INDUSTRY

Tallysman introduces the HC843 and HC843E lightweight dual-band GNSS

Tallysman® Wireless Inc. announced the addition of two new models to its industry-leading line of Helical antennas.

The key feature of the HC843 and HC843E is their two-mode operation. The first mode is dual-frequency GNSS and the second is passive Iridium™ (1616.0 – 1626.5 MHz), which supports both voice and data communications. The antenna operates in GNSS mode when its input voltage is less than 5.5 VDC, and in Iridium mode when it is more than 5.5 VDC.

The HC843 housed and HC843E embedded helical antennas are designed and built for high-accuracy positioning in a very light and compact form factor.. Both models support GPS/QZSS-L1/L2, GLONASS-G1/ G2, Galileo-E1, and BeiDou-B1, including WAAS (North America), EGNOS (Europe), MSAS (Japan), and GAGAN (India). www.tallysman.com

Trimble teams with ROBORACE

Trimble and ROBORACE, the world’s first autonomous racing series with electric-powered vehicles, announced recently a comprehensive technology and marketing alliance. As part of the alliance, ROBORACE will utilize Trimble’s Applanix POS LVX™ GNSSinertial systems in its next-generation autonomous race cars for Season 1 of the championship, which begins in September 2021. www.trimble.com

Longest and deepest alternating current cable route surveyed

A two-person Astrolabe Engineering survey team using a single SP60 GNSS receiver recently completed the entire land and sea route for the world’s longest and deepest alternating current (AC) cable. Linking the island of Crete to mainland Greece, the 174-kilometer-long interconnection, of which 132 kilometers are on the seabed, became fully functional last month. Connecting Megalopolis in central Peloponnese with Heraclion, the biggest city on the island, the cable is expected to meet more than a third of the island’s electrical power demand and enable the island to permanently close its most polluting power plants.

The European Union funded project, managed by Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO), selected AstroLabe Engineering to perform the survey. The land portion was a topographic survey stake-out of the center line and boundaries of the corridor to be trenched as well as a topographic record of the trench depth and exact cable location in the trench. The marine portion was marked using Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS), survey lines and markers with buoys close to shore on both the mainland and Crete. During backfilling an additional topographic survey recorded the profile of the installed cable. spectrageopspatial.com

Sonardyne’s SPRINT-Nav reaches new heights of capability

Sonardyne has released a new high altitude variant of its market leading hybrid navigator SPRINT-Nav to allow uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) and underwater vehicles to extend their operational envelope.

SPRINT-Nav tightly integrates a Sonardyne SPRINT INS, Syrinx DVL and a highly accurate pressure sensor into a single high-performance solution providing navigation and optional acoustic Doppler current profile (ADCP) functionality. www.sonardyne.com

Trimble SX12 scanning total station

Trimble has introduced the Trimble® SX12 Scanning Total Station, the next iteration of its breakthrough 3D scanning total station that provides fast and efficient data capture for surveying, engineering and geospatial professionals. New features, including a high-power laser pointer and high-resolution camera system, expand capabilities in surveying and complex 3D modeling and enable new workflows in tunneling and underground mining.

The Trimble SX12 merges high-speed 3D laser scanning, Trimble VISION™ imaging technology and high-accuracy total station measurements into familiar field and office workflows for surveyors. A new green, focusable Class 1M laser pointer is safe for viewing with the naked eye, offers high-power visibility and makes it easy to see even at a distance. An improved camera system provides enhanced pointing and site documentation capabilities. www.trimble.com

Momentus service agreement with Xona Space Systems

Momentus Inc. a commercial space company offering in-space infrastructure services, and Xona Space Systems, a San Mateo-based startup creating a secure and precise Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) satellite service, announced a service agreement to advance Xona’s 2022 Alpha mission.

Xona’s patent-pending system architecture is combining the efficiency and innovation of the new space era with the world of satellite navigation to help enable modern intelligent systems to operate safely in any conditions, anywhere on the planet. Once complete, their low Earth orbit smallsat constellation will provide a resilient alternative to Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) with more than 10x better accuracy. www.momentus.space

European Commission awards H2020 Grant

GMV has been chosen by the European Commission to lead a Coordination and Support Action (CSA) within the H2020 program to make proposals for a future European Space Traffic Management (STM) capability: EUSTM.

Space activity has increased exponentially in recent decades. The number of objects in orbit is likely to increase drastically, and it is therefore necessary to develop capabilities to manage them in an efficient manner. An increasing need for a policy and legal framework supported by the required technology developments has also emerged to foster and ensure the desired security, safety, sustainability, and stability of space operations. These frameworks are broadly known as Space Traffic Management (STM) while the technology supporting is referred to as Space Situational Awareness (SSA) or Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST).

In Europe, the SSA/SST remit is held by ESA and the European Commission. SSA/SST activities are currently focused on creating an architecture of radars, telescopes, SLR stations and data centers dedicated to the surveillance and protection of space infrastructure. www.gmv.com

Swift Navigation raises $50 million

Swift Navigation has announced that it has raised a $50 million Series C round of financing led by existing investors Forest Baskett and Greg Papadopoulos of New Enterprise Associates (NEA), existing investor Eclipse Ventures and new investors, including EPIQ Capital Group and KDDI Open Innovation Fund. Swift offers a comprehensive GNSS platform, consisting of the receiveragnostic Starling® software positioning engine that easily integrates with the automotive sensor suite and pulls centimeter-accurate location corrections from Skylark™—Swift’s wide area, cloud-based GNSS precise positioning service. swiftnav.com

ACEINNA OpenRTK330LI EVK, a development kit

ACEINNA has announced the general market availability of ACEINNA OpenRTK330LI EVK, a complete evaluation and development kit for the OpenRTK330LI GNSS/INS module. The OpenRTK330LI EVK accelerates development and reduces time to market of custom navigation and guidance systems fusing inertial measurements and multi-band RTK/GNSS positioning. The OpenIMU330LI Module is a very compact, low cost, state-of-theart, high performance RTK/GNSS receiver with built-in triple redundant inertial sensors. www.aceinna.com

Teledyne CARIS receives Canada’s Ocean Supercluster award

Teledyne CARIS has announced significant funding from Canada’s Ocean Supercluster award to develop software for remote operations survey processing. This is in alignment with the company’s leading AI strategy. The company has partnered with Ocean Floor Geophysics (OFG), a pioneering CARIS customer. In addition to OFG, Teledyne CARIS will be working with other stakeholders to assist on training, including the University of New Brunswick and Memorial Universities Marine Institute. teledyne.com

Honeywell successfully completes in-flight demonstration of M-Code

Honeywell has successfully flighttested new technologies designed to enable alternative navigation offerings, including its Embedded GPS Inertial Navigation System (EGI) supporting M-code, the new standard GPS signal used by militaries around the world. These tests, which involved equipping a Honeywell test aircraft with alternative navigation technologies, demonstrate a major milestone in providing continued navigation solutions in GPS-denied environments. This was also the first time an airborne M-code receiver was flown on an aircraft in an EGI, demonstrating the effectiveness of M-code in a live, airborne environment.

Around the world, GPS signals are used for navigation in commercial and military applications alike, but seamless connection to these signals is not always guaranteed. Even modern systems can have problems in “GPS-denied” environments like dense urban areas near tall buildings or under bridges. Furthermore, GPS-jamming, whether intentional or not, can prevent these vital signals from conveying critical information regarding positioning, navigation and timing. In these instances, it is also important for vehicles and aircraft to be equipped with alternative navigation technologies, like celestial or vision navigation. aerospace.honeywell.com

STMicroelectronics simplifies portable GNSS receivers

STMicroelectronics’ BPF8089-01SC6 RF front-end for Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers simplifies design and saves realestate by integrating the impedancematching and electrostatic-discharge (ESD) protection circuitry typically implemented using discrete components. The BPF8089-01SC6 provides a 50Ω matched interface between the receiver’s antenna and low-noise amplifier (LNA), and is ready to plug-and-play with ST’s STA8089 and STA8090 LNAs. This compact, integrated device typically replaces a matching network containing up to five capacitors, resistors, and inductors, as well as two discrete protection devices, resulting in a much smaller footprint. Designers can also leverage PCB-track specifications provided in the device datasheet to ease design challenges and ensure optimal performance.

The ESD protection provided complies with IEC 61000-4-2 (C = 150pF, R = 330Ω) and exceeds level 4: 8kV for contact discharge and 15kV for air discharge. The device also withstands 2kV pulse voltage in accordance with MIL STD 883C (C = 100pF, R = 1.5kΩ). www.st.com

GNSS receiver with open software interface

TeleOrbit, Germany, has implemented testing capability for Galileo’s Open Service Navigation Message Authentication (OSNMA) aboard the company’s GNSS Receiver with Open Software Interface (GOOSE). As the threat of GNSS spoofing continues to grow, authentication of signals represents a safeguard for industry, vital infrastructure and safetycritical GNSS applications, including autonomous vehicles. As yet there is no authentication service available, but Galileo will be first to the market with scheduled launch in 2023.

TeleOrbit’s GOOSE platform is an FPGA-based GNSS receiver, characterized by four separate components: a multi-frequency GNSS antenna, an analog front-end board, a baseband board, and the processor system. It grants deep access to the hardware interface, down to integrate and dump value levels, according to the company. Intermediate frequency signals can be recorded, processed and replayed with the platform. https://teleorbit.eu .

Pipistrel selects C-Astral Aerospace

Pipistrel is relaunching the NUUVA V20 based on initial customer feedback and needs. It is gaining capability that goes beyond delivery of cargo such as spare parts, valuable items, medical supplies etc., by adding ISR functionality with a diverse array of payloads, sensors and data link options for achieving superior situational awareness and C4I systems integration.

Pipistrel is excited to partner with C-ASTRAL Aerospace, whose UAS integration and R&D experience will enrich the product with proven and class-leading C4 solutions intuitive ground station elements and support suites. www.c-astral.com

eBee Ag Fixed-wing Mapping Drone for Agriculture

senseFly announced the launch of eBee Ag, the latest addition to the eBee X series of drone solutions. It helps agriculture professionals overcome the many challenges they face in the field related to planning, plant health and crop monitoring. eBee Ag makes it easier than ever to field scout, ground-truth potential problem areas and gain critical crop health and field information. Equipped with its standard battery, it is capable of up to 45-minutes of flight. An endurance battery increases flight times to up to 55 minutes—allowing eBee Ag to cover more than 160 hectares (395 acres) in a single flight and saving precious time and money when compared with conventional scouting. www.sensefly.com

ArcGIS Velocity by Esri

Esri has released ArcGIS Velocity. Previously known as ArcGIS Analytics for IoT, it is a new cloud-native capability for ingestion, processing, visualization, and analysis of real-time and high-volume geospatial data on the fly. It complements existing systems with GIS technology by spatially enabling the Internet of Things (IoT) data from current providers and simplifying real-time data analysis.

MAPPS 2020 Geospatial Excellence Awards for UltraCam Osprey 4.1

At the MAPPS 2021 Winter Conference in Orlando, Florida, Vexcel Imaging was presented with two separate awards for its Osprey 4.1 nadir/ oblique aerial camera system released in the second half of 2020.

The Geospatial Excellence Awards are presented to Regular and Associate Member firms whose entries exemplify the professionalism, value, integrity and achievement of the firm’s staff as demonstrated over the previous year. A distinguished and impartial panel of two judges evaluated the submitted projects from five categories: Data Acquisition & Processing, Surveying/ Field Data Collection, GIS/IT/Remote Sensing Analysis, Small Projects (no entries were submitted for this category), and Technology Innovation/Licensed Data Products. A winner was selected for each category with submissions.

Vexcel Imaging received awards for its Osprey 4.1 under the Technology Innovation/Licensed Data Products category and additionally received the Grand Award – Project of the Year. www.vexcel-imaging.com