Tag: RTK

SwiftNav launches Piksi GPS receiver for autonomous, survey
Swift Navigation has released its first GPS receiver, named Piksi.

Piksi is a low-cost, high-performance GPS receiver with real-time kinematic (RTK) functionality for centimeter-level relative positioning accuracy.

Its small form factor, fast position-solution update rate, and low-power consumption make Piksi ideal for integration into autonomous vehicles and portable surveying equipment. An open-source architecture with a high-performance DSP on-board and our flexible correlation accelerator make it the perfect platform for GNSS research.

Piksi is designed for autonomous vehicle guidance, such as formation flight and autonomous landing; GPS/GNSS research; and surveying systems.

Features include:
- Centimeter-accurate relative positioning (carrier phase RTK)
- 50-Hz position/velocity/time solutions
- Open-source software and board design
- Low power consumption (-500 mW typical)
- Small form factor (-53 x 53 mm)
- USB and dual UART connectivity
- Integrated patch antenna and external antenna input
- Full-rate raw sample pass-through over USB
- 3-bit, 16.368 MS/s L1 front-end supports GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and SBAS signals
Swift Navigation is a San Francisco-based startup building centimeter-accurate GPS technology for automotive, surveying, robotics, agriculture and drones.

The company says its products are 100 times more accurate than the GPS in a cell phone, at a tenth of the price of the competition.

In November, the company raised $11 million in a series-A investment round led by Pierre Lamond and Lior Susan at Eclipse Ventures. Swift Navigation plans to use the funds for taking current customers to scale and growing their team, with a focus on core engineering. Another focus continues to be research and development, with a second new product due out this year.
January 28, 2016
Geneq GNSS and RTK data collector heads to the field

Geneq has introduced a new “all-in-one” GPS, GNSS and RTK Data Collector Series, the SXPro.

The professional-grade series of handheld receivers is accurate, rugged and competitively priced, the company said.

Standard features include an extra-long battery life of more than 10 hours on a charge as well as a large outdoor-viewable touchscreen. The handhelds are rated IP65 for protection against water and dust.

The SXPro handheld is also equipped with a 5-megapixel autofocus camera and Microsoft utilities. The SXPro is sold as a fully loaded package that includes a spare battery, hard carrying case and Field Genius Survey Data Collection software.

The SXPro series is built for mobile survey and GIS users for applications such as water, electric and gas utilities; transportation; mining; agriculture; and forestry.

The SXPro RTK (real-time kinematic) model offers 220 multi-constellation channels for centimeter accuracy with RTK networks. A surveyor-grade external dual-frequency antenna and cables are included.

The SXPro GNSS offers 372 multi-constellation channels for sub-meter accuracy with SBAS corrections.

January 11, 2016
NVS Technologies Releases L1 RTK Receiver
NVS Technologies AG has launched an L1 RTK+Heading GNSS receiver. The NV08C-RTK-A is fully integrated multi-constellation satellite navigation receiver with embedded RTK functionality and compatibility with GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou.

NV08C-RTK-A is specifically designed for use in high-accuracy applications, demanding low-cost, low-power consumption, small form factor and high performance, such as construction, mining and industrial; environmental and structural monitoring; machine control and automation; parallel driving systems; precision agriculture; UAVs; and robotics and intelligent machines.

More Features
- L1 GPS, GLONASS and SBAS
- Centimeter-level positioning in RTK mode
- Enhanced RAIM for 3D and RTK modes
- Three-stage filtration for high out-of-band interference immunity
- Industrial operating temperature range -40°C to +85°C
- Low power consumption
- Integrated MEMS-sensors (INS)
November 1, 2015
SkyTraq Launches RTK Receiver for UAVs, Mobile

SkyTraq’s S2525F8-BD-RTK multi-constellation RTK receiver is designed for UAV and mobile platforms.

SkyTraq Technology, a fabless GNSS positioning technology company, is introducing the S2525F8-BD-RTK, a cost-effective, low-power single-frequency RTK receiver for unmanned aerial systems and mobile platforms requiring centimeter-level position accuracy.

The S2525F8-BD-RTK multi-constellation RTK receiver supports GPS, BDS, QZSS, and SBAS, simultaneously tracking up to 28 satellites. With its 25 x 25 millimeter form factor, 300-mW power consumption and 3 gram weight, it is designed for any outdoor applications requiring high-precision RTK positioning.

S2525F8-BD-RTK supports both base station and rover modes. As a rover, it receives RTCM 3.0 or 3.1 data from a base station, or raw measurements from another S2525F8-BD-RTK receiver serving as base station, and performs carrier phase RTK processing to achieve relative positioning with 1 cm + 1 ppm position accuracy within 10-Km baseline.

Its compact evaluation board has serial interface connector supporting direct connection to Ardupilot and Pixhawk autopilots for UAS testing. A Bluetooth 2.1 module is included on-board to simplify outdoor evaluation using Bluetooth-connected smartphone or tablet to receive remote base station data via NTRIP client software over the Internet.

S2525F8-BD-RTK engineering sample, datasheet, reference design and evaluation kit will be available in October. Volume production delivery to customer begins in November 2015.

September 28, 2015
First Day at INTERGEO: UAVs and RTK GNSS Receivers

Every fall thousands of geospatial professionals are drawn to Germany, like bees are to honey, for the largest geospatial exhibition on Earth. This year in Stuttgart, more than 17,000 attendees from 92 countries are flooding the halls of the Stuttgart Exhibition grounds located adjacent to the Stuttgart International Airport. Attendees are being treated to a vast array of geospatial technology treats from 500+ exhibitors representing 30 countries.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

I recall a few short years ago, there were only a handful of UAV vendors at the entire exhibition. Now, there is hardly an aisle that does not contain a quad-copter, fixed-wing aircraft or a UAV-related accessory. The growth of UAVs into the geospatial market growth has been the most explosive geospatial technology introduced in the past 25 years, the span of time that I’ve been involved in the geospatial industry. It’s over the top — there is so much hype surrounding UAV technology that there might be more sellers than buyers. It’s become so crazy that there are vendors presenting UAVs that haven’t even been built yet! It reminds me of the days that Atari would announce a new game system nine months before it was ready to ship.

In the UAV space, I wonder which companies are actually making money. My guess is very few. A few of the big players like DJI, Parrot (owns senseFly) and 3D Robotics are doing well, plus a few others. But it’s an unhealthy buyer/seller ratio. Something’s going to give.

The sensefly eXom UAV in flight.

Today’s winners in the UAV market are companies like Pix4D, Agisoft and others who make mission planning and image-processing software for UAV-collected data. They are smart in that they aren’t competing against the hundreds of other UAV airframes on the market; they work with data from most of them. Following is a 3D example of what the Agisoft software can create given a bunch of images shot with a $1,500 DJI Phantom at 200-foot elevation.

The resolution is very good, and you’re able compute material volume such as the piles of aggregate on the west side of the river.

Inexpensive RTK

In the past, I’ve written a lot about inexpensive RTK GNSS receivers. At the InfoAg Conference a couple of months ago, Swift Navigation announced it is testing its $500 RTK receivers. At INTERGEO, CHCNav introduced L1 RTK GNSS in a mobile phone (check our website for a video on that). It’s not capable of centimeter accuracy yet, but quickly heading in that direction. NVS Tech is also pushing sub-$500 L1 RTK GNSS modules.

It’s interesting because L1 RTK is nothing new. That technology was first introduced almost 10 years ago, and wasn’t accepted very well. Now, the UAV phenomena is breathing new life into L1 RTK receiver technology because it’s driving the requirement for low-cost, high-precision GNSS receivers. L1 RTK GNSS are finally getting the love they were looking for nearly 10 years ago.

In case you weren’t able to make it to INTERGEO this year, Joelle, Michelle and I are shooting a bunch of short (~2-minute) videos at various exhibition booths while we are here. We hope to give you a flavor of the geospatial technology being offered this year in Stuttgart.

See you next time.

Following me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GPSGIS_Eric

September 15, 2015
Survey Market Key to Maxtena’s Growth

Vanja Maric

Exhibiting at CTIA Super Mobility 2015, Vanja Maric, director of sales and marketing for Rockville, Maryland-based antenna-maker Maxtena, pointed out the challenge that exists for antenna makers in an uncertain drone market: forecasting what will happen next and planning for that future.

“The problem with the drone space its so volatile and so fragmented, and it’s very, very hard to predict,” Maric said. “Speaking to industry leaders in the UAV market, they don’t even know what it’s going to be in three years, and it’s very hard to put all your cards in that.”

That fragmentation is largely a dichotomy between the needs of the professional-grade market and the recreational drone pilots, Maric said. Maxtena is currently the antenna provider for several large UAV manufacturers, although confidentiality prevents them from being named.

Maxtena M1516 L1 GPS GLONASS Passive Embedded Antenna

“It all comes down to the necessity of precision, and different industries have different needs. UAVs, for example, some use very simple GPS patch antennas, simple receivers and precise location is not as important,” he said. “Then you have guys in the professional space where it is a necessity.”

That necessity right now is in the survey market, particularly RTK solutions for construction and mining operations in emerging countries. The company has seen an uptick in customers from Asia looking for antennas for Beidou. More specifically, Maric said handhelds for lone worker tracking in open pit mining in China has had “fantastic” growth. The M1227 antenna released earlier this year accomplishes this goal.

Maxtena GPS antennas at CTIA 2015

“It’s not just hardware; they have a lot of costs—software, mapping— in on all that, and if that package is right, you have something special. However, don’t forget: The antenna is the link between you and the satellite. That antenna has to be right; that’s what most companies forget,” Maric said. “You can have the best receivers and software in the world, but if you can’t make the link you can’t do it.”

September 13, 2015
YellowScan Lidar for UAVs Aided by Inertial Nav, GPS RTK

A UAV carries the YellowScan lidar.

SBG Systems joins YellowScan to present a lightweight lidar with inertial and GPS for UAVs. The new product will be presented at the INTERGEO trade show in Stuttgart, held Sept. 15-17.

The YellowScan lidar is designed for fixed or rotary-wing UAVs, with an embedded Ellipse-E, a miniature inertial navigation system from SBG Systems, which helps obtaining a clear and accurate point cloud.

The UAV market is continuously growing, especially for professional applications like 3D surveying. Developed for such applications, YellowScan’s R&D team has worked closely with researchers and professionals in industries such as construction, surveying, mining and natural resources to create a comprehensive, high-performance and easy-to-use LiDAR.

Ellipse-E. The ready-to-use YellowScan is operational at up to 75 meters and delivers a highly dense point cloud accurate to 10/15 centimeter. The solution includes a lidar with a ±50 degree angle that measures 40,000 points per second, an Ellipse-E inertial navigation system coupled with a centimeter-level RTK GPS, an on-board computer, and an integrated battery.

The Ellipse-E miniature inertial navigation system by SBG Systems.

Once mounted on the drone, the user pushes the yellow button and YellowScan is ready to survey. LED lights give useful information on YellowScan state, for instance if the GPS is receiving RTK corrections or not. The user can launch the UAV and begin the survey. Once the task accomplished, a USB stick is used for downloading the data. An office software visualizes the point cloud in a few clicks, before opening it in an industry specific software like Terrasolid, AutoCAD or ESRI.

The YellowScan research and development team was searching for a high-performance, light and ITAR-free inertial navigation system for motion compensation and data georeferencing. They tested the Ellipse-E, the new miniature inertial navigation systems from SBG. Weighting 12 grams as an OEM version, it provides roll-and-pitch data accurate to 0.2 degree. The heading is accurate to 0.5° with only one antenna. Indeed, the heading computation relies on GPS and accelerometers data. This method is used when GPS positioning is widely available and punctuated by frequent accelerations, such as turns. The R&D team found the test results satisfying, and a point cloud highly clean. “We are very satisfied with this little Ellipse-E. It perfectly matches our technical needs, and we even gained 5 percent on the total weight of the YellowScan,” said Tristan Allouis, CTO at YellowScan.

Ellipse-E Coupled with External GPS Receiver. The Ellipse-E inertial navigation system is able to connect to any survey-grade GPS receiver and to fuse in real-time GPS position with inertial information. Ellipse-E maintains a reliable position even if GPS masks occur. In this application, the Ellipse-E is coupled with the AsterX-m OEM card from Septentrio, a receiver that uses GPS and GLONASS constellations and works with all types of RTK reference stations.

At INTERGEO, YellowScan will be in booth # F8.014, and SBG Systems will present the Ellipse-E at booth # G4.079.

A point cloud made with YellowScan.

September 4, 2015
JAVAD GNSS to Showcase New Technology at INTERGEO

High-precision receiver maker JAVAD GNSS is expected to make a major announcement at this year’s INTERGEO conference, which takes place Sept. 15-17 in Stuttgart, Germany. JAVAD GNSS will showcase its technology in Hall 6 at Booth: G6.049.

At INTERGEO 2014, JAVAD GNSS introduced its unmanned aerial vehicle, the TRIUMPH-F1. The TRIUMPH-F1 is based on the TRIUMPH-1, JAVAD GNSS’s field-tested high-precision geodetic GNSS receiver with 864 channels to track all current and future GNSS signals.

This year’s new product developments from JAVAD GNSS are not known at this point, but the company has announced on its website the BEAST RTK, with 5-Hz Base Station Transmission. The BEAST RTK provides surveyors with faster fixes under tree canopy and the ability to collect five times as many epochs in a time period. “In my ‘bad spot’ under a tree, I am making it through 10 resets in less than 10 seconds,” said one user, John Evers, PLS.

In the video below, Javad Ashjaee, president and CEO of JAVAD GNSS, and GPS World Editor-in-Chief Alan Cameron discuss the design of the TRIUMPH-F1 at INTERGEO 2014.

With more than 16,000 visitors from 92 countries, INTERGEO — held each year in a different city in Germany — is the world’s leading conference trade fair for geodesy, geoinformation and land management.

September 1, 2015
Satel Joins with Antenna Maker Welotec at INTERGEO

Finnish radio data communication specialist Satel will present innovative new products for mission-critical radio data networks at INTERGEO, being held in Stuttgart, Germany, Sept. 15-17.

In Germany, radio data communication solutions from Satel are distributed by the full-range and systems provider Welotec. At the trade fair in Stuttgart, the partners will present their products at adjacent stands. Both Satel as a radio data communication specialist and Welotec as a full-range and systems provider have a strong portfolio for the core market of RTK/GNSS, UAV and RPAS (remotely piloted aircraft systems) applications.

By 2020, Satel intends to be the world’s number one provider of mission-critical data connections, it said in a statement. This goal also includes becoming the technology leader, which the company hopes to achieve through intensified research and development.

At INTERGEO, Satel will present its latest products. Visitors will be able to see the OEM modules Satelline-M3-TR1 and Satelline-M3-TR4. These modules allow use of the frequencies requiring a license (330 – 473 MHz) as well as the European license-free frequency ranges (433.05 – 434.79 MHz and 869.400 – 869.650 MHz).

The newly developed Satelline-M3-TR4 is the smallest available data transceiver module in its class, according to Satel. The Satel Compact-Proof is a portable radio data modem with a rechargeable battery and a flexible tuning range (403 – 473 MHz). The robust Satelline EASy Pro 25W, likewise with a broad tuning range (403 – 473 MHz), allows radio communication up to a range of 50 km, which makes it quite versatile.

Welotec offers a large range of antennas that supplement the Satel radio data modems. The antennas cover a large frequency range from 68 MHz to 6000 MHz, indoor and outdoor applications, MIMO technology and also antennas with an operating range from minus 40 degrees Celsius to 80 degrees C for use in harsh environments. At INTERGEO, visitors will see innovative solutions from Welotec in the area of industrial communication — for example, the industrial UMTS, LTE and WLAN routers of the TK800 series or the high-performance Industrial-WLAN access point DM500. For measuring tasks, Welotec offers the laser distance sensor OWTB V2.1, which features an extremely high resolution and ranges of up to 500 meters for industrial applications.

Satel and Welotec will be at INTERGEO 2015 in Stuttgart in Hall 4, Booth G4.020. GPS World is covering INTERGEO live — visit gpsworld.com and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

August 12, 2015
Hemisphere GNSS Releases Next-Generation GNSS RTK Engine
Hemisphere GNSS has released Athena, its next-generation GNSS engine. Offering significantly enhanced performance, Athena provides Hemisphere with a new, future-oriented foundation providing strong performance, flexibility and reliability, according to the company.

Athena has yielded outstanding performed in virtually every environment where high-accuracy GNSS receivers can be used, the company stated. Hemisphere customers have tested Athena’s performance in long baseline, in open-sky environments, under heavy canopy, and in geographic locations experiencing significant scintillation.

Hemisphere has designed its new core engine to maximize the company’s ability to excel at the rigorous GNSS requirements in multiple market segments, supplying its customers in machine control, survey and GIS, with a design for now and in the future, Hemisphere said in a statement.

The release of Athena is a significant milestone for Hemisphere, which promises another new product entry into the market in the coming months.

Features of Athena include these capabilities:
- Initialization time — A reliably consistent initialization performance, less than 15 seconds at better than 99.9 percent reliability.
- Robustness in difficult operating environments — Extremely high productivity under the most aggressive of geographic and landscape oriented environments for GNSS, while delivering up to 50 percent better performance in user tests matched against competitive systems.
- Performance on long baselines — Position stability for long baseline applications, with position quality often times exceeding the performance of other leading RTK systems on the market.
- Performance under scintillation — Sustained accuracy under ionospheric scintillation activities, providing one of the most reliable means to work with GNSS in scintillation-affected areas.
Rodrigo Leandro, Hemisphere’s director of engineering, GNSS Positioning Systems, gave this description of the design process for Athena.

“Development of Athena started shortly after I came to Hemisphere in August of 2013. The company has been a leader in RTK solutions for many years. During those years, we focused in certain specific market segments such as agriculture, and under new leadership we determined there was a need to address a wider spectrum of market segments, with very high accuracy and feature rich capabilities built on the strong legacy platform we had already established. So, working with Mike Whitehead, the company CTO and our main RTK technologist, we identified the goal of reengineering our RTK engine to match the needs of RTK for the next 10 years, and to provide a foundation for future product development.”

Leandro continued, “As part of this, we made a decision to build an expanded, world-class software development team, pulling great talent from around the industry to create a group of 11 totally focused on what we should do to move GNSS technologies forward — looking at all types of positioning techniques, not just RTK. Athena is just the first result of that work to become publicly available — you will see plenty more coming from the team over time.

“Looking at Athena specifically, we did a complete review, touching every part of the engine — from how we deal with the atmosphere, quality-control of the data, modeling the clock of the receiver, and so on, through to how to do external corrections, whether single-based or network-based. We even looked at and modified the receiver system, improving the multitasking architecture to more actively use the CPU for our computational work,” Leandro said.

“I’m proud to say that the results of all that work match up to what we envisioned. RTK is a pretty mature technology at this point, so improving on what is available in the industry is a tough ask. However, our extensive competitive testing shows that the engine performs really well in terms of initialization, accuracy, and stability across a range of different environments, for instance in long baselines and under tree canopy, and our tests of scintillation are showing great results as well. Overall, we have seen excellent accuracy coming out of this engine compared to legacy as well as others in the marketplace. It’s hard to win every single time in a toe-to-toe comparison, as systems and conditions differ in every test, but our broad testing shows us not only matching, but beating competitive systems pretty consistently.”

“In our user base, both Hemisphere branded products and our OEM boards, we get exposed to a wide variety of applications and environments, from agriculture and marine, through machine control applications and survey systems,” Leandro said. “Our goal from the start was to build a system that performed across that user base, and we are proud to say that we have delivered with Athena.”

“In terms of availability, we want to get the Athena engine on as many current and legacy systems as possible, so our users have the best possible experience. However, we have also been improving the legacy engine as well, delivering gradual steps of improvement to our customers, so whatever version they are using, their experience should be much improved,” Leandro concluded.

Test Reports

Hemisphere GNSS provided the following statements by an independent tester and from customers, widely distributed around the industry.

“I’ve had an opportunity to thoroughly test Athena in both moderate and extreme environments,” said Andy Carbognin, an independent GNSS test specialist at Vecto Geomatics of Ottowa, Canada. “I’m very impressed with the performance, and we’ve tested alongside the current industry leaders’ top-of-the-line products. In every situation, Athena is proving to be a tremendous improvement over Hemisphere’s most widespread legacy firmware versions, at a minimum, matching the industry’s best while in many cases exceeding their performance.”

“Carlson Software has extensively tested Hemisphere’s new Athena RTK engine on the Carlson BRx5 GNSS receiver,” said Butch Herter, director of Hardware Development, Carlson Software. “The Athena RTK engine provides precise, reliable, and repeatable positions. Athena exceeds or matches the performance of all other GNSS receivers it has been tested against. We have been particularly impressed with the performance of the Athena engine, when using a long baseline or in areas where there is a limited view of the sky. Athena is a first class RTK engine.”

“We’ve been working with Hemisphere’s technology for a number of years,” states Randy Noland, vice president of business development and director of Machine Control, Carlson Software. “I’m amazed at the team they’ve brought together and how they’re radically modernizing their technology. Collaborating with the ‘new’ Hemisphere has been an eye-opening experience, and I’m excited at how their innovative technologies will positively impact our future business.”

“In the marine construction and hydrographic survey markets, time is money. We’ve seen very high system reliability and impeccable results using the Athena RTK engine, which ensures we are achieving maximum up-time,” said Harrison Steves, operations manager at Cable Arm. “As well, not being tied to a specific make of RTK base gives us flexibility with our equipment deployment.”

“We’ve found Athena to offer exceptional performance, especially their RTK fix times and maintaining RTK lock on long baselines,” said David Vaughn, CEO, Novariant. “With the latest competitive performance testing completed, Novariant is excited about adding Hemisphere’s Athena offering to the list of the Novariant-recognized certified receivers that, when combined with our precision steering solution, can assure centimeter-level steering control in the toughest environments in the world.”

CEO Statement

“Our goal is to be nothing short of the best GNSS technology partner in the industry, and a key component of that is delivering market-leading technologies tailored to our customer’s needs,” said Chuck Joseph, Hemisphere GNSS CEO and president. “To that end, we have put together a world-class team that is totally rethinking our product family, and our new Athena engine is just the first, powerful proof of our fresh approach. Watch this space!”

Availability

Before the end of this month, Athena will be included in all Hemisphere multi-frequency, RTK-capable products, such as the A325, R330, S320 and VS330. To download and install Athena, visit Hemisphere’s Software page.
May 7, 2015
Maxtena Displays L1/L2 GPS Antennas for Use in UAS

Stani Licul, CEO of Maxena, displays some of its antennas for use in UAS (unmanned aerial systems) at Unmanned Systems 2015, held May 4-7 in Atlanta. Maxtena’s active rugged antenna is designed for L1/L2 GPS and GLONASS bands for GNSS satellite and RTK applications.

May 4, 2015
NovAtel Showcases FlexPak6, FlexPak-S Receivers

At Unmanned Systems 2015, held May 4-7 in Atlanta, NovAtel’s Peter Soar talks about the company’s FlexPak6 receiver that houses its OEM628 triple-frequency plus L-Band GNSS receiver board. It has a highly configurable interface to ensure precise positioning for UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) applications. Soar explains that its “sister unit,” the FlexPak-S, contains a real time kinematic (RTK) GPS receiver with an L-3 XFACTOR Selective Availability Anti Spoofing Module (SAASM). The two receivers are both the same size and fit.

May 4, 2015