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Topcon Agriculture is offering new manual guidance and autosteering receivers — the AGM-1 and AGS-2.

Topcon also launched Topnet Live, a real-time GNSS correction service. Under Topnet Live,  the Realpoint service provides greater accuracy and a quick start-up time. Starpoint and Starpoint Pro provide service anywhere on the planet, independent of local networks. Skybridge allows subscribers to combine RTK and PPP correction services.

Accurate positioning is the cornerstone of site-specific management. It is not only required for accurate operations, but expansive data collection, enabling farm professionals to compare different types of information, such as yield, soil type and fertility, for better decision making.

The technology is used for machine operations and all associated tasks where tracking location data is relevant to crop optimization, including soil preparation, seeding, crop care and harvesting.

Topnet Live. To support the range of agricultural applications, the receiver and steering controller uses the new Topnet Live correction services. Plus, with the option of Skybridge, users can maintain network connection during any RTK interruption.

“Topcon receivers are designed to suit virtually any agricultural machine type, make and model,” said Brian Sorbe, vice president of global product solutions. “Equipped with progressive reception and tracking capabilities, with the option of manual guidance or complete autosteering, the receivers are suitable for any size or type of operation. With access to the full range of correction services through the AGS-2, Topcon provides farmers with the right fit for their operation with accuracy on demand. Each unique farming operation may have differing accuracy requirements and this approach will benefit their operation.

“Calibrated to accuracies of within two centimeters, the new correction services provide reliable pass-to-pass precision,” Sorbe said. “Through a constantly improving network and variety of cost-effective subscription models, the service delivers reliable connection stability across the globe. With these new offerings, Topcon continues to offer powerful solutions to suit the variable demands of agriculture.”

Honeywell has launched a new series of miniature inertial measurement units (IMUs) ruggedized to offer high accuracy along with the durability to survive high-shock environments.

Roughly the size of a water-bottle cap, the new HG1125 and HG1126 IMUs are low cost and serve both commercial and military applications.

The new family of IMUs can survive shocks up to 40,000 G-force, making it one of Honeywell’s toughest IMU products to date. The HG1125 and HG1126 can be used for a variety of defense and commercial applications such as tactical military needs, drilling, unmanned aerial vehicles or navigation systems for general aviation aircraft.

“Low-cost, ultra-rugged IMUs are in high demand across a variety of market segments where customers need high-performance navigation, but they’re limited by size or cost constraints,” said Matt Picchetti, vice president and general manager, Navigation & Sensors, Honeywell Aerospace. “Our new HG1125 and HG1126 products meet all of these requirements, making them an ideal solution for customers operating in a wide variety of high-shock environments, including everything from military tactical operations to industrial applications such as drilling.”

An IMU uses gyroscopes, accelerometers and electronics to give precise rotation and acceleration data. This enables a vehicle system to calculate where it is, in what direction it is going, and at what speed, even when GPS signals are not available.

The HG1125 and HG1126 use sensors based on micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology to precisely measure motion. They are the newest IMUs from Honeywell’s tactical IMU production facility, which delivers nearly 100,000 IMUs each year to customers across a wide range of segments.

The first deliveries of these new products are set to begin in June.

Honeywell’s lineage in navigation dates to the 1920s, and it has long been a pioneer in MEMS-based IMUs. Honeywell has developed and manufactured high-performance navigation solutions found on many aircraft and other vehicles worldwide.

SkyTraq is offering a new multi-band, multi-GNSS receiver module for real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning and heading applications, suitable for autonomous vehicles. The PX1172RH surface-mount receiver measures 17 x 22 mm, about the size of a postage stamp.

With dual-antenna input, the PX1172RH receiver delivers sub-degree heading and pitch or heading and roll angles on top of centimeter-level positioning under both dynamic and static conditions. This removes the dependency on vehicle movement to initialize an inertial measurement unit (IMU) for attitude determination.

The PX1172RH is unaffected by magnetic surroundings and does not require calibration. It offers higher heading reliability and performance than magnetic heading sensors or single-antenna GPS sensors.

The PX1172RH works with dual-frequency GPS/QZSS L1/L2, GLONASS L1/L2, Galileo E1/E5 and BDS B1/B2 GNSS signals concurrently to enable robust positioning and heading performance under challenging partial-sky environments and to provide RTK convergence in seconds. The PX1172RH is suitable for autonomous precision-guidance applications.

A PX1172RH sample, datasheet and evaluation boards will be available in May, with mass production scheduled for June.

Trimble and Amberg Technologies are collaborating to provide a tunnel survey solution. The combined hardware and software solution will enable construction, mining professionals and surveying service providers in underground environments to make use of a complete field-to-office workflow.

The Trimble and Amberg solution enables tunnel surveyors to perform a variety of underground tasks such as excavation guidance, control, automated survey and stakeout of different tunnel elements using design information. In addition, it delivers a comprehensive module for digitalization of tunnel construction and further optimization of related processes.

The tunneling solution combines the robustness and the speed of the Trimble S series robotic total stations with the user-friendly workflows of Amberg Navigator field software running on a ruggedized Trimble TSC7 data collector or T100 tablet. The streamlined workflows are optimized for non-geospatial professionals, helping to keep tunneling and underground projects on time.

In the office, the designs from the Amberg Tunnel office software can be transferred to Amberg Navigator, either directly or using the cloud. Following the data collection and stakeout operations, the information is sent back to the office for detailed analysis, where inspection maps and reports can be produced as final deliverables inside Amberg Tunnel office software. This streamlined process can bring significant time and resource savings due to a more efficient workflow and easy-to-use interface.

The solution provides a full-featured workflow for tunnel construction surveys including:

• project definition and design data preparation
• graphical interface supporting instruments setup and georeferencing
• automated data collection and real-time results
• accurate stakeout of various tunnel elements (drill and blast holes, rock bolts)
• efficient and comprehensive as-built analysis, reporting and archiving.

“Partnering with Amberg Technologies will provide our customers with an industry-leading tunneling solution to increase productivity when working in underground tunneling and mining environments,” said Ron Bisio, senior vice president of Trimble Geospatial. ”The domain-rich and easy-to-use Amberg solution in combination with our Trimble S series can increase confidence in the field and streamline deliverable creation.”

“Together with Trimble high-end surveying sensors, we can enrich our comprehensive tunnel solution with a more versatile offering and even better, address specific needs in ever more demanding construction environments,” said Svein G. Vatslid, CEO, Amberg Technologies AG.

The solution is expected to be available through Trimble’s Geospatial distribution channel in North, Central and South America this month.

Two recent reports from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) have described a recent increase in GPS jamming, presumably by Russian or pro-Russian forces in Ukraine. This comes as Russia has increased its troop numbers and activity along its border with Ukraine.

OSCE is charged with a Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in Ukraine which observes and reports on how well both sides are adhering to the Minsk Protocol agreement. The agreement was signed in September 2014 by participants in the conflict in an effort to end open hostilities.

One of the ways the OSCE mission monitors activity and compliance in the region is with long range UAVs. As early as November 2014, the organization reported UAV operations being thwarted by interference with GPS signals.

Two recent OSCE spot reports have highlighted a resurgence in jamming.

An April 7 report described interference that prevented a UAV takeoff the previous day. While the organization’s UAVs had been experiencing increased interference since March, this was the first time since October 2014 that it had thwarted a mission before takeoff.

The report also documented an increasing level of jamming activity.

“Over the last two months, 62.5 percent of SMM long-range UAV flights encountered GPS signal interference and on 75 percent of the affected flights it occurred more than once.”

A second report on April 9 outlined continuing problems that caused missions to be aborted. It emphasized that this was a violation of the agreement signed by all parties and greatly hampered OSCE’s mission.

“Any GPS signal interference hinders the Mission’s ability to conduct effective monitoring and reporting of the security situation in line with its mandate. Long-range UAVs are an essential part of SMM operations, especially at night and in areas where the Mission’s monitoring and freedom of movement are restricted.”

GPS jamming and spoofing are important parts of Russia’s arsenal to counter any technological advantage the west may have over their forces. A 2015 Sputnik article bragged their electronic warfare kept U.S. cruise missiles from hitting their targets at the start of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Also, that this advanced capability “renders aircraft carriers useless.”

Interference with GPS signals is a regular feature of Russian military and internal security operations.

Upon more than one occasion Russia has jammed GPS signals near NATO exercises and regularly jams broad areas in the Middle East from a base in Syria. Its spoofing of GPS signals in Moscow and the Black Sea to cause receivers to report that they are at airports kilometers away from their true location has been well documented.

The United States has formally expressed concerns about the recent increase in the number of Russian troops and their activity at the Ukrainian border. It has been reported that two U.S. Navy ships are on their way to the Black Sea to help monitor the situation.

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Dana A. Goward is president of the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation.

Study by U.S. government agency responsible for maintaining national time scale shows that Satelles provides a signal that is independent of GNSS and delivers exceptional timing stability

Following a detailed performance study in 2020, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) determined that Satellite Time and Location (STL) is a reliable source of timing highly consistent with Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The secure STL services are provided by Satelles Inc.

STL is based on a signal independent from GPS and other GNSS. The STL service was able to deliver this consistent performance in a deep indoor environment where GNSS signals did not reach.

The results of the study were shared by Elizabeth Donley, chief of the Time and Frequency Division at NIST, in a keynote speech at the Workshop on Synchronization and Timing Systems (WSTS) conference on April 1.

Donley articulated the details of the NIST study, in which a GPS-disciplined clock and a Satelles EVK-2 evaluation unit with a quartz oscillator were compared to UTC for 50 days. In this evaluation, the GPS device received its signal from an outdoor antenna, whereas the Satelles device was connected to an indoor antenna in a deep indoor environment where GNSS signals were not able to reach.

Time deviation calculations estimated the stability of the two signals with respect to the UTC time scale. Based on one day of averaging, the GPS instability was less than two nanoseconds, and the STL instability was only slightly higher at under three nanoseconds (see chart). These measurements demonstrated that STL delivers stability comparable to GNSS and does so in an indoor location where GPS signals usually cannot penetrate.

STL delivers a positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) service from satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) to back up or augment GPS and other GNSS. The evaluation by NIST confirms that users of PNT-reliant applications can obtain accurate and reliable timing without using GNSS.

“We are thrilled that NIST has performed these independent tests that confirm what we have long known, which is that STL delivers an independent timing source that is reliable and highly consistent with UTC,” said Gregory Gutt, president and CTO of Satelles. “This report complements and reinforces the findings of the U.S. Department of Transportation, which identified STL as a top-ranked PNT system in its technology demonstration report released earlier this year, and showed STL to be the only solution that demonstrated a wide-area timing capability that works indoors and out.”

Zala Aero Group unveiled a new unmanned system for long-distance flights — the Zala 421-16E5G — at the closed exhibition Zala Expo,  which began on April 19 in Moscow.

The Zala 421-16E5G is a domestic unmanned aerial vehicle with a hybrid power plant. The non-aerodrome-based system is capable of providing aerial monitoring covering distances of more than 150 kilometers and staying in the air for more than 12 hours.

The Zala 421-16E5G has a unique power plant that charges a buffer battery for an hour. The power plant allows the UAV to fly long distances. During production test flights, the duration of the Zala 421-16E5G was 16 hours.

The unmanned system is equipped with a combined payload with two thermal imagers and a 60x video camera. Optionally, the Zala 421-16E5G is capable of carrying a payload weighing up to 10 kg. The video stream is broadcast in high-definition format (1280 x 720 resolution), which allows the ground-station operator to view the streaming image in great detail.

In addition to optoelectronic loads, the device is equipped with electronic reconnaissance equipment and communication repeaters. Objects are detected and recognized in real-time by the onboard computer based on artificial intelligence.

Only if you have been living under a rock will it be a surprise to hear that the unmanned helicopter called Ingenuity has arrived on Mars attached to the SUV-sized rover called Perseverance. Both have been on the Red Planet since they landed on Feb. 18.

NASA has since then been in checkout and test mode for both rover and UAV, but Perseverance got a pretty clean bill of health and was commanded to motor over to a flat piece of adjacent Jexero crater — now referred to as the airfield or heliport. There, Ingenuity was detached from the underbelly of Perseverance. Then the little bird lost its power feed from mama rover. Now it has to rely on its own batteries and a small solar panel. The big SUV rover pulled away to a safe 215-foot distance ,and the folks at NASA set about preparing Ingenuity for flight.

This article was written during the period when things were proceeding with some hesitancy and delay, so things in the article unfold in the same sequence as we all experienced them while we eagerly awaited Integrity’s maiden flight.

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Countdown to Flight

At only 4 pounds (weighing 1.5 pounds on Mars), the Ingenuity UAV is small, but it’s packed with electronics that allow it to communicate via top-mounted antennas with the rover.

It carries a lithium ion battery recharged by a small solar panel mounted on top (350 watts is required for a 90-second flight). The UAV also contains heaters to maintain the avionics through the cold of the Martian night. It carries two cameras — a black-and-white navigation camera and a high-density color imager — plus sensors for image processing, data collection and storage, navigation processing and vehicle control.

One of the objectives for this first flight demonstration is the miniaturization and weight reduction of all these electronics. The NASA website is a little obscure about how the UAV navigates, but perhaps it uses some form of terrain matching/image processing in conjunction with an onboard inertial sensor and laser altimeter.

Early Shutdown. The UAV had already survived a few nights on its own at around -117F when NASA began to spool up the two four-foot long blades to around 50 rpm during the checkout, and all seemed well until April 9, when a full-speed 2400 rpm spin-test began, and there was an early shut-down due to a watchdog timer — intended to shut things down if something wrong was detected prior to flight. None of this was learned in real time, as radio signal commands take more than 15 minutes to travel the 173-million-miles from Earth to Mars, with the same delay to send back data from what has already happened.

The density of atmosphere on Mars is only 1% that of Earth, so getting Ingenuity off the ground is more complicated than on Earth. The four-foot-long composite carbon blades have much more surface area than here on Earth for a typical UAV. The two contra-rotating blades spin at around 2400 rpm — a drone on Earth would typically spin its rotors at around 450 rpm.

Testing on Earth. NASA tested this configuration in a huge vacuum chamber with 1% air density, and Ingenuity flew just fine. The lower gravity on Mars — about 38% that of on Earth — will also help compensate for the lower level of lift available from the Martian atmosphere.

Because of the radio link delay to and from Mars, Ingenuity can fly and land autonomously only once commands are received. Onboard sensors provide data to enable the vehicle to execute the stored flight profile. The navigation camera provides guidance, and the 13-megapixel color-imaging camera can record the scene. Data and video collected are sent back to the rover for transmission to Earth via the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, an Mars satellite that acts as a data relay.

The First Hop. The first‘ hop  was planned to last only a few seconds, but subsequent flights promise to be 165-foot plus, at more than 16 feet above the surface. If things go well, NASA might get more adventurous for the planned fourth and fifth flights.

All these flights are supposed to happen during the first month of Ingenuity’s flight activity; then Perseverance has to move on with its real task — searching for signs of ancient life on Mars. With no communications possible without the rover, the current plan is to abandon the little bird, even though it may still be fully functional.

Working to Clear the Watchdog Timer. NASA worked to clear the watchdog-timer problem and give Ingenuity clearance to fly. Over the weekend of April 10–11, the Ingenuity team came up with a fix for flight software. which overcomes the watchdog-timer issue.

However, before the new software could be uploaded to the ground station on Earth and sent to the Perseverance rover for onward transmission to Ingenuity, extensive testing and validation of the software change was necessary. The existing flight software had not been changed for more than two years, so it’s  understandable that NASA wanted to be sure before uplinking new software.

Past the April 14 Date. The initially predicted flight date of April 14 came and went, and we still awaited news of the outcome of the next rotor spin-up test. Lift-off and autonomous flight and landing were still to come.

Meanwhile, another team member came up with a fix to the sequencing of commands that would transition Ingenuity from ground to flight mode, the place in the sequence where things had previously hung up. The revised sequence was sent to Mars and on April 16. The subsequent spin test went off successfully with the contra-rotating blades turning at the anticipated flight speed of 2400 rpm. Apparently, the work on the new version of flight control software was still proceeding, but NASA had decided they have sufficient confidence to set a new flight date of April 19.

Maiden Flight

Then, while we all slept, on April 19 at 3:30 a.m. Eastern Time, Integrity executed the command. It  autonomously took off, hover edat a height of 10 feet for around 60 seconds, and then returned to its Martian airfield.

Above is a picture Integrity took of its own shadow while airborne. it was around noon on Mars in bright sunlight, hence the clear, well-defined shadow. Data received some time later via Perseverance and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter contained laser altimeter readings that confirmed this first flight. The color video from Perseverance also shows the spinning rotors and the UAV taking off, hovering at 10ft, descending and landing.

A small patch that Integrity carries is from the Wright Brothers’ flimsy, powered Wright Flyer, which flew for the very first time on Earth on Dec. 17, 1903. Now we have the very first powered flight on another planet. NASA has scheduled another four or five flights for Integrity, so we may soon even see moving panoramas of Mars from Integrity.

So now we can chalk up the first powered flight on another planet as another major human achievement — discounting, of course, that maybe some other species has done it eons ago. But, nah, we all know Mars is a dead planet, now.

Tony Murfin
GNSS Aerospace

The European Space Agency (ESA) has commissioned Euroconsult to conduct a study on the future of the European space transportation sector.

Euroconsult, a global consulting firm specializing in space markets, has partnered with the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) to investigate European institutional mission scenarios for the period beyond 2030 following the ITT on New European Space Transportation Solutions (NESTS).

Euroconsult and ESPI will deliver an independent analysis focusing on the demand drivers of the future space transportation solutions in the period 2030–50 along already awarded contracts to ArianeGroup, Avio and Rocket Factory Augsburg (a subsidiary of OHB SE).

Space transportation technologies are intrinsically complex, some needing long development cycles of up to a decade, explained ESA. In March, ESA signed within NESTS study contracts of €500,000 with ArianeGroup, Avio and Rocket Factory Augsburg (a subsidiary of OHB SE).

These companies are tasked with carrying out research over the next few months. This will enable them to identify and recommend preliminary elements for future space transportation solutions to be used in the period 2030–50.

“ESA, through its New European Space Transportation Solutions initiative, lays the foundations that enable us to prepare the future beyond Ariane 6 and Vega-C,” said Daniel Neuenschwander, ESA director of Space Transportation. “These system concept studies will include services that prioritize the future needs of Europe’s space programs but also allow us to address global market needs.”

“Space transportation capabilities are evolving due to changes in launch demand and customers’ requirements and to the availability of innovative and cost-effective solutions serving these,” stated Euroconsult CEO Pacôme Revillon. “Euroconsult and ESPI expertise combined will guarantee the independence and neutrality of the results. All partners are fully committed to delivering a study that lays the groundwork for the future of the European space transportation sector,” he added.

The studies will be completed before June and will feed the preparation of proposals to be submitted for decision at the next Council Meeting at Ministerial level in 2022.

Project will boost the positioning performance and real-time operability of the Galileo system.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has selected Thales Alenia Space to support the implementation and experimentation of the navigation algorithms that will be used in the Galileo Second Generation program. Under the contract, Thales will develop the Advanced Orbit Determination and Time Synchronisation (ODTS) Algorithms Test Platform (A-OATP).

Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), is the prime contractor for Galileo First Generation’s Ground Mission Segment,.

ESA granted the contract on behalf of the European Commission in the Horizon 2020 Satellite Navigation Program (HSNAV).

In a previous contract, Thales Alenia Space was chosen to provide six satellites and initiate the B2 phase of development and implementation of its ground segment for the Galileo Second Generation constellation.

Using its long-standing legacy regarding navigation algorithms in addition to an innovative approach, Thales Alenia Space will develop and test a new Advanced ODTS solution. The new orbitography algorithms will allow a significant improvement in positioning performance and real-time operability of the Galileo system. It will exploit the accuracy of the GNSS orbit and clock estimation, with a solution optimized for the real-time generation of Galileo navigation messages, and take full advantage of the evolution of satellites and ground stations considered in the Galileo Second Generation.

With this new contract, Thales Alenia Space applies on a deep experience concerning orbitography algorithms as well as knowledge of the Galileo system to strengthen its position as a major actor for the development of the new generation of this satellite system, the company stated in a press release.