A Ukrainian intelligence assessment obtained by CNN and CBS reported an Iranian UAV downed in Ukraine contained technology from companies in the United States and other western countries. The White House has since launched an investigation as to how the technology — including semiconductors, GPS modules and engines — were obtained by Iran.
Screenshot: CBS video
The components removed from an Iranian Shahed-136 UAV totaled 52, 40 of which were manufactured by 13 different U.S. companies. The remaining components were manufactured by other western companies and companies based in Japan, Taiwan and China.The United States monitors exports and imposed restrictions and sanctions to prevent Iran from obtaining components for UAVs. Officials are now looking to enhance enforcement of the sanctions and are encouraging companies to monitor their supply chain, as well as identify third-party distributors who may be re-selling the technology to Iran.
U.S. companies are not alone in having to closely monitor their supply chains. U-blox, a Swiss semiconductor company, made a statement reinforcing its company policy, which bans the use of its technology in weapons. This was after u-blox GNSS modules were reportedly found in Russian UAVs.
Ottonomy.io partners with Posten Norge for first-mile supply chain automation with autonomous robots
One of Europe’s largest postal services, Posten Norge, is testing the future of logistics delivery with Ottobots in Oslo.
Ottobot maker Ottonomy.io is collaborating with Posten Norge AS and Holo on trials for automating first-mile delivery in an effort to pave the way for autonomous delivery. See the project page.
The Posten Group is a post and logistics group that develops and provides post, communications and logistics services in Norway and the Nordic region. Holo is an implementer, integrator and operator of autonomous vehicles in the region.
An Ottobot delivers product orders to airport travelers. (Photo: Ottonomy)
The partnership with one of Europe’s largest logistics companies is oriented towards testing how autonomous robots can improve intra-logistics, especially in city centers. Posten Norge will be leveraging Ottobots for first-mile pick-ups, receiving and delivering goods for AMOI, a Nordic digital marketplace, from the busy Aker Brygge metropolitan area in Oslo.
“Autonomous robots have previously been tested by other companies with the focus entirely on final delivery to the customer,” said Sven Richard Tønnessen from Posten’s Department of Emerging Technology. “We want to evaluate how robots can become part of Posten’s future logistics solutions.
“This project, which utilizes both humans and robots, offers many new opportunities for increasing efficiency and productivity for our organization,” Tønnessen said. “We will continue to utilize our existing pool of human couriers for delivering goods to the customers, while the robot takes care of the intra-logistics part of the supply chain.”
Conquering the First Mile
The first mile has been a pain point for organizations in metropolitan areas. First-mile delivery involves moving products from the manufacturer’s or retailer’s warehouse to a central holding center. From this location, a carrier, shipping company or logistics partner picks up the products and takes it to the next leg in the destination.
“The logistics with delivery vans at Aker Brygge is extremely demanding in terms of parking and time consuming,” said Kenneth Tjønndal Pettersen, Posten Norge. “Together with our partners, we want to test the various applications for autonomous technology, which can enable simpler logistics and reduced noise in the cityscape.”
A recipient of the 2021 Sustainability Product of the Year award by Business Intelligent Awards, Ottobot will be used to determine how Posten Norge AS can increase sustainability and efficiency for the logistics supply chain in the future.
The 216-page report is designed to help anyone who seeks to make EU space technologies part of their business plan, develop new space downstream applications, and see a tangible return on investment.
More than ever society relies on innovative solutions to deal with the big data paradigm, respond to and mitigate climate change, natural and man-made disasters, curb the spread of diseases and strengthen a global supply chain that underpins our daily lives.
Download report here.
Earth observation and GNSS data is becoming increasingly important to innovative solutions for climate change, disaster and disease response, and global supply chain management. Dozens of applications are emerging or already in use by citizens, businesses, governments, industry, international organizations, NGOs, and researchers around the world.
The report provides analytical information on the dynamic GNSS and EO markets. In 2021, GNSS and EO downstream markets generated more than €200 billion in revenues and are set to reach almost half a trillion over the next decade.
The report also offers in-depth analyses of global trends and developments through illustrated examples and use cases. Using advanced econometric models, it also offers market evolution forecasts of GNSS shipments or EO revenues spanning to 2031.
Green Investments
EUSPA is committed to helping the EU deliver on the Green Deal agenda and the fight against climate change, starting with embedding space data and services into professional activities. According to EUSPA, accelerating Europe’s engagement in space is pivotal to enabling the green transition and reaching climate neutrality by 2050.
The report emphasises how users of EO and GNSS contribute to compliance, monitoring and efficiency of green investments, benefiting companies, regulators and society as a whole. It focuses on concrete examples across the 17 identified market segments.
For instance, Galileo can provide smart power grids with robust timing and synchronization down to a nanosecond, improving their performance. In another example, EU space plays a role in green energy, as Copernicus helps optimize performance of tidal power generators by providing tidal current prediction systems.
Key Report Findings
Global GNSS- and EO-enabled revenues crossed €200 billion in 2021 and are set to reach almost €500 billion over the next decade.
The global installed base of GNSS devices in use will reach more than 10 billion units in 2031.
The market for Earth observation applications is boosted by a large pool of value-added services (85% of global revenue).
The European EO industry is dominated by SMEs and start-ups; from a supply perspective, European companies hold more than 41% of the global EO market.
The downstream space application market accompanied by the EU Space Programme will continue growing and thereby effectively contributing to European policies (such as the European Green Deal and EU’s Digital Decade), as well as global policies (such as the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement) in combination with other technologies.
“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.
Geospatial data is key to logistics, including for the huge increase in e-commerce we are experiencing following the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown.
The best customer service is if the customer doesn’t need to call you, doesn’t need to talk to you. It just works. — Jeff Bezos
This past year has been a boon for the e-commerce industry. It increased from 4% of retail sales a decade ago and pushed past 20% in 2020, reaching nearly $800 billion — a 32% jump in 10 years.
Online businesses climbed to all-time highs. A few examples stand out. Amazon’s stock increased in value 83% over the course of last year. That type of growth happens with startups and small-cap companies but is usually unheard of with large blue-chip stocks.
Along with Amazon’s growth last year, FedEx had $69 billion in annual sales. DoorDash, an e-commerce food delivery company, has a market valuation of $45 billion, making it larger than Domino’s Pizza, Texas Roadhouse and Yum! Brands combined; and Yum! Brands owns KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.
The e-commerce global trend in online sales is expected to reach $4.9 trillion in four years based on only 2.14 billion online shoppers. That is less than one-third of the world’s population. There is a lot more room to grow. This past year moved the trend several years forward.
Where are all those goods stored?
Photo: Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Jasen Moreno-Garcia/U.S. Navy
Each consumer requires an average logistics space of 35 square feet. In the United States alone, there are more than nine billion square feet of warehouse space, and when online sales increase another 10% it will require 3 to 4 billion square feet more of space to keep up with demand.
The increase in freight driven by this trend is captured in the chart below published by the Federal Reserve, with data provided by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The blue line is increasing freight transportation services, while the red line indicates on-hand inventories.
As transportation increases and becomes more reliable — a reflection of the overall health of the logistics supply chain — the amount of on-hand inventory decreases, allowing sellers to free up space and save money, or offer greater variety knowing that stocks can readily be backfilled.
However, when inventories get too low, the system is subject to severe supply shocks, making prices more sensitive to the law of supply and demand. The grey-shaded areas on the chart are economic downturns officially recognized as recessions.
If delivery took six-to-eight weeks these days, it would signal a crisis somewhere in the world.
21st-century logistics
Goods from global corporations now arrive at each customer’s doorstep. This is 21st-century logistics. Home delivery in two days or less is the expectation. The compression of time in this industry is astounding when compared to “the way things used to be.” The way things are compared to the way things used to be reminds me of hearing my grandparents talk about life before automobiles.
Back in my day, ordering from a catalog required calling the company and speaking to a representative. The call had to be made from a corded landline, and long-distance charges might apply. If ordering a gift for someone in the household, it was difficult to be clandestine with everyone nearby. The other option was to mail in an order form. Either way, delivery took a minimum of six to eight weeks, and sometimes more. If delivery took that long these days, it would signal a crisis somewhere in the world.
Knowing where to pre-position supplies ahead of anticipated demand is a geospatial problem. Most think of this in terms of sales to customers and deliveries ahead of seasonal demands, but many countries in the world are facing this dilemma right now figuring out the best way to distribute COVID-19 vaccines. That challenge is taking place in your own community and has been a long-standing public health challenge.
Beginning in the mid-2000s, geospatial information systems (GIS) were brought in to help control outbreaks of the deadly Ebola virus. In 2014, I took a Penn State geospatial intelligence course. The final exam addressed the geospatial challenges of fighting an epidemic. Theoretically, it was difficult to get the required goods to the right place at the right time. But now, it’s not an exercise, and getting it right is not an option.
If you have received the COVID-19 vaccine, you can appreciate the pharmaceutical industry for developing vaccines in record time. However, getting the vaccines to everyone is a logistics challenge, and GIS is the unsung hero. Logistics is the life blood of empires — it is the game of kings and generals. With it, wars are won and commonwealths prosper; without it, empires crumble to dust.
How Geospatial Data Guides the Goods
Back to the traditional understanding of supply chains from seller to buyer. The needs of the buyer are simple: faster, better, cheaper. For the seller, it is much more complex, and considerations deal heavily with location.
Where is the best place to have a distribution center?
Is it more important to be close to a multi-modal transfer station, or to population centers, or are land prices more important?
What about access to highways?
What are the trade-offs in delivery times being further away from the population?
Is the trade-off worth it for the cost of land and lower taxes?
Geospatial data can answer all of these questions, even going so far as to run “what-if” scenarios.
At the local level, transportation logistics schedules the most efficient routing to deliver more packages along the shortest path. This saves time and fuel, as shown in the image below using Maptitude software. Radiuses can also be calculated based on drive times instead of distances.
Caliper truck routing software can be used for planning deliveries that account for vehicle capacities, time windows, multiple depots and more. (Image: Caliper)
Navigation routing applications are dynamic, and pick-ups are automatically routed to drivers while out on delivery runs. Dynamic routing avoids delays such as accidents and road closures.
This same type of technology is used for emergency services to respond to a call. Ambulances, police and fire trucks all use dynamic routing to get to distress calls as soon as possible.
Global transportation logistics also need to account for international laws and regulations as cargo passes through each country. These regulations can be onerous, but the logistics industry has worked out the legalities to ensure a seamless, uninterrupted flow from ship to train to airplane to truck and to final delivery. It is symbolized by the universal 40-foot international shipping container standardized throughout the world.
At each facility, inventories are tracked. Each item passing through receives a time and location stamp. Estimated delivery times are sent via text message to your mobile device or email. When the item is out for delivery, it is possible to watch it on a map as the delivery truck makes its way towards your location. When the item is delivered to your doorstep, a picture of it is sent to your phone with an alert that the package was delivered.
Only a few days earlier, the manufacturer — perhaps on the other side of the world — placed the item in a box and taped it shut; even though you ordered it in your language, the order received by the manufacturer was in their language. The package started its journey to you at the next scheduled pickup, maybe within an hour of you placing the order. Shortly afterward, your order was on a ship or an airplane. As you went about your usual business, the incredibly efficient system of e-commerce sped your package around the world to deliver it to your doorstep.
Logistics has undergone a revolution built upon the most advanced technological innovations: robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, mobile devices, cloud computing, electronic payment processing, and a vast geospatial framework.
In fact, it is a continuously operating, seamless, geospatial mesh running on a global scale across all time zones that allows the industry to function. Every aspect of the logistics supply chain relies upon GIS in some way, from land, air and sea navigation from global location-based systems down to inside a warehouse for storage and retrieval of merchandise. Modern-day logistics is a geospatial industry connecting goods and services to consumers, putting the GIS in lo-gis-tics.
Image: U.S. DOT
Can GIS predict the future?
Regarding whether GIS can predict a market correction… I’ll not make a prediction, but the Transportation Services Index (TSI) for March is due to be released today, May 12. If it is down from February, it would mean two months of back-to-back decline. April’s numbers won’t come out until June. However, here is an indicator of where things currently stand. The ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, CA, the largest shipping ports in the United States is five days behind schedule, which is down from over 10 days in January.
The TSI is a leading indicator of the economy. When 20% of sales are online in a consumer-based economy, the wellbeing of the commonwealth is measured one delivery at a time.
“Trade isn’t about goods. Trade is about information. Goods sit in the warehouse until information moves them.” — C. J. Cherr
William Tewelow
William Tewelow works for the Federal Aviation Administration. He is a graduate of the FAA management fellowship program. He served on special assignment to the U.S. Department of Transportation leading a national strategic geospatial initiative for the White House Open Data Partnership. He is a Geographic Information Systems Professional (GISP) and a speaker for the Maryland STEMnet Scholar program.
He was among the first in the nation to earn a Geospatial Specialist Certification from the U.S. Department of Labor while working at NASA Stennis Space Center. He has degrees in Geographic Information Technology, Intelligence Studies, and is completing a masters degree in Organizational Management.
William is a 23 year veteran for the U.S. Navy serving as a Geospatial Specialist, Imagery Intelligence Specialist, a Naval Aviator, a Meteorologist, and a Tactical Oceanographer. He is married, enjoys writing and traveling.
His favorite quote is, “A man’s mind changed by a new idea can never go back to its original dimension.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes
Acculink Cargo provides a near real-time visibility, global tracking and exception-based monitoring asset tracking to serve the $30B+ global market.
Sierra Wireless has launched Acculink Cargo, a new managed internet of things (IoT) solution that companies can quickly deploy to track the location and condition of high-value and sensitive assets.
Delivered as a service for a single monthly fee, Acculink Cargo leverages Sierra Wireless’ expertise in IoT devices, global connectivity and the cloud to deliver a service companies can use to monitor the near real-time status of assets anywhere in the world, as they move through their supply chains.
Acculink Cargo enables electronics manufacturers, cold-chain carriers, general freight carriers, food and produce shippers and third-party logistics firms to gain the supply-chain visibility they require to avoid shipping delays, minimize dwell time, prevent theft and remediate environmental conditions that can lead to asset damage. In addition to tracking the location of these assets, Acculink Cargo can also alert customers if an asset is exposed to light, changes in temperature, humidity, shock, or other conditions that might spoil or otherwise damage it.
Drawing on more than two decades of experience in the IoT market, Sierra Wireless has designed Acculink Cargo to address the three key needs facing companies as they seek to track high-value and sensitive assets — real-time visibility, product-level tracking and exception-based monitoring.
Acculink Cargo benefits include:
Quick deployment. Acculink Cargo fully integrates edge devices, global network connectivity and a cloud-based application, supporting quick deployment in as little as 30 days with minimal startup costs.
Highly accurate tracking. Use of LTE cellular wireless networks in combination with GPS data enables customers to pinpoint the location of their assets.
Flexibility. The cloud-based application features an intuitive user interface with customizable dashboards and configurable alerts.
Configurable location and status reporting. Users can set up specific geolocation, light, temperature, humidity and shock conditions to monitor for each shipment. Users can also adjust when data on these conditions is updated, allowing them to extend the battery life of their edge devices.
Insights. Users can analyze real-time and historical shipping data to uncover trends that can help them make better business decisions.
“When it comes to high-value and sensitive assets, companies no longer want to just track their location as they travel through their supply chains. Today, they expect to be able to monitor the condition of these assets in near real-time as well,” said Rupal Nanavati, vice president and general manager of IoT applications, Sierra Wireless. “Acculink Cargo addresses these needs, with an easy-to-deploy, fully integrated managed solution from the global leader in IoT.”
Pricing. Acculink Cargo is sold on an as-a-service basis, allowing customers to easily scale the solution up or down as their business needs change. Customers can purchase devices up front, and pay for connectivity and the application on a subscription basis. Or, they can sign up for a complete managed IoT service, with a single monthly fee that covers devices, network and application access.
Acculink Cargo is currently available to customers throughout North America. Sierra Wireless plans to expand availability of the solution to other regions.
