INDUSTRY

Skyline Nav AI, Draper win contract

The project is led by Skyline Nav AI, which has secured a contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to provide GPS-independent localization capability for the ATAK platform. Draper will integrate Skyline’s application into ATAK’s front-end. It is currently on contract with the U.S. Department of Defense and several government agencies to provide ongoing development, training and support for multiple TAK platforms. www.skylinenav.com

BIRD Aerosystems launches a new business line of Land systems

BIRD Aerosystems launches its new business line of Land systems and unveils two new products for the first time at the Eurosatory exhibition: Hybrid-Eye, an advanced hybrid detection system that enhances the protection of armored vehicles, and μMPR, a miniature airborne radar for ground and maritime border surveillance. The new all-inone miniaturized solutions are ideal for medium to small platforms, offering a new level of detection and protection that wasn’t part of the capabilities of such systems before. www.birdaero.com

Honeywell strengthens industrial navigation portfolio

Honeywell recently introduced three new navigation systems: the HGuide o360 inertial/global navigation system (INS/GNSS) navigator, the HGuide n500 inertial navigator and the HGuide g080 GNSS receiver. The systems are designed for various industrial applications across air, land and sea vehicles and related equipment, where positioning and attitude information is required in real time. All deliver accurate navigation even in GPS denied environments. https://aerospace.honeywell.com

High-accuracy OEM GNSS receiver module by Trimble

Trimble BD9250 is a dual-frequency OEM GNSS receiver module that supports Trimble RTX correction services. The receiver is designed to deliver high-accuracy positioning for a range of high volume, autonomous-ready applications. It is a compact receiver with an industry-standard form factor and pinout, allowing for easy system integration and configuration. Equipped with Trimble’s advanced ProPoint™ positioning engine, the BD9250 is compatible with Trimble RTX correction services or RTK and supports all major GNSS constellations. www.trimble.com

Tersus GNSS releases white paper on ExtremeRTK Technology

Tersus GNSS has released a white paper on ExtremeRTK Technology. It demonstrates how ExtremeRTK Technology delivers excellent performance in all manner of surveying scenarios and describes its impressive compensated results when performing tilt surveys — even tilt at angles greater than 90°.

According to the paper, “ExtremeRTK integrates the receiver’s hardware, high-precision baseband IC [integrated circuit], RTK engine, GNSS/INS coupling algorithm, etc. It enables unprecedented performance stability in challenging environments and prevents occurrences of occasional RTK positioning outliers.” www.tersus-gnss.com

Mayflower receives FAA TSO-C190 authorization

Mayflower Communications Company, Inc. has received technical standard order (TSO-C190) authorization from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for both models of its MAGNA GPS Anti-Jam product. The products are the first and only GPS Anti-Jam systems in the industry to receive the FAA TSO Authorization for installation on both military and civilian aircraft.

The MAGNA Anti-Jam products are comprised of two different models, the MAGNA-Federated (MAGNA-F) and the MAGNA-Integrated (MAGNA-I). Mayflower’s MAGNA products build on Mayflower’s highly SWaPoptimized GPS Anti-Jam (AJ) antenna technologies, such as Small Antenna System (SAS). mayflowercom.com

Collision risk analysis and avoidance maneuver calculation software

Following an open European tender, GMV has been awarded a new contract by the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) to develop software for advanced collision risk analysis and avoidance maneuver calculation for European satellite operators subscribed to the EU SST system’s collision avoidance service.

The new software, called CONAN (CONjunction ANalysis Software), will have a dual purpose: first, to increase the capabilities and improve the response times of the S3TOC (Spanish Space Surveillance and Tracking Operations Centre) and secondly, to provide European satellite operators subscribed to the EU SST system’s collision avoidance service with their own conjunction analysis capability, as it will also be deployed in their control centers. www.gmv.com

Septentrio expands its product portfolio for marine market

Septentrio has announced the launch of two new GNSS products for marine applications: AsteRx-U3 Marine and AsteRx-m3 Fg. Both products offer accurate positioning near and offshore via centimeter-level RTK or the built-in Fugro PPP sub-decimeter subscription service, delivered either over NTRIP internet or over L-band satellite. septentrio.com

GNOMES-3 GNSS radiooccultation satellite launched

A new GNSS radio-occultation (RO) satellite is now in orbit. The GNOMES-3 — GNSS Navigation and Occultation Measurement Satellite — flew aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 Transporter-4 rideshare mission on April 1 and was launched into a 646- km circular sun-synchronous orbit. The payload was powered on and operating nominally within four days of launch.

The GNOMES-3 was manufactured for PlanetiQ by Blue Canyon Technologies LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies. It joins GNOME-2 on orbit and is expected to achieve highly accurate GNSS-RO measurements using the fourth-generation Pyxis-RO sensor. PlanetiQ plans to launch more Pyxis-RO atmospheric and ionospheric sounding spacecraft in 2023. In all, PlanetiQ plans for a fleet of 20 GNOMES by 2024. http://planetiq.com

Xona’s private GNSS satellite passes pre-launch testing

Xona Space Systems announced that their first in-space demonstrator has been delivered to Spaceflight Inc. for final integration after successfully completing testing. Xona is an aerospace startup developing a precision navigation and timing system in low Earth orbit. It plans to build an independent high-performance satellite navigation and timing system to meet the needs of intelligent systems.

It is launching Huginn, the first of two missions, demonstrating the capability of its Pulsar constellation. Pulsar’s architecture uses small, powerful satellites in low Earth orbit, more than 20 times closer to Earth than GPS satellites, which are in medium Earth orbit. www.xonaspace.com

Advanced Navigation adds sensing capabilities with vai acquisition

AI robotics and navigation technology company Advanced Navigation has acquired Australian National University (ANU) spinout Vai Photonics. Vai is developing photonic sensors for precision navigation and joins Advanced Navigation to commercialize its research into autonomous and robotic applications across land, air, sea, and space. The technology has been in development for over 15 years at ANU. www.photonics.com

Belgian church spire scanned by a Riegl scanner

The Sint-Jan-De Doperkerk Church in Belgium recently retained LSBbvba to perform a 3D scan on the inside and outside of its historic chapel spire. The aim of this project is to capture data necessary for a renovation of the tower spire. Detailed façade plans and heights within the tower were needed regarding the stairs and bell levels, especially since parts of the spire were rotted and not safe for contractors to step through for observation.

A RIEGL VZ-400i Terrestrial Laser Scanner fitted to a tilt mount at a 45-degree angle was able to document the needed data, which was processed through RiSCAN PRO – everything being done completely from cloud to cloud.

IDS GeoRadar launches Ai.DA

IDS GeoRadar has announced the new solution for geotechnical professionals that pioneers the introduction of Artificial Intelligence in slope stability monitoring – Ai.DA, the AI-based software monitoring tool for Guardian.

Ai.DA is an Artificial Intelligence based software tool providing an additional smart processing layer to radar data. Through the use of AI algorithms, it simplifies the identification of movements from possible residual noise by evaluating the consistency of the detected movement trend with typical slope instabilities behaviors and models, helping professionals to optimize processes and take better decisions. https://idsgeoradar.com

Location data expertise for food tech companies

Transerve announced its support for location data expertise to food tech companies as food tech-companies like Zomato, Swiggy, and Blinkit create a buzz with their 10-minute delivery plan. Acing the high-tech marvel, food delivery market is expected to grow USD 15 billion by 2023