“Seen & Heard” is a monthly feature of GPS World magazine, traveling the world to capture interesting and unusual news stories involving the GNSS/PNT industry.
GNSS technology aids in tracking cargo across the globe, but it can’t defeat a shortage of goods, and of trucks, railcars and ships to move them from ports to their destinations. Nevertheless, some touted solutions are seeking to help. One company, CallPass, is offering a 3D imaging system that claims to eliminate noise from images, providing more accurate cargo measurement accuracy. 3D imaging enables shipping companies to better optimize the space inside trailers and containers. Along with a high-precision GPS/GLONASS receiver, the Lana Vision also uses an ultrasonic-based cargo sensor.
Photo: Gregory_DUBUS/E+/Getty Images
Scouting Radioactivity
Azur Drones and AVNIR Energy have developed a drone package for detecting radioactivity, designed for environmental monitoring of nuclear sites both in France and abroad. The “drone-in-a-box” product integrates a radioactivity sensor into Azur’s Skeyetech drone, the first drone system approved in Europe for beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) flights without a remote pilot. AVNIR’s Ionized Zone Inspection Device scintillation detector measures radioisotopes at operational nuclear sites, both routinely and during alerts.
Photo: U.S. Geological Survey
Stay Safe, Mama Bear
Two yearling cubs of world-famous Grizzly 399 have been fitted with GPS-enabled tracking collars near Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Grizzly 399 and her four cubs — an extraordinarily large litter — have been frequenting developed areas for food, but with the collars tracking their movements, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is better positioned to keep the unique family alive and out of trouble until they hibernate for the winter. At age 25, Grizzly 399 is the oldest known female with offspring in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
Photo: DeepRoute.ai
Nighttime Special Deliveries
DeepRoute.ai has begun operating self-driving, medium-duty trucks in Shenzhen, China. The trucks drive only at night, when there is far less competing traffic. The company expects official operation to launch in 2022 after driverless regulations loosen. The company is also testing Robotaxi service in Shenzhen, to train and validate its algorithm. The current fleet of five trucks could grow to dozens as the company partners with a logistics company to deliver goods.
From its very first issues, 31 years ago, this magazine has covered the role of GPS, now GNSS, in guiding ships, trains and automobiles. What were then some of the most aspirational visions of future applications are now routine. For all forms of transportation, navigation is a safety-critical issue. This is particularly true in the case of cars on public roads, which is also where the technical challenges are the greatest. Ships mostly travel in deep waters, far away from other traffic and fixed obstructions, and nearly always enjoy an unobstructed line-of-sight to GNSS satellites. So do trains, which have the additional advantages of being kept, literally, on track and of operating in controlled environments, with hardly any concerns for unexpected intrusions on their path. Cars, trucks, and busses, on the other hand, must contend with many other vehicles, including those with distracted, drowsy, drunk, or drugged drivers, as well as cyclists, pedestrians, accidents, construction and a bedeviling myriad of sudden and often unpredictable circumstances. Additionally, their view of the sky is often limited by overpasses, tunnels and tall buildings, which challenge GNSS-based navigation with signal occultation and multipath, and their view of their surroundings is often blurred by weather conditions.
Currently, prototype autonomous vehicles carry cameras, lidar scanners, radars and ultrasonic sensors to provide positioning relative to mapped features, as well as for collision avoidance. However, some use cases require absolute positioning sensors, consisting of GNSS receivers coupled with inertial sensors. For example, autonomy levels 3 and 4 require dynamic error bounds of no more than a few meters most of the time under challenging highway conditions and levels 4 and 5 will require this level of accuracy even in deep urban canyons.
This month’s cover story highlights progress in several transportation-related GNSS/PNT applications
Autonomous vehicles require lane-level accuracy at all times and in all conditions. However, under many conditions, such as in urban canyons and tunnels, they may lose line-of-sight to enough GNSS satellites to achieve accurate and robust positioning or may have no signal at all. In these situations, they need data from other sensors, including an odometer and an inertial measurement unit (IMU). Creating reliable and safe autonomous navigation requires fusing GNSS and inertial technology in a multi-layered system.
SBG Systems and its partners LeoDrive.ai and Intempora, have been doing this to develop solutions for autonomous vehicles. SBG’s technology enables multi-sensor integration while addressing such autonomous navigation challenges as time synchronization, integrity, precise positioning and high-definition mapping.
“To ensure performance and build trust, we assemble our own IMUs from carefully selected industrial-grade parts, then we calibrate all our products individually,” said Laurent Le Thuant, business manager for SBG, in a recent webinar.
For safe operation, Le Thuant explained, the vehicle’s true positional error (PE) must be smaller than its protection level (PL), which in turn must be smaller than its alert limit (AL): PE < PL < AL. Otherwise, the solution is declared unavailable or reports misleading information.
In automotive tests conducted in a business district near Paris, an SBG vehicle was equipped with both a GNSS-only, automotive-grade multiband RTK receiver equipped with a PL determination algorithm and an RTK GNSS receiver tightly-coupled with an IMU and an odometry input. A comparison showed that the former was not suited for self-driving, while the latter significantly improved the solution availability, accuracy and protection levels.
For self-driving in the most severe conditions, even this solution requires integration of supplementary sensors, such as cameras, lidars and radars for precise localization.
Flipping the traditional scenario, in which car racers risk their lives on a racetrack, the Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) aimed to help save lives by improving collision avoidance systems, train future automotive engineers, and make the public more comfortable with autonomous cars. Held Oct. 23 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and organized by Energy Systems Network, the race saw 21 universities from nine countries forming nine teams to compete for a $1 million grand prize. Following in the footsteps of the DARPA Grand Challenge, first held in 2004 and later renamed the DARPA Urban Challenge, the IAC was the world’s first high-speed autonomous race. The winning team was TUM Autonomous Motorsport from the Technical University of Munich, Germany.
All competing teams were given the same identical vehicle to work with, a Dallara AV-21, modified to carry no one in the cockpit and equipped with two Hexagon | NovAtel PwrPak7-Ds multi-frequency, multi-constellation GNSS receivers, six cameras (two of which faced backward), three lidar scanners and four radars. Each team had to develop its own autonomy-enabling software stack, including the algorithms and neural networks. All the components, except the computer, had to be commercial-off-the-shelf, available on the market. No sensors could be custom-made.
Since 2001, Dallara has been the sole supplier of the Indy Lights series, a championship to prepare drivers for the NTT IndyCar Series. The Dallara AV-21 is a collaboration between Dallara’s Italian headquarters in Varano Melegari (Parma) and Dallara IndyCar Factory in Speedway, Indiana. The new car offers a modern, stylish appearance and provides the proper training required for drivers as the final step on the ladder to the NTT IndyCar Series.
The process by which the automated vehicle sensors and computers were fused into a singular package and integrated into the AV-21 was led by Clemson University’s International Center for Automotive Research’s Deep Orange 12 (DO12) project. The Deep Orange process mirrors that of automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and the DO12 project scope allowed for engineering and innovation across multiple subsystems. Student groups within the DO12 team explored solutions within and across multiple subsystems, including:
vehicle-to-vehicle communications
perception systems
onboard computing
drive-by-wire chassis control systems
vehicle dynamics
vehicle-to-infrastructure communications
powertrain design and integration
vehicle demonstration based on high precision GPS.
Hexagon’s Autonomy & Positioning division provided GNSS receivers and subject-matter experts to the Deep Orange 12 team. The team architected the sensor kit for the Dallara reference vehicle, which AutonomousStuff then replicated 10 times. The team did not compete in the IAC to avoid a conflict of interest and allow students to work closely with competitor teams from universities around the world. The PwrPak7-E1 contains a MEMS IMU to deliver Hexagon | NovAtel’s SPAN technology, a deeply coupled GNSS + inertial engine in a single-box solution. Each GNSS receiver has two antennas to provide heading. The Deep Orange 12 team used HxGN SmartNet RTK corrections, which brought the accuracy down to a few centimeters.
Without developing a driverless decision-making algorithm, Clemson students tested the vehicle with the help of a high-precision positioning system. They developed a control algorithm that can track the optimal line around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway such that all vehicle systems could be validated in a simulated racing environment. Data from these tests were shared with the competition teams to aid in their development of driverless algorithms.
Energy Systems Network will host a head-to-head, high-speed autonomous racecar passing competition at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Jan. 7, 2022, during the Consumer Electronics Show. Several of the teams that competed in the IAC, including the winner and finalists, will participate. The primary goal is to advance technology to speed commercialization of fully autonomous vehicles and deployments of advanced driver-assistance systems.
In April, the pizza company Domino’s and self-driving delivery company Nuro launched autonomous pizza delivery in Houston, Texas. Select customers who place a prepaid online order on certain days and times from Domino’s in Woodland Heights can choose to have their pizza delivered by Nuro’s R2 autonomous, occupantless on-road delivery vehicle.
Customers selected for the service receive text alerts, which update them on R2’s location and provide them with a unique PIN to retrieve their order. Once R2 arrives, customers are prompted to enter their PIN on a touchscreen, opening its doors.
In February 2020, Nuro became the first autonomous vehicle developer to be given exemptions by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for testing on public roads without the need to have controls for human operators. Unlike many other autonomous vehicle companies, Nuro engineered its self-driving road vehicles to transport goods instead of people.
There’s no set timetable for how quickly Domino’s and Nuro will evaluate their testing or expand the service.
Nuro is also carrying out trials and pilot deliveries with several other companies, including restaurant chain Chipotle, Kroger grocery stores, CVS pharmacies, Walmart and FedEx.
Developments in the autonomous space this month include an cargo aircraft with unmanned passengers, another way drones can deliver really heavy cargo, and a fanciful recreation of a beloved vintage car.
How do you catch a gremlin? Wait, what’s a gremlin?
Gremlins are supposed to be unmanned aircraft which are launched and recovered in flight from a cargo or bomb-carrying aircraft. Flying in small collaborating swarms, gremlins are equipped with sensors for communications, jamming, reconnaissance or other needs.
As envisioned by the U.S. Army’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), gremlins are reusable, may be autonomous, can operate in GNSS-denied environments, and can be flown on high-risk missions into high-risk areas — places that high-value manned aircraft would avoid.
DARPA has contracted Dynetics to come up with a system that meets those criteria — a pretty demanding list of capabilities. So far, prototype X-61A UAVs have been built and flown through four flight test campaigns.
Many military technologists have dreamed of unmanned flying aircraft carriers, which could be put to a variety of uses. If the gremlin system works, the commercial world might well find its own applications.
Carried under the wings of a C-130A cargo transport, gremlins have been launched and flown through three flight tests. Capture and recovery has been attempted but was unsuccessful because of unanticipated turbulence. One test vehicle was lost when its parachute recovery system failed — altogether, three vehicles have been lost.
Finally, on Oct. 25 over the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, one Gremlin X-61A was flown onto the C-130A capture system and successfully recovered.
The gremlin X-61A test vehicle is recovered into C-130 transport on its fourth test flight. (Photo: DARPA)
The DARPA program requires a number of Gremlin UAVs to be captured, recovered and stowed in the mother aircraft within 30 minutes. The current recovery system is somewhat complex, so it remains to be seen if subsequent tests can achieve this substantial goal. Recovery might become easier and more reliable with an increase in the degree of autonomous operation for both the UAV and the recovery system.
A Guided Box for Disaster Relief
We turn now from a complex system to a direct and simple one that fulfills a key logistical requirement for disaster relief. It’s a fully autonomous UAV that lacks any integrated power source. Essentially, it’s a guided box.
The AVIUS Air Delivery Mercy-2000 by Yates Electrospace Corp. is basically an air-dropped cargo container that can glide from an altitude of 25,000 feet to a fixed location. From up to 35 miles away, this precision-guided drone can land safely within 110 yards of the desired site and deliver more than 1,600 pounds of material for critical medical and humanitarian needs.
Initially developed for military air-drop purposes (the U.S. Air Force just ordered 15), the cargo container is an 8-foot-long box with two sets of folded wings, fitted with a small nose-cone and a larger tail-cone before launch that help stabilize flight. The wings are carried inside the box and are installed by simply turning over the top cover.
Photo: Yates Electrospace Corp.
The assembly includes the essential guidance system. A COTS (commercial-off-the shelf) GPS receiver, lidar, magnetic heading sensor, barometric altimeter, inertial measurement unit and pitot speed sensor are integrated into proprietary software running on a COTS computer.
Anyone who has ever tried to land a glider from 25,000 feet knows that actually landing safely in the right place is tough to do. It’s quite an achievement to create a reliable, precision, autonomous solution that works when pushed out the back of an aircraft.
New Model of Old Renault Takes Flight
Now to a more fanciful story about an old friend – the Renault 4L. Many of us remember driving or riding in one, with its gear-change on the dash, uncomfortable seats, suspension and “sewing machine” engine.
The Renault 4L was manufactured from 1974 to 1978. (Photo: ribeiroantonio/iStock Editorial/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images)
In celebration of its 60th anniversary, Renault (now part of the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance) and TheArsenale have teamed up in France to make a flying 4L known as the AIR4.
The body shell has been re-engineered in carbon fiber with the same shape of the original 4L. The frame has been built for vertical and horizontal flight, with propellers at each corner of the vehicle. The body shell lifts at the front for pilot access. The Air4 carries lithium polymer batteries, providing up to 90,000 mAh. It can achieve 58 mph when tilted forward at 45°.
The Air4 will go on public display until the end of the year in the center of Paris at the Renault Center on the Champs Elysées, along with other antique models of the Renault 4. Miami will be the next stop for the AIR4, followed by New York and then Macau, China.
To sum up, we have gremlins making progress and being recaptured, a 1-ton flying box for important deliveries, and a celebration of 60 years of the Renault 4L — quite a wide range of ingenious unmanned vehicle applications.
Tallysman Wireless Inc. has added the low-profile triple-band HC997EXF to its line of embedded helical GNSS antennas, and the TWA928LXF to its AccuAuto line. Both feature the company’s eXtended Filtering (XF).
Designed for UAVs and Other Applications
Photo: Tallysman
The HC997EXF is designed for precise positioning, covering the GPS/QZSS-L1/L2/L5, GLONASS-G1/G2/G3, Galileo-E1/E5a/E5b, BeiDou-B1/B2/B2a, and NavIC-L5 frequency bands. It also covers the satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS) available in the region of operation — WAAS (North America), EGNOS (Europe), MSAS (Japan) or GAGAN(India) — as well as L-band correction services.
The low-profile helical antenna is packaged in a light (11 g) and compact form factor (60 mm wide and 25 mm tall). Its precision-tuned, high-accuracy helical element provides an excellent axial ratio and operates without a ground plane. These features make the HC997EXF suitable for lightweight unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) navigation and a wide variety of precision applications.
The HC997EXF antenna base has a flying lead and a variety of connectors. To facilitate installation, Tallysman provides an optional embedded helical mounting ring that traps the outer edge of the antenna circuit board to the host circuit board or any flat surface. Tallysman provides support for installation and integration of its embedded helical antennas to ensure optimal performance.
New Vehicle Antenna Launched
Photo: Tallysman
Another new XF antenna, the TWA928LXF, is part of Tallysman’s AccuAuto autonomous vehicle family of compact and rugged embedded antennas.
The triple-band TWA928LXF supports GPS/QZSS-L1/L2/L5, GLONASS-G1/G2/G3, Galileo-E1/E5a/E5b, BeiDou-B1/B2/B2a, and NavIC-L5 signals and frequency bands, including L-band correction services.
The TWA928LXF vehicle antenna features a patented Tallysman Accutenna technology antenna element, an integrated ground plane, radome and underside cover that provides mist and condensation protection. The bottom cover also supports the antenna cable and mitigates cable vibration to ensure that the antenna has a long service life, while the ground plane improves antenna performance.
All AccuAuto antennas are built with Automotive Electronics Council (AEC) certified electronic components designed to perform under the most challenging environmental conditions, such as extreme temperatures, shock and vibration.
XF Coming to All Lines
eXtended Filtering enables the HC997EXF antenna to mitigate new and existing radio frequency bands that interfere with GNSS signals. The custom XF filtering has been tested to mitigate new (Europe and Japan) and existing LTE signals, enabling the XF antennas to produce clean and pure GNSS radio frequency data.
For example, in North America, the planned Ligado service, which will broadcast in the frequency range of 1526 to 1536 MHz, could affect GNSS antennas that receive space-based L-band correction service signals (1539–1559 MHz).
Similarly, LTE signals or their harmonics, such as the new LTE bands in Europe–Band 32 (1452–1496 MHz)–and Japan–Bands 11 and 21 (1476–1511 MHz)–have affected GNSS antennas and receivers.
Lastly, the Inmarsat satellite communication uplink (1626.5–1660.5 MHz), commonly used on maritime vessels, can also affect nearby GNSS antennas.
Tallysman Wireless also has added eXtended Filtering (XF) to its TW3800 series of Accutenna precision antennas, and will be rolled out to all of Tallysman’s product lines.
A roundup of recent products in the GNSS and inertial positioning industry from the December 2021 issue of GPS World magazine.
OEM
Satellite-cell terminal
With built-in GPS receiver
Photo: OQ
OQ Technology’s dual-mode satellite-cellular IoT modem and tracker is a plug-and-play, small, low-cost and low-power solution that can collect data from more than 1,000 sensors. It has a built-in GPS receiver and supports 5G NB-IoT, GSM, LTE-M and bi-directional satellite links. The flexible, robust and programmable dual-mode terminal has pre-paid data packages suitable for remotely monitoring and controlling fixed and mobile assets in industries such as transportation, oil and gas, utilities, and maritime.
Provides mission-critical, extended length GPS over fiber
Photo: ViaLite
ViaLite’s GPS over Fiber Extension Kit for Microchip/Microsemi GPS timing servers provides mission-critical GPS timing and synchronization for systems requiring extremely accurate clock signals. Standard transmission distances for the extension kit can be up to 10 km, while solutions are available for distances as long as 50 km. The ViaLite kit was chosen for its unique performance with Microsemi’s S650 timing server. The ViaLite GPS link is designed to provide a remote GPS/GNSS signal or derived timing reference to equipment located where no signal is available, such as inside buildings or tunnels. By using optical fiber instead of traditional coaxial cable, extreme distances are possible with no radio frequency loss and zero introduction of noise.
The RELY-MIL-TIME-SERVER, which complies with MIL-STD-810G and MIL-STD-461G, embeds the latest timing, networking and security technology in a single SWaP platform. The all-in-one rugged edge computing device acts as a high-performance master clock and serves secure accurate timing distribution (PTP, NTP, GNSS). The timing feature is combined with high-bandwidth and high-availability Ethernet switching and L2/L3 cybersecurity services in a unique commercial-off-the-shelf device. At its heart is a Xilinx Ultrascale+ MPSoC device powered by SoC-e hardware IP cores for PTP and high-availability low-latency Ethernet networking.
The M-G370PDS0 inertial measurement unit (IMU) is equipped with a high-performance six-axis sensor. It has an angle random walk (short-term variation in output) of 0.03°/√h, which is half that of its predecessor, and can more accurately detect very slight changes in the attitude of equipment and systems, since they do not get lost in sensor noise. The small size, light weight and low power consumption will help customers make their own products smaller and lighter. It also maintains compatibility with earlier products (the M-G370/365/364/354), making performance upgrades easy.
The OSA 5400 SyncModule enables technology suppliers to integrate precise synchronization into their hardware. Its M.2 form factor can add timing capabilities to switches, routers, open compute servers and other IT devices. The SyncModule provides GNSS, precision time protocol (PTP) and network time protocol (NTP) engines as well as comprehensive PTP and GNSS monitoring and assurance functionality. It can enable assured sub-microsecond timing in public and private networks as well as critical infrastructure. Featuring multiple interface options for easy integration, the OSA 5400 SyncModule comes with an open API. It also can be managed by ADVA’s proven Ensemble Sync Director management system.
Running on Microsoft Windows, u-center 2 offers anyone working with 10th-generation (M10) u-blox GNSS technology a highly intuitive interface to configure GNSS products, evaluate their performance, improve the quality of their software, and experience the performance boost achieved using GNSS-related services. The software is the successor to the u-center GNSS evaluation software, which has been used by design engineers for almost two decades to develop GNSS receiver applications. Compatible with u-blox M10 GNSS technology, u-center 2 is designed to offer improved performance over its predecessor. New features in u-center 2 simplify configuration, evaluation and software development of GNSS-based solutions. It is free for download.
The MEA-1227-SM is a GNSS/L1 and L2 low-profile screw-mount antenna. It has high performance suitable for maintaining constant network connectivity. The MEA-1227-SM covers all GPS/GLO/BEI/ QZSS/Galileo/SBAS/L1L2 standard frequencies. It is designed for telematics systems, remote surveillance, asset tracking and any internet of things (IoT) system applications. This screw mount antenna is easy to install, with a low profile suitable for challenging installations. It has a IP67-rated housing and anti-rotation mounting.
The Cowboy e-bike solution provides riders with high-performance, real-time GNSS accuracy, enabling them to map their own paths and those of the cities in which they live. It uses smart road-companion applications to ensure riders get precise information, regardless of the route they travel. The positioning component uses Taoglas’ Accura GVLB258.A, a multi-band GNSS L1/L5, high-performance stacked patch antenna, in conjunction with u-blox’s SAM-M8Q GNSS positioning module. The combination allows for extremely low power and high accuracy. The solutions works with “micromobility” services offered by Cowboy, such as Easy Rider for theft detection, bike insurance and crash detection notifications.
Instant decimeter-level accuracy with automotive sensors
Photo: Profound Positioning
The Profound-IVT (instant vehicle tracking) provides cost-effective vehicle navigation. Based on a firmware library, and rapidly adaptable to any navigation platform, IVT combines precise point GNSS positioning (PPP), dead reckoning and radar technologies in an integrated solution to provide decimeter-level positioning accuracy plus orientation and velocity. IVT performs in tunnels, dense urban environments, multi-level highway junctions and parking garages. With errors <1% of distance travelled, resolution is extremely rapid. Base stations are not required and there are no operating range limitations. Applications include driver assistance, mobility and taxi, autonomous vehicles, geofencing, fleet tracking, insurance, driving and safety management, and connected driving.
Off-the-shelf map data through the HxGN Content Program
Photo: Hexagon
Metro HD city data is a new offering of ultra-high-resolution 2D and 3D digital twins of major cities. Metro HD expands the data stack to include high-definition true orthophotos, obliques, digital terrain models, lidar point clouds, 3D building models (LOD2), 3D meshes and land-use maps. Cities captured in 2021 include Munich, Cologne, Vienna, Milan, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Tokyo, Dallas, New York, Stuttgart and Frankfurt. More cities will be added in early 2022. The program uses a hybrid urban mapping sensor, the Leica CityMapper-2, that concurrently collects lidar and aerial imagery. The derived products, based on the strength of each subsystem, result in superior accuracy and temporal consistency across all three data dimensions.
Bad Elf LLC and Laser Tech are providing an integrated laser offset workflow for acquiring high-accuracy field data in GNSS-challenged environments. The new workflow integrates Bad Elf and LTI hardware in collaboration with ArcGIS technology from Esri. The Bad Elf Flex GNSS receiver connects to any LTI TruPulse rangefinder over a wired or Bluetooth connection to deliver high-accuracy location data to Esri ArcGIS Field Maps. Field workers can now efficiently complete position and height data collection in access-limited situations, saving time, money and effort. The Bad Elf app workflow runs on Android and iOS.
Geo-genie is a cloud-based collaborative and professional mapping and surveying platform enabling customization and creation of geocentric information systems. Teamed with Handheld’s Algiz RT8 rugged field tablet, it streamlines work and allows non-professionals to perform accurate geodetic mapping, guiding and monitoring of their data collection. The platform enables organizations to have an advanced, professional surveying and GIS platform with customized procedural workflows, management of user hierarchies, and integration with other organizational information systems. Geo-genie can connect with professional surveying equipment, such as GPS and total stations, and integrates data into a cloud-based central database with no restriction for specific data-collection hardware.
The wireless GNSS amplifier LogBuch+ increases the accuracy of location data with the cloud-based LogBuch application. The app enables voice-based digital mapping via a smartphone app, such as for the maintenance of trees. The compact device receives satellite signals on several radio frequencies, delivering significantly more precise data than a smartphone alone. Foresters can carry the GNSS amplifier in a pocket and digitally mark trees for felling using the LogBuch app.
The YellowScan Explorer lidar can be mounted on a light manned aircraft or helicopter, as well as a UAV platform such as the DJI M300. This versatility allows the end user to tackle a wide range of projects with the same unit. It uses an Applanix APX-20UAV GNSS/inertial solution and has a precision of 2.6 cm and an accuracy of 2.2 cm. Its high-power laser scanner can catch points up to 600 meters away. Flight operation speed is 5–35 m/s; it is capable of above-ground-level altitude up to 300 m. The low-weight unit (2.3 kg without battery) can be combined with YellowScan’s suite of software to extract and process point cloud data for surveying, forestry, environmental research, archaeology, industrial inspection, civil engineering and mining sectors.
The DJI Mavic 3 improves on its predecessor with better sensors, a dual-camera system, omnidirectional obstacle sensing, smarter flight modes and longer flight times. A powerful positioning algorithm improves hovering precision with signals from GPS, GLONASS and BeiDou satellites, enabling the drone to lock onto multiple satellite signals faster. The increased positioning precision also makes the drone less likely to drift in the air and more stable when shooting long exposures and time lapses. The Advanced Pilot Assistance System (APAS) 5.0 combines inputs from six fish-eye vision sensors and two wide-angle sensors to sense obstacles in all directions and plan safe flight routes.
Conduct missions, manage fleets and view video feeds
Photo: SkyGrid
SkyGrid’s autonomous remote UAV operations solution enables drone operators to remotely conduct missions, control flights, manage fleets and view live video feeds. Using artificial intelligence and airspace-related data feeds, SkyGrid enables safe remote operations, whether conducting routine inspections or generating optimal flight paths. Advanced route generation capabilities create the safest route for each drone based on the flight plan, environmental conditions, the vehicle’s performance, and the mission criteria with minimum on-site support required. SkyGrid Launch allows video feeds from drones to be consolidated to a remote central location, such as a ground station.
The Sicura EG-1100 is a heavy-lift, long endurance, single-rotor helicopter. Now in its third generation, the helicopter can haul 15 pounds. It cruises at 55 knots. The EG-1100 is available in both electric and gas engine configurations, with an endurance at 3.5 hours on gasoline and 1 hour on electric power. The new gas engine is the high-performing and efficient Skypower 110, tuned to the craft’s internally developed chassis and rotor blades. It offers stable performance in challenging environmental conditions, exceptionally stable flight and immediate flight response for image capture and lidar operations. Multiple payload sets can be carried in one flight.
The Spirit dual-rotor coaxial unmanned aerial system (UAS) is a versatile and durable system for mission-critical operations. Combined with a fully modular, plug-and-play payload design, the Spirit’s open architecture allows operators to easily add or upgrade software to unlock new operating capabilities without the need to design or develop a new aircraft. It has an all-weather airframe. With nearly 10 pounds available for batteries and payloads, Spirit sets the new standard for performance in its weight class. Setup is quick and easy, allowing for takeoff from any type of terrain. The highly streamlined all-weather airframe has a top speed of 60 miles per hour and can operate in high winds. Payloads and batteries can be mounted or stacked on the top or bottom point.
InfiniDome, Honeywell and Easy Aerial have successfully demonstrated their new Robust Navigation System for UAVs. The system integrates GPS anti-jamming technology, a radar velocity system and an inertial navigation system into a resilient system that enables UAVs to safely operate in GNSS-challenged or denied environments.
UAV developers or end users currently try to solve the problem of GNSS jamming either by creating “safe landing protocols” in GNSS-challenged environments or by adding various types of sensors such as lidar or optical. These sensors may not work in certain scenarios, such as when flying too high, too low or too fast; in fog or darkness; or above the ocean.
The Robust Navigation System, jointly developed by Honeywell and infiniDome, tightly pairs the GNSS-based UAV-tailored Honeywell Compact Inertial Navigation System (HCINS) with infiniDome’s GNSS anti-jamming technology (GPSdome), integrated with Honeywell’s Radar-based Velocity System (HRVS). It can be installed on almost any UAV, providing continuous, accurate navigation data in GNSS-challenged or fully GNSS-denied environments.
The companies demonstrated the new navigation system for Israeli defense prime contractors and drone companies and government end-users at a testing range in the center of Israel. The system was tested against two military-grade directional jammers of different types and bandwidths on customized Osprey Hexa-copter with a PixHawk 2.1 Cube Black flight controller. The GPS 1 input was a Here2 standard GNSS receiver and antenna module; the GPS 2 input was the Robust Navigation System (GPSdome 1.03 + HCINS + HRVS).
A customized Osprey Hexa-copter demonstrated the Robust Navigation System. (Photo: InfiniDome)
The goal of the demo was to show that a UAV in a GNSS-challenged environment (single direction of jamming) and fully denied environment (multiple directions of powerful jamming) can perform autonomous tasks accurately and safely without the pilot needing to assume manual control. This included beyond-visual-line-of-sight flights.
Each test was designed to be more difficult than the preceding one and would be executed only if the latter was successful. The intention was to find the barrier at which the system fails.
The first test was maintaining the UAV height (AltHold), position (PosHold) and Loiter autonomously under jamming conditions, followed by a simple point-to-point autonomous task under the same jamming conditions.
The UAV then performed a fully autonomous task including executing a 10-point polygon and returning to the same position accurately under the same jamming conditions. Finally, the UAV was tested for lift-off performance, executing the full polygon and landing under the jamming conditions.
Protected by the Robust Navigation System, the UAV passed all planned tests.
Inertial Labs has acquired Memsense, a developer of inertial measurement units (IMUs) and a long-time business partner. Inertial Labs is a developer and supplier of orientation, inertial navigation and optically enhanced sensor modules.
The Inertial Labs and Memsense workforce will address the rapidly evolving needs of global customers. The combined company of more than 100 employees and 500 customers expects to introduce breakthrough technologies at an accelerated pace across high-value areas such as autonomous vehicles, GPS-denied navigation, industrial machines, and aerospace and defense.
In addition, Inertial Labs and Memsense have a strong balance sheet to support critical business initiatives, deliver with short product lead times, and invest in promising integrations, the company stated in a press release.
“Our strategic acquisition of Memsense brings together two high growth companies with proven performance in solving some of the world’s most difficult stabilization and navigation problems,” said Jamie Marraccini, president and CEO of Inertial Labs. “Our customers will benefit from our combined capabilities and resources.”
“As we move forward, Inertial Labs and Memsense will define the future of MEMS IMUs,” said James Brunch, CEO of Memsense. “Our focus on innovation, our world-class team, and our strength in customer collaboration allow us to deliver the exact specs needed by our customers.”
Inertial Labs cites the following benefits for current and future customers:
increased production capabilities of up to 50,000 units annually to meet the needs of larger aerospace and defense contracts for guidance and navigation applications
low-cost, consumer-grade IMUs, ruggedized industrial-grade models, affordable tactical-grade IMUs, and IMUs with near-FOG level of performance (0.1 deg/h bias instability)
a larger range of devices for unmanned ground vehicles (UGV); unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV); autonomous and automated ground vehicles (AGV).
expanded research and development efforts to accelerate delivery of IMUs for stabilization applications, such as electro-optical systems, pan-and-tilt platforms, and remote weapon stations (RWS)
new IMU models with improved performance will increase capabilities of the company’s GPS-aided inertial navigation systems (INS), wave sensors, motion reference units (MRU) and attitude heading reference systems (AHRS)
development of new high-performance systems including a MEMS-based gyro-compasses (3 MILS azimuth and 1 MIL elevation accuracy).
AnimaMundi is a not-for-profit organization based in Geneva, Switzerland. Its proprietary technology interprets photo and video records to extract a single-use plastic bottle count. The information can be captured via an app using still photography as well as images from drones. The data is automatically uploaded, processed and stored on the company’s servers. The data will enable decisions to facilitate environmental investments and measure the impact of waste-management initiatives.
The process begins with DJI drones piloted by sailors taking place in the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC), which started from Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, on Nov. 21. DJI provided drones to Lagoon, a sailing catamaran cruiser maker, to measure plastic waste on beaches around the Caribbean.
Of the more than 300 million tons of plastic produced every year, at least 8 million tons end up in the ocean, making up 80% of all marine debris, from surface waters to deep-sea sediment. About 33,000 single-use plastic bottles are dumped in the ocean every minute of every day, affecting every coastline.
Matt Cooper, founder and CEO, AnimaMundi is driven by the need for accurate real time data to ensure investment decisions are made correctly with measurable impact. “Just before COP26 began, world leaders admitted that an annual $100-billion climate finance goal will not be reached until 2023,” Cooper said. “The need for urgent climate action is met with the need to ensure adequate and effective financing solutions. Big data like this will help to determine priorities for action.”
Lagoon has been a partner of the ARC rally since 2005. Through its Club Lagoon, the company encourages its owners to sign up to this program aiming at reducing plastic waste in our oceans thanks to data collected by drones.
“Lagoon is proud to be partnering with AnimaMundi in this exciting data collection initiative using our ‘Club Lagoon’ as part of the solution,” said Thomas Gailly, Lagoon brand director. “We have more than 6,000 of our catamarans sailing around the world, and we can feel that our customers are more and more willing to play a role in such initiatives. It’s stimulating to think that the Lagoon owners’ community could be involved in capturing this much needed data in a highly efficient way. This partnership is the perfect complement to our own policy of respect for the environment and all the work undertaken to reduce the environmental impact of our activities.”
DJI, the global leader in developing and manufacturing civilian drones and aerial imaging technology for personal and professional use, has provided repurposed drones to capture images of the Caribbean coastline that would otherwise be out of reach. “Our drones and cameras empower people to capture amazing photos, video, and high-end professional imagery in every corner of the world,” said Olivier Mondon, senior communication manager at DJI Europe. “Each day, we learn how drones benefit society as a whole, and we are proud to have our drones embark on this environmental journey with experienced sailors who will be able to work using repurposed products to enable invaluable data capture.”
Initially targeting the Caribbean islands, AnimaMundi is also finalizing a partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and its Plastic Waste-Free Islands (PWFI) initiative to generate weekly total island coastal plastic waste profiles covering Grenada, St. Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda.
In 2019, with the support of the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, IUCN launched the PWFI project in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and Oceania, seeking to promote a circular economy and demonstrate effective, quantifiable solutions to address plastic leakage from small island developing states.
Percepto Air Mobile drone with base. (Photo: Percepto)
Percepto, an Israel-based company specializing in autonomous inspection with industrial robotics, has launched its 2022 Autonomous Inspection & Monitoring (AIM) platform and Air Mobile drone.
Recently listed in TIME magazine’s 100 Best Inventions of 2021, Percepto offers an end-to-end solution powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to collate and streamline all visual data for accurate actionable insights.
Percepto AIM 2022 has a new Insight Manager to deliver AI-powered packaged solutions for sector-specific use cases, such as solar, mining, energy, oil and gas and other industries. The company drew on tens of thousands of hours collected by autonomous robot missions at industrial facilities to create it.
Percepto’s AI change-detection framework offers unified visual data and critical business insights for each of the sector-specific solutions. AIM 2022 can be integrated with autonomous drones and robots as well as other visual data collectors, now including DJI drones, and fixed cameras.
Reports and insights are automatically generated based on the combined visual data. Disseminated to relevant stakeholders on any mobile device, issues and faults are geotagged and displayed on a map, enabling effective action before escalating into more serious problems.
Percepto also introduced its new Percepto Air portfolio to support the enhanced platform, which will address the diverse needs and increasing demands of various markets.
Percepto Air Max. The next generation of Percepto Sparrow, the Percepto Air Max is a field-proven solution that operates in the largest mining, oil and gas, and energy companies on six continents. It has a top-grade, versatile payload for specific use cases. Designed to inspect and map complex industrial environments where the highest accuracy and durability are critical, Air Max also has an optical gas imaging (OGI) camera.
Percepto Air Mobile. This option is a more compact and lighter weight model for smaller sites or organizations taking their first steps with a drone-in-the-box program, or larger sites that need greater deployment flexibility. It is designed for linear inspections, such as pipelines and power lines, and can monitor short-term projects across multiple sites, such as construction sites.
Percepto Air Max and Air Mobile drones are stored permanently onsite within their respective Percepto Bases. The Air Mobile’s base is light and easy to relocate while maintaining high levels of durability. These encasements are designed for infrequent maintenance and protection against extreme environmental phenomena, such as hurricanes. Percepto’s drones are safe and regulation ready, and ensure all operational aspects meet corporate standards.
“Percepto AIM 2022 and the new Percepto Air line of drones, together with the most advanced change detection solution, alert and prevent failures and downtime within diverse use cases across many industries,” said Percepto CEO Dor Abuhasira. “Percepto AIM provides the most advanced and comprehensive enterprise inspection software that offers a complete data workflow — from capture to insight. With Percepto Air Max and Percepto Air Mobile, companies have a range of options to choose from depending on the size of their facilities and the flexibility needed to deploy drones.”
“The real power of Percepto’s system is how data collection and analytics are integrated for a holistic view from both a technical and management perspective,” said Tim Shanfelt, director of Operations Transformation, Koch Ag & Energy. “Our workers are connected to high-level information that helps them make the right decisions while keeping them safe and free to pursue higher value activities. Our goal is to eliminate hazardous, wasteful, and mundane tasks from our operators’ day. For example, instead of an employee climbing an icy ladder in the winter, a robot or drone can perform the same task while still obtaining accurate measurements. We see Percepto playing a significant role in helping make our facilities more safe, secure, efficient, and profitable.”
