A new receiver for GPS and other GNSS improves time-synchronization accuracy in areas with severe reception conditions, such as among buildings and in mountainous areas.
Furuno plans to begin sales of the new GF-88 series time synchronization GNSS receivers in April 2019, and to deploy it widely in fields such as 4G/5G mobile base stations, financial trading, power grids and data centers.
The GF-88’s new algorithm makes use of multipath signals, those reflected or diffracted from buildings and other structures, which previously inhibited accuracy of time synchronization.
By integrating a new satellite signal selection algorithm developed by NTT into Furuno’s time synchronization GNSS receiver, in addition to signals from satellites in line-of-sight locations, multipath signals can be used to reduce time error, the companies said.
In a real multipath reception test environment, time error was reduced to approximately one fifth of earlier values.
The remarkable result promises to enable time synchronization accuracy close to that obtained in open-sky reception environments with no obstructions, even in environments previously considered poor and unsuitable for accurate time synchronization, such as among buildings or in mountainous areas.
The companies will exhibit the results at Tsukuba Forum 2018 Oct. 25-26, and at ITSF 2018, in Bucharest, Romania, Nov. 5-8.
Clarion has adopted Furuno’s GV-86 in the NXR16 for in-car navigation and positioning. Clarion is a Japanese manufacturer of in-vehicle infotainment head units, including car navigation systems and car audio systems.
Clarion thoroughly evaluated the Furuno receiver for its robustness in heavy-use environments and the company’s long-term supply-chain capability.
The NXR16, which debuted in June, is designed to fill the needs of professional-use customers in the auto-leasing and rent-a-car industry. It supports multi-language and multi-display features that satisfy the increasing number of foreign tourists using rental-cars.
Clarion’s NXR16 car navigation system.
Furuno’s GV-86 is a dead-reckoning-enabled GNSS receiver that concurrently receives GPS, SBAS and QZSS satellite signals. Its dead-reckoning function enables it to provide high-accuracy positioning in environments where no GNSS signals can be received, such as tunnels, underground car parking and deep urban canyons.
The dead-reckoning function is realized by integrating the information from a gyro sensor and a velocity sensor.
The GN-87 multi-GNSS receiver by Furuno Electric Co.
Furuno Electric Co.’s latest multi-GNSS receiver module, the GN-87, has been adopted for use in the new My Driving Pal (MDP) device.
The MDP device and app communicate with each other via Bluetooth low energy (BLE). When the MDP device and a phone running the MDP app are within range of each other (approximately 15 meters), the device keeps its internal GPS in idle mode. When the phone is out of Bluetooth range and the object that is carrying the MDP device is moving (for instance, under the seat of a stolen bicycle or in the pocket of a wandering child), the MDP device activates its built-in GNSS receiver and cellular modem, tracks the asset, and immediately notifies the user on a phone via remote push notification.
The range is unlimited, because the MDP device will track the asset anywhere in the world, with an accuracy level of meters. To protect user’s privacy, all tracking data remains locally on the phone and is not transmitted to any backend server.
In April, the GN-87 receiver was adopted for the new quadcopter Bebop Drone, made by Parrot SA. The GN-87 provides positioning accuracy and smooth ground tracking because of its multi-GNSS technology, which allows it to receive more satellite data even in harsh environments such as urban canyons.
My Driving Pal (MDP) is a technology startup based in Silicon Valley that develops advanced Internet of Things solutions. MDP’s mission is to improve road safety by enabling vehicle to vehicle and vehicle to infrastructure communications. A small percentage of new vehicles are connected, but still the vast majority have no connectivity, not including motorcycles and bicycles. The MDP product delivers a suite of security, monitoring, and tracking applications, from delivering remote notification on phone if interior temperature of car gets too high, to automatically tracking the bike, if it’s ever stolen.
For more information on the MDP device (capabilities, availability, distribution, retail or partnerships), send an email to [email protected], or follow MDP on Facebook.
The National Association of Broadcasters meeting in Las Vegas draws 100,000 attendees annually, making it one of the largest trade shows in the country. However, besides timing and some very niche markets, it has not been a big show for location companies. That is, until now, when NAB welcomed drone manufacturers, all of which embed GPS in their flying aircraft.
Kevin Dennehy
LAS VEGAS — Commercial drones, a growing market for location companies, was one of the most popular topics at the National Association of Broadcasters Show, held here April 13-16.
The market for drones has grown nearly five times in the last few years, said Eric Cheng of DJI, which uses GPS in its virtual positioning system that monitors and controls the aircraft. The company markets what they call “flying cameras” that look suspiciously like drones. “The market was initially hobbyists, but now some major broadcast players are buying the cameras,” Cheng said at the Showstoppers trade event the day before NAB.
Most of the drones offer GPS-based automatic flight stabilization technology. Some even offer a long-range wireless signal and low-latency video transmission.
Many of the drones are programmed so they don’t go higher than mandated FAA rules or go into restricted, no-fly aviation zones — and all use GPS to do this. Some of the drones even return to the user automatically when their batteries run low.
DJI drone with embedded GPS.
DJI offers three cameras for the drones. The high-end Phantom 3 Advanced offers 1080P HD video at 60 frames per second. The 1080P version costs $995.
In terms of privacy and government regulation, U.S. regulators are way behind Europe, Cheng said. “Other countries are way ahead of the [United States] in terms of working with drone companies,” he said. “In terms of privacy, the step ladder was the first tool for the invasion of privacy. They haven’t outlawed step ladders.”
The slow U.S. regulatory process has forced some manufacturers to go to other countries to test their drones, said Roger Sollenberger, 3D Robotics’ editorial director. “[U.S. regulations] have moved slowly here — despite the government knowing about worldwide drone rollouts. In Japan, they have been using drones to crop dust for 20 years,” he said.
Furuno’s Don Hanham with GNSS modules at NAB.
To signal increased interest in the commercial drone market, 3D Robotics raised $70 million dollars in funding, led by investor Qualcomm, Sollenberger said. The company, which partnered with action camera giant Go Pro, says its Solo drones can be used not only by broadcast companies, but for railroad track and building inspections.
As GPS World reported, Furuno Electric Co.’s latest multi-GNSS receiver module, GN-87, has been adopted for the new quadcopter Bebop Drone. The broadcast market has been a good one for company’s timing products, drone integration and even weather prediction, said Don Hanham, a Furuno sales and marketing consultant.
Furuno is marketing its Doppler Weather Radar System for broadcast. The system allows weather predictors to follow the development of short, localized rainstorms and extreme weather conditions.
Booz Allen Hamilton Releases Report on 2015 Automaker Priorities
The era of automotive connectivity, and subsequent heavy competition, is the focus of Booz Allen Hamilton’s new report, “Getting the Customer Experience Right: Auto Industry Priorities in 2015.”
The company says that automakers should consider six key priorities this year: deliver innovation in months, not model years; differentiate with new partnerships to catch customers’ attention; secure connectivity to reinforce a relationship of trust with customers; address the “so what” of connected cars; personalize the customer experience via the tremendous potential buried in data; and find and build the market for alternative fuel vehicles.
In terms of big connected vehicle technologies this year, Jon Allen, a principal with Booz, cites 4G pipe in GM and Audi vehicles and over-the-air updates by Ford and BMW, among others. “New parental controls in the Chevy Malibu report average speed and near misses while also preventing drivers from turning on the stereo until seatbelts are fastened. It’s easy to imagine this across vehicles, with parents receiving text messages in real time,” he said.
Allen said, in terms of vehicle connectivity, automakers must answer the “so what” to set themselves apart from the competition. “We have yet to see the seminal, game-changing connectivity plays. Most companies are still in the ‘features’ mindset, offering new à la carte enhancements,” he said. “They’re not yet articulating a top-down strategy for re-envisioning the customer experience with connectivity.”
One of the company’s six priorities concerns connected security, which has been a big industry issue since the recent release of the Markey Report, which focused on how vehicles can be hacked. “We have clients who get it. They’ve identified a senior leader to champion vehicle cyber security and backed them up with a cross-functional team that works closely with counterparts across the organization — in product engineering, supply chain, safety, privacy and IT,” Allen said. “Other OEMs are still formulating their approach. That said, there are pockets of cyber security across every organization, focused on implementing security controls on individual parts. The challenge is taking the next step —moving from this segmented, ‘assembly line approach’ to a more unified program that focuses on securing the complete vehicle ecosystem.”
Allen said the company has to speak honestly to customers and regulators about how to manage vehicle cyber security risk. “Industry leaders must prioritize their security approach to ensure that higher risk scenarios are addressed first, rather than try to take on all elements of the challenge at once,” he said.
Another priority addresses the long lead times, by automakers, to develop and roll out new features, which is a challenge, Allen said. “Consumer electronics, telecommunications and software companies are redefining the traditional industry boundaries that once distinguished them from OEMs. These companies focus on connectivity and services from the start of their product design process,” he said. “The key for automakers going forward is to continue learning from these new competitors, particularly around rethinking the vehicle lifecycle, connected product design, and managing vehicle software updates after purchase. In the near future, automakers will need different approaches to building and enhancing infotainment systems that can keep pace with customer demands.”
The marriage of autonomy and connectivity is a game-changer, Allen said. “It isn’t just about plugging vehicles in to the Internet of Things. Autonomy transforms transportation,” he said. “When a car drives you, it becomes a retail outlet, a personal assistant, even a trusted chaperone — that all depends on getting both autonomy and connectivity right.”
The rise of autonomous vehicles gets to the fundamental need for industry leaders to be willing to reimagine their product, Allen said. “Autonomous capabilities are not just about engineering a safer, more efficient, and more appealing mode of transportation. That’s important, but it’s really about a distinctly different product, one that creates a sustained, services-based relationship with the customer,” he said. “It will focus on the driving experience not just behind the wheel, but sitting comfortably inside of a self-driving vehicle. The connected, autonomous vehicle will change automotive for the better — and forever.”
Allen said his company is seeing OEMs look beyond their individual vehicles to see the emerging connected society that includes ride sharing, multi-modal transportation and connected cities. “The way we go from point A to point B will look and feel drastically different 25 years from now; many OEMs are beginning to accept the change and embrace the challenge,” he said.
Parrot’s quadcopter Bebop Drone has Furuno inside.
Furuno Electric Co.’s latest multi-GNSS receiver module, GN-87, has been adopted for the new quadcopter Bebop Drone, made by Parrot SA. Parrot develops advanced technology wireless products.
The GN-87 can receive GPS, GLONASS, SBAS, and QZSS concurrently, which significantly improves positioning success rate and robustness against interferences by using different frequency bands, Furuno said.
Parrot Bebop Drone, equipped with a 14-megapixel fisheye lens camera, takes video and pictures in a 180-degree field. The drone integrates mechanical and digital systems, like shock absorbers that cushion engine vibrations and algorithms for an exclusive 3-axis image stabilization, meaning that the angle of the view remains fixed, without distortion, regardless of the inclination of the drone and movement caused by turbulence. The combination of numerous sensors gives the drone impressive stability and great maneuverability when piloted via Wi-Fi with a smartphone and a tablet, or with its Wi-Fi extender, Parrot Skycontroller.
Furuno’s GN-87 supports sensing for autonomous flying according to flight routes preset on the map application by user, automatic return to takeoff position, recording flight path data for 3D modeling on Parrot Academy map. According to Parrot, selecting Furuno’s GN-87 multi-GNSS receiver module enabled simple integration with a high-performance GNSS receiver module while guaranteeing high quality and high volume supply availability.
In the report, the analysts have identified and deciphered the market dynamics in important GNSS industry segments, highlighting the areas offering promising possibilities for companies to boost their growth, according to Research and Markets. The report studies the market by sectors including location-based services (LBS), transportation (further divided into road navigation, rail navigation, air navigation and marine navigation), surveying and agriculture. The GNSS application market is further studied by region: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of World.
The report provides a complete overview of the GNSS market globally. All the current trends and drivers, coupled with potential growth areas of the GNSS industry, have been evaluated in the report. Furthermore, the report provides information on opportunities in the industry for different companies in the chapter titled Opportunity Assessment.
Additionally, to provide an exhaustive knowledge of the prospects for GNSS players on the geographical front, the report provides comprehensive knowledge of the 10 most worthwhile GNSS markets around the world (U.S., Canada, UK, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, China, South Korea and India). It includes information about the present state and future outlook of the LBS and telematics markets in these countries along with information about their personal navigation systems such as GPS, BeiDou,Galileo, GLONASS, QZSS and IRNSS.
The report also looks into the competitive landscape covering business overviews, key financials, product analyses, recent developments and strengths and weaknesses of each of the players.
Key trends considered in the report include:
Driverless Car: New GNSS Technology Use
Indoor GNSS Positioning Poised for Growth
People, Pets and Thing Finder: The Next Attraction
GNSS Based Products: A Burgeoning Market Opportunity
Furuno Electric Co., Ltd., has announced that new multi-GNSS receiver chips eRideOPUS 6 and eRideOPUS 7 will be available in August. The new receiver chips are multi-GNSS compliant single-chip LSIs, capable of concurrently receiving signals from multiple satellites in GNSS systems and satellite-based augmentation systems, as well as Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite System. Both chips receive signals from GPS and Galileo; the eRideOPUS 7 also receives GLONASS signals.
The ability of concurrently receiving GNSS/GNSS augmentation signals from multiple satellites from different satellite services means that the receivers have more probability of acquiring a greater number of satellites at any single time. Subsequently, position stability as well as accuracy will be greatly improved, minimizing the chance of a position lost. Also, the receiver chips incorporate an enhanced level of noise rejection capability, implementing the anti-jamming function as well as the improvement of multipath mitigation.
Time-to-first-fix capability of the existing eRideOPUS 5 (no more than 1 second when hot started) is retained in these new receiver chips with a combination of A-GPS compatibility and self-ephemeris extraction. Moreover, the position update rate of the new receiver chips is greatly improved, achieving a 10-Hz update (every 0.1 second), which is twice as fast as the capability achieved by eRideOPUS 5.
The new receiver chips are capable of dead-reckoning navigation, using a gyro sensor and vehicle speed pulse signals, a gyro sensor and an acceleration sensor, and wheel tick data taken from a CAN-Bus network, achieving high positioning accuracy even in locations where satellite signal reception is not available, such as inside tunnels.
In May 2013, Furuno is planning to start the delivery of evaluation kits for the receiver chips so that third-party manufacturers can evaluate the feasibility of incorporating the receiver chips into their products, and in August 2013, the new compact GNSS receiver module GN-86/GN-87 as well as
dead-reckoning-capable GV-86/GV-87, using these new receiver chips, will be made available for automotive navigation systems as well as eCall systems.
