CAST Navigation – 40 Years of Simulation Excellence

If practice makes perfect, then CAST Navigation’s success and reputation in the global positioning industry should come as no surprise. This year marks the company’s 40th anniversary. Over those four decades, CAST developed a unique record of excellence in GNSS/INS simulation.

CAST Navigation’s founding brought together a team of engineers with considerable experience in GPS and inertial navigation.  Even though in 1981 the GPS constellation only consisted of six experimental Block I satellites, CAST’s unique expertise quickly proved itself with customers that needed help integrating GPS technology and avionics sensors for navigation systems.

 

“John Clark Sr., George Gutheim, and Dick Gibson were the original founders,” CAST Vice President of Engineering John Clark Jr. said. “With their astute forward thinking, they understood the need for a new class of engineering tools and test equipment to be able to support this new and emerging GPS technology. Hence CAST was born.”

One of CAST Navigation’s first products was NAVSIM, a software simulator for developing and tuning GPS Kalyan filters. NAVSIM set the company on its decades-longcourse as a simulation systems developer. CAST introduced its first GPS simulation tool in 1987. A complete test system for GPS/INS technology development laboratories, the Global Positioning System Tester (GPST) combined GPS simulations with models of that era’s avionics interfaces.

With GPS fully operational in the 1990s, the nature of CAST’s business expanded beyond the lab to support new customer requirements. Companies integrating embedded GNSS/INS (EGI) systems needed simulation tools as did military customers testing EGI units on the flight line.

To support these needs. CAST steadily advanced its technology and capabilities. The GPST required two chassis and a separate controller computer to generate C/A and P(Y) signals on 10 channels. By the late 1990s, CAST delivered more features at a lower price with a single-board, 10-channel simulator that produced L1, L2, C/A, and P(Y) signals. In 2005, CAST migrated their technology to Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices that could simulate L1, L2, L5, C/A, P(Y), SAASM, and M-codes as well as other GNSS signals.

CAST has worked closely with navigation platform developers throughout its history to ensure that CAST solutions produce high-fidelity simulations of customers’ navigation units. In addition, these simulations demonstrate strong coherence and coincidence when simulating complex, dynamic GNSS/INS scenarios.

Configured for Today’s Requirements, Scalable for Tomorrow’s

Forty years after its founding, CAST Navigation still focuses on delivering simulation solutions. Using the company’s latest FPGA technology, CAST simulators generate signals with unmatched coherence, precision, and repeatability so CAST’s customers can get the job done right the first time.

According to Joseph Franiak, Navigation Technologist at Northrop Grumman Corporation, “The investment in the CAST stimulator pays for itself in the first integration allowing the user to uncover issues that only flight testing could perform in the past. I personally have used the CAST product for several product line integrations and the capability it brings allows for quick testing and re-testing verifying that the issue found was resolved.”

The discrete products of CAST’s earlier years have evolved into a modular, configurable platform that lets CAST convert each customer’s requirements into solutions delivering a combination of four capabilities:

CAST GNSS Simulators: Based on the latest generation of CAST FPGA technology, these simulators produce multi-frequency, multi-constellation GNSS RF signals that are precise and repeatable.

CAST CRPA Simulators: The CRPA Simulator produces phase coherent composite GNSS and interference signals in the lab that accurately simulate the phase differences at each element Controlled Reception Pattern Antennas.

CAST Inertial Simulators: When testing navigation systems — whether loosely coupled, tightly coupled, or ultra-tightly coupled — CAST’s Inertial Simulators produce RF outputs that are coincident with inertial data. Users can modify the signals to simulate a specific navigation unit’s output performance and drift rates.

CAST Jammer Systems: Laboratories use CAST Jammer systems to generate high output, low noise, multi-location interference signals for testing single-element and multi-element antennas. The system can modify the signals to emulate hostile jamming and common interference sources.

 

 

An intuitive interface lets users create detailed simulation scenarios. Multiple vehicles on land, in the air, at sea, or in space can be simulated statically or dynamically with 6-DOF trajectories through environments that recreate terrain obscuration, vehicle silhouettes, atmospheric delays, and other parameters.

While the solutions CAST develops address customers’ immediate needs, the platform’s modularity scales to meet future requirements. For large projects such as the simulation of entire squadrons, CAST synchronization technology lets customers combine multiple CAST systems to meet your integration/testing goals.

Four decades of focused development have given CAST Navigation remarkable expertise in GNSS/INS simulation and an industry reputation to match. Complete the form below to learn more about how CAST’s simulation solutions and its unique inertial capabilities can optimize your GNSS/INS or antenna testing programs.

Visit www.castnav.com to learn more about how CAST’s simulation solutions and its inertial capabilities can optimize your GNSS/INS or antenna testing programs.

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Header video: CAST Navigation

This page was produced by North Coast Media’s content marketing staff in collaboration with CAST Navigation. NCM Content Marketing connects marketers to audiences and delivers industry trends, business tips and product information. The GPS World editorial staff did not create this content.