Keysight Outbids Viavi for PNT Testing Company Spirent Communications
Keysight trumps Viavi's March offer for testing and measurement company
Well, money talks. Keysight Technologies KEYS 0.00%↑ has announced its intention to acquire United Kingdom-based test and measurement company Spirent Communications for nearly $1.5 billion.
As Location Business News previously reported, Arizona-based Viavi VIAV 0.00%↑ made Spirent an offer for $1.3 billion—in deal that would have allowed it to gain a market leader in positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) technologies.
Spirent’s board of directors intend to recommend the offer, which includes a cash offer per share and special dividend for investors. Keysight said it views Spirent’s business as highly attractive and aligned with the company’s long-term software-centric solutions strategy.
“Spirent has a differentiated portfolio, which is a strong fit for Keysight. Both companies share a common focus on empowering and accelerating high-value solutions for customers,” said Satish Dhanasekaran, Keysight president and CEO, in a statement.
Spirent, a pioneer in PNT testing, last year launched its SimXona satellite constellation simulator, which was certified by Xona Space Systems. Xona is developing PULSAR, a commercial PNT service built on a backbone of low- Earth orbit (LEO) small satellites, the company said.
At our deadline, Viavi has not made an announcement about the spurned offer.
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Honeywell To Acquire Civitanavi Systems for $216 Million
Saying it plans to strengthen its autonomous operations and expand its European footprint, Honeywell HON 0.00%↑ this week announced its intention to acquire Italy-based Civitanavi Systems for about $216 million. Honeywell will make a cash offer to acquire all of Civitanavi’s outstanding shares at 6.30 euro per share.
Civitanavi’s strength is in positioning, navigation and timing technology for the aerospace, defense and industrial markets. Both Civitanavi and Honeywell have developed inertial navigation solutions, using accelerometers, sensors and gyroscopes.
"By integrating Civitanavi's inertial technologies and sensors across Honeywell's existing commercial, military, space and industrial platforms, our customers across the globe will now have access to a more robust portfolio of aerospace navigation solutions in support of their journey toward autonomous operations," said Jim Currier, Honeywell Aerospace Technologies president & CEO, in a statement
Going further, Civitanavi's product offerings of inertial navigation, geo reference and stabilization systems will complement technologies in Honeywell's existing navigation and sensors business, the company said. In addition, Civitanavi also manufactures Fiber Optic Gyro technology that Honeywell has not previously offered in its navigation portfolio, the company said.
The deal, expected to close in the third quarter of 2024, is subject to regulatory review.
Companies Make Digital Twin Technology Transactions
Several companies this week have touted transactions that include digital twin development. One company, Woolpert, has acquired Ireland-based Murphy Geospatial, which provides survey, mobile and indoor mapping, asset monitoring, subsurface engineering and 3D digital twin development.
After buying the 400-employee company, Woolpert said that it was expanding its geospatial services Europe, including all forms of mapping. Murphy Geospatial CEO Niall Murphy will continue to head the company.
Another company, HERE Technologies has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with data and analytics firm Bedrock Analytics to develop digital twin technologies for Thailand-based Yala's Smart City initiative. The digital twins, a virtual model of a real-world project, will feature such map data as road infrastructure, 3D building models, points of interest (POIs) and house addresses.
This data will serve as the foundation for creating a digital twin replica of the city for city planners, government officials, and policymakers, the company said. The digital twins will provide real-time insights into city dynamics and facilitate predictive analysis for informed decision-making, the company said.
In other digital twin technology news:
Siemens said it would acquire ebm-papst’s industrial drive technology (IDT) business, which includes motion control systems used in driverless transport systems. The company said the deal will complement its IoT-enabled Xcelerator portfolio, which taps into such technologies as AI and digital twins.
Hexagon's Geosystems division and the Nemetschek Group have partnered to drive the adoption of digital twins by offering their customers an integrated end-to-end workflow for efficient and sustainable building operations, the company said.
Autonomous driving company TIER IV’s research proposal was selection in the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Space Exploration Innovation Hub's 11th "Open Innovation Hub for Expanding Humanosphere and Domain of Human Activity through Solar System Frontier Development" request for proposal (RFP). This research aims to create high-quality and large-scale digital twins to simulate AD environments, capitalizing on the NeRF world model. The project is set to develop a neural simulator capable of pre-constructing NeRF models from camera and LiDAR sensor data from autonomous vehicles.
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CMC Electronics and Hexagon Partner on Aviation GNSS Platform
CMC Electronics and Hexagon’s Autonomy & Positioning division have partnered on a GNSS platform for aviation. The companies said they will merge CMC’s certification expertise with a Hexagon-NovAtel GNSS platform that aims to detect spoofing and jamming.
The new platform will be marketed to commercial aviation, which are embracing multi-frequency, multi-constellation (MCMF) GNSS positioning and assured positioning, navigation and timing (APNT), the companies say. The companies recognize that jamming and spoofing of GNSS signals “is no longer confined to military conflicts” as commercial aviation users are being jammed worldwide.
Montreal-based CMC’s next-generation receiver, certified to DO-254 Level A standards, integrates GNSS measurement technology from Hexagon-NovAtel. “We have been working on and delivering safety-critical positioning technology for 25 years, since the field’s inception, and much of that work has been side-by-side with CMC.” said Stig Pedersen, Hexagon executive vice president of Aerospace & Defense, in a statement.
Guest Article
How Can Autonomous Vehicles Navigate When GNSS Isn’t Working? What You Need to Know about Dead Reckoning for Autonomous Vehicle Navigation
By Aaron Nathan
First, what is dead reckoning? It has nothing to do with death or dead people
For many centuries, travelers have used “Dead reckoning” to get from one part of the world to another. The term refers to deriving a position based on the direction and speed of travel from a starting point.
Today, this is also known as inertial sensing, and in practice, it looks totally different from the original applications of mariners or explorers. However, the foundational logic of dead reckoning remains relatively the same as it has been for hundreds of years.
For example, in vehicles, modern inertial sensors measure the rate of rotation and the level acceleration of the vehicle chassis. This includes effects like gravity, acceleration under braking and cornering, and even sitting perfectly still. Additionally, rotary encoders measure how many rotations of each wheel occur over a period of time. By integrating all of this data and applying some of the laws of physics, we can determine how fast the vehicle is going and in what direction. Using this information, the navigation system can calculate the car’s location based on where and when it started moving.
While advancements in MEMS and measurement technologies have made inertial sensing more widely available and informative, it’s important to note it does not replace other positioning systems. Rather, dead reckoning is part of an ecosystem of tools that, when combined, produce the most precise positioning data for use in various applications. This is primarily because all sensors have errors, which in dead reckoning can amount to very large position errors if used for long periods of time. For instance, if a vehicle calculated the heading angle to be incorrect by only 0.1 degrees, over a 1km tunnel, it would have accumulated nearly 2m of position error at the exit. This need for precision makes dead reckoning easy to understand but difficult to implement well in practical applications.
Go to www.locationbusinessnews.com for full story.
Other Location News
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Top News:
☹ "Experts say [bridge] collapse was devastating but inevitable" - Washington Post [lessons for PNT]. Dana Goward: “Essential systems, like our national PNT, must be built to withstand rare but powerful impacts. Severe solar weather, accidents, or attack by adversaries, as examples.”
👌 FCC Launches Crackdown on Signal Jammers Sold by Amazon, Others. “Typically advertised as ‘drone deterrents’ or ‘privacy tools,’ these nefarious gadgets are specifically designed to block radio frequencies.”
😏 Elon Musk Mandates Tesla To Install and Demo Full Self-Driving Beta for Every New Delivery. “Elon Musk has mandated Tesla TSLA 0.00%↑ employees to install and demo Full Self-Driving Beta for every customer taking delivery in North America.”
😮 Qualcomm Ends Autotalks Bid. “Originally announced in May of 2023 and estimated to be worth $350M, Qualcomm QCOM 0.00%↑ quietly terminated its long-pending acquisition of V2X technology supplier Autotalks last Friday.”
📌 GM Ends OnStar Data Sharing Following Public Protest. “OnStar Smart Driver customer data is no longer being shared with LexisNexis or Verisk, GM GM 0.00%↑ told Ars Technica. The decision follows a recent New York Times report that found that members of GM’s OnStar Smart Driver app had their data shared with LexisNexis and Verisk.”
🚚 Targa Telematics Unveils the First Fleet Management Solutions After the Acquisition of Viasat. “Viasat Fleet Start and Advanced convert real-time data collected from vehicles, such as passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, into fleet management services.”
😕 Ericsson to Layoff 1,200 in Sweden. “Additional cost saving measures include a reduction of consultants, streamlining of processes and reduced facilities.”
Maps:
📱 Google Maps vs. Citymapper: Which Navigation App Takes the Win? “Citymapper might not be preinstalled on Android phones like Google Maps, but it's an excellent alternative to Google's flagship mapping app. It provides the information you need to navigate cities, from public transport to safe walking directions.”
🤔 Waze vs. Google Maps vs. Apple Maps: The Number One Feature. The top feature in Waze is undoubtedly its incident reporting engine. Many have tried to copy this idea, including Apple, but Waze's reporting system remains the most advanced on the market, becoming the main feature people give up on Google Maps.
👍 Mapbox Selects Walt & Company as Public Relations Agency of Record and offers New Advanced Tools for Map Rendering Performance Evaluation. “The arrival of the Mapbox Standard 3D basemap elevates the map rendering experience to new dimensions. Mapbox now offers more 2D and 3D basemap options.”
📲 Why an Essential Waze Feature Is No Longer Available. “The company considers that the ‘blocked lane’ report could include the ‘vehicle on road’ primarily because a car stopped on the road leads to a blocked lane. A vehicle that stops on the road also blocks a lane, so the Google-owned company considered the feature redundant in its simplified reporting experience.”
👏 Lead the Way: Sponsoring Women To Help Accelerate Their Career Growth. “Every single one of us dreams about what they would like to achieve in their career. But not all of us have the opportunities to take the necessary steps towards those dreams.”
🗺 Mappedin Joins the Maplibre Sponsorship Program. “With a yearly donation of $10,000, Mappedin supports the maintenance of MapLibre’s codebases and ensures a stable future for the project.”
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Connected and Autonomous Vehicles:
💲 Porsche, Lamborghini, and Bentley To Use Mobileye's Autonomous Tech. “The second largest car manufacturer in the world (after Toyota) will acquire partial and high-level autonomous driving solutions from the Israeli company for mass-produced vehicles, based on SuperVision systems for autonomous driving at levels 2-3 and Chauffeur for level 4 driving (out of 5).”
🚘 Futuristic $10 Billion Driverless Japanese City by Active Volcano Nearing Completion. “The project, which was first announced in 2021, has seen car giant Toyota hard at work constructing their Woven City.”
🙂 Amazon Expands Zoox Self-Driving Taxi Testing. “In Vegas, Zoox is extending the geofenced area that its AV is testing in, and it will now stretch to around five miles across a variety of routes from the company’s office in the city to the south end of the Strip.”
🚗 China's Latest EV Is a 'Connected' Car From Smart Phone and Electronics Maker Xiaomi. “Chinese smart consumer electronics maker Xiaomi is joining China's booming but crowded market for electric cars with a sporty high-tech sedan”
😯 I Learned How to Trick Self-Driving Cars at a San Francisco Museum.
Drones:
🛩 Drones, Geopolitical Competition, AI, and Leadership for the Next Century of Aviation. “But the key to understanding the drone market is recognizing that it’s still in its infancy. As important and impactful as drones have become, the technology is still nascent.”
✈ Reliable Robotics Gains Fresh Funding for Autonomous Flight Tech. “NASA has awarded Reliable and Ohio University $6 million for a collaborative research project to advance autonomous flight tech and industry standards.”
Financial:
📈 IoT Provider Soracom Lists on Tokyo Stock Exchange to Fund Faster Growth. “Soracom claims to have more than 20,000 startups and enterprises on its books, connecting around six million IoT devices globally.”
😐 Chinese Lidar Maker RoboSense Sees Wider Annual Loss.
Location Industry Briefs
Send your news releases to kdennehy@driverlessreport.com. Go to www.locationbusinessnews.com for more news and an archive of stories.
GMV To Lead ESA's Leo PNT End-To-End In-Orbit Demonstrator Mission
As Location Business News reported last week, GMV will lead a consortium of companies to develop low-Earth orbit (LEO) for PNT by launching a 5-satellite constellation. GMV will be responsible for the complete end-to-end space mission and will lead a team that includes OHB System AG, Alén Space, Beyond Gravity and Indra.
The project will open up a new way of using low orbit satellites in key markets and applications, GMV said. The contract’s provisions include design and development of satellites and payloads, procurement of launch services, provision of a Ground-Segment-as-a-Service (GSaaS), a test user receiver, system operations and experimentation and demonstration of LEO-PNT services with end users.
Contact: GMV, marketing@gmv.com.
InfiniDome Expands US Operations
InfiniDome has established infiniDome USA, a new subsidiary that will focus on the U.S. defense industry and market, which the company says is expanding. By establishing infiniDome USA, the company aims to strengthen its relationships with U.S. customers, “offering more localized support and ensuring that its GPS protection technologies meet the specific needs and challenges faced by American aerospace and defense sectors,” the company said.
Contact: infiniDome, ben@infinidome.com, www.infinidome.com.
ProStar Integrates Tech With Topcon
ProStar Holdings has announced a technology integration with Topcon that places ProStar's utility mapping software, PointMan, into Topcon's fixed and portable GNSS antennas. The technology integration provides Topcon users with a utility data collection solution to capture, record, and display the precise location of critical underground infrastructure, the company said. The technology integration of PointMan with Topcon GNSS receivers means that PointMan now supports Topcon Hiper VR highly versatile GNSS receivers for mobile devices, the company said.
Contact: Joel Sutherland, ProStar, (970) 822-4792, www.prostarcorp.com.
Quectel Rolls Out 5G, GNSS Antennas
Quectel Wireless Solutions has launched YEMN016AA and YEMN017AA 5G 5-in-1 combination antennas, the YECN001J1A and YECT000WBA external 5G antennas and the YEGB000Q1A and YEGN000Q1A active GNSS L1 and L5 antennas.
The YEMN016AA is a 5G and GNSS 5-in-1 antenna measuring 204.4mm x 86.7mm x 32mm. This ultra-wide-band 5G/4G antenna provides broad coverage from 600–6,000MHz whilst offering backward-compatibility to support 3G and 2G networks as well as LTE Cat-M and narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), the company said.
Contact: Quectel Wireless Solutions, media@ quectel.com, www.quectel.com.
Semtech Partners With Skylo
Semtech SMTC 0.00%↑ has partnered with Skylo to integrate Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) capabilities into its HL series modules. The integration includes its HL series LPWA modules, specifically the HL7810 and HL7812. The software updates give customers the option to connect using NB-IoT over a satellite network, the company said. This allows such use cases as container tracking, where maintaining continuous coverage is a challenge due to the limitations of traditional cellular networks, the company said.
Contact: Regina Pareigis, Semtech, rpareigis@semtech.com.
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Globalsat Group and Myriota Sign Agreement
Satellite asset tracking and telemetry company Myriota has signed a distribution agreement with Globalsat Group. As part of the deal, Globalsat Group will be integrating Myriota’s services and hardware into its offerings. Myriota’s global messaging services is featured in the agriculture, transport/logistics, utilities, mining and environmental sensing industries.
Contact: Globalsat Group, www.globalsat.com.
Pasternack Launches Military-Grade Antennas
Pasternack has rolled out a line of military-grade antennas. These military-grade devices include ruggedized GPS, manpack omni and vehicle omni antennas.
Use cases include vehicle navigation, personnel communications, vehicle communications and electronic warfare scenarios, including jamming capabilities.
Contact: Peter McNeil, Pasternack, (978) 682-6936, www.infiniteelectronics.com.
Elevāt and Superior Announce Telematics Partnership
IoT and telematics company Elevāt and Superior Broom have partnered to integrate Elevāt's Machine Connect and EZ into Superior Broom's fleet for the construction and maintenance industries. Elevāt's telematics products include enhanced fleet management for real-time tracking and monitoring of equipment for optimized deployment, the company said. In addition, the telematics product offers data-driven insights, the company said.
Contact: Elevāt, www.elevat-iot.com.
New Report Says 9 Million Europeans Using Medical Alert Solutions
Berg Insight says 9.0 million people in Europe and 5.2 million people in North America were using telecare or medical alert solutions at the end of 2023. The figures include users of both in-home and mobile systems. “These systems provide continuous in-home or completely mobile monitoring services and can consist of a range of electronic devices such as personal alarm buttons, motion detection sensors, GPS monitors or fitness devices,” the report says.
Contact: Johan Fagerberg, Berg Insight, 46 31 711 30 91, johan.fagerberg@berginsight.com.
People
Tim Newberg, formerly an executive with Digital Matter, has been named vice president, strategic business development at Link Labs.
Blue Origin appointed Nick Johnson as director of corporate development.
Elektrobit announced the appointment of Manoj Karwa as chief revenue officer, Americas.
NASA named Leslie Livesay as deputy director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab.
HawkEye 360 named Jamal Ware vice president of government affairs and public policy.
Jobs
Senior Manger Sales. TomTom.
Senior Project Manager. TomTom.
Professional Services Consultant. HERE Technologies.
Sr Communications Specialist - APAC. HERE Technologies.
Program Manager - Customer Success. HERE Technologies.
Marketing Specialist APAC. Geotab.
Director of Marketing. HAAS Alert.
IoT Platforms & Software Solutions BD. Quectel.
Mapping & GIS Sales Consultant. KOREC Group.
Technical Account Manager - Europe. Esri.
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