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Hemisphere GNSS has announced its new Outback Guidance MaveriX Precision AG Solution.

The new MaveriX Precision AG solution, built around the new MaveriX agriculture application software platform, provides  guidance, steering and application control.

The MaveriX application software includes a new user interface that provides a tablet-like user experience with 3D graphics. The included adjustable widgets give users the freedom to customize their UI experience.

Included with MaveriX, the new M7 and M10 terminals with 7- and 10-inch form factors are the centerpiece of the solution. The M-series terminals deliver the latest display technology and provide an enhanced situational awareness for users and preferred features like auto-scaling and pinch-to-zoom capabilities.

The MaveriX solution provides centimeter-level performance via the new eDriveM1 steering controller.

The eDriveM1 offers AB Straight, AB Contour, Freeform Contour, and Circle Pivot guidance modes and supports Shuttle Shift, Reverse Steer, and the Outback Guidance eTurns feature for automated headland turns. The eDriveM1 can be paired with the ESi2 Electric Wheel, existing OEM Steer Ready, or hydraulic retrofit interfaces. Outback Guidance continues to offer machine specific installation kits for more than 1,500 machine models.

The A631 GNSS Smart Antenna delivers unmatched GNSS performance at scalable accuracy levels using RTK, SBAS, and Hemisphere’s Atlas L-Band service. The A631 supports RTK Base functionality when paired with the Outback RTK radio option.

The MaveriX technology platform supports the AC110 Rate and Section control to maximize your implement functions during planting, spraying and application tasks.

Hemisphere GNSS designs and manufactures heading and positioning products, services, and technology for use in agriculture, construction & mining, marine, OEM, L-band correction service markets, and any application that requires high-precision heading and positioning.

Volvo Group Venture Capital AB has announced a new investment in a company in the field of measurable safety for driver assistance and autonomous vehicles. Foretellix Ltd was founded in 2018 by a team of verification and validation pioneers whose mission is to make automated driving systems safe and efficient.

One of the main challenges of autonomous systems is deciding when a product is safe enough to commercialize. This is what Foretellix is tackling with its verification platform.  It uses intelligent automation and big data analytics tools which coordinate and monitor millions of driving scenarios to ensure that the autonomous vehicle behaves correctly under all possible driving conditions, including edge cases.

In addition to the Volvo Group Venture Capital investment, Volvo Autonomous Solutions formed a closer partnership with Foretellix earlier this year with the aim of jointly creating a coverage-driven verification solution for autonomous driving that operates both on public roads and in restricted areas.

The role of Volvo Group Venture Capital is to make investments that drive transformation by facilitating the creation of new services and solutions and to support collaborations between start-ups and the Volvo Group.

Against the background of the trends shaping the future of transportation and the strategic priorities of the Volvo Group, the key areas of investment for Volvo Group Venture Capital are logistics services, site solutions and electrical infrastructure. The organization has a global scope and focuses on Europe and North America.

Raven Industries, Inc., a manufacturer of driverless ag technology, showcased and demonstrated its OMNi suite of technology at the recent Farm Progress Show, one of the largest public farm shows in the United States. At the show, Raven featured its technology in the event’s Autonomy Zone, where the company debuted OMNiDRIVE on Case IH Magnum and showcased OMNiPOWER performing autonomous missions.

Raven’s OMNiDRIVE is the first driverless ag technology for grain cart harvest operations. The company launched OMNiDRIVE in May 12, 2021, with a year one limited release of 75 aftermarket systems. Today, all systems have been committed to by founding dealers. Through the remainder of the summer, the company is holding OMNiDRIVE demonstration events at its Founders Club dealers, where participants get a first-hand view of OMNiDRIVE controlling a driverless tractor pulling a grain cart and commanding it to sync with a harvester.

OMNiDRIVE is Raven’s aftermarket technology solution that transforms existing tractors into driverless machines. The technology connects, manages, and safely operates autonomous agricultural machinery and is compatible with:

• Case IH Magnum CVT (2014-2020 models): M250 / 280 / 310 / 340 / 380 (available in October 2021)
• New Holland CVT (2014-2020 models): T8.320 / 350 / 380 / 410 / 435 (available in October 2021)
• John Deere 8Rs Powershift and IVT (2010-current models)

OMNiPOWER is a self-propelled power platform that easily interchanges with farm implements, allowing the ag professional to perform multiple farming operations.

Raven Industries makes precision agriculture, high-performance specialty films, and aerospace and defense solutions.

The U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command recently declared the eighth GPS III satellite as “Available for Launch.” This significant accomplishment officially marks the third space vehicle within the GPS III program to be declared available for launch in the past three months.

GPS III SV06, SV07, and SV08 are now awaiting official call up for launch in Lockheed Martin’s GPS III Processing Facility in Waterton, Colorado.

“SV06, SV07, and SV08 AFL milestones in just three months prove that GPS III production continues to benefit from efficiencies with each satellite delivery,” said Col. Edward Byrne, chief of SSC’s Space Production Corps’ Medium Earth Orbit Space Systems Division.

The first of the three recently completed satellites, SV06, is scheduled to launch in 2022 and will join the operational constellation of 31 GPS satellites.

GPS III satellites deliver enhanced performance and accuracy through a variety of improvements, including increased signal protection and improved accuracy. GPS III also expands the civilian L5 signal, dubbed the “safety-of-life” signal, currently broadcast by the 12 GPS IIF satellites, but not yet operational, and delivers a new L1C signal designed to grant interoperability to similar international space-based positioning, navigation, and timing systems around the world.

Space Systems Command, located at Los Angeles Air Force Base in El Segundo, California, is the U.S. Space Force’s Center of Excellence for acquiring and developing military space systems. SSC’s portfolio includes space launch, global navigation satellite systems, military satellite communications, a defense meteorological satellite control network, range systems, space-based infrared systems, and space domain awareness capabilities.

Maxtena has introduced a new multi-frequency antenna shaped for high-precision applications featuring L-band corrections.

The design will offer simultaneous GNSS reception on L1: GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou, L2: GPS L2C, Galileo E5B, and GLONASS L3OC, and L5: GPS + L-band corrections in a rugged, compact, and ultra-lightweight form factor. The antenna is well suited for high precision applications. The M9HCT-A-SMA is a great fit for the UAV markets, where high performance and low weight are driving features in antenna selection.

The new rugged active helix antenna is designed and manufactured using automotive grade electronics for GIS, RTK and other GNSS applications.

Auterion, the company building an open and software-defined future for enterprise drone fleets, has partnered with Phase One, a developer and manufacturer of medium and large format aerial photography systems. The companies will make the Phase One P3 Payload lineup easily accessible, with a plug-and-play integration to Auterion’s open drone ecosystem.

Enterprise inspections today are limited to periodic inspections of selected assets in a small geographic area. Enterprises are forced to use either internal drone operators or operators who are trained in the organization’s workflow to effectively collect pertinent data. Scaling the inspections from tens of assets to thousands of assets requires a platform-agnostic, end-to-end, streamlined workflow. This enables drone operators to conduct the inspections across a large region, lowering the cost and increasing the coverage.

Known for its image quality in high-precision and time-critical inspections, Phase One’s P3 Payload consists of a high-resolution 100MP iXM camera—uniquely designed for UAVs—containing a BSI sensor with the highest dynamic range of 83dB, a rangefinder with smart focus, and a broad array of lenses including 35 mm, 80 mm and 150 mm. The partnership joins the P3 Payload’s inspection capabilities with the versatility native to Auterion’s ecosystem of software-defined and connected drones— enabling customers to integrate real-time inspection data into their existing applications and workflows. The P3 Payload is Phase One’s first payload compatible with the Auterion ecosystem.

Drones leveraging the Phase One P3 Payload and the power and connectivity of Auterion’s Skynode and Suite are capable of dramatically scaling high-value, high-risk and time-critical inspections including those of wind turbine fields (on land and offshore), oil refineries and offshore rigs, power masts and utility lines, bridges, dams, nuclear facilities, large infrastructure projects and other use cases. The combination also benefits faster geospatial mapping, bringing world-renowned image quality with very high resolution, dynamic range, color fidelity and geometric accuracy to projects.

Phase One A/S researches, develops, and manufactures medium format and large format digital cameras and imaging systems. Auterion provides enterprise and government with an ecosystem of software-defined drones, payloads, and third-party applications within a single, easy-to-use platform based on open-source standards.

Israeli drone service provider ERELIS has conducted a number of pilot projects using a drone equipped with a single-beam echo sounder in the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea. The data was validated by authorized local surveyors and reports from previous surveys of the same areas by the Michmoret Campus, Faculty of Marine Science.

The reference bathymetric data was collected using a manned boat and multi-beam and single-beam echo sounders and demonstrated a good match between the results of new drone-based and traditional methods.

The bathymetric system consisted of a standard commercial DJI drone (UgCS SkyHub onboard computer and terrain-following system with radar altimeter) and Echologger ECT400 single-beam echo sounder provided by SPH Engineering, Latvia. For data processing, the Eye4Software Hydromagic software package was employed.

“I was surprised by the maneuverability of the system and how easy it is to conduct bathymetric surveys using a UAV equipped with an echo sounder,” said Roman Kirsanov, CEO of ERELIS. “Some of our survey areas were 400 to 500 meters away from take-off and landing positions, and that means that remote sensing comes to the world of hydrography and becomes available to any drone service companies.”

“It was good to see that applicability of our system with a single-beam echo sounder validated in conditions outside of its initial focus on small-scale surveys of inland water bodies,” said Alexey Dobrovolskiy, CTO of SPH Engineering. “We can now recommend our system for small-scale surveys in coastal areas and virtually in any liquids. The density of water in the Dead Sea is 1.24 kg/l.”

In May, SPH Engineering launched a UAV integrated with an echo sounder, as a new product for bathymetric surveys of inland and coastal waters. This data-collection method has since been used in Denmark and the UAE, and is suitable for mapping, measuring and inspections, as well as environmental monitoring.

The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project and Kongsberg Maritime have entered a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in support of the global initiative to produce the complete map of the ocean floor. Under the terms of the MOU, the two parties will work together to advance understanding of ocean bathymetry. The effort complements the goals of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.

Seabed 2030 is a collaborative project between The Nippon Foundation and GEBCO to inspire the complete mapping of the world’s ocean by 2030 and to compile all bathymetric data into the freely available GEBCO Ocean Map. GEBCO is a joint project of the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and is the only organization with a mandate to map the entire ocean floor.

Kongsberg Maritime provides solutions for safe, efficient, and sustainable maritime operations. The solutions are suitable for offshore energies, seaborne transportation, hydrography, science, navy, coastal marine, aquaculture, training services and more. Kongsberg Maritime is the largest business area within Kongsberg Gruppen ASA. The Group has an integrated portfolio of solutions for businesses, partners and nations operating from the depths of the sea to outer space and to the digital frontier.

All data collected and shared with the Seabed 2030 Project is included in the GEBCO global grid, which is free and publicly available.

The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project is a collaborative project between The Nippon Foundation and GEBCO. The Seabed 2030 Project, launched at the United Nations Ocean Conference in 2017 by Chairman Sasakawa of The Nippon Foundation, coordinates and oversees the sourcing and compilation of bathymetric data from different parts of the world’s ocean through its five centers into the freely-available GEBCO Grid.

Kongsberg Maritime is a global marine technology company providing technology solutions for all marine industry sectors including merchant, offshore, cruise, subsea and naval.

Autopilot platform developer UAV Navigation is integrating Iris Automation’s detect and avoid Casia software into its advanced autopilot solution, VECTOR. UAVs equipped with VECTOR and Casia now can detect uncooperative crewed aircraft in their airspace and autonomously or manually take corrective action, avoiding potential collisions.

The integration comes as Iris Automation releases Casia Software v2.2. The release also includes improvements to performance, track fusion and flight data uploads. Casia Software is embedded in all Casia systems and uses computer vision and artificial intelligence to detect and classify aircraft intruders, similar to human pilots.

VECTOR autopilots are specifically designed to execute flight completely autonomously, even if the remote-control datalink becomes unavailable or fails. They are used by a wide range of commercial clients flying rotary wing, target drone, fixed wing, and VTOL uncrewed aerial vehicles, worldwide.

UAV Navigation specializes in the design of guidance, navigation and control solutions for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Iris Automation is a safety avionics technology company pioneering detect-and-avoid (DAA) systems and aviation policy services that enable customers to build scalable operations for commercial drones.

The National Academies has announced its proposed team to examine the analysis and decision-making process by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the matter of Ligado Networks. Individuals and organizations wishing to comment on the appropriateness of any of the members of that team or on any other aspect of this study have until September 19.

The April 2020 decision by the FCC has generated significant controversy and opposition within the public and Congress. This resulted in, among other things, seven separate petitions for reconsideration being filed, all of which are still pending, and several provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act for 2021. One of those provisions requires the Department of Defense to sponsor a study of the technical assumptions and analyses that went into the FCC’s decision to allow Ligado Networks to operate.

According to the post on the National Academies website, the study will consider:

“(1) Which of the two prevailing proposed approaches to evaluating harmful interference concerns — one based on a signal-to-noise interference protection criterion and the other based on a device-by-device measurement of the GPS position error — most effectively mitigates risks of harmful interference with GPS services and DOD operations and activities.

(2) The potential for harmful interference from the proposed Ligado network to mobile satellite services including GPS and other commercial or DOD services including the potential to affect Department of Defense (DOD) operations, and activities.

(3) The feasibility, practicality, and effectiveness of the mitigation measures proposed in the FCC order with respect to DOD devices, operations, and activities.”

This announcement is the first significant public step for the effort which is expected to take approximately 12 to 18 months. Sources say that there will likely be public and classified versions of the report. The classified version is likely to take significantly longer to compile.

The proposed study team members are:

Chair: J. Michael McQuade

Members:

• Jennifer Lacroix Alvarez
• Kristine M. Larson
• John L. Manferdelli
• Preston F. Marshall
• Y. Jade Morton
• Richard Reaser, Jr.
• Jeffrey H. Reed
• Nambirajan Seshadri
• Stephen J. Stafford
• Staff Officer: Jon Eisenberg

Individuals and organizations wishing to comment on these proposed team members may do so through the project web page or at https://www8.nationalacademies.org/pa/feedback.aspx?type=committee&key=DEPS-CSTB-21-02

Mr. Dana A. Goward is the President of the non-profit Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation