INDUSTRY

Robotic riverbed survey vessel tracked with FOCUS 35 TS

The Ribble Rivers Trust recently commissioned a bathymetry survey of a notable section of the riverbed. A robotically controlled 1.2-meter twin-hull shallow draft vessel powered by a twin jet system was used to survey approximately a hectare of the river’s bed. Aboard the vessel was a depth recording sonar and a tracking prism that enabled a Spectra Precision FOCUS 35 total station to lock onto and robotically follow and record the location of the vessel. Echo soundings from the sonar were transmitted back to a tablet PC ashore via long-range Bluetooth and time stamped, while the boat’s position was continuously recorded by a FOCUS 35 total station and sent back to a tablet PC also using long-range Bluetooth and time stamped. The tablet PC ran, 4Site, a program that formatted and processed the data from the sonar and the total station into a DWG drawing. Each point was positioned in real-time on the screen of the tablet to permit the operator of the vessel to see gaps in the data in realtime and navigate the boat back to them to ensure complete coverage. A mesh of the survey area, a 200-meter section of the 50-meter wide river with depths to 3.5 meters, was created and combined with aerial Lidar information to produce a topographic survey that was provided to the Ribble Rivers Trust for its education outreach efforts as part of its Heritage Lottery Funded “Ribble Life Together” project. www.spectraprecision.com

UP Police launch Emergency Operation Center

Uttar Pradesh Police in India has opened its state-wide, centralized “Dial 100” Emergency Operation Center in the provincial capital, Lucknow. It houses India’s largest police emergency response system, which is equipped with Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure’s industry-leading Intergraph Computer- Aided Dispatch (I/CAD)software.

The safety solutions will enhance incident management and agency-wide reporting in India’s most populous state, serving 220 million people across 75 districts. Relying on Hexagon’s advanced callhandling and dispatching capabilities, the new 24/7 operation center will have up to 250 call takers and 150 dispatchers to manage 200,000 estimated calls per day via its emergency hotline services – landline, VoIP, SMS, email, social media and mobile application. www. hexagonsafetyinfrastructure.com

Wearable GNSS Receivers by Asteri Navigation

Asteri Navigation has introduced a new line of rugged, compact and fully integrated GNSS receivers during recently held 2016 Autodesk University in Las Vegas, USA. Designed for geospatial field data collection and inspection applications that require high accuracy positioning, it is light enough to be mounted to external sensors or worn on the body or arm.

Engineered to provide centimeter-level accuracy with Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) or Virtual Reference Station (CRS) correction when connected to an external antenna, the Asteri GNSS receivers support a generic NMEA 0183 GNSS data protocol. www.AsteriNav.com

Harxon offers new waterproof helical GNSS antenna

Harxon has released its nextgeneration triple-frequency Helix Antenna HX-CH7603A. It is capable of GPS L1/L2, GLONASS L1/L2 and BDS B1/B2/B3. Though compact, it provides high peak gain (more than 3.5 dBi) and wide beam width to ensure the signal receiving performance of satellite at low elevation angles.

Trimble Catalyst turns smartphones into GNSS Receivers

Trimble has introduced a new softwaredefined GNSS receiver that works with select Android mobile handhelds, smartphones and tablets, called the Trimble Catalyst. When combined with a digital antenna and subscription to the Catalyst service, the receiver provides on-demand GNSS, geo-location capabilities to transform consumer devices into high-accuracy mobile data collection systems. With the evolution of smartphones and tablets as commonly used mobile information tools, more field workers and consumers now have access to positioning technologies for geospatial data use and collection.

Telit autonomous nav module uses internal sensors, GNSS

Telit has announced the commercial availability of the SL869-3DR, a GNSS module for global use that leverages information from internal gyros, accelerometers and a barometric pressure sensor to perform dead-reckoning navigation for application areas such as track and trace and in-vehicle systems.

The module delivers accurate position data either directly from its multi-constellation receiver or from a fully autonomous dead-reckoning system, requiring no connections to external devices or components other than an antenna for satellite signal reception and power.

Mayflower SAGE provides antijam capability for submarines

Mayflower Communications Company said its submarine anti-jam GPS enhancement (SAGE) supports the U.S. Navy’s multifunction mast antenna System (OE-5388) upgrade to improve communications systems and navigation warfare (NAVWAR) requirements.

It is part of a contract that Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command awarded to Lockheed Martin Sippican and Granite Slate Manufacturing. SAGE, a variant of a small antenna system (SAS), was developed to support the Navy’s GPS anti-jam requirements for submarines in GPS-contested or -denied NAVWAR environments.

SAGE, which is integrated into the OE- 538B antenna by Lockheed Martin Sippican, features low size, weight, and power (SWaP) requirements; multiple ports; GPS radio frequency output; and L1 and L2 outputs with adjustable power levels

Clock system protects telecomms against GNSS data loss

Microsemi has announced its TimeSource “Enhanced Primary Reference Time Clock” to protect against GNSS vulnerabilities; presented as the first such system available, it has been designed to meet an ITU recommendation, ITU-T G.8272.1 to provide secure timing infrastructure to telecommunications and mobile operators.

The clock “generates time” by producing its own independent time scale aligned with GNSS, while its phase, time and frequency signal outputs remain autonomous. This provides users in the communications, power, public safety, data centre and government network markets with a secure infrastructure, reducing dependency on GNSS and enabling network operators to retake control of the timing source used for network synchronization. www.microsemi.com

NovAtel and Stanford sign autonomous vehicle study agreement

NovAtel has signed a contract with Stanford University for a study to determine how GNSS technology can deliver a positioning system that meets safety and accuracy requirements for autonomous land vehicles. The study, to be conducted at Stanford’s GPS Research Laboratory, will build on similar aircraft research. In addition, the research will include concepts for high integrity carrierphase algorithms, threat models, and safety monitors for improving autonomous vehicle transportation. NovAtel’s efforts in autonomous vehicle development date to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Grand Challenge in the California desert, and in urban settings, more than a decade ago. The DARPA winner, Stanford’s Stanley vehicle, incorporated NovAtel’s ProPak dual-frequency GNSS inertial navigation system (INS) that used a satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS) to improve positioning.