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The technology multinational GMV has won a contract under the Spanish Ministry of Defense’s (MoD’s) RAPAZ program for the supply of four Class I Seeker RPASs, to be integrated into the intelligence units of the Paratrooper Brigade and the Tercio de Armada de Infantería de Marina (Marine Infantry Protection Force).

The contract will provide the armed forces with the most advanced version of the unmanned aircraft Seeker.

The UAS Seeker is an autonomous, rapid-deployment system developed by Aurea Avionics and supplied by GMV. It provides intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities over a 15-kilometer range with a 90-minute endurance and a weight of 3.5 kg.

The aircraft will strengthen the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities of Spanish troops, ensuring better operational capability and tactical superiority.

Seeker constitutes the core of a situational awareness system, providing real-time intelligence. It is designed for rapid-deployment and high-mobility military applications carrying out low-level intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance tasks.

The system components can be broken down into two major groups: the air segment and the ground segment. The air segment comprises the unmanned aerial system (UAV), fit for daytime and nighttime operations and capable of completely autonomous flying. The ground segment comprises a ground control station, a ground data terminal, and a remote handheld control. These systems between them monitor the UAV’s operation and process its real-time video data.

Within this project, due for delivery by October 2020, GMV will be running the design and manufacturing activities and also the various flight campaigns scheduled to check that the systems work properly before handover to the MoD.

GMV developments for unmanned aircraft

GMV boasts great expertise and experience in Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), built up on the strength of many previous projects such as ATLANTE, where it developed the aircraft’s flight control computer; EGNSS4RPAS, where it weighed up EGNOS performance for RPAS operations; and DOMUS, where it developed emergency-management and -monitoring service demonstrators for drone traffic control under the U-Space system.

This Spanish MoD Seeker system supply contract boosts GMV’s growing renown as developer and supplier of UAV systems and services.

Oceanographic & Geophysical Instruments (OGI) has selected iXblue’s Atlans INS to provide robust and uninterrupted data georeferencing to its newly unveiled mobile-mapping lidar solution dedicated to road assessment surveys.

A fully integrated mobile mapping solution, this new vehicle-based system integrates advanced systems to provide highly detailed georeferenced survey data to transportation departments throughout the United States.

“Highly accurate and reliable georeferencing of the collected data being crucial for road assessment operations, we were seeking a compact and robust navigation solution for our mobile scanner project,” said Darren Moss, program manager at OGI. “We tested other inertial navigation systems (INS) during mobile surveys in New York City and Boston with poor results, as those INS units relied mainly on GPS signals. Maintaining good GPS signals in the urban canyons of large cities proved to be impossible. This deeply impacted the georeferencing of the acquired lidar data, leading to highly inefficient operations. This is the reason we turned to iXblue’s Atlans A7 INS.”

Based on fiber-optic gyroscope (FOG) technology, the Atlans A7 north-seeking INS offers highly accurate and robust data georeferencing. Resistant to GPS outages, it enables continuous acquisition operations within environments lacking continuous GPS signals. The Atlans A7 is a valuable system for high-accuracy data acquisition without interruption.

“Working with iXblue in other markets, we were familiar with the high-quality instrumentation they are known for. We were confident their FOG-based INS systems would perform even during GPS outages,” Darren said. “By choosing the Atlans A7, we are assured to get robust and uninterrupted georeferenced data in urban environments, tunnels, forests, and mountainous areas, which is crucial for our customer’s operations. With this INS, iXblue brings high-end FOG performance to the mobile-mapping industry at a very affordable price.”

“The Atlans A7 integrates very well within our new mobile lidar solution and, combined with Teledyne Optech Polaris high-resolution lidar scanner and QPS Qinsy display and acquisition software, it brings high-accuracy and efficiency to the core of our Mobile lidar solution,” Darren said.

TDC’s Freeance field applications leverages Trimble GNSS for accurate, streamlined data collection

TDC Group has joined Trimble’s GIS (geographic information system) Business Partner Program. As part of the program, TDC has implemented the Trimble Precision SDK (software developer kit) to integrate high-accuracy positioning capabilities in its Freeance mobile software applications running on tablets and smartphones using Trimble GNSS receivers.

Freeance provides field crews with simple yet powerful and configurable location-based mobile apps to manage data collection and inspection activities across utility and public works organizations. By adding the Trimble R1 and R2 receivers to Freeance workflows, users are empowered with real-time access to high-quality, reliable data.

“Trimble recognizes the value our GIS software partners bring to our customers by delivering targeted, industry-specific solutions,” said Stephanie Michaud, strategic marketing manager, Trimble Survey & Mapping Field Solutions. “We’re very pleased to collaborate with TDC and leverage their domain expertise, and to integrate Trimble technology into the Freeance solution for the utilities and public works markets. As a direct result of this relationship, Freeance users can now work with the confidence of knowing their field workflows are precision-enabled with Trimble GIS technology.”

“We’re excited about the integration of high-accuracy Trimble GNSS receivers with Freeance software that enables organizations to add sub-meter or better accuracy to mobile workflow activities using smartphones and tablets,” said Matthew Reddington, CEO of TDC Group. “Adding high-accuracy positioning to field workflows by means of simple mobile apps paired with Trimble GNSS increases the quality and uses of data captured during field operations.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a report on alternative sources of PNT on May 6. It was submitted to U.S. congressional committee leaders on April 8.

The Report on Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) Backup and Complementary Capabilities to the Global Positioning System (GPS) highlights the urgent need for GPS backup for critical applications, and it identifies and characterizes a variety of solutions available to meet this need today.

Section 1618 of the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of Dec. 23, 2016, required the DHS to address the need for a GPS backup by identifying and assessing viable alternate technologies and systems.

The report is a summary and analysis of that assessment by the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center (HSOAC) of PNT systems currently used by critical infrastructure. It also provides recommendations for the federal government’s next steps to increase the resilience of critical infrastructure to disruption of GPS services.

In the report, DHS offers the following recommendations to address the nation’s PNT requirements and backup or complementary capability gaps:

1. Temporary GPS disruptions: End users should be responsible for mitigating temporary GPS disruptions. For example, the Federal Aviation Administration maintains sufficient PNT capabilities to assure the continued safe operation of the national airspace, albeit at a reduced capacity, during GPS disruptions. The federal government can facilitate this mitigation for various critical infrastructure sectors, but should not be solely responsible for it.
2. PNT Diversity and Segmentation: The federal government should encourage adoption of multiple PNT sources, thus expanding the availability of PNT services based on market drivers. Encouraging critical infrastructure owners and operators to adopt multiple PNT systems will diffuse the risk currently concentrated in wide-area PNT services such as GPS. Federal actions should focus on facilitating the availability and adoption of PNT sources in the open market.
3. System Design: PNT provisioning systems, assets, and services must be designed with inherent security and resilience features. Critical infrastructure systems that use PNT services must be designed to operate through interference and to identify and respond to anomalous PNT inputs. These attributes are applicable to the PNT receivers and the systems that use them.
4. Pursue Innovation that Emphasizes Transition and Adoption: Incorporating PNT signal diversity into the PNT ecosystem should be pursued with an emphasis on research and development that prioritizes successful transition and adoption into existing GPS receivers, taking into account factors such as business case considerations, financial costs, technical integration, and logistical deployment.

Table 1 shows timing requirements for critical infrastructure are, according to the report.

Table 2 from the report shows proposed timing solutions submitted by industry to DHS during a Request for Information (RFI) in December 2018. Systems that can meet or exceed timing requirements for critical infrastructure are indicated in green.

Satelles responds

The Satelles company, which offers STL, issued a statement on the report. “This important report highlights the urgent need for GPS backup for critical applications, and it identifies and characterizes a variety of solutions that are available to meet this need today,” said Michael O’Connor, CEO of Satelles. “The report also describes the essential role of the federal government in urging industry to implement multiple technologies, without making the mistake of providing or selecting a single PNT solution.”

Continued O’Connor, “DHS goes on to define a baseline requirement for timing services accuracy for critical infrastructure. Not only does Satelles meet or exceed the precision timing specifications stated by DHS, but also our solution provides national coverage (including Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. territories) and is commercially available now.”

Read O’Connor’s full statement.

Eight senators sent a letter on June 4 to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Ajit Pai asking a series of questions about the agency’s decision on Ligado Networks.

Signing the letter were Senators Mike Lee, Brian Schatz, Ron Johnson, Edward Markey, Ted Cruz, Mark Warner, John Thune and Chris Coons. All except for Senator Coons serve on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which oversees the FCC. Senator Coons serves on the appropriations subcommittee that funds the FCC each year.

The letter referred to the hearing held by the Senate Armed Services Committee on the issue, and stated that only parties opposed to the FCC’s action were heard. The senators were concerned that the public also hear from the FCC.

Thirteen specific questions covered topics including:

• How long the proceeding was on the docket
• What notice given federal agencies of the proposed final order
• Which agencies were consulted and how input was considered
• The adequacy of the guard band and how the FCC has used the 1-db interference standard in the past

The 13th question asked the FCC why it believed granting the application was in the public interest.

A copy of the letter is available on the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation website.

Orolia has introduced a low SWaP-C miniaturized rubidium oscillator, the Spectratime mRO-50, designed to meet the latest commercial, military and aerospace requirements where time stability and power consumption are critical. The oscillator is low SWaP-C — size, weight, power and cost.

The Spectratime mRO-50 provides a one-day holdover below 1 µs and a retrace below 1 x 10-10 in a form factor (50.8 x 50.8 x 19.5 millimeter). It takes up only 51 cc of volume — about one-third of volume compared to standard rubidiums — and consumes only 0.45 W of power.

he Spectratime mRO-50 miniaturized rubidium oscillator provides accurate frequency and precise time synchronization to mobile applications, such as military radio-pack systems in GNSS-denied environments. Its operating temperature of -10°C to 60°C (military version extends to -40°C to 75°C) is also suitable for UAVs and underwater applications.

Orolia is a leader in space-based atomic clocks and high-end crystal, rubidium, hydrogen maser and integrated GPS/GNSS clocks. The company also provides testing instruments for space missions that rely on high precision atomic clock technology.

Orolia’s Atomic Clocks team received the 2019 PTTI Distinguished Service Award in January for advancing the state of the art in high-stability atomic clocks and producing the only space-based passive H-maser in the world, operating on all Galileo satellites. Spectratime mRO-50 is the latest technology solution from this award-winning team.

“Through Orolia’s continuous commitment to innovation, we are proud to offer our customers more precise PNT data in a cutting-edge, lightweight form factor for mobile missions,” said Orolia’s Atomic Clocks Product Line Director, Jean-Charles Chen.

Tersus GNSS Inc. has released the BX40C RTK board to support its series of GNSS boards and provide highly accurate and fast positioning services.

Powered by the company’s new ExtremeRTK GNSS technology, the BX40C board can support multi-constellation and multi-frequency all-in-view satellite tracking.

The Tersus BX40C is a compact GNSS real-time kinematic (RTK) board with full constellation tracking for providing centimeter-level accuracy positioning. It can be integrated with autopilots and inertial navigation units to meet various developing requirements. It is suitable for high-precision positioning, navigation and mapping.

“Tersus has been proud of its BX-series RTK boards, and today we added a new member to the series by launching the new BX40C board,” said Xiaohua Wen, founder and CEO of Tersus GNSS. “The BX40C is with enhanced positioning accuracy and constellation tracking, even in harsh environments, the BX40C board can still control deviation within 3-centimeter in surveying and mapping applications. It supports 576 channels and can achieve centimeter-level position accuracy easily. We are excited to see how BX40C strengthens our product portfolio and technology competence to make a great effort in this industry.”

The BX40C board supports multiple constellations and frequencies to improve the continuity and reliability of the RTK solution — even in harsh environments. In-built 4GB memory makes data collection easy, the company said. It is compatible with other GNSS boards in the market via flexible interfaces, smart hardware design and commonly used log/command formats.

Kolmostar’s ultra-low power, instant cold boot GNSS module JEDI-200 is now ready to sample. Specially designed for IoT applications such as pet and personal object tracking, livestock tracking, fixed and nomadic logistics, infrastructure tracking and shared economy, JEDI-200’s reduced level of power consumption and optimized efficiency with LPWAN solve IoT endpoint deployment’s pain-point of needing frequent recharges or a large battery.

JEDI-200 specification highlights include:

• Industry lowest energy consumption of 25 mJ/position fix
• Shortest cold-boot TTFF of one second
• 5.0 meter CEP positioning accuracy
• Supports GPS and BeiDou constellations
• 50 Byte/12-hour compressed ephemeris (EPH) for speedy download, enabling A-GPS via LPWAN while significantly reducing EPH download power consumption overhead
• High-performance cloud computing for minimum end device power consumption and seamless integration with customers’ backend data analytics platforms and dashboard applications
• Integrated SAW filter, stand-alone LNA and TCXO
• 12mm x 16mm industry-proven standard form factor for easy wireless connectivity integration

Purchase a JEDI-200 EVK here.

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Sponsored content provided by Kolmostar

Skyports and Thales are partnering to conduct a drone delivery trial for the National Health Service (NHS) to support the United Kingdom’s COVID-19 response.

The trial, being conducted in Scotland, aims to prove the feasibility of delivering urgent medical cargo, such as COVID-19 test kits and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), between remote medical facilities by delivery drone. The trial is backed by Argyll and Bute Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) — the integrated partnership of NHS Highland and Argyll and Bute Council directed by the local Integration Joint Board.

U.K. drone delivery provider Skyports will conduct the trial and operate the flights using delivery drones supplied by unmanned aircraft-maker Wingcopter, because of its proven capability through numerous delivery operations around the world. The trial flights will be planned through Thales’ drone operations management platform, SOARIZON, which offers digital tools to maintain compliant and safe drone flying operations.

Based at Lorn and Islands Hospital in Oban, the trial will consist of two-way flights between the hospital and Mull and Iona Community Hospital in Craignure 10 miles (16km) away on the Isle of Mull.

As COVID-19 testing rapidly gathers pace in the U.K., the proposed delivery service will help to ensure that isolated communities have access to tests, delivered in a fast and efficient way. Currently, the majority of medical supplies and specimens are transported between the laboratory at Lorn and Islands Hospital, surrounding general practitioners’ surgeries and other healthcare settings by sea and road, a long and complicated journey.

The service would cut delivery times from up to six hours one way by ground transport and ferry, to 15 minutes for on-demand delivery by drone. The speed would contribute to keeping front line medical and delivery personnel safe.

Answering the call from government and Argyll and Bute HSCP, in response to the COVID-19 crisis, the trial is the result of rapid mobilization from industry as well as the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), local government, NHS Scotland and the U.K. Department for Transport (DFT). Argyll and Bute HSCP has been at the forefront of exploring with Skyports the use of unmanned aircraft technology, building on preliminary work with the Scottish government on the possibility of drone use by the public-sector emergency services in Scotland.

The two-week trial represents a crucial milestone for unmanned aviation in the U.K. Under current rules, drones must always be flown within visual line of sight of the remote pilot. To undertake these more extended flights (beyond visual line of sight, or BVLOS), the project team has been in close consultation with the CAA.

Through this trial, the alliance aims to prove the long-term, sustainable viability of such services; bringing together regulation, government and industry to unlock the transformational potential of drones for society when used in a safe, secure and controlled way.f this new service.”

Thales and Skyports are also working together within the CAA Regulatory Sandbox programme, exploring how regulatory approvals can be granted for more widespread BVLOS drone operations in the U.K.

Once the trial has been successfully completed, the team will continue to work closely with the CAA and the NHS to make services available in Scotland and across the U.K. to provide access to this innovative technology to a wide range of organisations, in particular a number of other NHS Boards and Trusts.

Driven by COVID-19, the uptick in adoption supports collaboration among remote workers as businesses adapt.

The Trimble Connect cloud-based collaboration platform has surpassed 10 million users. In response to COVID-19, distributed working has intensified the need for teams to share information and collaborate remotely, leading 1.2 million users to join Trimble Connect in March and April alone.

To date, Trimble Connect has hosted more than 80,000 design and construction projects, making it possible for people to collaborate and work together from anywhere in the world.

Trimble Connect is an open collaboration platform for design and construction that connects project stakeholders with the data they need to inform decisions and improve team efficiency. Project stakeholders can share, review, coordinate and comment on data-rich constructible models, schedules and critical project information in real time — reducing costly miscommunication and improving coordination to keep projects on time and on budget.

In addition to adding new users, the activity on Trimble Connect has shown a considerable increase in collaboration for businesses in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry.

The number of invitations to collaborate on projects increased 58% in April over the previous month, indicating that users are adjusting to new remote and distributed working dynamics and enabling teams to stay resilient, despite interruptions to their traditional daily routines.

“This is an exciting milestone for Trimble Connect,” said Ray Bagley, business area director for Trimble Connect. “Businesses in the AEC industry need an open, common data environment that allows project stakeholders to unlock the real value of building information modeling (BIM), civil construction and geospatial data. The increased adoption of Trimble Connect in recent months shows us that businesses need reliable, open collaboration more than ever before.”

Trimble Connect’s open API enables data-flow to and from a variety of applications and allows users to customize workflows by integrating with existing enterprise solutions. Users can access project files stored on Trimble Connect directly through a wide range of solutions, including Tekla Structures software, Trimble Access field software, Trimble FieldLink layout software, SketchUP 3D modeling software and ProjectSight  construction management software as well as third-party applications.