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A new Esri mobile app, ArcGIS Field Maps, will be released in its first beta in July, with the final version expected to be released in September.

According to Esri, Field Maps will combine the following capabilities into a single app:

• Simple map viewing and markup
• High-accuracy field data collection and inspection
• Battery-optimized location tracking
• Work planning and task management
• Turn-by-turn navigation

Field Maps also will include a new web app, integrated with ArcGIS, that can be used to configure and deploy maps optimized for your mobile workforce needs, create and assign tasks to mobile workers, and create and share views of worker locations.

Arrow support included

The inaugural beta includes support for Arrow GNSS receivers’ high-accuracy locations, elevations and metadata, according to Eos Positioning.

ArcGIS Field Maps will provide the combined functionality of five Esri mobile apps: ArcGIS Collector, ArcGIS Explorer, ArcGIS Tracker, ArcGIS Workforce and ArcGIS Navigator.

In the first beta version, users will be able to perform markups, work with read-only maps, and work with MMPKs, including  high-accuracy GPS locations and metadata from Arrow GNSS receivers.

Customers who have been wanting to take advantage of high-accuracy GNSS data in apps such as Explorer and Tracker will now be able to with the beta release. Customers who would like to have field crews able to access read-only maps with high-accuracy, for instance (such as during utility locates), this is now a possibility. In addition, crews can take advantage of high-accuracy GPS tracks while tracking.

ArcGIS Field Maps will also support the two formerly Collector-exclusive Eos solutions Eos Locate and Eos Laser Mapping.

Eos Locate. This high-accuracy underground mapping solution will be available in ArcGIS Field Maps right away in the first beta release. A single fieldworker will be able to perform real-time, high-accuracy mapping of underground assets using the same workflow he or she had previously used with Collector and Arrow GNSS.

Eos Laser Mapping. Similarly, laser offsets with Arrow GNSS receivers and LTI laser rangefinders will be available in the first beta of ArcGIS Field Maps. Learn more about laser offsets, including the three workflows for using them, here:

“We are incredibly excited for the new opportunities ArcGIS Field Maps brings to expand our partnership with Esri,” Eos CTO Jean-Yves Lauture said. “Now our joint customers will be able to use the Arrow GNSS receivers with Field Maps to access high-accuracy location when simply viewing and marking up maps and when logging location tracks.”

Eos Positioning told its customers, “We encourage all Eos customers currently using Collector, Tracker and/or Explorer to join the beta. Meanwhile, Collector, Tracker and Explorer are planned to continue working as usual, according to the roadmap Esri has outlined.”

Global reference includes more than 400 people rescued by drones to date

DJI has launched an online reference to track events around the world when a drone helped rescue someone from peril. The Drone Rescue Map shows how more than 400 people around the world have been helped by drones in more than 200 emergencies, and will be continually updated as new rescues occur.

The DJI Drone Rescue Map has been compiled from news stories and social media posts from authoritative sources such as police departments, fire departments and volunteer rescue squads.

Each entry on the map includes the location and date of the incident, a brief description, a link to the original story or post, and an easy way to share those incidents online. To make the map as definitive as possible, DJI encourages public safety agencies to share additional drone rescues so they can be included.

Once a week on average

The map includes rescues recorded in 27 countries across five continents, and shows how drone technology has moved from an experimental concept to standard public safety equipment.

The first drone rescue was recorded in Canada in 2013, the next one was more than a year later, and early examples of drone rescues were as likely to be performed by helpful bystanders as by professionals.

Today, drone rescues are reported about once a week on average, and public safety agencies routinely share those success stories on social media.

“The DJI Drone Rescue Map is now the best global reference for how effective drones are in emergencies, and allows the world to see the tremendous impact drones have had in finding lost people, shortening searches, reducing risks to rescuers and saving lives,” said Romeo Durscher, DJI senior director of public safety integration. “Public safety workers already know how drones are revolutionizing their work, and now the rest of the world can see their amazing stories in one place. The DJI Drone Rescue Map honors the incredible rescues they’ve made, and will allow everyone to see how drones help save people in the future.”

Types of rescues

The map includes instances of drones:

• finding people lost in forests, fields and mountains, often in darkness using thermal imaging cameras
• dropping life preservers to people struggling in water
• locating boaters stranded on remote waterways
• helping rescue people who were at risk of harming themselves.

The map does not include incidents when a drone is simply used as part of a larger search process; instead, a drone must have directly located, assisted or rescued a person in peril.

Many of these incidents illustrate how drones can find missing people more quickly than a traditional ground-based search, allowing victims to be brought to safety faster, more easily and with less risk and burden for their rescuers.

In some of the incidents on the DJI Drone Rescue Map, the drone helped accelerate a rescue and allow first responders to operate more efficiently.

In other incidents, the drone clearly made the difference between life and death.

Volunteer rescue

“I know how important drones are for people in distress, because a drone saved my life,” said Jason Mabee, a Maryland man who was injured and near death last year in a local park when he was found by a volunteer drone pilot. “My family and I are eternally grateful that a total stranger was able to use his drone to find me. It’s comforting to know that drones are helping so many other people around the world too, and I hope the DJI Drone Rescue Map demonstrates just why drones are so important in emergencies.”

“Drones have changed the game for finding and saving people lost in difficult conditions, and twice last year drones made the difference for us in finding and saving stranded hikers in dangerous terrain at night,” said Kyle Nordfors, Drone Team Coordinator for Weber County Search and Rescue in Utah. “Drones helped make these rescues possible while reducing risk and strain on our volunteer rescue force. We’re excited to see our successful efforts represented on the DJI Drone Rescue Map, and we hope it shows people all over the world how important drones are for saving lives and protecting the rescuers.”

Rapid increase in rescues

DJI has previously released two detailed reports on how drones have been used to rescue people from peril around the world. The first, in 2017, counted 59 people rescued by drones, and the second saw the global total rise to 124 by 2018.

PC Tom Shainberg, senior drone pilot of the Alliance Drone Team for the Devon & Cornwall and Dorset police forces in England, said, “The Alliance Drone Team is proud to be a leader in adapting drone technology for police incidents, and we’re glad to see our successful drone rescues — such as finding a vulnerable man huddled near the edge of a cliff — being shared wider, along with similar accomplishments from other public safety agencies from around the world via the Drone Rescue Map.”

“Hundreds of examples now make clear that making drones widely accessible, with low barriers to entry and subject to a progressive set of operational regulations, leads inevitably to saving more lives around the world,” said Brendan Schulman, DJI Vice President of Policy & Legal Affairs. “The DJI Drone Rescue Map is a powerful resource for policymakers to understand the impact drones have on protecting vulnerable people in their own communities, and the detrimental consequences of policies that would restrict or discourage the use of drones, or increase the cost of using them. Regions with less favorable operating rules for drones appear to have substantially fewer reports of drone rescues.”

Seeking submissions

DJI monitors global news coverage, drone-related social media, and other sources to find new examples of drone rescues, but understands that many similar incidents may not yet be recorded on the map.

Anyone who knows of a drone-involved rescue not included on the DJI Drone Rescue Map can submit it through a form at the bottom of the map page.

These submissions will be reviewed for publication on the map, so DJI asks anyone submitting information about a rescue to respect the privacy rights and expectations of the persons involved, and to not share any confidential or sensitive information about agency operations.

GPS World magazine is excited to announce two additions to our Editorial Advisory Board.

Mitch Narins is the principal consultant and owner of Strategic Synergies LLC, a technical and management consulting firm that he formed after retiring following over four decades of U.S. government service. He worked at the Federal Communications Commission as an acquisition engineer for the Field Operation Bureau; supported the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps as branch chief for Data Terminal Systems and Electronic Warfare Systems; and served more than 26 years at the Federal Aviation Administration as a program manager, systems engineer, and finally as the chief systems engineer for navigation.

At the FAA, he was integrated into all aspects of aviation sector position, navigation and time systems engineering, standards development, and enterprise architecture efforts in support of the National Airspace System and the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen).

Narins is a recognized position, navigation, and timing (PNT) expert, who has published numerous articles and delivered many papers at conferences and seminars worldwide. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation, an active member of the Institute of Navigation (ION), and a member of RTCA, RTCM, and SAE Standards Committees. He is a recipient of ION’s Norman P. Hays Award and the International Loran Association’s President’s Award and Medal of Merit.

Stuart Riley is vice president of GNSS technology responsible for GNSS signal processing and products for several Trimble business areas. In this role, he is responsible for the core GNSS technology from signal reception through to the measurement engine that is used in all Trimble GNSS precision products. He oversees GNSS product development for Trimble’s GNSS Real-time Networks, Geospatial, Heavy Civil Construction and InTech OEM Divisions.

Beginning his career at Trimble in 1995, Stuart has worked on GNSS receiver development in various engineering roles, in addition to holding several management roles. He holds several patents filed and pending in the field of GNSS and is often a guest speaker at international conferences.

His research interests include improving GNSS performance in harsh environments, and taking measurements from additional sensors along with optimizing the GNSS receiver architecture, especially for the newer GNSS signals BeiDou, Galileo, IRNSS, QZSS and next-generation GPS and GLONASS signals.

Riley has an electronic engineering Ph.D. in the field of GNSS from the University of Leeds in England. After he graduated, he was a research fellow at the university on a European Space Agency-funded project to develop a prototype GNSS receiver for space applications.

Altitude Angel and Inmarsat are collaborating to develop and deliver advanced flight tracking and management capability for UAVs.

According to the companies, they will build on Altitude Angel’s GuardianUTM platform to jointly develop a “pop-up UTM” capability that can be deployed anywhere it is required to manage beyond visual line of sight UAV flights, without the need for ground-based communications infrastructure. By utilizing Inmarsat’s global network of satellites and leveraging its experience in air traffic management communications, Altitude Angel’s pop-up UTM can be accessed rapidly and deployed worldwide, the companies added.

The pop-up UTM will be developed initially to address the unmanned traffic management needs of blue light emergency services and first responders who need aerial surveillance rapidly with little notice. The companies plan to release a commercial, industry-focused product soon after. Through this technology, emergency services will be able to remotely manage UAVs, increasing their range of safe operations in mixed airspace of manned and unmanned vehicles.

“The ability to almost instantly ‘pop-up’ safe, secure and fully operational UTM platforms in any environment, at any time, will give first responders, blue light services and aid organizations a valuable tool that could save countless lives,” said Phil Binks, head of air traffic management at Altitude Angel. “Altitude Angel and Inmarsat, in developing ‘pop-up UTM,’ will be able to bring connectivity, clarity and automated air traffic control services for UAVs in even the most challenging of circumstances.”

Altitude Angel is an aviation technology company delivering solutions which enable the safer integration and use of fully automated drones into airspace. Inmarsat is a British satellite telecommunications company, offering global mobile services.

Not just supporting players, alternative positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) systems strengthen, augment and — when needed — replace GNSS. We explore how companies are using alternative PNT, and talk with John Fischer of Orolia and Alexis Guinamard of SBG Systems about their companies’ latest developments.

Since the 1990s, GPS has provided the United States military with a substantial tactical edge. Civilian GPS applications are now deeply embedded in every aspect of our lives. The U.S. Department of Transportation recently reaffirmed that GPS’ positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) services are critical to the safe and efficient use of the national transportation system, and a Feb. 12 presidential executive order declared that satellite-based PNT services “have become a largely invisible utility for technology and infrastructure.”

It has long been equally well known, however, that GPS is vulnerable to accidental and intentional interference (the latter known as jamming), spoofing, and degradation or denial of signals. Additionally, GPS satellites are increasingly vulnerable to damage or destruction by space debris or intentional attack. The executive order mentioned above declared it U.S. policy “to ensure that disruption or manipulation of PNT services does not undermine the reliable and efficient functioning of [the country’s] critical infrastructure.”

Protecting PNT requires not just strengthening GPS, but also developing alternative sources of PNT data and ways to integrate them into the myriad systems that currently rely on GPS.

The National Timing Resilience and Security Act of 2018 (passed by the U.S. Senate as part of that year’s Coast Guard authorization act), called for “a complement to and backup for” the GPS timing component “to ensure the availability of uncorrupted and non-degraded timing signals for military and civilian users in the event that GPS timing signals are corrupted, degraded, unreliable or otherwise unavailable.” It mandated the procurement of a wireless, terrestrial system that would provide wide-area coverage and be synchronized with UTC, resilient and extremely difficult to disrupt or degrade, able to penetrate underground and inside buildings, and capable of deployment to remote locations.

A report released on April 8 by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), however, recommends “that responsibility for mitigating temporary GPS outages be the responsibility of the individual user and not the responsibility of the federal government.” It points out that research by one of DHS’ agencies “shows that users can mitigate short-term GPS disruptions (e.g., inability to read a GPS signal) with various strategies, ranging from using local backup capabilities to delaying operations until GPS is restored.” The report then focuses on “mitigation against long-term or permanent disruption or loss of GPS PNT capabilities.” It determines that the PNT functions in critical infrastructure “are so diverse that no single PNT system, including GPS, can fulfill all user requirements and applications” and notes that maximum resilience is found in diversity of solutions. Therefore, it recommends that the federal government “encourage adoption of multiple PNT sources [to expand] the availability of PNT services based on market drivers.”

In the interviews below, I discussed these challenges with John Fischer, vice president of Advanced R&D at Orolia, and Alexis Guinamard, chief technical officer of SBG Systems.

• How Orolia is taking resilient PNT to the next level
• Software joins hardware at SBG Systems for alternative PNT

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Check out how these companies are using alternative PNT to strengthen, augment and — when needed — replace GNSS.

• Parker LORD launches all-in-one RTK system
• NovAtel SPAN prepares for road ahead
• OxTS board set ready for system integrators
• NASA’s Orion travels with Honeywell, Lockheed Martin
• SimINERTIAL designed for GPS/INS testing
• Inertial Labs releases 2-axis, 3-axis gyroscopes

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Featured image: NovAtel

Testing the full operational performance of GPS/inertial systems usually requires expensive and time-consuming field testing on an appropriate moving vehicle platform. Spirent’s SimINERTIAL system emulates inertial sensor outputs while simultaneously simulating GPS RF signals. This enables controlled, repeatable testing of integrated GPS and inertial units, reducing the need for field trials.

SimINERTIAL is housed in a PC platform equipped with the appropriate data interface card. The simulated motion data is streamed from Spirent’s state-of-the art SimGEN application via Ethernet to SimINERTIAL, which translates this simulated motion data into representative real-time data streams at the data rate and with the data format appropriate to the unit being tested.

SimINERTIAL is equipped with fully user-configurable sensor error modeling and supports a range of popular inertial formats. SimINERTIAL architecture is also available in configurations to support transfer alignment and multiple sensor architectures. SimINERTIAL solutions can also be equipped to deliver a barometric altitude output via a MIL-STD-1553B card installed in the SimINERTIAL controller PC.

Honeywell, under a contract with Lockheed Martin, will supply guidance and navigation systems for NASA’s upcoming Artemis missions, which will fly humans to the moon for the first time since 1972.

The companies are supplying key components to NASA’s Orion spacecraft fleet for the Artemis missions. Components include the barometric altimeter, the inertial measurement system, and the GPS receiver.

Honeywell will provide 14 product types for Artemis missions III through V, including both hardware and software solutions, to support NASA’s lunar missions. NASA awarded Lockheed Martin a long-term, multibillion-dollar production contract for the Orion spacecraft, aimed to meet the space agency’s anticipated needs into the 2030s.

Working in collaboration with the Orion team over the next decade, Honeywell will support Lockheed Martin and its partners through the development and production of essential guidance and navigation systems, command data handling, and display and control products. The focus of the missions is to conduct science and learn lessons that will help take humans to Mars.

Honeywell will supply the following types of technology for the Artemis missions:

• Guidance and Navigation Systems. Key navigation and guidance solutions, including the barometric altimeter, which tracks the altitude of the Orion capsule in Earth’s atmosphere, as well as the inertial measurement system (INS) and GPS receiver, which track the position and movements of the capsule.

• Command Data Handling. Several data-handling products, including the vehicle management computer, which acts as the central computing platform supporting flight and vehicle control, as well as spacecraft communication functions.

• Displays and Controls. Three display units and struts, seven control panels, and two hand controllers used inside the spacecraft to help astronauts in the Orion capsule monitor and control the vehicle.

• Core Flight Software. Includes the integrated modular avionics software, a key system responsible for supporting maintenance functions sharing flight data information.

The contract to supply key components of the Orion crew module and service module is being managed and performed out of Honeywell’s facility in Clearwater, Florida. Work is also being conducted at the company’s facilities in Glendale, Arizona, and Puerto Rico.

Honeywell was part of NASA’s previous crewed space missions, including those that took humans to the moon.

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Featured image: Artist’s concept: NASA

Oxford Technical Solutions (OxTS) offers a future-proof inertial navigation system (INS) board set for system integrators.

The xOEM v3 includes the architecture from the company’s IP65-encased xNAV v3 as well as a full range of software interfaces, providing integrators maximum configuration flexibility, real-time monitoring, post-processing and analysis. Software interfaces can be customized using the OxTS NAVsuite. Plugins can be created using the company’s NAVsdk, allowing the xOEM v3’s software to be easily packaged and included as part of a product.

The board set is compact at 150 grams, which enables manufacturers to seamlessly integrate and build a high-performance INS into their products, such as commercial mapping applications on land and in the air. Its light weight means more payload capacity for other critical components. An add-on lidar georeferencing software package is also available with a sophisticated boresight calibration tool.

The high-grade MEMS inertial sensors and real-time kinematic (RTK) capable GNSS receiver within the xOEM v3 board set deliver high performance capabilities. The board set provides 0.1° heading accuracy, 0.05° pitch/roll accuracy and 2 cm global position accuracy.

GNSS positioning is highly accurate and reliable — until satellite signals are disrupted. Hexagon | NovAtel has developed SPAN technology that integrates GNSS positioning with inertial measurements for a three-dimensional understanding of position and orientation.

SPAN technology delivers accurate heading, velocity, azimuth, pitch and roll. NovAtel SPAN-enabled receivers and enclosures are effective across applications, including marine environments to monitor heave movements from waves and autonomous vehicles requiring a higher level of precision and integrity.

NovAtel has demonstrated SPAN technology’s capabilities in a sensor-fusion project alongside AImotive and STMicroelectronics. Leveraging sensors on a moving vehicle — GNSS, inertial measurements, and cameras for visual odometry — allowed the teams to produce promising results for continuous positioning on real roads, in underground parking garages, and through tunnels. NovAtel’s PwrPak7-E1 enclosure was used as a reference system in the project, gathering data to confirm the accuracy of the sensor-fusion solution.

Through this project, NovAtel and its partners validated how alternative PNT like SPAN and other sensor fusion solutions complement and extend GNSS positioning availability, accuracy, and reliability.

The GNSS community was deeply saddened by the loss of Dr. Javad Ashjaee — Javad, as he liked to be called — on May 30. Following are excerpts of comments by GPS World Editorial Advisory Board members and others, all of whom also expressed their heartfelt sorrow.

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Message from The Ashjaee Family

“Once in a while an individual comes along with a spirit seemingly superhuman, a resolve and constitution seemingly indestructible. Dr. Javad Ashjaee was one such individual. His talent, intellect, commitment and sheer guts were head and shoulders above the rest, much to the chagrin and frustration of his competitors and naysayers. But those closest to him know that he was also simply, beautifully, erringly human. He brought out in the rest of us the strength and wisdom we could not always see in ourselves. Yes, he was a force of nature, as many describe, but Javad never did anything alone. Throughout the years, he has had a sizable family and team, by blood as well as by love, behind each of his many achievements and contributions to his field. He once told us his name, Javad, means ‘generous.’ And that he was. All that he has given to, and all that he has inspired in, his family, team, and professional industry, forms a legacy that will continue for years to come. We, his family, his team, his protégés and protectors, are here to stay and stronger than ever. If he were here, he would surely wonder how his competition would proceed without that fire only he could ‘light up their asses.’”

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Jules McNeff
VP of Strategy and Programs
Overlook Systems Technologies

“Javad was a brilliant innovator, although he could be a bit infuriating at times. He loved to place ads in GPS World in part to poke fun at the DoD for our Selective Availability policies, for which I was the principal defender at the time. Javad was a unique and talented person of tremendous fortitude and intellectual confidence who was never afraid of controversy. The GNSS community will miss his energy.”

Mitch Narins
CISSP/FRIN
Strategic Synergies

“When I think of Javad, the words that come to mind are ‘brilliant, dedicated, driven, and committed.’ The last time I saw Javad at an ION GNSS+ conference, he knew he was on the side of an argument opposing many other experts in our GNSS community. That did not bother Javad. He was never one to go along to get along — which was one of the reasons he was able to develop such innovative and capable systems. Our GNSS community has lost a leader, innovator and contributor to the science and engineering behind position, navigation and time.”

Paul McBurney
Ph.D., CTO and co-founder
OneNav

“Javad was a one-man army who was not afraid to fight. From his days at Trimble, where he developed major advancements in receiver software, and through all of his endeavors, Javad produced an impressive amount of truly innovative solutions. He used the LightSquared crisis as an opportunity to add novel front-end filtering to his products, and cleverly marketed it. His writing was unmistakable, featuring the wordsmithing of both an engineer and a salesman. He was a role model to many aspiring GPS entrepreneurs.”

Tim Burch
Director of Surveying
SPACECO

“Javad’s contributions to the surveying profession helped turn every practitioner into a geospatial information provider. From his early days at Trimble pioneering the commercial-grade receiver to creating his company at Ashtech and embracing GLONASS with GPS, he continued to expand the capability of the GNSS receiver. Many surveyors today, however, only know his name through his latest company, Javad GNSS, and its unique line of receivers and measuring devices, with their distinct green color. Javad was a big part of the GNSS revolution, so the next time someone starts up his/her receiver to collect survey data, take a moment to thank him. His departure leaves a giant hole in the geospatial world.”

Michael Swiek
Managing Director, Executive Branch and International
GPS Innovation Alliance

“The ‘Original Cast’ of GPS innovators is dwindling. Javad was a complicated, self-made, innovative, and entertaining man. In the many years we knew each other, we worked on shared visions, many challenges, laughed a lot, and disagreed and argued more than a bit. We always remained friends, honest to each other. Javad was a true GNSS pioneer.”

Ellen Hall
President and CEO
Spirent Federal Systems

“What a loss for everyone. Such a talented person who truly made his mark on the world.”

Greg Turetzky
consultant

“I have very fond memories of Javad from the many years we attended
ION GNSS+ and other industry conferences. I will always remember a spirited ‘Satellites vs. Signals’ debate we had at a GPS World Leadership Awards Dinner. We were equally passionate about the debate — despite not having chosen the opposite sides to which we were attached. These are the memories of Javad I treasure. He was passionate, informed, innovative and really good at playing the game. His spirit of innovation will be missed, but I am confident it will be carried on by other members of the GNSS community of which he was such an important part.”

Alison Brown
President and CEO
NAVSYS

“I am so sorry to hear about Javad’s passing. He was an innovator and an originalist. We worked together after he left Trimble and was in the process of starting Ashtech. I particularly remember his championing the cause, with me, against Selective Availability. He ran an ad with the iconic image of the Mona Lisa as part of this cause, with the slogan “Why ruin a work of art?” It is tragic that Javad fell victim to COVID-19. He will be sorely missed.”