GPS Panel Says System Threatened, but Where Is the Funding To Strengthen It?
GPS' Capabilities Span 13-16 Critical Infrastructure Areas
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A panel of GPS experts this week outlined how easy the satellite system can be compromised and called for signal protection, jamming-resistant equipment and backup terrestrial measures. Many of the panel concerns were enforced by a recent Russian anti-satellite test that scattered space debris.
Making opening remarks at the Nov. 17 webinar, Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., and chair of the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee, has been concerned about GPS’ vulnerability. “Every American relies on [GPS] everyday. [The] Homeland Securithy Department in the Obama Administration said it was single most important thing in our critical infrastructure, yet GPS is easy to jam and spoof, he said.
Garamendi said that a person with a radar jammer looking for law enforcement speed traps can jam GPS. In addition, he said the Russians and Chinese know that the United States depends on GPS—and have their own backup systems to their own satellite navigation.
The webinar’s speakers (George Beebe, Center for the National Interest; Greg Winfree, Texas Transportation Institute; and Scott Pace, George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute) said that GPS was critical for infrastructure and many other uses. However, Winfree said that GPS has not been designated a “critical infrastructure” by the U.S. government—even though it is an integral part of 13 of 16 critical infrastructure areas.
It appears that while the experts know that crippling GPS could be a second 9/11, and the Russians anti-satellite test makes strengthen the system a priority, a big question is, why wasn’t it part of the recently passed $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act?
“I am reliably informed that there has been discussion within the administration as to whether this is a government responsibility,” said Dana Goward, Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation president. “It may well be from holdover folks from the last administration which, I think, saw the only option as a government build vs. the government leveraging the commercial sector for a suite of services.”
Winfrey said that the government, years ago, asked the civil sector to finance a backup system as it wasn’t their responsibility. However, the civil sector didn’t have the funding. “The feeling [then] was, why should there be a backup when the system was so robust?” he said.
Pace said that if the government was involved in building a backup terrestrial system, it would take 10-12 years.
The webinar was cosponsored by the Domestic Preparedness Journal and the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation.
Contact: Domestic Prepardness Journal, DomesticPreparedness.com, (800) 522-6948, inquiries@RNTFnd.org
Qualcomm Outlines Marketing Strategy: 5G, Automotive, Huge for Chipmaker
While not directly talking about location technology, Qualcomm [QCOM] president and CEO Cristiano Amon said, at a company investor’s meeting, that car companies are becoming tech companies that will be always be connected. Amon said that while the company has always focused on innovation in mobile, they are no longer defined by a single market or customer.
The giant chipmaker, which as 25 auto OEM customers, expanded their collaboration with BMW, to provide advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), autonomous driving elements, dedicated camera functions and other technology.
While not directly mentioning its Qualcomm Location Suite, Amon said the company sees a huge opportunity for automotive and edge computing through IoT. “We’re No. 1 in telematics, automotive connectivity and next-generation premium infotainment,” he said. “IoT is changing. We are moving away from traditional microcontrollers. If it is not connected, it’s not useful--it’s about scaling AI at the Edge.”
Amon mention that car navigation will be connected to every part of the transportation ecosystem, including traffic lights. “Processing all of the systems is the ADAS digital cockpit with cloud connectivity,” he said.
CalAmp Anticipates Supply Chain Problems, Quarterly Loss
CalAmp [CAMP] says supply chain shortages will lower the company’s “shipment expectations” for the second half of the year, causing a quarterly loss.
Jeff Gardner, CalAmp's president and CEO, said the company expected to ship 20 percent more devices in the second half of the year, but “supply chain shortages [from key component suppliers] have become more pronounced than originally anticipated.”
Gardner said that the company now expects total revenues for the fiscal 2022 third quarter, which ends on Nov. 30, to decline by 10 percent because of reduced telematics product shipments. He said the loss would also be combined with anticipated lower revenues in software and subscription service business because of a large retrofit project.
“Our focus remains on enhancing the long-term value of our business by converting a higher percentage of our telematics device revenue to software subscription arrangements, which should provide increased visibility and predictability in our future results," Gardner said in a statement.
CalAmp will announce its fiscal 2022 third quarter financial results on Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021.
Sheeva.AI Rakes In Follow-On Investment
Sheeva.AI has announced it has closed a follow-on investment from Conscious Venture Partners (CVP) through their Conscious Venture Fund II investment vehicle. Financial details were not disclosed.
The company said the investment will accelerate the adoption of its connected vehicle technology and Open API platform for the automation of location-based services and in-car payments.
The investment is the third for Sheeva.AI this quarter, building on funding from Japan's Hagiwara Electronics in early October and Techstars' second investment in later that month. These investments reflect the growth Sheeva.AI has achieved in North America, APAC, and Europe and the momentum Sheeva.AI has for its in-vehicle services and payments API platform heading into 2022.
Sheeva.AI's platform allows OEMs and services providers to use real-time vehicle location to automate payments, trigger driver-centric contextual events, and streamline consumption of vehicle services, the company said.
Contact: Sheeva.ai, press@sheeva.ai, www.Sheeva.AI.
Other Location News:
News tip? Send them to kdennehy@driverlessreport.com. Go to www.locationbusinessnews.com for more news and an archive of stories.
🛰 U.S. Space Force Buys Three New GPS Satellites From Lockheed Martin. “The U.S. Space Force has ordered three GPS 3F satellites from Lockheed Martin [LMT] for $737 million.”
😒 China Took Control of an Italian Military Drone Maker Without Authorities Knowing It, Report Says. What the…
🙁 Russian Anti-satellite Test a ‘Dangerous and Irresponsible’ Act That Threatens Astronauts, US Says. “The test has so far generated over 1,500 pieces of trackable orbital debris," a State Department spokesperson said.
👍 Snapchat Turned Snap Map Into a Custom Visual Adventure. “First announced in May, Snapchat's new "Layers" feature launches Wednesday. Layers are pretty much what they sound like: Enabling a layer superimposes all sorts of content or information about locations on the map, giving the user an at-a-glance view of specific categories of things, that they can turn on or off, instead of just dots.”
👌 Keep It Chill This Holiday With New Tools From Google Maps. Google Maps blog post reveals new crowd avoidance features.
✔ NextNav Reports Third Quarter 2021 Results.
✔ Inpixon Reports Third Quarter 2021 Financial Results and Provides Corporate Update.
✔ Ituran Location and Control Ltd. Presents Results for the Third Quarter of 2021.
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Location Industry Briefs
Send your news releases to kdennehy@driverlessreport.com. Go to www.locationbusinessnews.com for more news and an archive of stories.
PreAct Technologies Secures $13 Million in Funding
PreAct Technologies has announced $13 million in Series A funding led by State Farm Ventures. Additional investors in this round include Elev8.VC, Gotham Partners, Traylor Capital and Stargazer Ventures, among others. “Every year nearly 50 million people, globally, are seriously hurt in car crashes and another 1.35 million die, which is completely unacceptable,” said PreAct CEO Paul Drysch, who’s company was awarded a $1 million prize from Luminate for its TrueSense technology and will be establishing a manufacturing base in New York state.
PreAct’s TrueSense sensors complement or replace short-range sensors like radar, ultrasound, and cameras and enable pre-crash safety systems, while enhancing existing use cases such as park assist and self-parking, the company said. TrueSense sensors can help lower the cost and complexity of ADAS and enable many new use cases that have proven challenging in the past, the company said.
Contact: Priya Shah, for PreAct Technologies, priya@mpublicrelations.com.
NOAA Selects Woolpert for $49 Million Coastal Geospatial Services Contract
Woolpert has been selected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Office for Coastal Management (OCM) for its Coastal Geospatial Services Contract (CGSC). The contract includes data acquisition, thematic mapping, high-resolution topographic and bathymetric product generation, photogrammetric mapping, survey and control services, GIS services, cadastral mapping and geospatial training. The five-year CGSC has a shared ceiling of $49 million, the company said.
Over the past year, the firm and its partners have been awarded multiple task orders, including the collection of bathymetric lidar data to support benthic mapping at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Michigan, the company said.
Contact: Woolpert, woolpert.com.
Positioning Module Features UDR and ADR Technology
Thalwil, Switzerland-based u-blox [UBXN] has announced the NEO-M9V GNSS receiver, which features untethered dead reckoning (UDR) and automotive dead reckoning (ADR). The NEO-M9V is tailored for fleet management and micromobility applications that require reliable meter-level positioning accuracy, the company said.
Because both UDR and ADR, on the same module, delivers maximum positioning performance and design flexibility at once, customers can provide the best solution case-by-case to each of their end-customers, the company said. NEO-M9V also features dynamic models optimized for both cars and e-scooters.
Contact: Natacha Seitz, u-blox, 41 76 436 0788, natacha.seitz@u-blox.com.
Honeywell Launches Two Navigation Systems, Commercial Use Eyed
Honeywell [HON] has launched two new resilient navigation systems: the Honeywell Compact Inertial Navigation System and Honeywell Radar Velocity System. These systems, along with Honeywell partner InfiniDome’s Anti-Jamming system, GPSdome, are designed for commercial and military customers for use in GNSS-challenged environments, the company said. Honeywell signed a collaboration agreement with infiniDome in August to jointly develop and deliver GPS signal protection systems.
In addition to supporting small and medium unmanned aerial vehicles, especially those flying beyond visual line of sight missions, future applications include industries such as autonomous vehicles, special-purpose commercial vehicles and personal navigation, the company said.
Contact: Ahjay Rai, Honeywell, 44 7880 251083, Ahjay.Rai@Honeywell.com.
STMicroelectronics Rolls Out Single-Chip Auto Receiver
STMicroelectronics [STM] has introduced the STA8135GA automotive satellite-navigation chip that delivers position data needed by advanced driving systems, the company said. Joining ST’s Teseo V family, the STA8135GA is the first automotive-qualified GNSS receiver to integrate a triple-band positioning measurement engine on-chip
The chip also features standard multi-band Position-Velocity-Time (PVT) and dead-reckoning. The company contends that triple band has historically been used in professional applications such as surveying, mapping, and precision agriculture
Contact: Michael Markowitz, STMicroelectronics, (781) 591-0354, michael.markowitz@st.com, www.st.com/gnss-ic-sta8135ga.
D-Fend Pilots Drone During Joint Exercise
D-Fend Solutions has announced that its EnforceAir product took control of a drone and safely landed it during the final program of a joint, three-day exercise led by INTERPOL and the Norwegian Police. The event, held at Oslo Gardermoen Airport in Norway, helped ensure a high standard of testing and facilitated the continuity of airport operations, the company said. EnforceAir also decoded telemetry signals to determine types of drones and extract drone positioning with GPS accuracy, the company said.
Contact: Paul Bilardo, pr@d-fendsolutions.com.
Topcon Announces MC-X and MC-Max Machine Control Product
Topcon Positioning Group has announced its MC-Max machine control solution for mixed-fleet heavy equipment environments, the company said. Based on its MC-X machine control platform, and backed by Sitelink3D, the new product is designed to adapt to owners’ machine control and data integration needs as their fleets and workflows expand, the company said.
The MC-Max solution offers flexible mounting solutions, including an optional automatic blade and bucket control for a variety of machines. The system also provides positioning technologies ranging from slope control to laser, multi-constellation GNSS, robotic total station and millimeter GPS systems, the company said.
Contact: Staci Fitzgerald, Topcon Positioning Group, (925) 245-8610, corpcomm@topcon.com.
Spirent Federal Launches New Flex Power Capability
Spirent Federal [SPT] has announced a new positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) test capability, flex power, that provides a countermeasure against GPS jamming. Spirent simulators support programmable power for M-code, Y-code, and C/A (coarse acquisition) code, the company said. Flex power is available on the Spirent GSS9000 GPS / GNSS constellation simulator.
Contact: Jeff Martin, Spirent Federal Systems, (801) 787-1207, jeff.martin@spirentfederal.com, www.spirent.com.
GPS Trackit Rolls Out Trailer Tracking Device
GPS Trackit has introduced its GL500MG universal trailer management solution. GPS Trackit’s GL500MG protects unpowered assets including construction equipment, trailers, freight containers, generators, tool storage boxes, and recreational equipment, the company said.
GPS Trackit threw out some numbers: theft of cargo, and the trailers transporting it, has spiked during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to cargo recovery service CargoNet. Equipment theft is also a serious problem – as much as $1 billion worth of construction and farm equipment is stolen each year, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau. Only 10-15 percent of stolen equipment is ever recovered, according to International Risk Management Institute.
Contact: GPS Trackit, www.gpstrackit.com/solutions/asset-tracking.
Black Sage’s Goshawk Jammer Delivers EW Jamming
The U.S. Air Force recently tested the Black Sage Goshawk Long Range EW Jammer, which delivered directional EW jamming beyond 35 kilometers, the company said. The Goshawk Long Range EW Jammer has the capability to disrupt GNSS signals for enemy military aircraft and UAS Groups 1-5.
The Air Force's current degraded GPS training systems operate with jammers focused on a fixed zone, which require aircraft to fly through it to experience signal denial or degradation, the company said.
Contact: Scott Talcott, Black Sage, (208) 571-8135, 323365@email4pr.com.
People
Bryn Fosburgh, Trimble [TRMB] senior vice president, was inducted into the Association of Equipment Manufacturers’ (AEM) Hall of Fame for a broad range of contributions in developing and advancing technologies that support the construction and agriculture industries worldwide. Fosburgh was part of a team that pioneered GPS systems, including real-time kinematic (RTK) technology, for mining and construction machine control.
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