As we begin 2023, GNSS development continues apace, as described in this issue’s annual “Directions” section by representatives of Galileo, GLONASS, and BeiDou. We plan to publish a similar update on the GPS program soon.
Galileo’s user base now stands at more than 3.5 billion, and the services it provides continue to improve and expand. Beginning early this year, free precise point positioning (PPP) corrections for Galileo and GPS (single- and multi-frequency) will improve real-time user position by up to 10 times. While the discontinuation of Soyuz launch services from the Kourou Space Centre in French Guiana, due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, delayed the two Galileo launches that had been planned for last year, 2022 was a key year for the development of Galileo Second Generation (G2G) satellites. They will provide, among other innovations, a reconfigurable fully digital navigation payload, point-to-point connection between satellites, and advanced jamming and spoofing protection mechanisms.
On Nov. 29, 2022, Russia launched the 51st Glonass-M satellite, about 20 years after launching the first one. Currently, 13 of these satellites are operating beyond their guaranteed lifetime, with an average orbit lifetime of more than 10 years. Starting this year, the constellation will be renewed by Glonass-K and Glonass-K2 satellites, which provide CDMA signals to users.
Currently, 45 BDS satellites are operational in orbits, including 15 BDS-2 satellites and 30 BDS-3 satellites. The constellation says that it has reached a continuity of 99.996% and an availability of 99%, with a global positioning accuracy better than 1.5 meters horizontally and 2.5 meters vertically (95% confidence).
Tracy Cozzens, who has been a pillar of this magazine for 17 years, is retiring this month. We will miss her journalistic acumen, dedication to clarity and style, attention to detail, and wealth of institutional knowledge. We wish her a well-deserved retirement. At the same time, we welcome aboard Maddie Saines, our new managing editor, who is near the beginning of her career.
I am pleased to announce that Rob VanBrunt has joined GPS World’s Editorial Advisory Board. In mid-December, the board of directors of Spirent Federal Systems, a provider of PNT test solutions for the U.S. government and contractors, appointed him as the company’s president/CEO-designate, a role he will assume when the onboarding process is complete.
VanBrunt began his career at Spirent Communications in 1990 as product developer and manager, and then held posts of increasing responsibilities, moving to director and vice president roles focused on management, strategy and mergers and acquisitions. Most recently, he was executive vice president in the Office of Business Excellence. VanBrunt has a B.S. in electrical and electronics engineering from Rutgers University.
Spirent Communications is a global provider of automated test and assurance solutions for networks, cybersecurity and positioning. In July 2001, the company formed Spirent Federal Systems as a wholly owned subsidiary and U.S. proxy company. Spirent Federal markets and sells Spirent Communications’ products in North America. It also provides value-added features and ongoing customer support.
On Jan. 1, I lost my beloved mother, Maristella “Mimi” Luccio. She was 87.
Innovation is the watchword in Washington this year. Amidst an ongoing supply-chain crisis and rising global trade tensions, policymakers have put renewed emphasis on U.S. leadership in such industries as semiconductors, wireless broadband and artificial intelligence — areas rightly seen as the “enabling technologies” of the 21st century.
Alongside chips and supercomputers is another innovation underpinning everything from our communications networks to financial transactions and air transportation: GPS technology. 2022 will see a flurry of activity to accelerate U.S. competitiveness for the modern economy and accelerating the modernization of our GPS constellation must place high on this list.
It’s no surprise that allies and adversaries alike have taken notice of GPS. While for decades U.S.-led GPS was the “only game in town” for global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) services, the current global picture is much changed. Russia, China, the European Union, Japan, India and other nations have explored, tested and deployed satellites to build out their own global or regional positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) networks and capabilities. The more recently deployed GNSS — including China’s BeiDou, which was completed in 2020 — represent a competitive threat by our international adversaries in spite of U.S. GPS technology advancements in performance and resilience. The potential loss of global leadership poses a dramatic challenge for U.S. interests.
Although our current GPS constellation continues to enable critical services that touch nearly every aspect of daily life, the oldest satellites were launched in the late 1990s. As new, more advanced GPS satellites go up in the sky, we can take several policy steps here on the ground to ensure that GPS remains the global standard — undermining attempts to create an information ecosystem independent of the United States and reliant on our international competitors.
Enter the United States’ GPS modernization program. Allocating the resources necessary to accelerate the launch of new GPS satellites will pave the way to keeping GPS globally competitive — both in defense and civil applications. Take accuracy, for starters. New GPS satellites will bring three times better accuracy than existing systems and up to eight times improved anti-jamming capabilities, both of which will keep us competitive and add critical security against domestic spoofers and foreign adversaries.
While U.S. firms should continue to create multi-constellation receivers that are interoperable with global PNT signals, U.S. policy should promote American technological leadership by accelerating modernization of the GPS space and control segments. Importantly, a necessary element of this technological leadership is development of a systematic roadmap to spur adoption of these new modernized features in civil applications. Establishing this clear pathway for civilian applications of a modernized GPS constellation is critical to ensuring that the potentially more than $1 billion of economic benefits added every day by the U.S. civil GPS sector are fully realized.
As Congress continues to focus on innovation and global competition, the GPS Innovation Alliance is committed to working with policymakers to promote the critical security, economic and diplomatic benefits to the United States of investing in next-generation GPS infrastructure.
Originally a product of the Sputnik era, GPS has demonstrated the very best features of competitive U.S. government investment. As the United States prepares for a renewed era of global competition, the promise today of invigorated support for GPS remains the same.
The United States must continue to lead by modernizing GPS and establishing a clear pathway for civilian applications of the improved constellation. (Image: matejmo/iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images)
BAE Systems Inc. has received a $325.5 million contract from the Defense Logistics Agency for advanced military code (M-code) GPS modules that will provide reliable and secure positioning, navigation and timing data with anti-jamming and anti-spoofing capabilities.
The modules will help warfighters conduct operations in contested electronic warfare environments.
“Our state-of-the-art GPS technology works with the advanced military M-code signal to provide reliable information to the warfighters who depend on it,” said Greg Wild, director of Navigation and Sensor Systems at BAE Systems. “This contract will ensure the availability of M-code module inventory to build advanced, next-generation GPS receivers.”
Under the multi-year contract, BAE Systems will deliver Modernized GPS User Equipment (MGUE) Increment 1 Common GPS Modules (CGMs) compatible with the advanced M-code signal to support the U.S. Department of Defense and international allies through 2030.
BAE Systems will manufacture the modules, manage their inventory on behalf of the Defense Logistics Agency, and use them to build military-grade GPS receivers for ground and precision-guided munitions.
BAE Systems’ portfolio of M-code GPS receivers provides flexible, efficient, and reliable navigation and guidance solutions for airborne systems, precision munitions, handheld receivers, and embedded applications.
According to a new market research report, “Anti-Jamming Market for GPS with COVID-19 Impact, by Receiver Type (Military and Government Grade and Commercial Transportation Grade), Technique (Nulling, Beam Steering and Civilian), End-User, Application and Geography — Global Forecast to 2025,” the anti-jamming market for GPS is valued at $4 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $5.9 billion by 2025.
The report, published by MarketsandMarkets, also states that the market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.9% from 2020 to 2025. Some of the key factors driving this growth include high demand for GPS technology in military applications and ongoing developments to improve overall GPS structure. Factors such as the growing demand for unmanned airborne vehicles and systems and the development of low-cost GPS anti-jamming solutions also are expected to provide growth opportunities to players in the GPS anti-jamming market.
According to the report, Nulling Technique is expected to hold largest share of GPS anti-jamming market from 2020 to 2025. In addition, surveillance and reconnaissance are expected to hold largest share of GPS anti-jamming market during the forecast period.
The GPS anti-jamming market in Asia Pacific is expected to grow significantly, as a result of a rise in the number of terror attacks in the region, which has led to countries enhancing their surveillance and antiterrorism capabilities, the report added. Countries in this area are also manufacture defense aircraft, which is expected to increase the scope of GPS anti-jamming for defense and aerospace systems. An increase in the defense expenditures of India and China, among other countries, and the expansion of militaries in emerging economies also have accelerated the demand for GPS anti-jamming solutions in Asia Pacific.
Raytheon Technologies, Hexagon, Thales Group, L3Harris Technologies, BAE Systems, Cobham, Mayflower Communications, infinDome, Lockheed Martin, Israel Aerospace Industries, Furuno Electric and Meteksan Defense are few major players in the GPS anti-jamming market.
MarketsandMarkets provides B2B research on 30,000 niche opportunities/threats that will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies’ revenues, the research firm said.
F. Michael Swiek, president, Mike International LLC
It is often said that “Behind every successful man there is a woman.” Likewise, if we look behind every significant event, policy statement, technological achievement and milestone in GPS history, there are people. They make the textbook chronologies of impressive progress both personal and human.
My own 30-year association with GPS has tracked closely with that of GPS World. Here are vignettes that sit most warmly in my “family snapshot album” of great moments in GPS.
In December 1994, the Civil GPS Service Interface Committee (CGSIC) held its first international meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland, hosted by the Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB). The small team of Americans attending the meeting were invited the following day to participate as the “International Team” in the annual NLB quiz competition held in a venerable pub. The competition is hotly contested each year among the NLB divisions, with the winning division commemorated with a brass medallion on a large wooden plaque kept for decades in NLB headquarters. To everyone’s chagrin, the Americans won. The good humor and boisterous camaraderie of that evening laid the foundation for close and candid dialogue between U.S. and European institutions on a wide variety of satellite navigation issues for years to come.
In 1996, Charlie Trimble was to introduce Vice President Al Gore in a ceremony at the White House to announce a Presidential Policy Statement on GPS. On the scheduled day, Charlie was unable to enter the White House, despite being vouched for by White House officials, because he was carrying no photo ID. White House security asked me if I had anything official with Charlie’s picture. They finally accepted a copy of the Trimble Navigation annual report, because in the words of one security officer, “I’ve heard of fake driver’s licenses, but not fake corporate annual reports.” Charlie was admitted.
On September 11, 2001, all of us attending CGSIC and ION in Salt Lake City sat stunned in our conference room watching the news reports from New York. Our meeting sessions were canceled, but we came from our hotel rooms because we needed to be together as friends in our shock and confusion, worrying about our families and friends and what the days ahead would be like. Anyone with a cell phone able to get a line out gladly shared it.
“I’ll only be a minute, just want to check with my family.”
“Talk as long as you want.”
In the mid-1990s in the ION exhibit hall, I was walking and talking with Charlie Trimble, Randy Hoffman (founder of Magellan Systems) and Gary Burrell (co-founder of Garmin), who were engaged in good-natured trash talking about each others’ companies, products and personalities. Glen Gibbons, founder of this esteemed publication, came across us, smiled, and said he was surprised to see such a congenial group of competitors. Charlie responded that in the marketplace they were competitors, but at ION they were all colleagues.
Glen added, “So, all friends!”
All three blurted, “Don’t go that far!” amid more laughs and grins.
The Japan GPS Council became one of the earliest and most influential industry groups in helping to guide the evolution and growth of GPS policy and industry, due to the personal passion of Hiroshi Nishiguchi. When meetings were held in Washington, Nishiguchi, other international representatives, industry and government officials would be guests in our home for convivial dinner chats. Nishiguchi became so comfortable, we considered him like family. He would leave a cardigan sweater in our coat closet between visits, and upon entering our house would remove his tie and suit jacket, go to the closet, and put on his sweater — like Mr. Rogers — before relaxing for the evening. He performed this ritual even when accompanying senior Japanese officials.
So, while technological milestones and policy commitments tell a great deal of the story of GPS, there are also the unique and cherished people, and the privilege it has been to know them as friends.
Feature image: Smithsonian; Charlie Trimble provides the 4000A GPS Locator to the Smithsonian Museum. Introduced in 1984, the Trimble 4000A was the first commercial GPS positioning product.
While GPS technology originally started as a product of the space race, it has transformed in recent decades to be used in a variety of different industries. Its positioning and navigation capabilities make many everyday tasks easier to achieve. One industry that has continuously benefitted from this technology is agriculture.
The world’s population is expected to reach nearly 10 billion people by 2050, effectively increasing global food demand by 50%, according to the United Nations. To meet these demands, global agricultural productivity will need to increase by 1.75% a year.
Currently, productivity is only growing at an average rate of 1.63%, according to the Global Harvest Initiative. Precision agriculture and advanced technologies, such as automation, computer vision, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are already on the farm helping farmers meet this demand, and GPS technology plays an especially significant and transformative role in making this happen.
Game-Changer
The development of automated driving and self-driving tractors has changed the game for farming by allowing technology to drive the machines with great accuracy, while farmers focus on other value-added tasks.
Over time, that technology further developed in conjunction with other technology on the farm, such as GPS. Having a reliable way to keep equipment from running over crops is incredibly important to farmers.
The GPS technology we use at John Deere is accurate within centimeters and complements the computer vision and sensors within the tractors with precise positioning in the field. This allows the farmer to drive faster without running over and damaging the crop. It also means farmers no longer cover the same ground twice.
Other technology has also been installed on farming machines to provide added value, especially when paired with GPS. When used alongside sensors, GPS offers the potential to enable real-time data collection. Sensors throughout the field let farmers know things such as where each seed was planted or environmental conditions while spraying nutrients on their crops.
Historical data from the farmer and garnered through the technology are turned into maps that, when combined with real-time information from the sensors, enable farmers to have even more accurate and precise information about what is happening next in the field, to ultimately optimize operations. This is critical as almost every job that gets done on the farm has to be completed in short time windows.
Spatial intelligence provides a more vivid representation of what is happening in the field at all times so the farmer can make real-time decisions and plan for the future.
Tasks such as tilling, planting, spraying and harvesting are easier when farmers have a more precise way to track their position. GPS technology, working in conjunction with computer vision cameras and sensors, allows crops to be distributed more evenly across a field and enables seeds to be planted at exactly the correct spacing and position to maximize yield.
All of these tasks boost productivity and sustainability on the farm by providing farmers with the data to make informed, sustainable decisions.
Photo: John Deere
Machines Talking to Each Other
Technology on farms has evolved to the point where machines can wirelessly communicate to each other in the field. This concept, known as machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, is also linked closely to GPS technology. Enabling machines to know where in the field another machine is and what work it has done in real time means the machines work as a team to get the job done in the most efficient way possible with no overlap. Coordination among machines helps farmers avoid redundant effort and the overuse of valuable inputs, which allows for more efficient use of resources and unlocks the potential of automation.
As the agriculture community continues to work to meet the rising demands for food, fuel and fiber, GPS technology will play a key role to help farmers make more food more efficiently, sustainably and with greater consistency in results. This not only benefits the farmer’s business, but it impacts every single person in the world.
Al Savage is the StarFire Network manager at John Deere.
When I started Racelogic nearly 30 years ago, I could not have foreseen how intrinsically embedded GPS would become in my life. I started out with the goal of supplying electronic control systems to the motorsport world. From traction control systems to paddle shifters for automatic cars, our technology rapidly built a reputation for quality and accuracy. It was this pursuit of accuracy that led me to GPS.
GPS can be used for a wide variety of applications, but still not many people realize just how accurate it is for measuring the speed of a moving object. It was whilst looking for a solution to measure ground speed to use as a reference for a traction control system for a 4-wheel drive rally car that we came across an Ashtech 20-Hz GPS engine and were amazed to find out just how accurate the speed output was. This was a turning point in Racelogic’s history, which led to the development of one of our best-known products, the Velocity Box (VBOX), which is used to measure speed, distance and acceleration of vehicles for use in the test and development of new cars.
It is undoubtedly an exciting time for GNSS. New signals and constellations are delivering a huge improvement in performance, which has spurred the release of new, lower cost, game-changing products into the marketplace. With cm-level position now becoming affordable for almost any application, it will be fascinating to follow how this changes the face of the positioning market, and see what innovations and novel applications will appear.
Delivering solutions to these emerging applications will require agility and flexibility to integrate GPS with sector-specific technology. If this can be combined with solutions that overcome some of the limitations of GPS, then the opportunities are boundless. I for one am excited to see where the next 30 years takes us.
Miguel Amor, chief marketing officer, Hexagon’s Autonomy & Positioning Division
GPS World celebrates its 30th anniversary, and together we’ve seen huge leaps of innovation over the years. Reflecting on these developments, I wanted to share some of the contributions Hexagon | NovAtel made to support the evolution of the GNSS industry.
We began in 1978 in Alberta, Canada, in the telecommunications industry. In the 1990s, we shifted our focus to satellite receivers, choosing to forge ahead in GPS/GNSS technology. This decision would see NovAtel become one of the world’s leading manufacturers of high-precision GNSS components and systems developing multiple new patents and innovative solutions.
Our engineers have seen first-hand the growth of GPS and other satellite positioning systems worldwide, GNSS adoption across industries from aerospace to agriculture, and the present-day developments of precise positioning in autonomous applications. A rising tide raises all boats, and we helped foster the evolution of the industry through our goals of assured autonomy and positioning.
GAJT-710ML anti-jam antenna. (Photo: Hexagon)
Assured positioning means a reliable and robust solution you can trust. Technologies we’ve contributed to the broader industry include our GPS Anti-Jam Technology (GAJT) protecting users’ positioning, time and navigation, and SPAN technology, which expertly combines GNSS and inertial navigation systems (INS) measurements for seamless motion observations and a robust positioning solution. The capabilities of these technologies have been major contributors to the evolution of the GNSS industry.
Hexagon acquired NovAtel in 2007, and we’ve continued to grow and develop exciting new opportunities around the world where GNSS can grow, strengthen and improve applications in agriculture, automotive, defense, marine and many other industries. Our mission of assured autonomy and positioning encourages us to continue providing assured positioning in the most demanding environments and begin bringing autonomy to these markets.
GPS World has been a key player in covering these technological advancements for the past three decades. Together as an industry, we’ll continue innovating positioning and autonomy, and I’m excited to see how the industry will evolve over the next 30 years.
Jules McNeff, vice president, strategy & programs, Overlook Systems Technologies
I welcome the opportunity to contribute and congratulate GPS World on your 30th anniversary. Over those 30 years, I have watched GPS influence how the world works. Early on, along with its vital contributions to U.S. and allied military operations, there was great optimism that sharing civil GPS technology openly would bring improved safety and efficiency to people around the world. However, that sense of optimism has dimmed as GPS, and the GNSS construct and PNT enterprise that it spawned, confront evolving real-world events.
Several years ago, I wrote a paper positing that in terms of dual-use utility and risks, GPS and related PNT capabilities are analogous to two other technology innovations that have occurred since the Second World War: atomic energy and the internet. The paper considered GPS/PNT in the context of each, reflecting our experiences with those two dual-use extremes.
The paper concluded that, unlike atomic energy, which has been fairly well controlled, GPS/PNT more closely resembles the internet, which has for better or worse been allowed to grow into a global capability virtually without constraint. For GPS/PNT, a fixation on civil, commercial and scientific uses enabled civil authorities uncomfortable with the military side of the dual-use equation to ignore that reality and focus only on “peaceful” civil and scientific endeavors. Unfortunately, the international comity that participants had hoped for, and that appeared for a time to be real, can no longer be assured.
Where the U.S. has been open and transparent regarding a dual-use GPS, others have not. Now, the open sharing of information that has been the hallmark of the civil GNSS community over the years must be viewed seriously and candidly through the clear lens afforded by the overt actions of GNSS providers.
Collective efforts to improve GNSS for peaceful uses ignore the reality that the information shared can equally and dangerously undermine international security. As with the internet, those who have become dependent on precise GPS/PNT services must now reactively create protections and remediations to deal with increasingly real threats from those we had considered colleagues.
So, naivete and optimism must finally yield in the face of hard reality.
Stuart Riley, vice president of GNSS technology, Trimble
Over the past 30 years, GPS World has been at the forefront of the transition of GPS from obscure technology to ubiquitous utility. The magazine was first published before the satellite constellation achieved Initial Operational Capability (IOC). In fact, it preceded Operation Desert Storm, which created unprecedented publicity and demand for GPS equipment; and has documented a period of unprecedented increase in the rate of change in the technical disciplines.
Thirty years after the Wright brothers’ initial flight, commercial air travel remained expensive, uncomfortable, and available to relatively few people. Compare that to GPS and GNSS — in 30 years the technology has moved from 50-pound receivers powered by car batteries to residing in the pockets and on the wrists of billions of people.
In 1978, the year the first GPS Block-I satellite was launched, Trimble was founded. Trimble’s first product was a Loran receiver in 1980, followed by the world’s first commercial GPS product in 1984. The year the magazine was launched, Trimble became the first publicly traded GPS company in 1990. Positioning technology is in Trimble’s DNA and the foundation for helping transform industries such as construction, agriculture, transportation, geospatial and more.
Two factors drove GPS from obsurity to ubiquity: Rapid technological advances (electronics, software, communications, and increasing numbers of satellites) combined with innovations using positioning to benefit large numbers of users across disparate applications. Think of it as “Moore’s Law meets market demand.”
A Malaysian tribe and the Trimble 4000SLD, the first kinematic “backpack” GPS receiver. Weighing 44 lbs. without batteries, the receiver was introduced in 1988. (Photo: Trimble)
The key to GNSS’s growth is its adaptability. By serving a broad range of industries, GNSS manufacturers addressed widely differing needs for precision, form factors, interfacing, and availability of positions. The markets drove the development of more-capable and cost-efficient solutions and injected varying requirements for performance and functionality.
Recent advances illustrate the ability of GNSS technology to react to market needs. Satellite-delivered PPP corrections enable users to achieve real-time centimeter accuracy with fast convergence time almost anywhere on Earth. Low-cost, high-performance inertial sensors boost performance in challenging environments. Software-defined high-precision GNSS receivers, coupled with augmented reality on consumer devices (phones and tablets), open the door to innovation in as-yet-undiscovered directions.
GNSS is playing a key role in a broad range of applications. For example, compact, high-precision receivers are transforming work by delivering higher levels of productivity, reliability, safety and flexibility in industries including automobile and trucking, precision farming, and earthworks and construction. Future applications are expected to increasingly integrate GNSS with other sensors to drive productivity and safety for autonomous applications.
It took less than 30 years to move from static post-processed positioning to holding centimeter precision in your hand. For those of us who experienced the early days, GNSS has changed the world in ways we never imagined. The next three decades will see GNSS embedded into applications unimaginable today.
And to GPS World: Congratulations and thank you for 30 great years of pioneering the education, awareness, and promotion of the GNSS industry.
Everywhere we look, data is being collected, reviewed, analyzed and stored. It used to be that data was a static piece of information, like a piece of paper in a filing cabinet. Millions of pieces of data being created yet almost all of it never to be used again. The computer and electronic storage began a revolution of how we warehouse this information but that was only the beginning. Technology has turned data into a living, breathing beast few understand yet it controls most of our lives in various ways.
Mapping of the earth has not always been about establishing boundaries and parcels; many of the early maps and plats were created to depict the topography of our world. While there are some indications that Middle East maps depicted parcels, the first examples of topographic maps were created during the Roman Empire era of 300 A.D. It is common knowledge that the Romans utilized primitive yet cunning engineering for roads, buildings, and waterways but it was the initial topography that was mapped that allowed them to design those forward-thinking infrastructure components. Because of the lack of sophistication in the measuring methods and data collection, these topographic maps covered small areas and often crude because of the materials available. Considering what they were working with, it is still incredible what they were able to map, design and build.
Measuring devices and methods of data collection expanded over the centuries like most occupations and professions. By the 16th and 17th century, mathematics has been introduced at a wider scale through many educational facilities. Another profession, geographers, also advanced with the evolution of measuring devices and mapping techniques. It was during this period that we began to see a crossover with surveyors with geographers to create topographic maps with greater accuracy and precision through triangulation.
In the 18th and 19th century, instruments became more sophisticated to assist in the determination of elevations and more accurate angle measurements. The concept of triangulation flourished during this period and significant mapping was made for most of the civilized world. The early 1800s saw the westward push of expansion in the United States and Thomas Jefferson, U.S. president and former surveyor, led the charge to map the existing states and divide the west into sectional land for sale to settlers.
Besides the establishment of the Public Land Survey System, surveyors also provided topographic information for map of all sizes for future development planning. The late 1800s brought a large amount of topographic mapping information to paper through efforts by the U.S. Geological Society to map the entire United States. This information has been called the first land database; although crude in overall nature compared to today’s standards, it contained an enormous amount of topographic information.
These surveys continued well into the early 20th century until a revolutionary invention coupled with a current technology merged: the use of a mounted camera taking aerial photographs from an airplane. Geographers and photogrammetrists were able to use surveying data to assist with scaling orthometric photographs to create aerial images of thousands of acres of land. These aerial photos became the base layer for determining topographic features and contouring, covering much more land than ever before. Additional innovations included advancements in stereo plotting and photogrammetric techniques to further create high sophisticated topographic maps for the era. This type of mapping was the gold standard for decades depicting existing condition and topographic features for most of the world until the early 1970s and the computerized data revolution.
Computers take over the world (literally)
1960s mainframe computer (Photo: NASA)
While mainframe computers became more universally used in the 1960s, their use was contained to governmental agencies and large corporations. As the physical size of the computer reduced, the computing capacity increased, programming became easier to complete, and more applications were created to perform a variety of tasks. One of the biggest advancements for the era was electronic storage and analyzation of data through programming. Relational databases became a hot ticket for large datasets; geographic data was the perfect fit for this type of application. Modern mapping was on its way forward at warp speed.
Topographic mapping was not lost in this shuffle. The survey itself is based upon data points located on the face of the earth so each point is just another chunk of information within the database. Programming continued to advance and soon methods previous completed by manual methods over long periods of time were completed in a fraction of previous efforts without fail.
This effort was also joined with advancements in graphical technology to display this data on a computer video screen instead of lines of green text and numbers. Vector-based graphics, together with enormous point databases, helped create large topographical and geographical maps for many uses. During the same time the US put a man on the moon, mapping and platting of topographic information was also out of this world.
The turn of the century brings big changes
For the next decade, there were small advances in technology for topographic surveys and data points, but most were in presentation of data and increases in computing power. Pen plotters and smaller yet more powerful computers were becoming affordable to smaller companies, but it was still a large investment to get into the computerized data game for a surveyor. By the mid-1980s, electronic data collection with a total station was becoming the norm, but only meant collecting more points in a more efficient timeframe. The computing component did get faster but is still producing the same information of static data points.
Ancient techniques and new technologies (Image: ngs.noaa.gov)
The mid-1980s also brought us a shiny new object: GPS technology. By the end of the 1990s, we were able to get out of our vehicle, start the receiver and collect geolocated points in minutes rather than hours. The big takeaway from this advancement is the geolocation component of the data point. Now everything can be related to one big dataset of topographical points. By creating a database with all our project data collected in the same georeferenced datums (horizontal & vertical), we can create digital models that replicate existing conditions.
We can also add another big advancement in data collection: remote sensing technology. From laser and lidar scanners, photogrammetry, SLAM technology and ground penetrating radar, the innovations to collect data at locations we can “see” through sensing are now a reality. Another significant improvement with this technology is the amount of data points remote sensing can collect, both in timing and spacing. We are now talking small scanning projects that consist of billions of points within the site point cloud. We are fortunate that our computing power and storage capabilities has increased exponentially along with the remote sensing. (Remember doing a “regen” on your CAD file and having time to get a cup of coffee?)
Lots of data — now what?
Data is powerful, especially when it is harnessed in a robust system that can analyze and model for future use. Yes, this condition also applies to the surveying world, even though you may not be thinking about it now. We can use this data to create a virtual world that mimics the one we live in; the difference is that we exist in ours yet model and manipulate the digital version in our computer system. The technology is now available, and we can make a replica of our current world; however, why would we want to do that? There are lots of reasons to use technology and data to make sophisticated topographic maps (because that is what they are) for recording the world around us.
One of the big differences now is that we have much more information about the data points we collect within our topographic maps. Sure, many surveyors will say that their data has not changed or evolved during their careers, but they would be wrong. Unless they are still manually writing it all down for hand plotting… (Hello! The 1960s called, and they want their field book back!) Every electronically collected point has attributes associated with the data.
These attributes, while they may be simple, contain important information about the datapoint it represents. Horizontal location? Check. Vertical elevation? Check. Assigned point number? Probably. Field code? Most likely. But it also has one other important component: time. We now know exactly when that point was collected. Why is that important?
Because, like a lot of instances, things change. Something collected today might not be there tomorrow. Time is just as important as the physical location and the type of point it represents.
Gather these points together, throw them in one big model and you have yourself a graphical database that can be analyzed, reviewed, and used for planning and design. It may be hard to visualize with just simple survey data using GNSS and/or a total station, but couple it with a scanner or photogrammetry, you have a powerful hunk of data for which to work.
Why is this workflow and modeling procedure important enough to dedicate an entire column about surveying and GNSS to? Because it used to be far in the future, but the need and availability to use it is now here in front of us. Surveying and GNSS are an important part of this effort to create three dimensional models. By using survey-grade data in conjunction with point clouds collected from remote sensing equipment, we can replicate the world around us in real time.
Yes, Virginia, there is a name for the modeling process…
Photo: iStock.com/alexsl
The name for the proposed modeling of this dataset is a digital twin. It represents a digital representation of a physical object or system. NASA famously used the concept for their space program to simulate situations and procedures of many different types of events. The concept has grown with the technology to graphically create almost anything through digitalization and computer modeling. Once the model is created, both actual and proposed data points can be included to represent the existing and future opportunities.
The idea of a digital twin is not new; technology, however, has pumped more life into its existence by leaps and bounds with computing power and data storage capability. I remember, early in my career, going into an architect’s office and seeing the scale model mockup of a new development or building. The streets in the model were perfect, there were no drainage issues, and it was a neat as a pin. Fast forward to the construction of the development and field changes were at every turn. A digital twin will allow for better planning, more thorough design and creating more cost-effective development. Many large cities have started compiling data and building their digital twin, including New York, Singapore, Boston, and Rotterdam. Engineering and planning for new and replacement facilities is very expensive yet analysts predict that having a digital twin to work will save a significant amount of money and time.
As a surveyor, what’s in it for me?
Software capability for the surveyor is already here. Companies, such as Hexagon, Trimble, Topcon and Esri to name a few, have been developing their software to accommodate this concept for many years. Still, lots of surveyors do not know about it. And we should. Many of us live in places where the infrastructure is well past its useful life period and should have been replaced long ago. By starting now with survey-grade data to be put into a real-time model, we can help our governmental agencies and their consultants to move towards a digital twin that will ultimately save money and possibly lives.
What this means for the surveyor is to further embrace technology and include remote sensing into your operation. If you have not started at least looking into UAVs and photogrammetry, you are already behind. Many aerial operations are making the next leap into mounting a LiDAR unit on their UAV to gain even more capability. Early adopters of laser scanners were probably second guessing their decision during the 2008 Depression but if they stayed with it, it will be a big payoff in the long run. The next leap will be into handheld scanning devices, including ones using SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) technology for locating interior and close-up improvements. These technologies will cost a significant amount of time and money to implement but municipalities, engineers and architects are going to be clamoring for the data any day now.
When it comes to surveying and mapping of existing facilities, the surveyor and technology makes a great team. Do not let point clouds, remote sensing, or terabytes of data scare you away from providing badly needed information to help assemble your local digital twin. In the long run, it will pay off for all who take on the challenge of building it.
