Machine Control / Agriculture Opinions Mining Boom Spurs New Positioning Solutions Published May 19, 2010 By GPS World Staff Join the Discussion Open-pit mining (also called open-cut, open-cast, and strip mining) has historically been an early and innovative adopter of new positioning technologies. Some of the earliest examples of fitting GPS to heavy earth-moving machinery occurred in the U.S., Australian, and Canadian mining industries in the 1990s. Miners were also quick to adopt the first GPS/GLONASS systems. The trend continues today with trials of new radio positioning technologies such as the Novariant Terralite XPS and the Locata system. Read more » Leica Geosystems mining open-pit mining Professional OEM newsletter Rob Lorimer
GNSS Carrier-Phase Anomalies Detected on SVN-48 Published May 17, 2010 By GPS World Staff By Brady O’Hanlon, Mark L. Psiaki, Paul M. Kintner Jr., and Steven P. Powell Anomalous behavior of the L1 C/A-code carrier phase has been detected on PRN07/SVN-48. The anomalies are sudden step-like changes of phase by about 10 degrees/5 millimeters. These steps are followed by negative steps of the same magnitude that restore the original […] Read more » GPS constellation GPS satellites MATLAB SVN-48
Transportation INRIX’s Crowd-Sourced Traffic Network Surpasses 2 Million Vehicles Published May 7, 2010 By GPS World Staff Join the Discussion INRIX announced its Smart Driver Network has grown to more than 2 million GPS-enabled vehicles giving drivers a reliable, real-time view of traffic conditions on more than 260,000 miles of highways, city streets and secondary roads nationwide. Read more » INRIX traffic
Opinions Survey ACSM/GITA Conference Coverage Published May 4, 2010 By Eric Gakstatter Join the Discussion The annual ACSM (American Congress on Surveying and Mapping) isn’t what it used to be. Attendance was way down and the number of exhibitors is way down. The technical content, however, was still pretty good. In fact, I've included links to several videos I recorded at the ACSM/GITA conference. Read more » Survey Scene
Uncategorized Part 1: The Origins of GPS, and the Pioneers Who Launched the System Published May 1, 2010 By GPS World Staff Join the Discussion The original system study, the key innovations, and the forgotten heroes of the world’s first — and still greatest — global navigation satellite system. True history, told by the people who made it. Part One of a Two-Part Special Feature. Read more » GPS heroes GPS history OEM receiver design signal processing
Galileo GNSS The System: Galileo ICD, Free at Last Published May 1, 2010 By GPS World Staff Galileo ICD, Free at Last The European Commission (EC) has published an updated Galileo Open Service Signal-In-Space Interface Control Document (OS SIS ICD) giving technical specifications and performance expectations for the future system. As reported by GPS World in October 2009, the EC will not charge for manufacturing licenses. No fees will be required for […] Read more » augmentation GAGAN Galileo ICD The System
Research & Development Innovation: Accuracy versus Precision Published May 1, 2010 By Richard B. Langley Join the Discussion A Primer on GPS TruthTrue to its word origins, accuracy demands careful and thoughtful work. This article provides a close look at the differences between the precision and accuracy of GPS-determined positions, and should alleviate the confusion between the terms — making abuse of the truth perhaps less likely in the business of GPS positioning. Read more » algorithms and methods GNSS accuracy OEM
Defense Commanding Conversation Published May 1, 2010 By Don Jewell Join the Discussion Defense editor Don Jewell is a retired Air Force officer who served for 30 years; many of his former peers and contemporaries are currently senior officers in today’s U.S. Air Force. Don sat down recently with General C. Robert Kehler, Commander of the U.S. Air Force Space Command, whom he has known and worked with for more than 20 years, to discuss GPS from the four-star point of view. Read more » General Kehler Schriever Air Force Base U.S. Air Force warfighter
Opinions Expert Advice: Quasi-Coherent Delay Lock Loop Tracking and Generalized Binary Coded Symbols in Multipath Published May 1, 2010 By GPS World Staff Join the Discussion The original GPS signals, and indeed most GPS signals including L5, utilize conventional pseudonoise (PN) signal code division multiple access (CDMA), some with both in-phase and quadrature-phase modulation. In the late 1990s, I generalized Manchester PN symbol-spreading by defining split-spectrum binary square wave symbol-spreading, in a series of limited-distribution papers for the Air Force GPS Independent Review Team (IRT). These split-spectrum signals have been developed and analyzed much more fully by many others, and they are now termed binary offset carrier (BOC) modulation. The BOC codes can provide a noise-error advantage by placing more of their spectral energy at an offset frequency, thereby increasing the Gabor bandwidth. They can also provide spectral separation from other GNSS signals in the same frequency band, for example, L1. Read more » CDMA Expert Advice QCDLL
Opinions SBAS Survey SBAS Crashing Published April 22, 2010 By Eric Gakstatter Join the Discussion It’s been a tough couple of weeks for SBAS (Satellite-Based Augmentation System), namely the USA’s WAAS program and India’s GAGAN program. WAAS and GAGAN have taken big hits recently that threaten the integrity of the programs. Both events were totally unexpected and are causing disruptions of GPS correction services. Read more » Survey Scene
