UA, its operator/owner and location of the remote pilot/control station. To accommodate UA that are increasingly transported from one state to another for either recreational or professional use, this database should allow global access.
Communications systems for control of the UA and for tracking all UA within the UTM area. The communications system used for tracking UA must be able to identify when a manned aircraft is entering UTM airspace and provide an acceptable level of protection between it and UA operating in the airspace. Furthermore, it must facilitate detection of potential collisions with other UA and with obstacles such that appropriate avoidance action can be taken.
Geofencing-like systems that will support automatic updates by national authorities on the 28-day aeronautical information regulation and control (AIRAC) cycle to prevent UA operation in sensitive security areas and restricted or danger areas such as near aerodromes.
ICAO is soliciting proposals for a global framework for UTM ahead of its Drone Enable UAS Industry Symposium, which will take place in Montreal, Canada, in September.
“ICAO is the natural agency to be gathering together the best and brightest from governments and industry to define the problem so that global solutions can be proposed, debated and agreed on,” said Leslie Cary, ICAO remotely piloted aircraft systems program manager.
“Collaboration between stakeholders is key to addressing complex issues such as UTM,” added Brian Wynne, president and CEO of AUVSI. “AUVSI is pleased ICAO is taking steps to explore solutions for UTM that will allow companies to operate globally under the same standards, reducing barriers to innovation and improving safety and security for all aircraft – both manned and unmanned. We look forward to working with ICAO to draw awareness and facilitate industry engagement in the RFI process.”
For more information about the RFI, visit ICAO’s RFI website. Submissions need to be received no later than July 15.
Tersus GNSS Inc. is now offering the INS-T-306, a GNSS-aided inertial navigation system. The INS-T-306 is the advanced module that combines GPS L1/L2, GLONASS, BDS navigation and a high-performance strap-down system. It is capable of determining position, velocity and absolute orientation (heading, pitch and roll) for any device on which it is mounted.
The launch of the INS-T-306 aims at facilitating motionless and dynamic applications that need high accuracy, such as vessels, ships, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs).
The INS-T-306 utilizes an advanced GNSS receiver, barometer, magnetometers, micro-electro-mechanical (MEMS) accelerometers and gyroscopes to provide accurate position, velocity, heading, pitch and roll of the device under measure.
Besides GPS L1/L2, GLONASS and BDS, the unit supports differential GPS and real-time kinematic (RTK). It is able to integrate into lidar (Velodyne, Riegl and Faro brands). The on-board sensor fusion filter, navigation and guidance algorithms, and calibration software inside all make INS-T-306 a commercially exportable GNSS-aided inertial navigation system.
Kongsberg Geospatial’s IRIS UAS situational awareness application now provides a certifiable option to monitor drones and airspace. Kongsberg Geospatial is an Ottawa-based developer of real-time geospatial visualization software.
The IRIS UAS Airspace Situational Awareness application meets the requirements of the DO-278A Assurance standard for air traffic management systems.
By anticipating the regulatory requirements for airspace visualization with Unmanned Traffic Management or UTM, the IRIS display will be a regulatory approved component increasing the safety of commercial drone flight operations — especially when operating beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS).
IRIS UAS program director Paige Cutland uses the IRIS UAS airspace situational awareness application to monitor the progress of a drone on a beyond line-of-sight (BVLOS) mission from a portable ground control station set up in a trailer.
Kongsberg Geospatial has been providing software design assurance to meet the certification requirements for real-time geospatial and spatial awareness technology to support air traffic management, air defense applications and unmanned systems for nearly three decades.
Their IRIS UAS situational awareness application had its genesis in supporting military UAV flight operations and was developed to help operators safely pilot UAVs in BVLOS operations. It was also used by regional airspace UTM managers to monitor the operations of multiple drones simultaneously.
The DO-278A standard (Guidelines for Communication, Navigation, Surveillance and Air Traffic Management [CNS/ATM] Systems Software Integrity Assurance) is the primary standard used by certification authorities such as FAA, EASA and Transport Canada to provide the assurance of software contained in non-airborne CNS/ATM systems. Unmanned systems manufacturers that build ground control stations for commercial drone systems, and airports and port authorities that create airspace control systems are anticipated to have to meet this standard when designing and building new systems.
By developing an airspace awareness application that satisfies this standard, Kongsberg Geospatial has provided a key component for unmanned systems manufacturers, airport operators and port authorities that wish to develop ground-based monitoring systems that are safe and certifiable for commercial operations.
“Unmanned Traffic Management and safe airspace operations will require certification of technology,” said Ranald McGillis, president of Kongsberg Geospatial. “We believe providing a certifiable airspace application will dramatically increase the safety of unmanned flight operations wherever it’s in use.”
NASA’s UAS Traffic Management System was tested May 25 at the Nevada UAS Test Site. (Credit: Drone America)
On May 25, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-designated Nevada UAS Test Site and its NASA partners flew five different unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to test NASA’s Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM).
The flights demonstrated multiple operational scenarios, including parachute-initiated emergency supply deliveries and aerial survey operations.
The UAVs were flown beyond the pilot’s visual line of sight using strategically placed visual observers and sophisticated command and control, communication and detect-and-avoid technologies.
The test is part of a three-week national campaign, which NASA is leading in close collaboration with the FAA and industry partners on a more complex version of its UTM technologies at six different UAS Test Sites around the nation.
The Technology Capability Level 2 (TCL2) National Campaign began May 9 with the Nevada UAS Test Site as the first of six UAS Test Site to begin UTM operations this year.
The partners not only demonstrated drone flight capability, but also tested UAS traffic mapping, sensor and radar technology, all of which were connected through a NASA UAS service supplier network to NASA Ames Research Laboratory.
Six FAA UAS Test sites and industry partners integrate their technologies with NASA’s UTM research platform and test the UTM concept in a range of conditions representative of those in the U.S. Airspace, explaind Tom Prevot, UTM project manager.
“For the Nevada NASA Team, we flew the longest multi-faceted NASA UTM flights to date in Nevada,” Prevot said. “The beyond-line-of-sight missions we completed over a distance of 13 miles north of Reno, Nevada, and the multiple aerial parachute package-delivery missions performed were a first in the National Airspace System under the NASA UTM.”
Current testing of the UTM TCL2 Test marks the second year in a row NASA has taken its UTM technologies on the road to further assess and refine their capabilities. During April 2016, NASA and its partners tested TCL1, which involved line-of-sight operations, and then began the first phase of TCL2 demonstrations in October 2016.
Two more phases, TCL3 and TCL4, each progressively more complex and involving flying drones with specific tasks over increasingly populated areas, are scheduled for 2018 and beyond.
The aerial parachute package-delivery missions performed were a first in the National Airspace System under the NASA UTM. (Credit: Drone America)
“Our Nevada NASA partners did an amazing job in extending the body of airspace management and sense-and-avoid knowledge under the UTM and across the UAS Industry,” said Chris Walach, director of the Nevada UAS Test Site. “The National Campaign data provided to NASA from our two-week operation will go a long way toward advancing the UTM for the FAA and the UAS Industry.”
“At AirMap, we consider UTM to be a critical ingredient for a thriving drone ecosystem,” said Steve Willer, business development manager for AirMap. “The TCL 2 trials demonstrate that technologies for geofencing, data exchange, and more can enable safe and sophisticated drone operations, even beyond line of sight. Along with NASA, the FAA, and NIAS we’re excited to show how UTM can chart a safe course for the drone ecosystem.”
“Drone America is a proud participant in a Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems (NIAS) led NASA Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) program at the Reno Stead Airport,” said Mike Richards, president and CEO of Drone America. “The safe integration of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) into the National Airspace System (NAS) is critical to the future of this industry. Drone America is fortunate to call Nevada our home. Working in a state that is very supportive and business friendly makes a tremendous difference to our future sustainability. Our partnership with NIAS and NASA will not only contribute to successful testing, this partnership will pave the way for future generations to experience the true value of autonomous systems.”
“Carbon Autonomous Systems of Reno, in conjunction with their partner SmartPlanes of Skellefteå, Sweden, successfully took part in the planning, coordination, and flying in the most recent TCL2 NASA / NIAS UAS/UTM exercises conducted at the Reno Stead Airport UAS Test Range of the Nevada FAA UAS statewide test complex,” said John Hammond, chief pilot for Carbon Autonomous.
NIAS was also supported by Delair-Tech and SensoFusion who provided UAS and drone detection UAS technologies, which were also tested during this NASA UTM TCL 2 Test.
“We have been designing, manufacturing, and operating UAVs in the civilian airspace for almost 10 years in 100 countries,” said Benjamin Benharrosh, co-founder and head of Delair Tech North America. “This landmark agreement with NIAS, and the associated data collected for the UTM system designed by NASA at the Reno UAS Test Site will push our traffic management technology to a new level of precision and insight. We are thrilled to collaborate with NIAS on solutions that represent a new era for the commercial UAV market and a better presence of Delair-Tech in the U.S.”
“We’re excited to be shaping the future of air traffic management as an official partner of the NIAS by providing our counter-UAS solution, AIRFENCE, in the ongoing NASA UTM project. AIRFENCE is playing an active role in detecting, locating, and tracking UAS as part of the project, providing rich data to NASA as they develop their UTM system,” said Kaveh H. Mahdavi, Sensofusion VP of operations.
“NASA is one of Nevada’s most valuable partners. We appreciate the opportunity to support NASA’s UTM development. It is truly cutting-edge technology and will be instrumental in integrating UAS into the national airspace,” said Tom Wilczek, Aerospace & Defense Industry Representative for the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development.
A May 19 meeting convened by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) confirmed there is broad-based support among key stakeholders from the private and public sectors for ANSI to establish an Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Standardization Collaborative (UASSC).
The UASSC will work to coordinate and accelerate the development of the standards and conformity assessment programs needed to facilitate the safe, mass integration of UAS (drones) into the national airspace system of the United States.
Initial priority areas of focus are expected to include:
UAS airworthiness
command and control systems
remote identification
flight operations, including operations over people and beyond visual line of sight
licensing, training, qualification and certification
sense and avoid systems
safety and risk management
An initial kick-off meeting is anticipated in the third quarter of 2017. To stay up to date regarding future developments, email Jim McCabe, ANSI senior director, standards facilitation, at [email protected].
The collaborative will also focus on international coordination and adaptability, with the goal of fostering the growth of the UAS market. The work effort will entail the development of a standardization roadmap to identify existing standards and standards in development, define where gaps exist and recommend additional work that is needed, along with a timeline for its completion and organizations that can perform the work.
ANSI Standardization Collaboratives are formed to support emerging technologies and national and global priorities by advancing cross-sector coordination in the development and compatibility of standards and conformance programs.
Ultimately, the purpose of such initiatives is to describe the current standards landscape, articulate standardization needs, inform resource allocation for standards participation, and drive coordinated standards activity while minimizing duplication of effort.
As a neutral facilitator, ANSI has a successful track record of having convened a number of such collaboratives in areas as diverse as homeland security, electric vehicles, energy efficiency in the built environment and, most recently, additive manufacturing.
The May 19 meeting drew close to 70 participants representing more than 40 organizations from industry, trade associations, standards developing organizations (SDOs), federal agencies, academia and others. The public- and private-sector co-chairs for the meeting were Earl Lawrence, director of the UAS Integration Office, Federal Aviation Administration, and Brian Wynne, president and CEO of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI).
ANSI has been in dialogue with numerous stakeholders over the past year on this topic, including via panel discussions during the 2016 ANSI Joint Member Forum and at the April 2017 ANSI Company Member Forum. A number of SDOs already are involved in UAS standardization, underscoring the need for coordination to achieve a coherent set of standards.
“Given our history of bringing public- and private-sector stakeholders together to identify standardization needs to support new technologies, ANSI is well suited to facilitate the need for standards coordination in this exciting new technology area,” said ANSI president and CEO S. Joe Bhatia.
The new Scout B-330 UAV in front of the Swiss Alps.
Swiss-based Aeroscout, a long-term partner of lidar manufacturer Riegl, has unveiled the Scout B-330 UAV helicopter.
The Scout B-330 is built with a payload capacity of up to 50 kg. (110 lbs), flight endurance of at least three hours, and the capability of flying at high altitudes (up to 3,000 meters above sea level) in a typical mission scenario. This includes a full autonomous take-off sequence, a mission flight at variable speed and a landing sequence.
The Scout B-330 is specifically designed for lidar-based powerline mapping missions. According to Aeroscout, it sets a benchmark in the long-endurance UAV class with its combination of flexibility, Swiss quality and competitive pricing.
“After one year of intense development, we are very excited to introduce our new Scout UAV system to the public,” said Christoph Eck, Aeroscout founder and CEO. “The reactions here at AUVSI are extremely positive and encouraging, we are very motivated for the serial production out of the system.”
The Scout B-330 pairs with Riegl airborne and unmanned lidar sensors such as the Riegl VP-1 Helicopter Pod, the Riegl VUX-1UAV lightweight UAV laser scanner and the Riegl VUX-1LR lightweight, long-range airborne laser scanner.
The B-330 was introduced at the AUVSI Xponential show held in Dallas in May. Those who missed that show can see it at the Commercial UAV Show in Las Vegas this October.
According to the Intel CEO Brian Krzanich’s keynote address, I was among more than 7,000 attendees and 650 exhibitors. Krzanich and the Intel folks dazzled us with live indoor drone flying and a demonstration of highly detailed bridge inspection using the Intel Falcon 8+ drone.
Then we had a few Shooting Star light drones flying around in a small swarm — all before the show really got cooking. Management of big data was Intel’s pitch for the keynote, but all we nav guys wanted to know was how they flew those things inside.
Intel shows off its light drones in October 2016. (Source: Intel)
Attempts later in the show to establish their guidance recipe were met with a wall of silence from Intel. We know both drone types carry inertial. The Falcon 8+ has three and more than one GNSS receiver, and the light drone has inertial and GNSS, but Intel’s secret is that they use “wireless.” So something to determine where they are and in relation to the inspection article, and to others in the swarm, hooked up to inertial? Intel will tell us sometime later, they say.
In the meantime, Intel promoted the Falcon 8+ heavily at its booth, with its configurable payload capability. Intel indicated that it hopes also to sell light-show swarms for event providers.
The show was indeed huge, and it was impossible to touch base with everyone, so in no particular order and without any leanings towards anyone, I’ll try and capture some flavor of what went down at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center at the AUVSI Xponential show.
Duro – Piksi enclosure.
Swift Navigation/ Carnegie
Swift released the rugged Duro enclosure for its Piksi Multi dual-band GNSS receiver. It’s yellow with lots of heat fins, and looks like it would survive being driven over. With dual-frequency real-time kinematic (RTK), Swift claims an all-time low price for board-level RTK.
VectorNav
Based in Dallas, VectorNav took advantage of home turf with a significant presence at the show. VectorNav released a number of use-case studies to illustrate the varied customer applications for its VN series of miniature, high-performance MEMS-inertial and GPS/INS modules. Applications include:
ground robotics for highly accurate, high-speed attitude data
a medium-range UAV with GPS/INS for primary navigation
integrated lidar for mapping capabilities
autonomous ground vehicle module waypoint navigation with a number of system functions
high-precision antenna pointing
camera pointing with a gyro-stabilized gimbal.
Gryphon Sensors
Drone detection and prevention systems had a significant presence at AUVSI. Gryphon Sensors combines radar, RF direction finding and optical sensors in a integrated “intelligent drone detection system.”
Gryphon has been around for some time, using technologies from military applications to also provide vehicle-mounted drone security and UAS traffic management (UTM) capabilities.
Fortem has gone one step further with drone detection — its Dronehunter flies a drone within feet of an intruder, fires a net at the unwanted vehicle and takes it down. The company’s video encounter was at low altitude and the intruder was undamaged — for higher, larger vehicle take-downs, they have a net with a parachute.
Other components of the system include a compact airborne radar for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) and a ground-based radar detection system.
Countries
Several country pavilions exhibited at the show, including China, Spain, France, UK, Denmark and Canada. Highlights included Drone Hopper, a Spanish firefighting drone concept; Chinese UAV antennas and avionics; a French “cluster” of drone-related companies; and Canada, which included a multi-rotor drone dealer and introduced the Foremost drone test range.
Aeronix and Rajant
Secure radios are key to any drone operations. Aeronix displayed a secure software-defined datalink product for providing data, video and voice onto and off drones. The company also introduced significant radio and interface capability for military and secure commercial operations.
Rajant featured mesh radio systems, providing the wireless backbone in UAV applications in mining and on mine trucks. Once again, U.S. Department of Defense technology developed over many years has been spun off into commercial operations.
Aeronix software-defined datalink. Photo: Aeronix
Rajant BreadCrumb LX5.
Trimble
It was good to see Trimble in force again at a trade show; the company had a nice booth with lots of people. We talked with Chris Wheeler about Trimble’s approach of providing an antenna with down conversion, integrated with an RTK software API on existing on-board computing hardware – it’s a good way to potentially reduce costs for UAVs.
Sold through a software license, this reduced-hardware solution could be a new way to get high performance at much reduced prices for larger UAV fleets. It might be significant for lots of other OEM solutions too.
AsteRx-m2 UAS receiver.
Septentrio
The recently released AsterRx-m2 receiver has an optional UAS interface board with record-and-store capability so that real-time images can be readily geo-coded. It directly connects to an on-board autopilot. Self-interference issues coming from existing UAV control electronics are minimized by further enhanced AIM interference mitigation processing on the –m2 receiver.
NovAtel
NovAtel’s military business group continues to make headway with the GAJT integrated anti-jam antenna with more than 600 sold to date. Other applications include the use of the anti-jam electronics processing solution in the GAJT anti-jam Antenna Electronics unit.
If you were not convinced that these are rugged units designed for difficult outdoor applications, they were recently evaluated under firing conditions by the Canadian forces mounted on an M777C1 Howitzer — “No problem,” said Peter Soar, business development manager, Military and Defence.
The anti-jam antenna electronics unit is well suited for UAV applications in signal-rich environments where GPS tracking might otherwise be untenable.
The NovAtel GAJT-710ML GPS anti-jam antenna.
GAJT-AE-N
Aspen Avionics
As the FAA makes progress toward integration of UAS into the National Airspace System (NAS), the interest in using ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance) for UAV location awareness seems to be growing. ADS-B equipment on both manned and unmanned vehicles provides an output signal containing position, velocity and altitude which can be used by other similarly equipped aircraft and terrestrial/satellite tracking systems.
Aspen Avionics supplies FAA-approved ADS-B equipment for manned and unmanned aircraft, as well as approved GPS navigation receivers for selected classes of certified navigation and landing.
Rockwell Collins/Harris
BVLOS demonstration work under the FAA Pathfinder program with BNSF Railway has continued, with significant technical contributions by both Rockwell Collins and Harris. Monitoring and control of the UAV during inspection flights along the BNSF track test-section in Clovis, New Mexico, was achieved through the deployed Rockwell radio network and CNPC-1000 datalink transceiver installed on a Latitude Engineering UAV. Reliability is now well established, and BNSF is able to operate without visual observers during regular inspections for bad track.
Latitude UAV, similar to those flown on BNSF program. Photo: Latitude
Rockwell CNPC-1000 datalink. Photo: Rockwell
Harris has also provided extended ADS-B coverage throughout the BNSF test section and provided an aircraft-tracking feed from its FAA flight database, to ensure there are no manned aircraft conflicts during UAS track inspection flights.
Insitu
Insitu has conducted very successful business with military and government for many years with its ScanEagle, Blackjack and Integrator UAS. The company is now approaching the commercial world through a turnkey inspection service that it will now offer as its INEXA Solutions.
The intent is not to just offer data collection by flying UAVs for customers, but to first put together the best business case, then collect and process data and deliver the information required.
Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin also is approaching the commercial market with a services offering: Commercial Aviation Inspection Services. LM’s UAS capability extends beyond the Stalker fixed-wing surveillance drone, the quadcopter Indago and the military-looking Fury heavy-payload fixed-wing vehicle, to include an autopilot, a vision-processing unit and a dual-sensor gimbal. The LM Hydra-Fusion Geospatial toolset provides post-processing capability for applications including construction, surveying, agricultural, inspection and tactical.
AeroVironment
AeroVironment is another company offering turn-key flight services, from UAS operations through to data processing and custom results. AeroVironment had two new product announcements to add to its extensive UAS capability: the Mantis electro-optical/infrared gimbal sensor suite, and the Snipe man-carried UAS.
The Mantis is designed for installation on the AeroVironment Puma fixed-wing UAS to provide enhanced imaging capabilities, while the 5-ounce Snipe is small enough to be worn by an operator and can be rapidly deployed for close-in surveillance/reconnaissance.
Snipe UAS. Photo: Snipe UAS
…And More
Other news on the show floor:
Airbus Aerial is being established in the U.S. and Europe to provide imagery services for commercial industries, such as insurance, agriculture, oil and gas, and utilities as well as state and local governments.
Spirent promoted its GSS6450 portable GNSS record-and-playback simulator for UAV systems testing and verification.
Multi-rotor drone manufacturer DraganFly indicated that it has been in the UAS business since 1998, so it has lots of capability and experience.
Canadian UAV autopilot supplier MicroPilot continues to do well, and now claims to have 1,000 customers in 85 countries. Looking to future requirements for onboard systems that will make possible UAS integration into manned airspace, MicroPilot is now working toward airborne (RTCA DO-178C) software qualification.
The 2017 AUVSI Exponential convention measured up to all its expectations and pre-show hype. The atmosphere was energetic and positive, with almost every booth getting the attention of attendees & the whisper of deals was everywhere in the many corridors and rooms of the huge Dallas convention center. The UAS industry didn’t only come to show off its wares, but also to do business.
Several UAS flight centers were represented, each with the strong backing of its own home State and vying to attract test center users and to establish new UAS businesses. The industry is apparently ready and able to create those local jobs that have been forecast to grow out of new UAS applications.
While attention has previously been on flying small UAS (sUAS, and there is now a set of FAA rules allowing controlled commercial operations to get underway, there did seem to be an growing expectation that work towards getting larger, longer endurance drones into commercial operations was coming into focus. Many fixed wing applications currently operate under FAA Certificates of Authorization (CoAs), so their scale of operations is limited. But on-going efforts to develop Sense & Avoid and BVLOS solutions are hopefully leading towards the next phase of larger UAS applications in the US National Airspace System.
With an in-depth look at market opportunities and trends across eight market segments, the European GNSS Agency’s (GSA’s) annual GNSS Market Report serves as a key resource for navigating the fast-evolving world of satellite navigation technology and GNSS applications.
The fifth edition, the 2017 GNSS Market Report, was released May 10 by Carlo des Dorides, executive director for the GSA, at the European Navigation Conference held in Lausanne Switzerland.
According to the new report, the growing demand for precise location information, in combination with the ongoing evolution of GNSS technology, means that today’s GNSS market is bigger than ever.
According to the 5th edition of the GSA’s popular GNSS Market Report:
The global GNSS market is expected to grow from 5.8 billion devices in use in 2017 to an estimated 8 billion by 2020.
The GNSS downstream market is expected to produce over € 70 billion in revenue annually in 2025. When the revenue created by added-value services is included, this number could more than double.
The global GNSS downstream market is forecast to grow by more than 6 % annually between 2015 and 2020. Following the declaration of Galileo Initial Services in 2016, chipset and receiver manufacturers and application developers are leveraging Galileo signals, and a number of Galileo-ready devices are already on the market.
By 2025, the installed base of GNSS devices in drones will reach 70 mln, more than twice the sum of other professional market segments combined.
Regularly referenced by policy-makers and business leaders around the world, the GNSS Market Report serves as the go-to resource for an in-depth look at GNSS market opportunities and trends across an array of essential market segments.
“Providing in-depth information on today’s GNSS market opportunities and a data-driven forecast of its evolution through to 2025, this edition is a must-read for anyone looking to successfully navigate this promising market,” des Dorides said.
The GNSS Market Report takes a comprehensive look at the global GNSS market, providing a thorough analysis per market segment (Location-Based Services, Road Transportation, Aviation, Maritime, Rail, Agriculture, Surveying and Timing & Synchronisation), region and application type, including information on shipments, revenues and installed device base.
The 2017 edition includes such new features as:
An expanded section on macro-trends like the Internet of Things (IoT), Smart Cities and Big Data.
Segment-specific user perspectives, with an emphasis on the increasingly stringent demands of today’s GNSS users.
The unique added-value that European GNSS (EGNOS and Galileo) brings to each segment and how Galileo is already enhancing the functioning of many applications.
A special feature on the important role that GNSS plays in the growing market of drones (i.e., UAVs/Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems).
The full 100-page report is available for download free of charge.
Methodology
The GSA GNSS Market Report is compiled by the GSA and the European Commission and was produced using the GSA’s systematic Marketing Monitoring and Forecasting Process.
The underlying market model uses advanced forecasting techniques applied to a wide range of input data, assumptions, and scenarios to forecast the size of the GNSS market in terms of shipments, revenue, and installed base of receivers.
Historical values are anchored to actual data in order to ensure a high level of accuracy. Assumptions are confronted with expert opinions in each market segment and application and model results are cross-checked against the most recent market research reports from independent sources before being validated through an iterative consultation process involving pertinent sector experts and stakeholders.
Inertial Sense will be releasing a high-quality, low-cost navigation system — the μINS — later this summer, the company said. The company made the announcement at AUVSI’s Xponential 2017.
Inertial Sense is a privately owned U.S. company that specializes in designing and manufacturing GPS inertial navigation technology for commercial and consumer products.
Historically, quality GPS inertial navigation has been expensive and was only designed into a small number of systems. As the commercial and consumer drone industries grow, the need for an accurate, low-cost navigation system has become more apparent, Inertial Sense said.
Acccording to Inertial Sense, the company’s engineers have invented a design that enables the technology to be smaller and less expensive.
The μINS is a tiny sensor module that is designed to provide high-quality direction, position and velocity data for drones and robotic applications. It provides this data by fusing sensor data from GPS (GNSS), gyros, accelerometers, magnetometers and a barometric pressure sensor.
IBM’s inventors have been granted a patent for transferring packages between drones during flight.
The invention, described in U.S. Patent No. 9,561,852: In flight transfer of packages between aerial drones, helps to extend the range of drones that are delivering packages from a warehouse to a customer’s home.
IBM inventors developed this patented system using their supply chain expertise to enable precise delivery services to customers using drones.
Drones are starting to be used to transport packages to customer locations, but there are still numerous challenges to this delivery method such as limited flight range, theft of unattended packages once delivered, and a lack of delivery network optimization.
The invention can help to mitigate these challenges by providing in-flight drone-to-drone package transfers to extend package delivery range.
For example, a customer expecting a package could dispatch a personal drone to receive and securely deliver the package to the customer’s home. Drone delivery network optimization could be provided to autonomous drones via the communications link described in the patent.
“Drones have the potential to change the way businesses operate and by leveraging machine learning, drones could change ecommerce,” said Sarbajit Rakshit, IBM master inventor and co-inventor on the patent. “Our inventor team is focused on improving how the most valuable cargo is delivered globally. This could create opportunities such as managing drones to deliver postal packages and medicine in developing countries via the most direct route.”
IBM inventors have patented other inventions related to drones and drone-enabling technologies. However, this is just one aspect of IBM’s Supply Chain and Logistics expertise. IBM manages supply chains for clients on a worldwide basis using IBM Watson Supply Chain. Learn more about IBM patents here.
Consulting firm Michael Baker International has partnered with the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) to use unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to inspect runway conditions.
The mission’s use of drones on the airfield of an international airport in the United States during daily airport operations is a first, according to the company.
Michael Baker is partnering with ATL on a pavement evaluation project and identified an opportunity for the innovative use of UAS to collect information on the condition of the runway pavement. This method provides a large amount of data for the teams to analyze and can help document the runway for future rehabilitation and improvement decisions.
It also presents a time and cost savings for the airport as it would take less than half the time to complete compared to the traditional approach of manually photographing the physical condition of the runway, which can take more than four hours.
The Michael Baker UAS team used a Topcon Falcon 8 aircraft to conduct the drone flight in mid-March and surveyed more than 3,000 linear feet of runway. The mission was conducted on the international Runway 9L/27R and was completed in less than 20 minutes, gathering approximately 630 photos of the airfield. This runway, the longest at the airport at 12,390 feet, typically carries the heaviest aircrafts, which cause the most pavement damage and safety concerns.
“Michael Baker and the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport have had a strong relationship for more than 14 years, collaborating on innovative and effective projects,” said Quintin Watkins, aviation program manager in Michael Baker’s Norcross, Georgia, office. “This was a great opportunity for our experts in geographic information systems to assist the airport with a unique challenge. The information we successfully gathered during this flight will give the airport valuable insight on the ongoing safety and maintenance of the airfield. We hope to find ways to conduct similar missions with the airport in the future.”
To plan for the project, Michael Baker obtained approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to conduct UAS operations in Class B airspace at ATL. The FAA waiver is active for four months and requires the airport to be in a west flow condition, to establish two-way radio contact and to close the runway at the time of the flight.
During this and future missions, the team can generate contours, orthomosiac imagery, RGB 3-D textured mesh and a digital terrain model (DTM). This data can then be analyzed by the Michael Baker and airport teams using engineering software such as Autodesk, Esri and Bentley, and can help determine future needs to improve and maintain the runway conditions.
Earlier this year, ATL also conducted a drone flight over its parking deck to identify areas for reconstruction. ATL, known as the world’s busiest airport, serves more than 104 million passengers annually and offers nonstop service to more than 150 domestic and nearly 70 international destinations.
Lockheed Martin’s advanced tactical Group 3 unmanned aerial system (UAS) Fury is regularly flying long-range endurance test missions as the company prepares it for low-rate production.
In flight tests since May 2016, Fury has flown more than 200 hours and reliably demonstrated more than 12-hour endurance, while simultaneously operating 100 pounds of payloads, including electro-optical/infrared surveillance systems, voice communications relays, SATCOM links and multiple signals intelligence payloads.
The ramp-up in flight tests and demonstrations has grown significantly. Fury has completed more than 400 flight test hours, with significant increase in the second half of 2016.
“These flight tests have consistently proven that Fury is a true ‘anytime, anywhere’ tactical Group 3 aircraft,” said Kevin Westfall, director of unmanned systems at Lockheed Martin. “Fury can be deployed to execute strategic and tactical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions with endurance and capability previously found only in Group 4 systems. We continue to investment internally in Fury to deliver this proven, critical capability at the best value for our customers.”
Lockheed Martin regularly flies Fury at its operating base at the Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona where the team inserts pre-planned product improvements to further the Fury capability. Fury can support multiple payload integration, making it possible to efficiently execute various missions with a single aircraft.
Additionally, infrastructure is in place at Lockheed Martin manufacturing facilities to quickly deliver Fury and to rapidly scale up to full-rate production needs, Westfall said. Lockheed Martin is in discussions with potential domestic and international customers.
