INDUSTRY

2G ULS-500 PRO System delivered to Kongsberg

2G Robotics has announced the first of four ULS-500 PRO laser scanning systems has been shipped to Kongsberg Maritime for integration into the Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency’s (NDMA) newly purchased HUGIN AUV’s. The acquisition signifies the Royal Norwegian Navy’s transition to autonomous systems for mine countermeasures. During operations, Hugin AUVs will be used to complete surveys of subsea environments focused specifically on locating and identifying mines.

Independently certified eCall test solution by Rohde & Schwarz

The market-leading eCall test solution from Rohde & Schwarz is the first of its kind to be certified by an independent test body. CETECOM has examined the implementation of the eCall test public safety answering point (PSAP) in the Rohde & Schwarz solution for the pan-European emergency call system and certified it as compliant with the CEN EN 16454:2015 standard. This is a prerequisite for tests compliant with Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/79. CETECOM has been officially designated as a technical service for eCall by the German Federal Motor Transport Authority. After March 31, 2018, manufacturers must equip new vehicles for sale in the EU with an eCall module. The R&S CMW-KA094 test solution is the first independently certified test PSAP system based on a wireless communications test platform. www.rohde-schwarz.com

Tersus GNSS RTK board launched for OEMs, system integrators

Tersus GNSS Inc. has launched the BX306Z GNSS RTK board. As a new member of the BX-series GNSS OEM boards is a cost-efficient GNSS real-time kinematic (RTK) board for positioning and raw measurement output. The board is a compact, multi-GNSS (GPS L1/ L2, GLONASS G1/G2, BeiDou B1/ B2) RTK module with centimeterlevel accurate positioning capability.

L1/L2 + G1/G2 antennas by Tallysman

Tallysman, is offering a new light-weight compact GPS L1/L2 + GLONASS G1/G2 antenna, available either as an OEM (TW1829) antenna or in a housed version (TW8829). The antenna is designed for unmanned aerial vehicle use because of its low aerodynamic profile and very light weight.

Sierra Wireless integrates GNSS, SIM, security into multimode LPWA modules

Sierra Wireless has introduced multimode, low-power wide-area (LPWA) cellular modules. The modules are targeted at rapidly growing markets in asset tracking and connected industrial equipment, smart cities, healthcare, agriculture and wearables. AirPrime HL78 modules, featuring Altair Semiconductor’s integrated ALT1250 chipset, deliver power performance that extends the life of batteryoperated devices by 5-10X compared to older LTE-M/NB-IoT modules.

BeiDou Phase 3 Signals added to Spirent’s GNSS RF Constellation Simulators

Spirent Communications plc, a provider in BeiDou, GPS and other GNSS testing solutions, announced that BeiDou Phase 3 signals have been added to its GNSS RF constellation simulators. The addition of these new signals to the GSS7000 and GSS9000 simulators follows the launch of the first two Beidou-3 satellites in November 2017.

The new signals will use the same carrier frequencies as the GPS and Galileo systems, so chipset manufacturers and device developers will need to test integrated designs to avoid problems caused by confusing data from different GNSS.

iXblue to provide navigation systems for French Navy frigates

Naval Group, formerly DCNS, has awarded a contract to maritime navigation and positioning specialist iXblue to install navigation systems on five of the French Navy’s new 4,000t frigates. The deal will see the integration of iXblue’s Marins inertial navigation systems and Netans data distribution and processing units on-board the vessels. www.naval-technology.com

SuperSurv 10.1’s Support for RTCM 3.1

The latest SuperSurv 10.1 is equipped with 3 major new features, including snapping, coordinate system customization, Layerset, and was released in November 2017. Also, Google Maps and TIFF are supported in this version to facilitate the efficiency of field works. Recently, its product team starts to enhance SuperSurv’s NTRIP solution, aiming to adopt more RTCM versions and provide a better GNSS positioning service. NTRIP (Networked Transport of RTCM via Internet Protocol) is a protocol to send GNSS related data through the internet, which enables users of differential GPS or network RTK to get correction parameters after connecting to the internet. The correction parameters can be used to calculate a more accurate GNSS location. www.supergeotek.com

Mouser GNSS antennas

Mouser are now offering the Antenova Robusta Low-Profile GNSS Antennas. The devices, for metal surfaces, cover the 1559MHz-1609MHz frequency range. Developed using the company’s REFLECTOR technology, the Robusta GNSS Antennas radiate in positions where a normal antenna won’t function. The patented two-layer technology electrically isolates one layer to offer RF shielding to the second layer. This enables the antenna to radiate effectively in the direction facing away from the base material. www.electropages.com

Airbus selected by ESA for EGNOS V3 program

Airbus has been selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) as the prime contractor to develop EGNOS V3, the next generation of the European Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS) planned to provide the aviation community with advanced Safety of Life services and new services to Maritime and Land users.

Developed by ESA on behalf of the European Commission and the European GNSS Agency (GSA), EGNOS V3 (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service) will provide augmented operational Safety of Life services over Europe that improve the accuracy and availability of user positioning services from existing Global Navigation Satellite Systems (Galileo and GPS) and provides crucial integrity messages to EGNOS users with alerts within a few seconds in case of system degradation, consolidating EGNOS’ position as one of the leading edge GNSS Systems in the future.

EGNOS V3 will thus offer improved Safety of Life (SoL) services performances (where people’s lives are potentially at stake) over Europe to Civil Aviation community and new applications for Maritime or Land users, and will improve robustness against increasing security risks, in particular cyber-security risks.

Applanix Introduces its Autonomy Development for Autonomous Vehicles

Applanix, a Trimble Company recently introduced its Autonomy Development Platform to provide automakers, truck makers, and Tier 1 vehicle suppliers the hardware, software, engineering, and integration services they need to accelerate their development programs for on-road and off-road autonomous vehicles.By combining customized integration and engineering services along with Applanix’ proven GNSS-inertial positioning technologies, the Autonomy Development Platform advances driverless vehicle development projects at every stage of development and commercialization.

“With the introduction of our Autonomy Development Platform, Applanix now offers on-road and off-road vehicle manufacturers the tools and engineering expertise necessary to support and augment their driverless vehicle development programs,” said Louis Nastro, Director of Land Products at Applanix.

Trimble Expands Mixed- Reality Portfolio

Trimble recently announced Trimble Connect™ for HoloLens and a new hard hat solution for Microsoft HoloLens that improves the utility of mixed reality for practical field applications. The mixedreality solution improves coordination by combining models from multiple stakeholders such as structural, mechanical and electrical trade partners. The solution provides for precise alignment of holographic data on a 1:1 scale on the job site, to review models in the context of the physical environment. Predefined views from Trimble Connect further simplify in-field use with quick and easy access to immersive visualizations of 3D data.