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Canada is leveraging advanced surveillance capabilities to enhance safety and efficiency by implementing a new mandate that will require aircraft operators flying in certain domestic airspace to meet Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS-B) Out performance requirements.

ADS-B uses GNSS technology to calculate an airplane’s precise location, speed and direction. This information is transmitted twice per second, providing greater situational awareness for air traffic controllers. It also provides increased flexibility to accommodate airline and customer preferred routes.

The mandate will take effect in Class A and B Canadian airspace above 12,500 feet on Feb. 23, 2023.

“ADS-B is a foundational building block for our future airspace and operations,” said Raymond G. Bohn, president and CEO of Nav Canada. “The Canadian equipage mandate — when combined with Nav Canada’s space-based surveillance capabilities — will enhance safety and service.”

“The aviation sector plays an essential role in connecting Canadians to each other and the world,” said the Honourable Omar Alghabra, Minister of Transport. “We welcome advancements and innovation that enhance the safety and environmental sustainability of our transportation networks and supply chains.”

The equipage requirements of Canada’s ADS-B mandate are in line with a growing number of other countries in the world, and the adoption of satellite-based surveillance technology ensures long-term alignment with the global aviation system.

Space-based ADS-B is already being used and delivering safety and efficiency benefits to suitably equipped aircraft over Hudson Bay, the North Atlantic and in domestic airspace above 29,000 feet in Canada. In December 2021, Nav Canada began providing service to appropriately equipped aircraft below 29,000 feet in the Montreal Flight Information Region and plans to expand to the Edmonton and Winnipeg Flight Information Regions later this year, prior to the mandate going into effect in 2023.

Future implementation of a mandate in areas within Class C, D and E will leverage a phased approach to help achieve the maximum benefits of a performance-based mandate for Canadian airspace. Aircraft operators and owners will have adequate time to meet the equipage requirements to use space-based ADS-B technology across the country. Implementation in these classes of airspace, to occur no sooner than 2026, will be determined pending further assessment.

About the ADS-B mandate

To meet the ADS-B Out mandate, aircraft will be required to:

• Be equipped with an appropriate transponder with ADS-B Out capabilities and performance with the applicable standard of Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA) DO-260B, “Minimum Operational Performance Standards” or newer.
• Have antenna capability for broadcast toward space-based ADS-B receivers emitting 1090 MHz extended squitter. This requirement can be met either through antenna diversity (the use of a top and a bottom antenna) or with a single antenna capable of transmitting both toward the ground and up toward satellites.

The European Space Agency is looking for navigation and positioning ideas, with its Navigation Innovation and Support Programme (NAVISP) seeking input by March 31.

NAVISP is divided into a trio of elements. Element 1’s scope of activities ranges from initial feasibility studies and viability analyses all the way to full proof of concept for promising positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) systems and services.

To compile its annual Element 1 workplan, NAVISP invites innovative PNT concepts from companies or academic entities across NAVISP participating states. Those interested can submit a 1-page description, along with notifying their national ESA delegation of their application. See details here.

The NAVISP Element 1 workplan supports cutting-edge European companies in development of novel PNT technologies and services. Underscoring the commercial priority of this field, 20 ESA Member States plus Canada have joined the program.

PNT underpins a 10th of Europe’s economy, according to ESA, in areas such as transport, precision agriculture, power, communication, banking and the fast-growing internet of things.

Satellite navigation, with signals from space extending across the globe, represents the single biggest source of PNT information, but these signals are not available in all locations and are vulnerable to natural or human-made interference.

NAVISP Element 1 is focused on innovation in PNT, involving novel concepts, techniques, technologies and systems along the entire value chain. They often combine GNSS with other solutions such as artificial intelligence, other sensors, adding Wi-Fi or 5G signals to PNT fixes, or employing high-altitude atmospheric platforms to supplement GNSS coverage over regions in need.

Hemisphere GNSS has added to its lineup another Vega heading and positioning OEM board that uses Lyra II and Aquila chipset technology — the Vega 34.  The Vega 60 board was previously announced as using the Lyra II and Aquila chipsets.

Hemisphere’s Lyra II and Aquila application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designs simultaneously track and process more than 1,100 channels from all GNSS constellations and signals including GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou, QZSS, NavIC, SBAS and L-band.

Integrators who use predecessor Hemisphere 34-pin products, such as Crescent Vector H220 and Phantom 34 OEM boards, can easily transition to the improved positioning performance and the superior satellite tracking abilities of the Vega series, the company said.

The Vega 34 board connectors have no circuitry changes and are identical for all Vector users, enabling them to add Atlas H10 and H30 precise point positioning (PPP) into their solutions.

“Vega 34 gives our integrators an easy path forward to enrich their own product offerings,” said Miles Ware, director of marketing at Hemisphere. “For the first time, Crescent Vector integrators can upgrade to multi-frequency without changing pinouts. They can also take advantage of other standard features like more than 1,100 tracking channels, Cygnus interference mitigation technology and spectral analysis.”

NavIC Upgrade. The introduction of the Vega 34 board also brings a new firmware release. Version 6.05 extends several features and improvements and introduces NavIC (IRNSS) tracking and positioning across the entire Vega and Phantom product lines.

Both real-time kinematic and Atlas positioning solutions are enhanced with improved performance in challenging environments. Users of the BeiDou satellite systems and B2b PPP integrators also will see significant advances in their solutions.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has selected a contractor for a study of positioning in space after an open-call competition.

The study, part of “Development of Positioning and Communication Technology for Monthly Activities,” will consider possible lunar positioning satellite systems and ultra-long-range communication systems between the Moon and the Earth.

JAXA is managing the project, with Ark Edge Space Co. Ltd. serving as the outsourcer for a consortium of companies and academia. Consortium members include Ark Edge Space, AAI GNSS Engineer Office, Kiyohara Optical Co. Ltd., KDDI Corporation, KDDI Research Institute, the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Engineering and Mitsubishi Precision Co. Ltd.

From Jan.1 to March 25, the consortium is studying a comprehensive architecture for positioning and communication systems that will be the basis of lunar exploration, including a lunar positioning satellite system that takes into account the ultra-long distance between the Moon and the Earth.

Activities related to international lunar exploration and development are increasing, including the United States-led international Artemis Program, which plans for a manned lunar landing in 2025 and a manned Mars landing in the 2030s.

The Japanese government is participating in Artemis, joining other countries to build a lunar orbiting base named “Gateway.” Gateway will serve as a way station to support exploration of the lunar surface.

Emcore Corporation has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the assets and liabilities of the L3Harris Space and Navigation business for approximately $5 million in an all-cash transaction.

“L3Harris Space and Navigation designs and builds some of the most accurate navigation products in the world,” said Jeff Rittichier, president and CEO of Emcore. “This acquisition expands our fiber-optic gyroscope (FOG) product portfolio into the strategic grade and space-qualified markets. We will also gain a technical team with a sterling track record of development and production of high-performance FOGs, ring laser gyros (RLGs) and reaction wheels.

“This acquisition further solidifies Emcore’s position as one of the largest independent inertial navigation providers in the industry. This is an excellent fit strategically for Emcore, bringing space and navigation’s strong brand, inertial technology and important program wins. It also expands Emcore’s market reach into launch vehicle and space satellite markets, both of which are seeing significant growth,” Rittichier added.

“The L3Harris Space and Navigation team will provide Emcore with the capability to accelerate expansion into a true navigation-grade FOG business with superior performance and accuracy compared to competitors,” said Albert Lu, senior vice president and general manager, Aerospace and Defense for Emcore. “Combining this business into Emcore will allow us to provide customers with an expanded product suite that serves a broader range of requirements across both the tactical and navigation grade segments of the market.”

Highlights of the transaction are as follows:

• Expands Emcore’s inertial navigation product portfolio and addressable market, accelerating growth and contributing additional revenue.
• Includes master supply agreements (MSAs) for the BoRG (Booster Rate Gyro) and TAIMU (Tri-Axial Inertial Measurement Unit) launch vehicle programs and creates partnership opportunities with L3Harris to expand mutual business.
• Adds Emcore as a preferred supplier to L3Harris divisions for future business opportunities.
• Adds a complete set of capabilities to design and test for space applications:
  • shock, vibration and thermal-shock measurement equipment
  • x-ray capability and vacuum chambers.
• Includes a large number of rate tables that can serve multiple product applications.
• Is expected to create material operating synergies in engineering, manufacturing and sales.
• Is expected to be non-GAAP EPS accretive.

Through the transaction, Emcore will acquire all the intellectual property and outstanding assets and liabilities of the L3Harris Space and Navigation business, including the 110,000-square-foot leased production facility in Budd Lake, New Jersey.

The consummation of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is currently expected to close in the quarter ending June 30, 2022.

ComNav Technology Ltd. is providing GNSS technology to Africa for projects in land mapping, continuously operating reference station (CORS) construction, precision agriculture and other fields, according to a Feb. 11 article in People’s Daily, the largest newspaper in China.

Every day, thousands of users in Africa are using GNSS products, the newspaper stated, highlighting specifically the use of China’s BeiDou satellite navigation system. For instance, CORS using ComNav GNSS/BeiDou receivers have been built in 11 sub-Saharan African countries, including Kenya and Uganda.

Uganda. To meet the demand for high-precision GNSS, the government of Uganda purchased ComNav’s real-time kinematic (RTK) receivers to build its own CORS. Thirty stations have been built so far, creating the most advanced CORS network in East Africa. Its high-precision spatial and temporal information supports land mapping, mining, vehicle management and meteorological monitoring, among other industries.

In 2015, Mulindwa David, chairman of the Uganda Surveying Association, and others visited the Shanghai headquarters of ComNav to learn about its high-precision products and technologies. After training, David and others mastered basic RTK operation and learned simple maintenance.

David used to carry heavy optical equipment every day, but now he only needs to hold a BeiDou receiver to process the relevant data, which has greatly improved his work efficiency and accuracy. “It took at least three days to survey a dozen kilometers of road with optical equipment,” he said. “With BeiDou high-precision receivers, only 10 hours is enough.”

Burkina Faso. In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Burkina Faso government decided to build a hospital for infectious diseases. In April 2021, it used ComNav GNSS high-precision technology to provide survey data for the hospital’s construction. The land security and topographic surveying tasks were completed in six days, half the time scheduled, said Augustin Bamouni, secretary-general of the country’s national surveying association.

Tunisia. The China-Arab BeiDou/GNSS Center is located in the Ghazara Science Park in northern Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. Inaugurated in 2018, it is China’s first overseas BeiDou center, providing satellite navigation training, test evaluation and technical research for African and Arab countries. On average, the center receives real-time data from more than 12 BeiDou satellites at once.

The center will help Tunisia and other African countries train professionals in GNSS technology to support development of the digital economy, according to Amiri Khalil, state secretary in charge of scientific research at Tunisia’s Ministry of Higher Education.

China-Africa Forum. The first China-Africa BeiDou System Cooperation Forum was held in November 2021 in Beijing to encourage cooperation between China and Africa and promote use of BeiDou. Four cases from ComNav Technology were described in the forum’s document citing application scenarios of BeiDou in Africa.

ComNav Technology has deepened its cooperation with Africa since China’s Belt and Road Initiative began in 2013. Besides providing products and technologies, ComNav arranged employees to go abroad to provide technical support, traveling to Cameroon, Nigeria, Mali, Zambia, and other African countries. Despite the pandemic, ComNav continues to provide professional service and training both in person and remotely.

On university and business campuses, getting lunch and dinner is becoming a lot easier as robot delivery units hit the pathways.

If you were a student or faculty member at the University of Wisconsin – Madison campus (UW) during the 2020 COVID lockdown, you might have experienced a novel way to reduce contact with others when ordering a meal. People on campus could avoid a trip to the store and interaction with a delivery person. They could place an order on a special app, and a Starship Technologies robot would pick up and deliver their food.

Of course, for a student, technology that saves a trip to the store, especially anytime of the day or night, would be popular.

From demo to full production

At first, the meal-delivery robots at UW and other campuses were a demonstration to showcase how useful the small bots could be.

But after I soaked up robot-tech news from all over, I learned these little guys have found their way into towns, cities and campuses around the world: specifically, the United States, United Kingdom,  Estonia, Germany and Denmark.

With 1,500 bots working every day, the demonstration phase is long over, and Starship robots are full production. Starship, based in San Francisco, has been in operation since 2014. Its robots now make more than 1,000 deliveries each day. They have made more than 2.5 million deliveries to date, and make 100,000 road-crossings each day.

In the United States alone, 16 states have approved delivery robots, including Virginia, Idaho, Wisconsin, Florida, Ohio, Utah, Arizona, Washington and Texas. At UW, three Starship employees manage maintenance and recover units if they get stuck (while autonomous, the bots need help every now and then).

To have a robot come to visit, UW users download the Starship Food Delivery app, select from a local store menu, pay and then indicate on a map exactly where the bot should deliver the order. The robot collects a minimal $2 delivery charge, which goes toward the $2,000 to $3,000 cost of the vehicle and its operation. (According to Starship, each unit costs the equivalent of a high-end laptop.)

The unit uses GNSS and computer vision to navigate detailed, stored maps. The on-site employees take the robots out on particular routes for their first test runs, and the bot learns each route. The on-board system also uses 12 cameras, ultrasonic sensors, radars and neural networks to form a collision-avoidance net around the vehicle. In this way, pedestrians, dogs and road vehicles (when the robots cross a road) can all be avoided.

When waiting to cross a road, the robot’s safety systems might prevent it from moving. In this case, the device will “phone home” for a support person come out and fix the issue.

What could go wrong?

So far, the robots have been welcomed on the university and industry campuses where they operate. People walk round them as they go about their business. Even better, students and other users have pulled the units out of snow mounds and other hang-ups, returning them to the sidewalk or making other small adjustments to send the bots on their way.

And no one has stolen a unit. That could be because a loud siren erupts if they are picked up.  Presumably the units are programmed to remain within the bounds of their rigorously mapped environments. In any event, the food compartment remains locked until the order is removed by the customer.

Disrupting Doordash

Will robots disrupt today’s car-based delivery services, such as UberEats, Grubhub or DoorDash? Only for the last-mile section of a delivery. In a pinch, Starship robots can travel as far as three miles from their base. As the bots take on more territory, the auto-based delivery companies may be pushed toward the longer routes.

Deliveries such as time-sensitive medical materials could benefit from robotic short-distance, small-package carriers. Other robot delivery services, including Amazon Scout and Roxo, the FedEX SameDay Bot, are also making waves as testing progresses toward last-mile delivery automation from warehouse hubs to customer homes.

Federal, state and local laws may need to be enhanced to allow these autonomous delivery robots to progress toward widespread deployment.

One selling point: Fast robot deliveries lead to fewer delivery trucks, reducing traffic congestion and lowering exhaust pollution. We might have to wait awhile to realize these benefits.

Tony Murfin
GNSS Aerospace

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Feature photo: Cindy Shebley/iStock Editorial/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images

The United Kingdom’s Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) has launched a new Market Exploration called Alternative Navigation for Weapon Systems, which aims to explore alternatives to GNSS for military navigation.

The Market Exploration is being run on behalf of Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) and seeks to understand the range of technologies used for commercial positioning and navigation systems.

GNSS such as GPS and Galileo are widely used for commercial and military positioning and navigation, but these systems are vulnerable to jamming and spoofing. DASA wants to explore alternative navigation technologies that could be developed and trialed within the next three years.

The potential system should:

• be developed to an operational level in either a civilian or on military application
• currently be at a Technology Readiness Level of 4 or above.
• not be solely reliant on GNSS.
• have the potential to be further developed to meet military specifications.
• have sufficient accuracy to monitor position during deployment to within 5 meters.

The agency is particularly interested in innovations from non-traditional defence suppliers and has a dedicated team of DASA Innovation Partners who can discuss proposals with submitters.

The deadline to submit proposals is April 7.

ST Engineering, Sumitomo Corp. and Skyports have formed a consortium to provide unmanned aircraft system (UAS) services for heavy-lift shore-to-ship parcel delivery in Singapore, home to one of the biggest ports in the world

Each consortium member will use its respective operational and technological capabilities to expand the use of UAS for deliveries of maritime essentials to anchored vessels. During a nine-month pilot program, the consortium will engage key customers for maritime UAS deliveries, with the goal of establishing a delivery network capable of carrying parcel payloads of 10 kg.

ST Engineering will provide the UAS technology using its end-to-end solution DroNet. Skyports will jointly conduct the beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) flight operations with ST Engineering. Sumitomo Corporation will provide go-to-market support, including its own fleet of vessels.

As an unmanned systems participant in Singapore, ST Engineering has been testing and developing autonomous solutions to enable BVLOS UAS operations for shore-to-ship delivery in close collaboration with regulators and industry partners.

Through funding support from the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS), the group completed the initial development of a UAS for shore-to-ship parcel delivery based on the DroNet solution.

Compared to the traditional form of delivery by boats, UAS operations can significantly slash response time and speed up turnaround for shore-to-ship delivery, in addition to reducing logistics costs. Replacing launch-boat delivery with a UAS service also helps reduce carbon emissions and contribute to the maritime industry’s overall efforts to operate sustainably.

Orolia Defense & Security, provider of software-defined simulation solutions for navigation warfare, will supply a BroadSim Wavefront to the U.S. Air Force Guided Weapons Evaluation Facility (GWEF). BroadSim Wavefront is an innovative, Skydel-powered advanced GNSS simulator.

The GWEF provides laboratory testing and simulation tools for developing precision-guided weapon technology, including a comprehensive scope of GPS plus inertial navigation systems (INS) and integrated components such as sensors, signals of opportunity and controlled reception pattern antennas (CRPAs). CRPAs are fundamental in many platforms due to their enhanced protection against electronic attacks in NAVWAR environments.

The Broadsim Wavefront simulator will be integrated into a test environment for networked, collaborative and autonomous weapon systems being developed under the Golden Horde program. Golden Horde is one of four Air Force Vanguard programs designed to rapidly advance emerging weapons systems and warfighting concepts through prototype and experimentation.

Of the several capabilities the GWEF required, features such as low-latency hardware-in-the-loop, automated calibration, and the flexibility to quickly integrate future signals and sensors were the most critical and serve as a key reason Orolia’s BroadSim Wavefront was selected. The system will also be capable of testing eight-element CRPA systems, eight simultaneous fixed radiation pattern antenna systems (FRPA), or a combination of CRPA and FRPA systems.

“When designing BroadSim Wavefront, we re-imagined every aspect for the user,” said Tyler Hohman, director of products for Orolia Defense & Security. “Though the GWEF unit contains eight nodes (corresponding to each antenna element), it can be scaled from four to 16 antenna elements. One of the greatest advancements is our continuous phase monitoring and compensation technique. It automatically monitors, aligns and adjusts the phase of each RF output continuously throughout the duration of a scenario.”

“Gone are the days of re-calibrating each frequency on your system, limiting your scenario duration or re-calibration every time you power cycle your system,” Hohman said. “Simply turn the system on, start the scenario, and your Wavefront system phase aligns and remains aligned for the entirety of the test.”

Leveraging the Skydel Simulation Engine, BroadSim Wavefront also supports high-dynamics, MNSA M-code, alternative RF navigation, open-source inertial measurement unit (IMU) plug-ins and a 1000-Hz iteration update rate.

“Because of the software-defined architecture, many upgrades don’t require additional hardware, which has been a crucial advantage for customers who are already using this solution,” Hohman said.