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Developments in the unmanned space this month include an unmanned cargo aircraft with unmanned passengers, another way drones can deliver really heavy cargo, and a fanciful recreation of a beloved vintage car.

How do you catch a gremlin? Wait, what’s a gremlin?

Gremlins are supposed to be unmanned aircraft which are launched and recovered in flight from a cargo or bomb-carrying aircraft. Flying in small collaborating swarms, gremlins are equipped with sensors for communications, jamming, reconnaissance or other needs.

As envisioned by the U.S. Army’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), gremlins are reusable, may be autonomous, can operate in GNSS-denied environments, and can be flown on high-risk missions into high-risk areas — places that high-value manned aircraft would avoid.

DARPA has contracted Dynetics to come up with a system that meets those criteria — a pretty demanding list of capabilities. So far, prototype X-61A UAVs have been built and flown through four flight test campaigns.

Many military technologists have dreamed of unmanned flying aircraft carriers, which could be put to a variety of uses. If the gremlin system works, the commercial world might well find its own applications.

Carried under the wings of a C-130A cargo transport, gremlins have been launched and flown through three flight tests. Capture and recovery has been attempted but was unsuccessful because of unanticipated turbulence. One  test vehicle was lost when its parachute recovery system failed — altogether, three vehicles have been lost.

Finally, on Oct. 25 over the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, one Gremlin X-61A was flown onto the C-130A capture system and successfully recovered.

The DARPA program requires a number of Gremlin UAVs to be captured, recovered and stowed in the mother aircraft within 30 minutes. The current recovery system is somewhat complex, so it remains to be seen if subsequent tests can achieve this substantial goal. Recovery might become easier and more reliable with an increase in the degree of autonomous operation for both the UAV and the recovery system.

A Guided Box for Disaster Relief

We turn now from a complex system to a direct and simple one that fulfills a key logistical requirement for disaster relief. It’s a fully autonomous UAV that lacks any integrated power source. Essentially, it’s a guided box.

The AVIUS Air Delivery Mercy-2000 by Yates Electrospace Corp. is basically an air-dropped cargo container that can glide from an altitude of 25,000 feet to a fixed location. From up to 35 miles away, this precision-guided drone can land safely within 110 yards of the desired site and deliver more than 1,600 pounds of material for critical medical and humanitarian needs.

Initially developed for military air-drop purposes (the U.S. Air Force just ordered 15), the cargo container is an 8-foot-long box with two sets of folded wings, fitted with a small nose-cone and a larger tail-cone before launch that help stabilize flight. The wings are carried inside the box and are installed by simply turning over the top cover.

The assembly includes the essential guidance system. A COTS (commercial-off-the shelf) GPS receiver, lidar, magnetic heading sensor, barometric altimeter, inertial measurement unit and pitot speed sensor are integrated into proprietary software running on a COTS computer.

Anyone who has ever tried to land a glider from 25,000 feet knows that actually landing safely in the right place is tough to do. It’s quite an achievement to create a reliable, precision, autonomous solution that works when pushed out the back of an aircraft.

New Model of Old Renault Takes Flight

Now to a more fanciful story about an old friend – the Renault 4L.  Many of us remember driving or riding in one, with its gear-change on the dash, uncomfortable seats, suspension and “sewing machine” engine.

In celebration of its 60^th anniversary, Renault (now part of the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance) and TheArsenale have teamed up in France to make a flying 4L known as the AIR4.

The body shell has been re-engineered in carbon fiber with the same shape of the original 4L. The frame has been built for vertical and horizontal flight, with propellers at each corner of the vehicle. The body shell lifts at the front for pilot access. The Air4 carries lithium polymer batteries, providing up to 90,000 mAh. It can achieve 58 mph when tilted forward at 45°.

The Air4 will go on public display until the end of the year in the center of Paris at the Renault Center on the Champs Elysées, along with other antique models of the Renault 4. Miami will be the next stop for the AIR4, followed by New York and then Macau, China.

To sum up, we have gremlins making progress and being recaptured, a 1-ton flying box  for important deliveries, and a celebration of 60 years of the Renault 4L — quite a wide range of ingenious unmanned vehicle applications.

Tony Murfin
GNSS Aerospace

Quectel Wireless Solutions, a supplier of IOT modules and antennas, and Point One Navigation, a provider in precision location technology, have announced the LG69T-AM, the latest addition to the LG69T GNSS Module Series. Point One’s positioning engine powers the LG69T-AM and enables centimeter-level global accuracy by integrating augmented GNSS in a module with open-source API.

The LG69T-AM GNSS module features STMicroelectronics’ TeseoV dual band L1/L5 positioning receiver platform with 80 tracking and four fast acquisition channels compatible with GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou, QZSS and NAVIC. The LG69T-AM leverages Point One’s RTK and SSR technology for centimeter-level accuracy and ultra-fast convergence time. It is designed for easy integration with minimal e-BOM modification and is well-suited for mass market adoption without the need for an expensive external co-processor. Due to its small package size, light weight, and excellent power consumption, it is ideal for applications such as robotics and precision agriculture.

Embedded in the LG69T-AM is Point One’s FusionEngine and its Polaris correction service client. FusionEngine is compatible with standards-based corrections services including those based on RTCM. Polaris is Point One’s own GNSS correction service that unlocks better than 10cm absolute accuracy with a coast-to-coast footprint in the United States and coverage across Europe. It offers a variety of connectivity options including delivery over cellular and L-band. The network is purpose-built for precision agriculture customers and includes advanced anti-jam, interference mitigation, end to end security and automatic integrity monitoring unmatched by any other provider.

Years ago, a trucker driving down the western slope of the Rocky Mountains lost his brakes. As his truck accelerated, he hoped to make it to the next runaway truck ramp before losing control. However, when he reached it, he saw a car parked at its base with a group of teenagers drinking beers. In a split-second decision, he veered to the left instead and went off the cliff. In the coming years, faced with the same moral dilemma, what would a self-driving truck do?

Many similar scenarios have been discussed in the technical literature on self-driving vehicles. Most of them are variations on the “trolley problem” presented to generations of college philosophy students since it was first formulated by philosopher Philippa Foot in 1967 and adapted by Judith Jarvis Thomson in 1985. In the trolley problem, a person can choose to divert a trolley from the main track, saving five people who are working on it but killing a person on the other track who otherwise would not have been involved.

When faced with an inevitable crash, should a self-driving car slam into a wall to save the lives of three children crossing the street or, in effect, target them to save its two occupants? Most people, when polled, choose the former. When shopping for a new car, however, those same people are more likely to buy one that will make their own safety its highest priority.

Human drivers react to emergencies instinctively — motivated by neither forethought nor malice — and in real time. By contrast, the choices made by autonomous vehicles are predetermined by programmers; their control systems can potentially estimate the outcome of various options within milliseconds and take actions that factor in an extensive body of research, debate and legislation. Therefore, our judgment is harsh if those vehicles make what we deem to be the “wrong” choice.

However, there is no universal agreement as to what constitutes the “right” choice, other than the fact that people generally prefer self-driving cars to minimize the number of lost lives and to privilege people over animals and younger people over older ones. General principles such as “to minimize harm” are of little help in complex and dynamic real-life situations.

Self-driving cars, in addition to their many other benefits, will dramatically reduce traffic accidents and fatalities, because they will never be distracted, drowsy, drunk or drugged. Yet accidents will still happen, and their outcomes will be largely determined far in advance.

The mass introduction of self-driving cars onto public roads will require overcoming technical, legal and ethical challenges. As a society, we will have to agree on a uniform set of ethical codes that will guide these vehicles’ decision-making processes in emergencies. This will force us to explicitly quantify the value of human life and property, and encode it in software. These are hard and uncomfortable choices.

Autonomous systems, fusing data from multiple sensors, will guide these vehicles. It is up to us to decide whom they will target and whom they will spare.

Matteo Luccio | Editor-in-Chief
mluccio@northcoastmedia.net

Featured Image: metamorworks/iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Image

STMicroelectronics has introduced an automotive satellite-navigation chip designed to deliver high-quality position data needed by advanced driving systems.

Joining ST’s Teseo V family, the STA8135GA automotive-qualified GNSS receiver integrates a triple-band positioning measurement engine. It also provides standard multi-band position-velocity-time (PVT) and dead reckoning.

The STA8135GA’s triple-band enables the receiver to efficiently acquire and track the largest number of satellites in multiple constellations simultaneously for superior performance in difficult conditions such as in urban canyons and under tree cover.

Triple band has historically been used in professional applications such as surveying, mapping and precision agriculture that demand millimeter accuracy with minimal reliance on correction data, usually available on larger and more expensive modules than ST’s single-chip STA8135GA.

The compact STA8135GA will help driver-assistance systems make accurate decisions about the road ahead. The multi-constellation receiver delivers raw information for the host system to run any precise-positioning algorithm, such as PPP/RTK (precise point positioning/real-time kinematic). The receiver can track satellites in the GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo, QZSS and NAVIC/IRNSS constellations.

The STA8135GA also integrates separate low-dropout voltage regulators on chip to supply the analog circuitry, digital core and input/output transceivers, simplifying selection of the external power supply.

The STA8135GA also enhances the performance of in-dash navigation systems, telematics equipment, smart antennas, V2X communication systems, marine navigation systems, drones, and other vehicles.

“The high precision and single-chip integration delivered by the STA8135GA satellite receiver enables the creation of reliable and affordable navigation systems that enable vehicles to be safer and more context aware,” said Luca Celant, general manager, ADAS, ASIC and Audio Division, Automotive and Discrete Group, STMicroelectronics. “Our unique in-house design resources and processes for high-yield manufacturing are among the critical capabilities that have made this industry-first device possible.”

The STA8135GA is housed in a 7 x 11 x 1.2 BGA package. Samples are available now and full qualification AEC-Q100 and Start Of Production are scheduled for the first quarter of 2022.

Telit, a global enabler of the internet of things (IoT), has launched the LE910S1-ELG, a new LTE Cat 1 module designed for IoT applications in Latin America (LATAM) that need a combination of performance, affordability, voice support and 2G fallback in a compact form factor.

With an embedded GNSS receiver, the cost-optimized LE910S1-ELG is suitable for tracking applications such as fleet management, stolen-vehicle tracking and recovery, and other mobile IoT applications that need to maintain a reliable connection when moving around in a country, region or multiple regions.

The LE910S1-ELG is the latest member of Telit’s flagship xE910 module family, whose unified form factor and electrical and programming interfaces spanning 2G, 3G and 4G products enables developers to implement a “design once, use anywhere” strategy. The module supports LTE Cat 1 with single-antenna reception, providing downlink speeds of up to 10 Mbps and uplink speeds up to 5 Mbps. Its streamlined configuration, compared to LTE Cat 1 devices with two antennas, helps significantly reduce cost and complexity.

Supporting 2G fallback, the LE910S1-ELG is suitable for applications that require full mobility throughout the LATAM regions, including areas that have not upgraded to 4G yet. It also supports both circuit-switched voice and VoLTE for those applications that require making phone calls, such as healthcare mobile personal emergency response systems (mPERS), connected elevators, alarm systems and more. The power-saving embedded GNSS receiver enables the use of GNSS positioning even when the cellular modem is switched off.

“The LE910S1-ELG is a great option for migrating customers that use legacy 2G and 3G modules in Latin America, especially where nationwide LTE-M and NB-IoT coverage does not yet exist,” said Marco Stracuzzi, head of product marketing, Telit. “Our all-in-one cellular and GNSS module covers all LATAM 4G and 2G bands, as well as mainstream bands used in Europe and Asia, which makes it well-suited particularly for high-performance tracking across intercontinental deployments.”

The LE910S1-ELG is sampling now, and will be commercially available during the first quarter of 2022.

Upgraded range of synchronization solutions now includes enhanced PNT resiliency against jamming and spoofing attacks and cyberthreats

ADVA has announced a new software release of its core and edge timing technology, to provide higher levels of positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) security and resilience to synchronization networks. The new release follows the Resilient PNT Conformance Framework issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The upgraded series of PTP grandmaster clock solutions now enables operators to automatically harness public key infrastructure. Along with enhanced certificate management, this delivers more robust security and removes complexity, the company said.

ADVA’s core and mid-sized PTP grandmaster devices now also integrate enhanced aPNT+ technology, providing advanced jamming and spoofing detection as well as mitigation with automatic switchover in the event of cyberattacks.

The software replaces costly hardware devices previously used for PNT protection and achieves enhanced DHS Level 4 Resiliency in PNT self-survivability, the highest in the industry. The new software release also supports 100 Mbit/s over fiber for interconnectivity with optical timing channels from third-party vendors as well as support for PTP profiles for a wide range of industries.

“Today’s timing networks require greater accuracy than ever before. But mission-critical national networks need improved resilience and security as defined by the latest standards. With our trusted PNT assurance solutions, we’re providing the GNSS protection and cybersecurity that today’s operators need to meet current and future challenges,” said Gil Biran, GM of Oscilloquartz, ADVA. “From phase synchronization in critical national infrastructure to traceable timestamping in financial networks, highly precise and protected timing is key to successful operations. This upgrade sets a new standard for secure synchronization and delivers it to more networks than ever before.”

The new 11.1.1 software release features upgrades to ADVA’s comprehensive range of Oscilloquartz edge timing products, the OSA 5412/22 series, as well as its core synchronization devices, the OSA 5430/40 series. The solutions now provide multi-layered security for synchronization infrastructure through improved certification management and PKI.

As part of ADVA’s intelligent and scalable assured PNT platform, the ADVA aPNT+, the solutions also feature innovation for detection of spoofing and jamming as well as countermeasures to prevent service disruption. With PTP capabilities for new verticals, including the PTP broadcast profiles (SMPTE ST-2059-2/AES67), the new release will bring precise, reliable synchronization to many new customers.

Further information is available in these slides.

China and the Arab states will expand their cooperation in using the China-developed BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), according to the third China-Arab States BDS Cooperation Forum and reported by XinhuaNet.

China and the Arab states will jointly implement pilot projects in key domains in the application of BDS and GNSS over the 2022-2023 period, according to a cooperation action plan signed at the forum, held Dec. 8 in Beijing.

Both sides will facilitate the establishment of BDS/GNSS centers in the Arab states, hold training courses on satellite navigation technologies, and exchange visiting scholars. Each year, China will offer scholarships to three to five students majoring in navigation and communications from the Arab states, said the action plan.

China and the Arab states will also carry out joint BDS/GNSS tests and evaluations, and promote the application of BDS in international search and rescue, among other initiatives.

All the moves are expected to boost “win-win cooperation” and make BDS better serve the Arab states, said the action plan.

First forum after BDS-3 commissioned

The forum was jointly hosted by the China Satellite Navigation Office and the Arab Information and Communication Technologies Organization, attracting more than 300 participants from China and 17 Arab states.

This year’s forum was held after China officially commissioned BDS on July 31, 2020, opening the new BDS-3 system to global users.

Along with positioning, navigation and timing services, the BDS-3 system can provide a variety of value-added services such as global search-and-rescue assistance, short message communication, ground- and satellite-based augmentation, and precise point positioning.

The forum highlighted the achievements and experience of China and Arab states in BDS/GNSS cooperation and proposed a platform for both sides to upgrade the win-win cooperation.

BeiDou benefits in Arab States

The BDS-based applications and solutions have benefited multiple industries in Arab states. BDS has been providing real-time, continuous, stable and precise GNSS positioning information data and timely information via continuously operating reference stations (CORS) in Tunisia, Algeria and other places.

High-precision BDS/GNSS applications are also serving diverse fields such as land mapping, transportation, precision agriculture and environmental monitoring.

Project management of railway construction in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has benefitted from the integrated technologies of BDS/GNSS and the internet of things, with efficient use of data and information.

BDS has entered a new phase of industrial and international development, according to the China Satellite Navigation Office.

SBG Systems has released a major firmware update for all its high-performance inertial navigation systems (INS), including its Ekinox, Apogee, Navsight and Quanta brand sensors.

Developed in collaboration with customers, firmware 4.0 provides new features and is designed to make integration easier for system designers. It aims to provide improvements in these areas:

System accuracy and robustness

• Enhanced heading in a single antenna allows for easier UAV survey operations.
• Improved GNSS antenna auto lever arm calibration provides a faster and easier system setup.

Easier system integration

• New PTP and NTP features for time synchronization eliminate the need and cost of an external timing module.
• An integrated NTRIP client eases access to NRTK/VRS correction services.
• A logged RTCM raw stream eases post-processing in SBG Systems’ post-processing software Qinertia using the user’s NRTK/VRS data.
• A new Access Rights Management System sets up specific user roles.
• Two serial outputs have been added on Navsight and Quanta for advanced survey setups.
• REST API has been introduced for power users and integrators.

Learn more and download the firmware 4.0 on the SBG Systems website.

The U.S. Defense Logistics Agency has executed a $316 million contract option for BAE Systems’ advanced M-code GPS modules, raising the contract funding to $641 million.

The modules provide dependable positioning, navigation, and timing for ground troops, vehicles, aircraft and precision munitions. The contract will ensure the availability of Common GPS Modules (CGM) for advanced military GPS receivers with anti-jamming and anti-spoofing capabilities that enable operation in contested environments.

Under the contract option executed in November, BAE Systems will manufacture CGMs for future ground, airborne and weapon GPS receivers for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and its allies. The award builds on a May $325 million contract and enables BAE Systems to continue to meet domestic and international demand for Military GPS User Equipment (MGUE) Increment 1 M-Code modules in GPS receivers through the end of the decade.

“Military operations require assured positioning, navigation and timing, and our customers are shifting to M-code to harden their GPS receivers against jamming and spoofing,” said Frank Zane, Navigation and Sensor Systems business development director at BAE Systems. “We’re ready to meet this need today with secure, reliable M-code GPS solutions, and we’re developing the next-generation of solutions to stay ahead of the threat.”

BAE Systems is delivering two advanced M-code GPS receivers: the Miniature Precision Lightweight GPS Receiver Engine – M-Code and the NavStrike-M GPS receiver.

Deliveries of the ultra-small MicroGRAM-M are expected in 2022, and deliveries of the Strategic Anti-jam Beamforming Receiver – M-Code are expected in 2024.

InfiniDome, Honeywell and Easy Aerial have successfully demonstrated their new Robust Navigation System for UAVs. The system integrates GPS anti-jamming technology, a radar velocity system and an inertial navigation system into a resilient system that enables UAVs  to safely operate in GNSS-challenged or denied environments.

UAV developers or end users currently try to solve the problem of GNSS jamming either by creating “safe landing protocols” in GNSS-challenged environments or by adding various types of sensors such as lidar or optical. These sensors may not work in certain scenarios, such as when flying too high, too low or too fast; in fog or darkness; or above the ocean.

The Robust Navigation System, jointly developed by Honeywell and infiniDome, tightly pairs the GNSS-based UAV-tailored Honeywell Compact Inertial Navigation System (HCINS) with infiniDome’s GNSS anti-jamming technology (GPSdome), integrated with Honeywell’s Radar-based Velocity System (HRVS). It can be installed on almost any UAV, providing continuous, accurate navigation data in GNSS-challenged or fully GNSS-denied environments.

The companies demonstrated the new navigation system for Israeli defense prime contractors and drone companies and government end-users at a testing range in the center of Israel. The system was tested against two military-grade directional jammers of different types and bandwidths on customized Osprey Hexa-copter with a PixHawk 2.1 Cube Black flight controller. The GPS 1 input was a Here2 standard GNSS receiver and antenna module; the GPS 2 input was the Robust Navigation System (GPSdome 1.03 + HCINS + HRVS).

The goal of the demo was to show that a UAV in a GNSS-challenged environment (single direction of jamming) and fully denied environment (multiple directions of powerful jamming) can perform autonomous tasks accurately and safely without the pilot needing to assume manual control. This included beyond-visual-line-of-sight flights.

Each test was designed to be more difficult than the preceding one and would be executed only if the latter was successful. The intention was to find the barrier at which the system fails.

The first test was maintaining the UAV height (AltHold), position (PosHold) and Loiter autonomously under jamming conditions, followed by a simple point-to-point autonomous task under the same jamming conditions.

The UAV then performed a fully autonomous task including executing a 10-point polygon and returning to the same position accurately under the same jamming conditions. Finally, the UAV was tested for lift-off performance, executing the full polygon and landing under the jamming conditions.

Protected by the Robust Navigation System, the UAV passed all planned tests.