The app, called VRPETERS (Vehicle Rollover Prevention Education Training Emergency Reporting System), uses sensors and GPS capability built into smartphones that can detect rollovers. Once the app detects a rollover, it sends an automatic emergency e-mail and phone message with the coordinates of the accident location to family or emergency responders.

“The tractor is the main power source for field operations, and tractor rollover accidents have been killing people since the beginning of their use in agricultural production,” said Bulent Koc, assistant professor of agricultural systems management at MU and developer of the app. “More and more farmers are using their smartphones to monitor weather or calculate production inputs while operating machinery. Since they already have their phones with them, installing VRPETERS could help save lives.”

Data from the NIOSH show that one out of every 10 tractor operators will roll a tractor at least once. NIOSH also notes that only half of the 4.7 million tractors on U.S. farms have rollover protection. In order to minimize false alarm rollovers on the app, Koc and his research assistant Bo Liu designed a device that must be attached to the tractor. This device helps calculate the stability characteristics of the tractor and will provide a warning to the driver when the tractor approaches its rollover point.

“Many farmers think they can jump out of their tractors in the event of a rollover, but this isn’t the case usually,” Koc said. “Side rollovers can occur in just three-quarters of a second and most people need a second or more to react to an event. So, VRPETERS can benefit farmers when a rollover occurs because they often can’t reach their phones to make an emergency call.”

VRPETERS can benefit more than just farmers, as the app also can be used on construction vehicles, trucks, snowmobiles, military vehicles, riding lawnmowers and all-terrain vehicles.

In addition to the rollover device installed on tractors and other dangerous equipment, Koc and Liu designed another device that can be used with VRPETERS. This device can be installed on vehicles and can be used as a backup to stream data to a smartphone or tablet. “With this additional device, parents or fleet managers can obtain real time data on how machines are being used,” Koc said. “If the device detects improper operation, an intervention can occur before an accident happens.”

Initial testing of VRPETERS was done using a remote-controlled model tractor. Once fully tested on a standard tractor, Koc and Liu will look for an industry partner to market the app.

The Q4000 is a dual-mode communication modem that will connect either to a satellite network or to a traditional ground-based wireless data network. The modem will automatically choose the most economical method of sending the data. The combined communication capabilities of the Q4000 and SeeControl’s turnkey telematics applications will allow equipment OEMs and owners to send and receive information from globally dispersed heavy equipment, harvesters, irrigation systems, fluid tanks, generators and vehicles.

“Our device store offers a vast selection of turnkey M2M sensor devices to enable mixed asset and fleet operations,” Said Bryan Kester, CEO of SeeControl. “Now, with Quake, this extends to effortless satellite and GSM connectivity in a single easy-to-deploy product. It is perfect for equipment owners that want to add new asset types to an existing global fleet, or for OEM equipment manufacturers designing the next generation of telematics programs.”

“We are very pleased to establish this relationship with SeeControl,” said Polina Braunstein, CEO of Quake. “They are a recognized leader in the agricultural OEM and Telematics solutions arena. We anticipate that considerable agriculture and equipment telematics innovation will be fueled by the global reach of the Q4000, combined with SeeControl’s software-as-a-service cloud for sensor reporting and analytics.”

The combined offering is on display at Booth P48 at the 2013 World Agricultural Expo, taking place now through Thursday in Tulare, California.

Sponsored by The ION Satellite Division and held in cooperation with the ION North Star Section, the ION Annual Autonomous Snowplow Competition is a national event open to college and university students, as well as the general public, that challenges teams to design, build, and operate a fully autonomous snowplow using navigation and control technologies to rapidly, accurately and safely clear a designated path of snow.

Eight teams participated in the four-day competition, each using state-of-the-art navigation systems to plow two different snowfields. Teams included students, partners from private industry and faculty advisors from Case Western Reserve University; Dunwoody College of Technology; Miami University (Ohio); Ohio University; The University of Michigan – Dearborn, and The University of Minnesota.

Teams were judged based on their cumulative scores earned throughout the competition phases: 75 percent of the total score was based upon the plowing competition; and 25 percent of the total score was based on the presentations and pre-event report.

First place was awarded to Ohio University’s Avionics Engineering Center with students Samantha Craig, Ryan Kollar, Adam Naab-Levy, Pengfei Duan and Kuangmin Li with support from faculty advisors Dr. Frank van Graas, Dr. Wouter Pelgrum and Dr. Maarten Uijt de Haag who submitted their four-wheeled Monocular Autonomously Controlled Snowplow (M.A.C.S.).  The first place prize included $5,000 and a golden snow globe trophy. Ohio University also captured the Best Student Presentation Award that included $500 and the “Golden Shovel” Award and the Best Written Report that included $500 and the “Golden Pen” Award.

Second place was awarded to the Miami University team “RedBlade” that included students Mark Carroll, Chad Sobota, Robert Cole, Richard Marcus, Harrison Bourne, Jamie Morton and Michael Harris with support from advisors Dr. Yu (Jade) Morton, Dr. Peter Jamieson, Steve Taylor. The second place prize included $4,000 and a silver snow globe trophy.

Third place was awarded to the University of Michigan (Dearborn) team “Yeti 3.0” that included students Angelo Bertani, Zachary DeGeorge, Ahmed Alkirsh, Abdelqwee Yaffai, Mark Bajor, Craig Cowling, Cody Schmitt, Jacob Mack and Mengxing (Simon) Chen with support from faculty advisor Narasimhamurthi (Nattu) Natarajan. The third place prize included $3,000 and a bronze snow globe trophy.

In addition, the first place team, Ohio University, has been invited to display its winning snowplow during ION GNSS+ 2013 conference September 16-20 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Sponsors of the second annual ION Autonomous Snowplow Competition included Honeywell, Inc., Alliant Techsystems Inc., Lockheed Martin Corporation, ASTER Labs, Inc., Space Exploration Technologies Corp., The Toro Company, Proto Labs, Inc. and U.S. Bank.

The Fourth Annual ION Autonomous Snowplow Competition will be held in January 2014 at the Saint Paul Winter Carnival, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Ohio University’s winning team.

SPAN tightly couples NovAtel’s precise GNSS technology with highly accurate inertial measurement technology to provide a robust, stable and continuous 3D navigation. The new OEM-ADIS-16488 sensor is designed to be coupled with NovAtel’s OEM6 receivers via the MEMS Interface Card (MIC), providing integrators with a  compact, powerful GNSS/INS engine, NovAtel said.

The OEM-ADIS-16488 features low noise gyros and accelerometers in a small, lightweight form factor.  This IMU enables precision measurements for applications that require low cost, high performance and rugged durability.  Tight-coupling of the two technologies enables continuous robust positioning in difficult environments where satellite signals are unreliable or unavailable for short periods of time.

The OEM-ADIS-16488 is now available for order and immediate shipment.

As part of the transaction, Hemisphere GNSS acquired all of the high-precision GNSS product lines, all related intellectual property rights and the Hemisphere GPS trademarks and brands. The Precision Products segment generated revenues of approximately $13.3 million in 2012 serving marine, land survey, construction, mapping, and OEM segments.

Hemisphere GNSS will operate its business headquarters out of Scottsdale, Arizona, and will maintain its operations in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Phil Gabriel has been appointed president of Hemisphere GNSS Inc. and will also serve as a board member. Gabriel has more than 15 years of experience with Hemisphere GPS, serving for the past six years as the vice president and general manager of the Precision Products business.  “We are truly excited about our future growth prospects as a fully focused GNSS products and technology provider,” Gabriel said. “I would like to assure all our global distribution partners, suppliers and customers that it remains business as usual as we take our first steps forward with the strong backing of UniStrong.”

With this acquisition, UniStrong is expanding its capabilities in the high-precision GNSS business and also expects to promote commercial applications of China’s BeiDou Navigation System. UniStrong is listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange under ticker 002383.

Business analysts have reported in China that this is the first acquisition of an internationally renowned enterprise initiated by a domestic enterprise in China’s satellite navigation industry and represents an important milestone in the development of the industry. “The acquisition will create an international route enabling UniStrong to expand its global business outlook, enhance our ability to attract international talent, and lay the foundation for international growth and profitability,” stated Xingping Guo, president and CEO of UniStrong.

As part of the agreement, Hemisphere GNSS and AgJunction have formed a strategic alliance and a collaborative business relationship covering supply chain management, customer support, technology development and cross-licensing. “Having already established a relationship with UniStrong as one of our resellers made our new alliance a win-win for both parties,” said Rick Heiniger, president and CEO of AgJunction. “I am very pleased to be working together in this close technology-sharing relationship.”

Hemisphere GNSS’s newly appointed board of directors brings additional GNSS industry experience to the company. The board is chaired by Jonathan W. Ladd, former president and CEO of NovAtel Inc. Also joining the board is Werner Gartner, former executive vice president and CFO of NovAtel Inc.

“Hemisphere’s talented team will leverage its core GNSS capabilities and product marketing knowledge with UniStrong’s high quality, low cost GNSS product design and development resources,” said Ladd. “Hemisphere’s existing and future customers and partners will most certainly benefit from the resulting rapid, cost-effective product innovation across multiple product lines.”

Beijing UniStrong is focused on GNSS industry, with R&D, production, engineering, sales and service facilities. Its technical solutions and products cover GPS/GLONASS/COMPASS receivers, multi-system navigation and positioning, high-accuracy surveying, GNSS data post-processing, and system integration.

The re-branding of Hemisphere GPS as AgJunction is an integral part of the strategic re-focusing of the company’s resources on precision agriculture, and part of the restructuring initiated in September 2012. The company maintains ownership of its key patents and leading agricultural brands including AgJunction, Outback Guidance, and Satloc.

Hemisphere GPS said diversification into marine, construction, and other industries had increased costs, absorbed cash, and distracted management focus from its core agriculture business. The agriculture business contributed 81 percent of the company’s revenue in the first nine months of 2012. Hemisphere’s agriculture products include the Outback line, OEM boards and antennas, and precision agriculture systems.

The company has hired an investment banking firm to pursue strategic alternatives for the Precision Products (non-agriculture) business. “Given the agricultural focus of the Company, the board believes that the Precision Products business can grow more quickly with another organization that is more strategically aligned,” the company stated.

“The agricultural industry is entering a period of exceptional opportunity. We’re in the early stages of transformational adoption of high-definition production practices,” said Hemisphere GPS’ new CEO, Rick Heiniger. “We are a data driven society, and agriculture is no different. Agronomic specialized data-management and cloud information services, combined with a new generation of connected devices and machines, will not only enable emerging technologies, but will simplify existing workflows and deliver productivity gains for the industry. We will be wholly focused on the essential core technologies while at the same time assisting the industry in its adoption.”

Support of TERRASTAR-M and TERRASTAR-D allows precise position calculation anywhere on the globe, Septentrio said. TERRASTAR services achieve accuracy levels down to 10 cm without the use of extra communication such as radio or mobile. Powered by TERRASTAR services, AsteRx2eL provides a high level of flexibility for consistent dm-level accuracy everywhere on earth and cm-level where local RTK corrections are available. Septentrio multi-constellation receivers will provide position accuracy and high-availability independently of local infrastructure for the various applications in any of the markets that they traditionally serve:

• Land and aerial survey and mapping
• Machine control for agriculture, construction and mining
• Precise navigation for land, sea and air

‘The introduction of support for TERRASTAR offers our customers an important additional option for accurate positioning, notably in the absence of local infrastructure,” Peter Grognard, founder and CEO of Septentrio Satellite Navigation, said. “It has been a pleasure for us at Septentrio to closely collaborate with the great team at TERRASTAR to develop and deliver a strong new value proposition with robust industrial performance everywhere on the globe.”

Today’s demand for a wide range of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) has resulted in a lots of different types flying today in many applications. With no apparent standard avionics fit or uniform safety standards, each UAS type is basically configured for specific tasks. As commercial applications for UAS emerge, major market growth is anticipated. One forecast indicates that the UAS market could reach $7.26 billion this year alone. The promise of new and better ways to reduce costs, improve safety, and for more efficient operations is feeding a real market expansion.

However, in the U.S. the FAA currently requires each UAS commercial project desiring access to controlled airspace to obtain an FAA-approved Certificate of Authorization (CoA). While the FAA has made efforts to speed up approvals, this process has put a damper on widespread commercial adoption of UAS. Nevertheless, opportunities abound in pipeline and transmission line inspection, crop spraying, expanded law enforcement/security, and hundreds of other applications. The FAA may have felt some pressure to move forward, because Congress has put in place the Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, which calls on the FAA to fully integrate unmanned systems, including those for commercial use, into the national airspace by September 2015.

Cadence Technologies SR-20.

Meanwhile, a project called the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration in the National Airspace System (or UAS in the NAS) undertaken by NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California, seeks to reduce technical barriers related to safety and operational challenges associated with enabling routine UAS access to the NAS.

Civil aircraft and UAS may co-exist after September 2015.

NASA Predator test vehicle.

Europe is also undertaking a study on the integration of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in non-segregated airspace for the future “Single European Sky”. The study, known as ICONUS (Initial CON OPS for UAS in SESAR), will be carried out by a consortium within the European air traffic management program called SESAR. The group is led by France’s ONERA, and includes AVTECH (Sweden), CIRA and Deep Blue (Italy), ENAC (France), and INTA (Spain) — all have significant experience with UAS. The study will allow the definition of the requirements, capabilities, and the equipment that UAS will need to operate safely and efficiently in the coming European SESAR environment.

In the U.S., the RTCA SC-203 committee is busy drafting UAS operational requirements, and there has been significant progress towards ultimately publishing Minimum Aviation Performance Standards (MASPS), including requirements for navigation. Europe also has similar activities under way aimed at improving UAS access to their airspace.

The big picture is that requirements for unmanned aircraft are being brought into conformance with the standards applied to the performance and behavior of manned aircraft. Navigation requirements for UAS are expected to specify that systems will need to be qualified to Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS). This means that on-board electronics, including GNSS systems, will probably need to be FAA TSO qualified, just as they are now for manned aircraft.

But why do we need to investigate certified avionics now? In the scheme of things, +2 years of breathing space to certify UAS avionics systems is not long before the September 2015 deadline. FAA airborne software and hardware qualification will take mucho time and effort to implement, and reconfiguration of systems, interfaces, and operating procedures may take even longer.

UAS manufacturers have the option to move forward in stages — for instance, by selecting a few existing airborne qualified OEM avionics, they could minimize the internal effort to comply. And as the first UAS with certified avionics emerge, they will probbaly get good support from FAA to adopt the rules of operating in the U.S. NAS. Embedding an existing certified GPS receiver in UAS avionics will reduce the level of internal work needed and will allow more effort for developing commercial market opportunities which are looking to quickly adopt UAS.

And while this is going on, efforts are in full swing to change the navigation landscape in the U.S. and Europe over the next few years. So it would be better to be ready with a capable GNSS receiver that is already built to meet the challenges of the FAA NextGen and SESAR environments.

The L5 civil GPS frequency may likely be operational around the time that UAS unrestricted access becomes possible. GPS L1/L5 dual-frequency operations will enable higher navigation accuracy, reliablity, and integrity. The FAA is already developing NexGen WAAS to include L5, and revisions to the GPS MOPS to include L5 are anticipated to begin shortly, in time for a usable GPS L5 constellation in 2015/2016.

The FAA is already preparing for L5 avionics, and industry investigative work is under way. It’s possible that GPS L1/L5 may well meet the accuracy and integrity requirements for CAT II/III automated landings. And in Europe, Eurocae work is expected to gain momentum for the Galileo E1/E5a MOPS as the Galileo satellite navigation system is launched and becomes operational.

The new GNSS environment also includes WAAS/SBAS precision approach (LPV) capability — LPV is available now in the US and will soon be in wider operation in Europe. And Automatic Dependendant Surveillance (ADS-B) is being rolled out in the U.S. and around the world. ADS-B is being mandated within the U.S. NAS as the means for air traffic control to track all aircraft, so UAS avionics will need to include certified ADS-B Out capability.

The Septentrio AiRx2 receiver comes out of the box as a certified L1 GPS with ADS-B and WAAS LVP, but is also ready for GPS L5 and Galileo E1/E5a.

Septentrio L1/L5 AiRx2 airborne receiver.

And yet, even as greater steps forward are being taken to enhance how GNSS is used in this wider definition of aviation, which will soon include UAS, a team at the University of Texas was busy demonstrating how a UAV could be maliciously side-tracked (see article in the August issue of GPS World). Their recent tests at White Sands Missile Range used a spoofing set-up built in their lab to significantly affect the trajectory of a Hornet Mini UAV. Admittedly, the GPS on this vehicle was not a qualified airborne receiver, but there were other sensors on board the vehicle which may have been able to indicate that the GPS had been hijacked. The spoofing set-up used a high-power directional signal to overwhelm the real GPS signals and “distract” the GPS on-board receiver. Nevertheless, they were able to force the hovering UAV down towards the ground — somewhat reminiscent of the Iranian downing of a U.S. surveillance drone in December last year.

How could this happen when there was also an inertial sensor and a radio-altimeter on the UAV? A good question, which UAV manufacturers will need to consider when they implement their on-board Kalman filters, knowing that spoofing is now an additional threat to combat. But, couldn’t we detect that high-power RF spoofing signal at the front-end of the GPS receiver? Even if only to tell the on-board systems that there could be Hazardous Misleading Information (HMI) about? Or run separate GPS and GPS/inertial position solutions, detect significant divergence, and set the same warning flag? And multi-constellation, multi-frequency receivers, and even controlled radiation pattern antennas — all things to investigate, and even more effort for the aviation receiver guys who are always working tirelessly to improve the integrity of GNSS positioning.

Of course, if you hijack a UAV with a high-power spoofer, you are also spoofing civil transports operating in the same airspace — so now there is the potential to trigger a federal investigation. And it will probably be easier to detect this stuff with moving airborne sensors rather than the fixed ground equipment used to find jammers on trucks at Newark Airport, and lots of pilots likely providing real-time location information on radios if their GPS goes even a little haywire — all would help to quickly locate and shut down any spoofer. Nevertheless, it’s a threat to be mitigated.

In South Korea, the effects of intermittent North Korean jamming of GPS to disrupt navigation at sea, on land, and in the air in the south may have contributed to the recent fatal crash of a Schiebel Camcopter S-100 drone — a 150-kilogram rotorcraft capable of 220 km/h flight, which should have coped with loss of GPS as the Camcopter has multiple inertial measurement units that “allow safe operation and recovery in the absence of GPS signals.”

Schiebel Camcopter S-100.

Schiebel, however, has indicated that information recovered to date indicates that after the loss of GPS signals to the aircraft’s receivers, there may have been incorrect handling and operator errors which resulted in an unfortunate chain of events that ultimately led to the crash.

Emergency procedures “to ensure a safe recovery in such a situation” do not appear to have been “correctly and adequately followed,” Schiebel alleges.

NovAtel may have found one way to help mitigate spoofing on UAVs — they just released a combined civil/SAASM GPS receiver, the OEM625S, aimed specifically at UAVs. Granted, the idea is to add SAASM anti-spoofing capability to a number of UAVs which currently use NovAtel commercial receivers — mostly in military systems. And of course that may well be motivated by the desire to avoid any further Iranian incidents!

BAE Systems has obviously been thinking of giving GPS a back-up for just those situations where jamming or even spoofing is detected. BAE’s system was just announced at the Farnborough Air Show in the UK and is still in the research phase, but looks extremely promising. Known as Navigation via Signals of Opportunity (NAVSOP), it interrogates the radio environment for the ID and signal strength of local digital TV and radio signals, plus air traffic control radars, with finer-grained adjustments coming from cellphone masts and Wi-Fi routers. Mapping the locations of all these sources might be quite an undertaking, and given that these are all non-safety-of-life commercial signals, the sources are subject to the vagaries of power outages, regular maintenance, and breakdowns. Nevertheless, with such a multitude of signals, NAVSOP could well turn out to be a viable back-up for GNSS.

Aerostar 5C UAS.

Meanwhile, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) big show is set to run August 6-9 in Las Vegas. With more than 500 exhibitors, attendance is expected to be more than 8,000 people from all over the world. All the key manufacturers, suppliers, and users of UAS are expected to be there, so it’s a great opportunity to meet people working with UAS and see some of the hardware and systems. Hopefully we will be able to get a feel for how the industry sees the onset of commercial market opportunities and the changes this may mean to systems and vehicles. It will be my first time walking round all these exhibits and seeing the live demos, so I’m very excited to be able to find out even a little about what makes this industry tick! More on this later…

So, shared access to civil airspace, wider applications in commercial operations, and changes in equipment qualification — along with potential solutions for GNSS jamming and spoofing — lots to consider for the UAS industry.

Tony Murfin
GNSS Aerospace