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Particle — an edge-to-cloud internet of things (IoT) platform — is offering a new tracking system that allows organizations to track the locations of a wide variety of mobile assets.

Particle’s Tracker SOM (system-on-module) builds on its tracking services foundation. It provides a powerful GNSS, microcontroller and advanced peripherals in a compact form factor. Tracker SoM serves as an accelerated starting point for organizations that require a tailored tracking solution for sophisticated applications as well as a fully certified foundation for OEMs developing commercial products.

All of the company’s tracking solutions come with a high-gain GNSS antenna accurate to 1.8 meters.

A forthcoming study from Particle surveyed more than 1,000 IoT engineers and industry experts. Asset tracking was ranked as one of the top three most in-demand applications for IoT technology.

The asset tracking system is built on the Particle platform, spanning integrated internet-of-things (IoT) hardware, edge software, connectivity and cloud-based management software. The field-ready solution is configurable.

With it, customers can track the real-time location of critical assets and capture additional intelligence via sensor data including temperature and acceleration as well as remotely control mobile equipment and vehicles.

Research shows Internet of Things growing in use; free IoT maturity tool enables miners to measure readiness

The latest research study conducted by Inmarsat, the world leader in global, mobile satellite communications, launched today, found that the global mining sector is undergoing an internet of things (IoT) revolution with respondents reporting significant increases in adoption of connected technologies.

Inmarsat employed market research company Vanson Bourne to interview 200 respondents with either decision-making or influencing responsibilities for IoT-related initiatives at organizations of more than 500 personnel.

Mining organizations reported successes in implementing projects to safeguard workers via remote tracking, monitor drilling and observing acid mine-drainage remotely. However, despite this progress, a range of challenges are hindering the sector’s ability to reap the rewards IoT has to offer.

‘The Rise of IoT in Mining is the third IoT-focused research project undertaken by Inmarsat and focuses on the use of, attitude to and predictions for IoT across the global mining sector. As part of the initiative, Inmarsat is also offering mining companies the opportunity to measure their IoT readiness versus the 200 respondents to the survey, using their free online IoT maturity tool.

According to the research, most organizations (65%) have fully deployed at least one IoT project, while 33% are trialling or have trialled a project, with only 2% of respondents not having begun an IoT project.

These findings echo the predictions reported in Inmarsat’s 2018 mining research, where only 2% had fully deployed an IoT solution, 29% were trialling one and 69% were planning on beginning IoT projects within the next two years.

Noticeably, there is a considerable geographical variance in IoT adoption and maturity across different regions, with 98% of North American respondents having successfully deployed IoT-enabled projects, compared with only 50% in Africa and 38% in South America.

While this increase in full deployments represents progress, the use cases and data management are on the simple side and there are many challenges to overcome if the mining industry is to fully realise the potential of IoT, particularly in regard to using it as driver for organisational change.

A lack of skills, investment and cultural challenges, as well as unreliable connectivity, patchy cybersecurity processes and underdeveloped data management processes were also highlighted in the report and will all need to be remedied in the coming years.

“Two years on from our last research, Inmarsat wanted to get a measure of what had changed in the mining industry,” said Joe Carr, global mining director at Inmarsat. “IoT has begun to take a foothold in the sector with increased rates of adoption across the board. What we discovered was an industry that — historically slow to adopt radical ideas — is now beginning to embrace the use of IoT, but still working out how to make the most of it.”

The mining industry faces significant challenges around skills, security, connectivity, investment and data management. These will need to be addressed for the industry to progress past a point of using IoT in a simple, siloed capacity, according to the report.

Despite the challenges being faced, mining organizations are looking to increase their investment in IoT and are overwhelmingly positive about the value that IoT can bring to their operations and the benefits it is either already delivering or will deliver in the future.

“We want to help drive IoT adoption in the mining sector and encourage mining companies to plot a route to IoT success using our free online IoT Maturity Tool,” Carr concluded. “The tool allows miners to understand their progress in IoT adoption across a number of areas and to compare this with the 200 respondents who contributed to our research. Using these findings miners can start to develop a roadmap for improvement and provide a tangible proof point for influencing internal conversations.”

Aceinna Inc. has earned recognition as a partner-level supplier for 2019 and was inducted into the Supplier Hall of Fame in the John Deere Achieving Excellence Program.

Aceinna is a supplier of high-performance inertial sensor modules to John Deere’s operation in Fargo, North Dakota, for autonomous navigation and positioning.

Hall of Fame status is given after a supplier attains a Partner-level rating for five consecutive years. The Partner-level status is Deere & Company’s highest supplier rating.

According to John Deere, “Aceinna has earned this award in recognition of its dedication to providing products and service of outstanding quality as well as its commitment to continuous improvement.” Company employees accepted the recognition during formal ceremonies held on Jan. 29 in Davenport, Iowa.

Suppliers who participate in the Achieving Excellence program are evaluated annually in several key performance categories, including quality, cost management, delivery, technical support and wavelength, which is a measure of responsiveness.

John Deere Supply Management created the program in 1991 to provide a supplier evaluation and feedback process that promotes continuous improvement.

“We are honored to be recognized by John Deere for our fifth straight year for the technical merits of our IMU (inertial measurement unit) and our focus on product quality and on time delivery,” said John Newton, vice president for inertial products. “This John Deere award further adds to the industry recognition that Aceinna has earned over the last couple of years, positioning us as one of the industry leaders and innovators in the autonomous vehicles navigation and positioning space.”

Geoscience Australia is seeking a prime contractor for a new satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS) that Australia and New Zealand have committed to implement.

The SBAS will improve position, navigation and timing (PNT) capabilities to end-users in Australia and New Zealand.

The system, which will be called the Southern Positioning Augmentation Network, will augment standard positioning capability provided by GPS and Galileo across all of Australia and New Zealand, with expected user applications in agriculture, construction, resources, utilities and other industries; with decimeter accuracy.

It will also support the aviation and road transport sectors, which have requirements for high-integrity positioning data with sub-meter level accuracy, Geoscience Australia said.

Full operational capability will require a number of satellite payloads in geostationary orbit needed to broadcast data to users. These may be hosted payloads rather than dedicated SBAS satellites, Geoscience Australia added.

This procurement process is administered by Geoscience Australia and is undertaken for the benefit of Geoscience Australia and its New Zealand counterpart, Land Information New Zealand.

Septentrio has entered into a commercial agreement with Sapcorda, a global provider of sub-decimeter GNSS corrections.

Through the collaboration with Sapcorda, Septentrio will pioneer an no-hassle corrections integration into a new line of products for the high-accuracy industrial market.

These new products will consist of Sapcorda’s SAPA Premium corrections integrated directly into Septentrio’s latest GNSS receiver technology. The result is sub-decimeter accuracy, which is available to users right out of the box. This significantly simplifies the user’s GNSS receiver set-up process and eliminates the hassle of corrections service subscription and maintenance.

Such GNSS receivers acquire corrections via internet as well as via satellite broadcast and deliver reliable, broadly available sub-decimeter positioning to high-volume industrial applications.

Sapcorda integration program

Sapcorda release its SAPA augmentation service integration program on May 14, following the launch of its SAPA Premium service. The integration program targets companies integrating GNSS chips or receivers and looking to enable their systems to perform in high-accuracy mode.

The program offers step by step service integration and proof of concept guidance for upgrading the integrators’ GNSS systems to deliver down to centimeter-level positioning accuracy.

The program also includes the offering of free service data, used to validate positioning performance on the target application. The program participants also receive commercial support for introducing the correction data on their marketed products.

The SAPA service is delivered using optimized data format and can be integrated by modern or traditional high-accuracy receivers compatible with open standards such as SPARTN and RTCM.

Sapcorda’s SAPA services are designed to bring high-precision GNSS positioning to mass market, as well as general industrial and automotive applications. The correction data stream is optimized for homogeneous performance and end-to-end data security with continental coverage in the United States and Europe.

The service data transmission also provides unmatched low bandwidth consumption, with broadcast transmission via direct IP connection or geostationary satellite signal (L-band).

Sapcorda was established in 2017 to provide an open approach to a safe, broadly available and scalable corrections service. By adding Sapcorda’s SAPA service to its corrections portfolio, Septentrio begins offering sub-decimeter accuracy with quick convergence time anywhere in the U.S. and Europe.

Autonomous vehicles, robots

“This collaboration allows both companies to bring innovative solutions, inspired by the growing market of autonomous vehicles and robots, to the high-accuracy industrial markets,” said Jan van Hees, business development director at Septentrio. “By integrating Sapcorda’s SAPA service into our products, we are completely removing the hassle of managing corrections for the customers. This means faster set-up times and worry-free, always-on high-accuracy positioning throughout the whole receiver lifetime.”

“At Sapcorda our focus is on providing a high-accuracy service suitable for demanding applications where both performance and safety is critical. This includes land robots, UAVs, logistic applications and autonomous vehicles,” said Botho Graf zu Eulenburg, CEO at Sapcorda. “Septentrio’s field-proven high-precision GNSS receivers and their focus on reliability and robustness aligns perfectly with our mission and the capabilities of our SAPA services.”

This broadens the range of Septentrio’s existing GNSS solutions, allowing the company to serve a wide range of customers with various requirements in terms of accuracy, operation location and scalability. Read Septentrio demystifies GNSS corrections for more about GNSS corrections and correction methods such as Sapcorda SAPA (PPP-RTK) service.

A Loyal Wingman drone rolls out, the U.S. Air Force (USAF) sponsors air taxi-cargo UAS development and medical deliveries take place in Scotland and Florida — we have quite a wide selection for this month’s news.

Fighter support drone

Boeing Australia has just rolled out the first “Loyal Wingman” for the RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) — in essence what looks like a completed first article of three prototypes on order for Australia’s Loyal Wingman Advanced Development Program.

The concept is to develop an “inexpensive, expendable” UAV which will fight alongside today’s frontline fighter aircraft, controlled from the ground or from the air. A “force-multiplier” which doesn’t risk either pilot or the heap-expensive interceptor/ground attack aircraft themselves, a real bonus for smaller air-forces, and a less costly way of increasing numbers.

The first prototype will now go into a ground and flight test program to prove out systems and flight capabilities – first flight would likely be later this year.

A team of 35 Australian aerospace companies are supporting the Loyal Wingman project, including BAE Systems Australia which has been selected to supply the flight vehicle management system, flight control computers and navigation equipment.

Flying cars?

The U.S. Air Force wants a fleet of them by 2023!

So in a novel way to stir interest in the concept of flying cars, or perhaps cargo carrying drones, the Air Force launched a program known as “Agility Prime.” The program may have begun conventionally with seed contract(s) to drone manufacturers, but their latest “webcast” approach provided an extensive overview of what this could mean to the U.S. industry.

From April 27 through May 1, a panel including Air Force leaders, two U.S. Senators, NASA and Federal Aviation Administration management, and key Air Force and Defense Department players participated in an open presentation to industry, investment and State Government participants — all with the aim of accelerating civilian development of “advanced air mobility vehicles.”

Recognizing that a principle problem is overcoming regulatory hurdles, USAF intends to provide a route to commercial revenue service such as logistics transport and disaster recovery by perhaps providing access to its key testing capabilities and facilities. With broad participation in the program by industry, government and investors (i.e. USAF don’t intend to pay for it all) the program would satisfy an operational safety and security baseline and provide a platform for the “Race to Certification” of commercial drone product(s) the USAF might also want to buy.

One of the possible solutions for a cargo drone already funded includes the Sabrewing Cargo Drone – known currently as Rhaegal-A.

Four electric powered ducted fans rotate for Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) and are powered by a Safran (French) Ardiden 3 helicopter turbine engine – giving this large UAV a design speed of 245 mph, a ceiling of 20,000 feet and range of 1000 miles.

Sabrewing has received $3.25m under a two year USAF sponsored Small Business Incentive Research (SBIR) project in the hope that the design could be eventually adapted to military logistics applications. The vehicle is intended to be able to fly autonomously, has detect and avoid capability, and can even operate when GPS is continuously jammed — something the military would probably appreciate. Potential casualty evacuation is also of great interest.

Medical supplies delivery

Meanwhile in the U.K., in cooperation with the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Skyports drone company is playing in the CAA’s “Sandbox.” This is another term for an umbrella/sequence of trials under CAA safety and security constraints where innovative approaches are given a chance to demonstrate that new aviation related things are possible, that they actually work and that they meet the CAA criteria. Skyports wants to test out Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations for its upcoming trial of medical deliveries between Oban and Mull off the West Coast of Scotland.

As front-line health professionals fight to beat the COVID-19 pandemic, deliveries of essential medical supplies between medical facilities can be speeded-up significantly using drones. Skyports will begin the week-long trial between Mull and Oban medical centers in the last week of May.

The planned BVLOS flights will be over a 17-mile route in unrestricted airspace and avoid the Oban airport, crossing the narrow sea channel and onto the North coast of the Isle of Mull. Skyports already has experience transporting medical and other high-value cargo in other parts of the world. The candidate drone is equipped with Iris Automation Casia detect-and-avoid computer vision system, and Thales Remote ID, and the Skyports drone team is also supported by Thales SOARIZON flight management and mission planning system.

Drones to deliver prescriptions

And finally, something quite helpful during the current coronavirus pandemic — CVS and UPS having linked up some time ago, are to begin delivering prescription medication to customers in Florida. The process has been previously checked out during November last year trials in Cary, N.C.

UPS will use the Swiss Matternet M2 delivery drone, picking up medication at specific CVS location(s) and flying it to a delivery point at “The Villages” in Central Florida, then the “last-mile” delivery is by road — presumably by an outfit which knows the layout of this huge facility where something like 130,000 retirees live. Useful during this phase of Florida’s self-quarantine for elders who may find it difficult to get out to the drug store. Hope they start running the same service out of my local CVS.

Wrap-up

So from the extreme military application of drone support for fighter attack missions, and USAF sponsored development of air-taxis and cargo drones, through to medical supply deliveries by drone in remote areas of Scotland and prescription deliveries in Florida — activity never seems to abate in this growing industry.

The 45th satellite of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System — launched on May 17, 2019 — has started operation in the network after completing in-orbit tests, reports China’s Xinhua news service.

The satellite will provide services in place of the third BeiDou satellite, a geostationary earth orbit satellite of the BDS-2 system, according to China’s Satellite Navigation System Management Office.

The replacement will help reinforce the BDS-2 system and support a smooth transition from the BDS-2 system to the BDS-3 system. The third satellite — launched Jan. 17, 2010 — will stay in orbit after the replacement.

Thirty-two United States senators wrote to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on May 15 expressing concerns with the commission’s determination on Ligado Networks. The senators also asked the FCC to address these concerns and stay their order while they were doing so.

The five-member FCC voted unanimously in April to approve an order to allow Ligado Networks to deploy a low-power nationwide 5G network.

“The hurried nature of the circulation and consideration of the Order itself — during a national crisis, no less — was not conducive to addressing the many technical concerns raised by affected stakeholders,” wrote the senators.

The senators continued,

“With this specific docket item pending before the FCC for almost 10 years, we are concerned with the pace by the Commission to push through an Order first announced on April 16, the approval for which was declared two business days later. We believe this accelerated timeline was not adequate to address the significant stakeholder concerns for an Order of this magnitude….”

“We are concerned that the FCC has discounted testing and assessments conducted by nine federal agencies in the Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee process — all expressing concerns that the Ligado plan would interfere with millions of GPS receivers and satellite services across the nation. Further, the FCC did not provide a technical forum to resolve the significant disconnects between this testing and Ligado’s privately funded testing…”

“For these reasons, we urge the Federal Communications Commission to immediately stay and reconsider their Order on this matter, more fully consider the technical concerns raised by numerous federal agencies and private sector stakeholders, and outline a path forward that adequately addresses these concerns.”

A Resilient PNT Foundation editorial on the organization’s website says the main problem seems to be misunderstanding about the differences between radionavigation and communication.

“We share the concerns with the FCC’s actions that are outlined in this letter:

• After ten years of deliberations a draft order was processed to a final decision within a couple days during a national crisis
• The FCC discounted the testing done by the executive branch and did not say why
• No technical forum was held to resolve the differences between Ligado’s and DoD/DoT’s testing
• There was no public discussion of these differences and how they might be resolved

“Undoubtedly, a lot of the differences between the FCC and the Executive Branch on this issue boil down to a lack of appreciation of the fundamental differences between wireless communication and radionavigation.” The Resilient PNT Foundation website provides a table outlining the differences.

“When two parties start from completely different places, they are likely to talk past each other and end up in completely different places.

“We think the Federal Communications Commission might not have fully appreciated the needs of radionavigation as a safety-of-life utility and wound up in the wrong place.

“But that’s just us. A lot of folks think differently.

“That’s why we are urging an independent technical review, with both communications and radionavigation experts, to inform public policy decisions on this before anything moves forward.

“This is too important to get wrong.”

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Feature photos:
Capitol building with flag/Andrea Izzotti/Shutterstock.com
Capitol building at night/Brian Kinney/Shutterstock.com

Pointfuse and Leica Geosystems, a Hexagon company, have established a global cooperation and entered into a development agreement. According to the companies, the agreement aims to streamline the use of reality capture in established digital construction, space management and visualization workflows.

This strategic cooperation demonstrates the shared focus of Pointfuse and Leica Geosystems to democratize technology and create intuitive and accessible reality capture tools that bring advanced project efficiencies to their users, the companies added.

To launch the new cooperation, Pointfuse developed a new version of its Pointfuse software, powered by Jetstream, that provides Leica Geosystems users with a Scan-2-BIM workflow within the Leica Jetstream ecosystem. Pointfuse is configured with tailored profiles specifically for Leica Geosystems 3D laser scanners, including the Leica Geosystems LGS file format. The adoption of the LGS file format enables Pointfuse to extract data contained within the LGS file to assist in the classification of building information and substantially automate the workflow process. This centralized solution ensures a simple Scan-2-BIM workflow for space and facilities management as a companion solution to the new Leica BLK2GO handheld imaging laser scanner, the companies said.

“With functionality and developments implemented specifically for Leica Geosystems users, Pointfuse, powered by Jetstream, harnesses the unique benefits of the Jetstream ecosystem with the power of Pointfuse to deliver a seamless capture-consume-collaborate workflow,” said Steve Salmon, general manager at Pointfuse. “This integrated solution overcomes many of the barriers associated with laser scanning and photogrammetry, through providing an optimised storage solution, instant data loading and production of intelligent outputs. This platform enables Leica Geosystems users to exploit the intelligence captured in the point cloud, easily share outputs, and produce deliverables that drive the advancement of workflows in the digital age.”

Quectel Wireless Solutions has published a new white paper white titled “Why GNSS for eMobility must balance precision, price, power and packaging.”

According to Quectel, this paper details the challenges eMobility providers face in enabling vehicles such as eScooters and eBikes to be located in deep urban canyons. The white paper also examines why accurate location data will be vital in enabling the ride-sharing industry to comply with regulation to restrict eMobility usage on sidewalks and other areas, Quectel said.

The report also details drive test data conducted on an eScooter in San Francisco. The data demonstrates the enhanced accuracy offered by L1 and L5 plus dead reckoning capability.

Finally, the white paper discusses how the Quectel LC79D is enabling the eMobility industry to harness the fusion of different sensors in a very small footprint at low incremental cost with unparalleled accuracy, the company added.

“eMobility providers face substantial challenges when dealing with location in deep urban environments,” said Mark Murray, vice president of sales for GNSS and automotive at Quectel. “First and foremost, customers need to be able to find the vehicle and cities need to have the assurances that these eBikes and eScooters are operated in mutually agreed locations.”