GPS World

Tag: unexploded ordnance

  • Seen & Heard: Xona satellites, Russian bombs, better emergency response

    Seen & Heard: Xona satellites, Russian bombs, better emergency response

    “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.

    Xona’s first demonstration mission successfully completed testing at Experior Laboratories and prepares for launch on a Falcon 9 in May. (Photo: Xona)
    Xona’s first demonstration mission successfully completed testing at Experior Laboratories and prepares for launch on a Falcon 9 in May. (Photo: Xona)

    TAKING GNSS PRIVATE

    At press time, Xona Space Systems’ first in-space demonstrator satellite, named Huginn, was ready to launch on May 25 aboard Space X’s Transporter 5 mission. Xona said the launch is a significant step toward realizing its high-performance commercial navigation system, a constellation of small, powerful satellites in low Earth orbit that will meet the navigation and timing needs of intelligent systems.

    Photo: gorodenkoff/ iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images
    Photo: gorodenkoff/ iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images

    GEOLOCATED EMERGENCY CALLS

    U.S. cellular carrier AT&T is rolling out location-based routing to automatically transmit wireless 9-1-1 calls to the appropriate call centers, rather than relying on which cell tower handles the call. Cell towers can cover a 10-mile radius, and overlap with more than one call-center boundary. With location-based routing, a device can be located and routed within 50 meters of the device location. The “Locate Before Route” feature from Intrado enables AT&T to use device GNSS and hybrid information to route the call to the right call center.

    Russian fighter jets in better times. (Photo: Aterrassi/iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images
    Russian fighter jets in better times. (Photo: Aterrassi/iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images

    RUSSIAN NAVIGATION CHALLENGES

    Russian jets have been found using GPS receivers, while ground vehicles use paper maps, according to the UK Express. The GPS receivers were found taped to the dashboards of Russian SU-34s downed in Ukraine because of “the poor quality of their own systems,” UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said in a speech. With many reports of maintenance and aging issues for the Russian military, most likely the jets did not have quality GNSS receivers rather than the fault lying with GLONASS.

    A Russian short-range ballistic missile, believed to be an unexploded Iskander missile, was found near Kramatorsk, Ukraine, in this photo released March 9 by Ukrainian authorities. (Photo: National Guard of Ukraine handout via Reuters)
    A Russian short-range ballistic missile, believed to be an unexploded Iskander missile, was found near Kramatorsk, Ukraine, in this photo released March 9 by Ukrainian authorities. (Photo: National Guard of Ukraine handout via Reuters)

    UNEXPLODED BOMBS MAPPED

    The HALO Trust is partnering with Esri to map unexploded ordnance in an immediate humanitarian response to the war in Ukraine. More than 10 million Ukrainians have been displaced by the war and many are forced to move across a landscape littered with unexploded rockets, bombs and landmines. In response, Esri has committed its cutting-edge geographic information system (GIS) software resources, expertise and staffing in support of HALO’s mission in Ukraine. HALO already is using GIS to map the heaviest conflict zones, and the partnership with HALO will support planning for future clearance operations.

  • Esri, HALO Trust join to map unexploded bombs in Ukraine

    Esri, HALO Trust join to map unexploded bombs in Ukraine

    A Russian short-range ballistic missile, believed to be an unexploded Iskander missile, was found near Kramatorsk, Ukraine, in this photo released March 9 by Ukrainian authorities. (Photo: National Guard of Ukraine handout via Reuters)
    A Russian short-range ballistic missile, believed to be an unexploded Iskander missile, was found near Kramatorsk, Ukraine, in this photo released March 9 by Ukrainian authorities. (Photo: National Guard of Ukraine handout via Reuters)

    As a geopolitical and devastating humanitarian crisis unfolds in Ukraine, the HALO Trust is partnering with Esri to map unexploded ordnance as part of an immediate humanitarian response.

    More than 10 million Ukrainians have been displaced by the war and many are forced to move across a landscape littered with unexploded rockets, bombs and landmines.

    In response, Esri has committed its cutting-edge geographic information system (GIS) software resources, expertise and staffing in support of HALO’s mission in Ukraine.

    The organizations’ collaboration will allow them to map areas contaminated with explosives so HALO can remove the hazards when conditions allow. This will provide safe land to house displaced families and clear routes for humanitarian aid to reach those in desperate need.

    HALO is already using GIS to map the heaviest conflict zones, and the partnership with HALO will support planning for future clearance operations.

    As experts in their field, HALO is the world’s largest humanitarian landmine clearance and weapons disposal organization, clearing more than 13.9 million landmines and unexploded ordinance across 28 countries torn apart by conflict.

    In addition to technical expertise, HALO staff provide safety education for those in contaminated areas to avoid life-changing injuries and death, emergency medical aid, and humanitarian support for displaced persons as they face conflict, and in many cases are forced to flee their homes.

    Esri has collaborated with HALO since 2008 helping to map war-ravaged regions where specific locational awareness of landmines and other hazards is necessary to protect the lives of people in those areas.

  • Kaarta and EXI join to address UXO mapping in GNSS-denied environments

    A technician scans for UXO on steep terrain in a wooded GPS-denied area. (Photo: Kaarta)
    A technician scans for UXO on steep terrain in a wooded GPS-denied area. (Photo: Kaarta)

    Kaarta and Exploration Instruments have announced a collaboration and distribution agreement to address the needs of the unexploded ordnance (UXO) and geophysical industries.

    Kaarta provides real-time mobile 3D reality capture, and Exploration Instruments LLC (EXI) has expertise in near-surface geophysical equipment and applications.

    EXI now offers rental, sales, and training for Kaarta’s SLAM-based mobile mapping systems and the integration with geophysical equipment such as digital geophysical mapping (DGM) and advanced geophysical classification (AGC) sensors.

    Contamination and munitions from former combat areas or military training grounds is a global hazard. In the U.S. alone, more than 5,400 sites covering millions of acres have been identified for investigation and environmental restoration according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

    The general remediation approach pinpoints buried ordnance location using electromagnetic and magnetic detection systems with GNSS positioning technology. While these systems perform well in open areas, other common environments such as steep terrain and wooded areas under tree canopy are challenging to find and remediate UXO.

    The most common method for achieving required positional accuracy for DGM or AGC in wooded terrain is the use of robotic total stations (RTS) to tie surveyed locations to detection systems. However, RTS line-of-sight requirements make mapping and classification difficult and time-consuming, resulting in slower production rates and increased effort as data-collection teams must revisit common data gaps in the RTS coverage to achieve 100% coverage of the mappable areas.

    Kaarta’s simultaneous location and mapping (SLAM) solution provides accurate global positions within several centimeters in these demanding environments. Kaarta Stencil 2-16 mobile mapping system combines lidar, an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and visual odometry measurements to build a 3D map of the environment while updating global position data in real-time when moving through the map, without the need for external signals such as GNSS.

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers tested Kaarta’s Stencil 2-16 to provide rapid positioning data in GNSS-denied areas and found it provides positional data with the required accuracy for DGM and AGC at military munitions response sites.

    Kaarta systems are successfully integrated and used with a range of geophysical equipment including Geometrics MetalMapper 2×2, Geonics EM-61, and White River Technology’s APEX systems. EXI ties it together by providing geophysical expertise, training and access to the latest equipment through both rental and sales. Stencil 2-16 integration with other sensors is easy using customizable GNSS NMEA strings and supports a wide range of RS-232, USB and Ethernet interfaces.

    “It’s exciting when a combination of technologies come together to address such a significant problem as locating UXO in the most challenging of environments,” said Dave Duggins, UXO applications specialist at Kaarta. “We’ve been out in the woods with customers and are thrilled with the results we’ve achieved which include increased production rates with fewer personnel. Partnering with EXI to bring this solution to market is a perfect match.”

    “There are hundreds of thousands of wooded acres that still need to be remediated,” said Dennis Mills, EXI’s President, “Providing geophysicists with a proven integrated solution that significantly improves productivity over current methods is a win all around.”

    Kaarta systems can also be integrated with other sensors that use GNSS for positioning – ground penetrating radar, magnetometers, terrain conductivity meters — for a wide range of applications where positioning is needed in GNSS-denied areas. Kaarta was recently issued a patent covering its novel approach to fuse data captured by SLAM systems with data from other sensors to measure and localize sensed data in the scanned environment.

    EXI will be the primary provider of Stencil 2 rentals, sales, and training to the UXO and geophysical industry.

  • SPH Engineering provides drone-integrated metal detection

    SPH Engineering provides drone-integrated metal detection

    Screenshot: UgSC
    Screenshot: UgSC

    SPH Engineering has launched a drone-integrated metal detection system with a Geonics EM61Lite metal detector, a new product of UgCS Industrial Solutions. The same performance and robustness available for users of the standard EM61-MK2 time domain metal detector are now available for airborne use.

    The new system is capable of detecting metallic (magnetic and non-magnetic) items in the first few meters under the surface, finding metallic objects in hard-to-reach or dangerous areas.

    Applications include unexploded ordnance (UXO) search, detection of underground infrastructure and archaeology. The integrated system has been extensively tested at SPH Engineering’s test range, and has shown excellent performance and repeatability for targets such as pipes (steel, stainless steel, reinforced concrete) and steel drums.

    The system uses an airborne (less heavy) modification of the Geonics EM61-MK2 ground metal detector. The EM61 Lite airborne variant integrates with the UgCS SkyHub onboard computer and ground control station.

    Features include automatic data logging in geotagged form and automatic terrain following with radar altimeter. The use of UgCS SkyHub enables the drone to fly in true terrain following (TTF) mode with the help of the radar altimeter and to log geotagged sensor data.

    An optional RTK/PPK GNSS receiver on the drone will geotag the data with centimeter-level precision.

  • Draganfly tapped to detect dangerous unexploded landmines

    Draganfly tapped to detect dangerous unexploded landmines

    Photo: Gannet77/E+/Getty Images
    Photo: Gannet77/E+/Getty Images

    Draganfly Inc., a leading North American-based commercial drone company, is partnering with Windfall Geotek to develop drone-based solutions for landmine detection.

    Windfall Geotek is a Quebec-based technology services company and a leader in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced knowledge-extraction techniques in the mining sector.

    The companies will work to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) driven unmanned aerial systems solution for landmine detection in the defense, humanitarian and other sectors in which the companies have expertise.

    While landmines have been used since World War I, their deployment proliferated from the 1960s onwards. To this day, many unexploded devices are killing and maiming people who step on or trigger the bombs unintentionally.

    About 60 countries and territories are still contaminated with anti-personnel mines, and more than 120,000 people were killed or injured by landmines between 1999-2017, according to research by Landmine Monitor.

    Terms of the agreement include joint research, development and engineering support, drones and equipment o further commercialize an AI driven drone solution for the detection and elimination of landmines, unexploded ordnance and.improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

    In 2018, governments and nonprofits allocated nearly US$700 million in combined international
    and national support for mine action in 2018. The economic impact of landmines is estimated at $100 billion.

    “We have been evaluating drone solutions for nearly a year, and after an exhaustive analysis of the market and providers, it is exciting to select Draganfly as our first drone systems partner for this worthwhile initiative,” said Dinesh Kandanchatha, chairman of Windfall Geotek.

    “Windfall Geotek is the industry leader in AI-based digital exploration for mining. When they approached us on this project, it seemed like a natural fit to partner our engineering and drone capabilities, with their proven software and AI expertise,” sid Cameron Chell, CEO, Draganfly. “The two companies share a mission of saving lives through technology. We expect this partnership to generate new and expanded revenue streams for both companies in the defense sector, public safety and other markets where both companies have expertise.”