After releasing their first MEMS-based oscillators in 2007, the team at SiTime knew there was still work to be done.

Using MEMS was a brand new concept for timing, and back then, clients were telling them the performance just wasn’t there. The team went to work to change that, developing innovative products that rival the more traditional quartz crystal oscillator options the industry has used for years.

SiTime released its latest offering, the Endura Epoch Platform, earlier this month. This ruggedized MEMS oven-controlled oscillator (OCXO), designed to provide the robust and resilient positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services needed for defense applications, was certainly a labor of love, Executive Vice President of Marketing Piyush Sevalia said. Development took years, with the company first defining the solution back in 2011 and design work beginning in 2018. The process involved various cross functional teams working together to get the timing solution to where it is today.

“We had to figure out not just from the customer point of view what they want, what matters now and what will matter in the future, but from the technology point of view as well,” Sevalia said. “How do we get the level of stability needed under all of the different harsh conditions the device will be subjected to?”

A look at the benefits
Developing a MEMS timing solution for the aerospace and defense markets comes with a long list of challenges and performance requirements, Sevalia said. Such environments are difficult to operate in, with extreme temperatures, shock, vibration and electromagnetic interference all issues to contend with. The silicon-based Endura Epoch OCXO was designed to overcome those challenges. It features a small footprint and can be placed anywhere on the board without users having to make adjustments. Very little external force couples on the oscillator, so it has no problem handling vibration and shock, which is critical in these environments.

It is also programable to any frequency between 10 to 220 MHz, with a very short lead time for custom builds. The company hires its own analogue teams who can help solve various analogue clocking problems in-house rather than outsourcing, Sevalia said, and the devices are manufactured leveraging proven semiconductor processes that provide the reliability and quality needed for extreme conditions.

Being able to overcome common challenges natively without adjustments or compromises leads to a faster innovation cycle, Sevalia said.

“Some people compromise on the performance of the system because they can’t get the exact frequency they want. I’ve seen people redesign an entire system because it was putting out too much power into the electromagnetic spectrum,” he said. “You don’t have to do that with this device. That’s a change in the way people are doing their design work and the way they’re going to production with their devices.”

Protecting PNT
Today, defense systems are structured around GPS-based PNT, but GPS signals can be disrupted unintentionally or spoofed or jammed by nefarious actors—which can lead to various problems such as equipment malfunctions and even mission failure. This is where an ultra-stable local clock device like the Endura Epoch Platform becomes critical, serving as an accurate time reference for PNT until the GPS signal returns.

“The DOD has projects ongoing to update GPS capabilities, calling it assured PNT, and in that new systems are being designed with new GPS standards,” Sevalia said. “We expect they will want better vibration resilience and timing accuracy from the part-to-part level and a reliability point of view while still addressing SWAP-C requirements. Applications could be missiles, ground comms, radar, drones.”

The timing device has low power consumption, enhanced acceleration sensitivity, optimal g-sensitivity and long-term aging. The silicon-based MEMS device is consistent, and offers the performance needed in harsh environments where vibration and temperature changes are an issue. During GPS disruption, PNT performance is driven by the time error on the local clock, with its benchmark time error 3µs over 24 hours.

The Endura Epoch Platform is a true source of pride for the SiTime team, as it provides real value for customers, Sevalia said, and helps to solve some of their most difficult problems.

“This product changes the game by delivering a level of performance not seen before,” Sevalia said, noting there is still plenty of room for more MEMS innovation. “We’ve climbed a peak that others thought was impossible 15 years ago when the company first started.”

The post A Labor of Love: SiTime Corporation Introduces its Endura Epoch MEMS OCXOs for Defense and Aerospace Applications After Years of Development appeared first on Inside GNSS - Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design.

The Eurofighter Typhoon is set to become the first international platform to receive the Digital GPS Anti-jam Receiver (DIGAR™) from BAE Systems, giving the aircraft more protection against signal jamming, spoofing and radio frequency (RF) interference.

DIGAR has been selected to move into the next phase of the Phase 4 Enhancements (P4E) capability program for the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft, according to a news release. With DIGAR, pilots will be able to execute missions in heavily contested RF environments.

DIGAR leverages advanced antenna electronics, high-performance signal processing and digital beamforming to deliver improved GPS signal reception and optimal jamming immunity. These capabilities increase GPS jamming protection and are critical for combat aircraft as they maneuver through contested battlespace. DIGAR is also compatible with advanced M-Code, providing additional security for warfighters.

The Typhoon will also receive BAE Systems’ GEMVII-6 airborne digital GPS receiver. When combined with the DIGAR antenna electronics unit, the receiver enables the platform to conduct high-capability digital beamforming anti-jamming.

“Modern fighters require accurate positioning and navigation data for mission success in GPS contested environments,” said Luke Bishop, director of Navigation and Sensor Systems at BAE Systems, according to the release. “Our DIGAR antenna electronics and GEM VII GPS receivers are trusted to protect these vital platforms in GPS challenged environments to support mission success.”

The fighter is the “backbone of combat air defense” for the UK and many of its European and international allies. It is in service with nine nations and provides 24/7, 365 days a year air security. The Typhoon is used in frontline operations, including ongoing NATO air policing across Eastern Europe.

Last year, BAE Systems received a $13 million contract to protect U.S. F-15E aircraft from GPS signal jamming and spoofing with DIGAR, making it the second U.S. aircraft to receive the upgrade. The F-16 Fighting Falcon was the first. DIGAR also has been installed on other special-purpose aircraft in the U.S. such as air interdiction and force protection platforms, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles.

The post BAE Systems Moves Forward in the Eurofighter Typhoon’s P4E Capability Program appeared first on Inside GNSS - Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design.

In September, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) issued a Request for Information (RFI) to seek industry input on Complementary Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (CPNT) technologies.

Earlier this year, the European Commission’s (EC) science and knowledge service, the Joint Research Centre (JRC), issued its report Assessing Alternative Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Technologies for Potential Deployment in the EU. It summarized the assessment of seven Alternative PNT (A-PNT) platforms which occurred during the eight month period between October 2021 and July 2022. It concluded that commercially available mature Alternative-PNT (A-PNT) technologies are already present in the market that can provide positioning and/or timing information separately from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). It also concluded that a system of systems approach that incorporates a range of interoperable technologies, supported by standards, remains the lynchpin to resilient PNT. Will any of the technologies reviewed in the JRC Report come out on top in the U.S. as serious contenders for CPNT?

What’s In A Name?

Before comparing the JRC and DOT requirements as a potential indicator of which technologies may prevail in a U.S. contest for the same, the first issue is whether or not the DOT’s CNPT and the EC’s A-PNT even refer to the same thing. Spoiler alert: they kinda don’t.

It’s nuanced. The EC defines A-PNT as “backup solutions,” meaning “technologies providing PNT independently from GNSS.”(1)

A look at the Volpe Report from a couple years ago would lead one to believe the EC and DOT are on exactly the same page. Back then, both US law, DOT policy and research statements lumped together the terms CPNT and “backup GPS capability” or “GPS backup” technologies. Both essentially meant “capabilities to back up and complement the PNT capabilities of the GPS.”(2) (Gotta love definitions that use the same term to define the term in question.) In fact, even the September 2023 DOT CPNT Plan defines CPNT systems as resilient PNT technologies that could offer complementary service in the event of GPS disruption, denial, or
manipulation.(3)

While this sounds like more of the same, the Plan also shows an important evolution of thinking. In describing the tech DOT seeks, it says “CPNT technologies must provide increased capability, not viewed (sic) only a backup to GPS.”(3) Read that again.

It must also, according to the Plan, have a “mature threat posture against capable actors.” And the Federal Government will act as “lead investor/subscriber of services” across key domains: maritime, rail, and surface applications.

That’s why we see what we see in DOT’s recent RFI. (Previous IG coverage here: https://insidegnss.com/all-jammed-up-dot-urgently-seeks-complementary-pnt/) And there’s more. A glaring difference between A-PNT and CPNT, at least from this initial testing volley, lies in the selection criteria for potential participants. The JRC required a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) greater than 5 for position/navigation services or greater than 6 for timing services. The DOT RFI required a TRL of 8 or beyond. This requirement harkens back to the CPNT plan indicating a need for “mature” technology. A TRL of 8 or 9 indicates something already in use, off-the-shelf if you will, on the commercial market. It underscores the DOT’s current sense of urgency to find it.

A close read of the RFI also shows the DOT seeks interoperable tech. It’s not looking for stand alone, apples-to-oranges systems. It’s looking for an entire CPNT ecoverse to bridge the gap should GPS go Poof!

Yet among all of these differences, the needs driving these different requirements are generally the same here and across the pond.

The Driving Need

Both the U.S. and EC rely heavily on GNSS services for PNT, across a myriad of burgeoning sectors from car-sharing platforms, intelligent logistics solutions, autonomous transit systems (e.g., vehicles, vessels, and aircraft), geolocation-based applications, precision agriculture and more. Perhaps more importantly, vital infrastructures, deemed strategic linchpins for modern societal operations, leverage PNT services, particularly the timing proficiencies. These include telecommunications, energy, finance and a spectrum of transportation modalities (road, maritime and aviation). The need for, and the characteristics of, likely user communities who need A-PNT/CNPT are very similar globally.

With regard to the European front, the JRC Report indicated that an uptick in GNSS jamming and spoofing incidents presents a threat to the GNSS-driven EUR 2 trillion socio-economic boom across Europe (the EU27, UK, Norway and Switzerland) projected by 2027. In terms of dollars and sense, the U.S. and United Kingdom (U.K.) threat assessments have posited that the economic detriment of GNSS unavailability could approximate a EUR 1 billion daily.

These threat estimates do not include GPS jamming incidents in or around the eight countries still pending EU membership, most notably Ukraine.(4) Spillover GPS jamming effects from Russian electronic warfare (EW) has already adversely impacted commercial airlines and shipping in both Bulgaria and Romania. Some have posited that this war-related EW activity has significant potential to destabilize the entire Black Sea region.(5)

In response to these ever-increasing vulnerabilities, to bolster the resilience and ensure the continuity of critical operations, the U.S., the European Union (EU) and U.K., among others, look to find and implement robust and resilient PNT services, whether as alternatives, backups to or completely autonomous-from-but-interoperable-with conventional GNSS services on their own home fronts.

So, does the JRC Report provide any relevant insights for a DOT CPNT solution? Answer: a few.

Some Clues

While the EC characterizes its test results as a “qualitative assessment,” rather than a benchmark, some things in the JRC Report nevertheless can provide a bit of insight into some of the technologies the DOT may be eyeballing for holistic U.S. CPNT system-of-systems solutions. (Previous IG coverage provides a detailed explanation as to how the JRC demos were conducted: https://insidegnss.com/backing-up-gnss/).

Let’s focus on the capabilities to knock out a few contenders right away, at least in terms of independent tech that can act as more than just a back up to GPS, meaning one that could go it alone (while also working well with others). The JRC demonstrations involved seven selected providers. OPNT, 7 Solutions SL, SCPTime and GMV focused on timing services only. That makes them interesting but not the final answer. Satelles, Locata and NextNav successfully demonstrated both positioning and timing. That puts them in the ring.

Next, let’s use the TRL level to show that at least one contender remains down for the count and show our Top 3 are still in the fight. As noted, the EC only required a TRL greater than 5 for position/navigation services or greater than 6 for timing services; DOT seeks a TRL of 8 or higher.

Based on the TRL alone, the DOT RFI’s more stringent criteria GMV Aerospace and Defence SAU is K.O.’d. Although the key technologies used in the company’s WANtime solution all have a high TRL (minimum 6), which qualifies it for the JRC project, each technology individually has a different TRL. Combined their average TRL levels put GMV Aero’s tech at an estimated overall TRL of 7. (6) For example, its atomic clocks, clock modeling and steering and time transfer technology, based in GNSS or TWSTFT and used in the operational generation of Galileo System Time (GST) in the Galileo Precise Timing Facilities (PTFs), can all be considered TRL 9. The company gave its White Rabbit (WR) a TRL of 8, as it noted that “especially long-range WR, poses quite a few challenges and requires careful network engineering.” The application of DTM, packet-exchange network technology, to timing applications is still under development and comes in at TRL 7. Higher-precision network time protocol (NTP) is a relatively new, experimental area and can be considered TRL 6.

On the other hand, Satelle’s LEO satellites for satellite timing and location (7), NextNav’s TerraPoiNT ground-based solution that leverages existing cellular LTE/5G signals and dedicated Signal Sensors and/or TerraPoiNT transmitters (8) are both reported as TRL 9.

While the TRL level for Locata’s LocataNets, a system of terrestrial beacons to provide PNT signals to dedicated receivers in a localized area, were not readily accessible, its commercial deployment in different environments like open-cut mines and harbors, combined with its testing by significant entities like the U.S. Air Force at the White Sands Missile Range, suggests its mature stage in the TRL spectrum, possibly at or near TRL 9. This pseudolite alternative uses multiple, geographically dispersed, terrestrial transmitters to provide passive or pseudo ranging signals that can be used to accurately calculate position. Notably, the EU ranks pseudolites in general at a TRL of 9. (9)

Assuming Satelles, Locata and NextNav have thrown their hats in the ring for DOT’s RFI, and that they can meet DOT’s security and interoperability requirements, their tech illustrates a sea change from reliance on middle earth orbit (MEO) satellites for PNT. Satelles’ solution orbits in LEO, while Locata and NextNav are both terrestrial based. The times (no pun) they may be a changin’.

Next Steps

So, where do we go from here? In Europe, even though the EC just put out its European Radio Navigation Plan 2023 in June, it already has plans in the works to update it. Europe also intends to evolve Galileo and EGNOS and issue new regulations. What exactly it intends to do with the JRC 7, if you will, remains a mystery.

But likely at least 3 of those 7 companies may have a real shot here in the U.S. The DOT’s recent RFI. That’s the first step. The next would be the issuance of a request for proposal (RFP) to actually make that testing a reality. Applying the tech to real world use cases would be the goal. To do that, as noted way back in Volpe’s 2021 report, and now the JRC report, also requires the creation of standards.

For now, who’s really positioned to navigate DOT’s process, and what’s the timing? We may have teased out a few clues here, but, in the end, only time will tell.

References:

1. https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/scientific-activities-z/alternative-pnt_en#:~:text=To%20address%20this%20threat%2C%20it,or%20A%2DPNT%20for%20short.
2. https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/2021-01/FY%2718%20NDAA%20Section%201606%20DOT%20Report%20to%20Congress_Combinedv2_January%202021.pdf
3. https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/2023-09/DOT%20Complementary%20PNT%20Action%20Plan_Final.pdf
4. https://european-union.europa.eu/principles-countries-history/joining-eu_en
5. https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-gps-jamming-black-sea-romania-bulgaria-ukraine/32655397.html
6. https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2023-02/Report_GMV.pdf
7. https://satelles.com/wp-content/uploads/pdf/Satelles-STL-Data-Sheet.pdf
8. https://nextnav.com/gps-alternative/
9. https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-10259-2023-INIT/en/pdf
10. https://www.minalogic.com/en/member-news/scptime-selected-by-the-european-commission/
11. https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2023-02/Report_7Sol.pdf

The post The CPNT Contenders? appeared first on Inside GNSS - Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design.

NTS-3 Satellite Prepares for Launch to Experiment with Ways to Improve GPS.

Nearly 50 years ago, there were no smart phones, no GPS-guided weapons, no turn-by-turn direction systems in automobiles.

That’s when the U.S. Air Force launched the first two Navigation Technology Satellites, NTS-1 and NTS-2, to expand and improve the nascent positioning capability provided by GPS forerunner programs such as Transit and Timation. NTS-1, launched in 1974, and NTS-2, launched in 1977, weren’t part of the original GPS constellation but were instead orbiting testbeds for various technology systems such as clocks and solar cells.

Since 1977 and today, of course, satellite positioning has become an integral part of everyday life, and certainly an integral part of military operations. This was amply demonstrated in Ukraine, when an attack with an unmanned surface vessel on Russian targets failed because of a lack of satellite connectivity. It’s a technology that’s increasingly on every vehicle and in every pocket.

After this multi-decade burst of positioning activity, the U.S. Air Force is preparing to launch the third in the NTS series, NTS-3, next year, after several years of launch delays. Like its predecessors, it’s aimed to improve the GPS system. According to the Air Force Laboratory (AFLR), “it will push the boundary of today’s space-based position, navigation and timing technology to pave the way for a more robust, resilient and responsive architecture for satellite navigation technology.”

From the Beginning

The NTS-3 space vehicle was designed, developed, integrated and tested by prime contractor L3Harris. The company displayed a suspended model of the space vehicle above its booth at the recent Association of the U.S. Army conference in Washington. The vehicle incorporates Northrop Grumman’s ESPAStar-D bus, which includes subsystems such as communications, power, attitude determination and control, as well as structures for mounting payloads.

“We’ve been doing the GPS payloads, payload technology since the program began,” Joe Rolli, director of business development for Space and Airborne Systems at L3Harris, told Inside GNSS at the conference. “We were involved with NTS-1 and NTS-2, in the beginning, in the 1970s.” (It was just Harris then, as the merger with L-3 Communications was long in the future.)

Since then, he noted, many things have happened. The rise of GPS has brought with it waves of jamming and spoofing, not to mention competition from other systems.

GPS has done very well since those early NTS days, with 98% accuracy and 99% reliability, Rolli said. However, “it’s 20th century technology now, and now the difference is, we’re not the only game in town anymore. China is coming up with the BeiDou system. They had the advantage to use GPS for 30 years for free, learn its strengths and its weaknesses, and use it to go about their daily business.…,” he said.

NTS-3 will carry 100 different flight experiments. According to AFRL, NTS-3 includes a space-based test vehicle, ground-based command and control, and agile software defined radios. NTS-3 will experiment with multiple integrated advanced technologies including electronically steered phased array antennas, flexible and secure signals, software-defined GPS receivers, increased ground control segment automation, and the use of commercial ground antennas.

“All the tests will be to counter current threats: jamming, spoofing, all the threats to GPS. That’s what the goal is, overcome jamming threats, put more power where power is needed, encryption, more advanced encryption for spoofing. It’s all about making GPS more resilient,” Rolli said.

“As a result of those flight experiments, the Air Force will decide how they incorporate that into the GPS enterprise,” he said. “So, it’s really all about innovation and technology, taking GPS from a 20th century technology to a 21st century technology.”

PNT Suit of Armor

As AFRL puts it, they’re “giving PNT signals a suit of armor.” NTS-3 will test a new digital signal generator that can be reprogrammed on-orbit, enabling it to broadcast new signals, improve performance by avoiding and defeating interference, and adding signatures to counter spoofing. AFRL will explore antenna configurations to provide Earth coverage and steerable regional beams in multiple frequencies and signal codes.

The spacecraft’s large L-Band, phased-array antennas allow it to generate spot beams while retaining the legacy broadcast ability for Earth coverage, according to a new AFRL video.

The system will test the Chimera signal authentication protocol, designed to verify the satellite orbit data and the range between the satellite and user, providing protection against GPS spoofing for civil users. It’s an acronym of sorts that stands for chips message robust authentication, which sends a signal that can be decoded by a key sent soon after. It’s designed to make spoofing threats easy to detect.

Future versions of Chimera can be uploaded to the satellite at any point, based on new threats, according to AFRL. The agency also noted that a cell phone gets regular updates, why not a satellite?

The space vehicle will also have multiple atomic clocks and timing sources onboard, to be used both independently and together to provide automatic clock error detection and correction.

The satellite will be entirely outside the GPS system, as it’s difficult to experiment with a technology while it’s working, Rolli said.

“It’s really hard to integrate and innovate on the current GPS system because it’s embedded in all our lives, so we came up with AFRL to set this program up where we could experiment with new signals, higher power, advanced signal capabilities, making GPS more resilient,” he said.

“So, this is completely independent where we can be free, totally in a lab environment, experimental, at a GEO orbit,” he said.

Ground Control to NTS-3

Braxton Science & Technology Group provided the ground control systems for NTS-3 (the company was acquired by Parsons Corp. in 2020).

NTS-3 will use a tailored version of Parson’s hybrid cloud ground control architecture, similar to DARPA’s Blackjack satellite and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Polar Operational Environmental Satellites.

One goal, according to AFRL, is to move from stove-piped command and control systems, each designed for a single mission, to one that can support multiple Department of Defense (DoD) satellites.

The ground control system is also using commercially available services and products, including ground antennas and monitoring receivers, according to AFRL, as well as incorporating the government-certified cloud platform.

“The NTS-3 control segment allows for easier data sharing, enhanced situational awareness, and collaboration across multiple program partners across the United States,” according to the AFRL. “By demonstrating ways of effectively managing system complexity across space, ground control, and user equipment segments, NTS-3 will develop lessons learned and meaningful test data to transition to future DoD programs.”

The NTS-3 user segment includes MITRE’s Global Navigation Satellite System Test Architecture (GNSSTA) for software-defined receivers, or SDRs, that, according to AFRL, can take full advantage of the ability to reprogram the signal on orbit. The architecture allows users to receive both legacy GPS signals and advanced signals from NTS-3.

NTS-3 will demonstrate new SDR features, including various signal modulations, transmitting data in different ways and changing broadcast parameters on a pre-defined schedule.

“In the future, warfighters equipped with SDRs capable of receiving and processing reprogrammable SATNAV signals will be able to access accurate PNT data and enhanced flexible anti-jam and anti-spoof protections,” according to AFRL.

In January, the AFRL team successfully generated signals on the actual spacecraft and received them with the experimental GNSSTA equipment, Dr. Joanna Hinks, the NTS-3 principal investigator, said at a media day event in January.

Launch Schedule

The satellite—originally slated to launch in 2022, now in the summer of 2024—is in the final stages of test and integration for launch on a Vulcan Centaur rocket built by United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The Vulcan was supposed to have launched by now, but the flight was delayed after an upper stage exploded during a test.

The Vulcan will have to be qualified to launch Department of Defense payloads before it will carry the NTS-3, Rolli said. Since the March test stand explosion, the launch alliance has conducted a successful engine test.

Once aloft, the NTS-3 has a one- to three-year mission life, he said. “Right now, it’s about one year for the mission experiments, but I’m sure it will go a little longer than that.”

The post Washington View: Making GPS More Resilient appeared first on Inside GNSS - Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design.

The latest safety award for Rivian is an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety for the R1S as a Top Safety Pick+ for 2023. It accomplishes this and other safety advances with its Driver+ ADAS (advanced driving assistance system), which integrates a set of sensors along with driver attention, GNSS, and IMU modules. At AutoSens Detroit 2023, Abdullah Zaidi, Engineering Lead and Senior Manager at Rivian, presented his take on the state and near future of ADAS sensors including the benefits of adding lidar and the importance of better localization sensors for Level 3 systems.

“It is very important for a vehicle to know its location within the geometric space,” he said.

With GNSS modules, he added that proper design of the RF (radio frequency) hardware and antenna are key, with the industry increasingly turning to more RF modalities. Since GNSS signals can get jammed or interfered with on a vehicle, he believes that the RF hardware should be kept separate or designed in a way that it doesn’t see a lot of interference.

The best possible GNSS accuracy is needed.

“The way you get it is by having access to more constellations as well as more frequencies,” he said. “Today, the non-high-precision GNSS generally use [the] L1 band but moving forward there’s a trend that the GNSS suppliers are transitioning towards using all three of them.”

Having access to L1, L2, and L5 bands is key for ADAS systems.

“It’s important to have access to all those frequencies and make sure there are no issues or inaccuracies due to the multipath or one of the frequencies not being available all the time,” he said.

He believes that more work is needed on GNSS redundancy for Level 3.

“Today most of the GNSS receivers aren’t ASIL B-qualified,” said Zaidi. “Moving forward, you would want to know that your GNSS is failing so the other sensors can take over, and that’s where the ASIL B is important.”

For inertial measurement sensors, low bias instability is needed for optimal dead reckoning.

“Vehicles generally dead reckon when you’re going through the tunnel, and the IMU is the one that helps you fail safely,” he said. “So, you have to ensure that your IMUs have a higher accuracy and they don’t drift a lot in the yaw dimension.”

In this regard, he believes MEMS technology is being used effectively for IMUs, but that a promising trend is for companies to move to fiber optics or silicon photonics. Careful consideration must be given to the vehicle packaging location of the IMU for reducing temperature changes and vibrations.

“Otherwise, that impacts the performance of your vehicle staying in the lane,” Zaidi said.

Like with GNSS, redundancy with IMUs is key. “If one of those IMUs fails, then you don’t have a backup to fall to in the scenario where you are aiming for a fail-safe operation,” he concluded.

The post Rivian Sensor Leader Discusses Importance of Better Localization Sensors for Level 3 appeared first on Inside GNSS - Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design.

Santa Clara, CA-based startup Anello Photonics has announced a GNSS INS module that it says is the world’s smallest optical gyro inertial navigation system for GPS-denied navigation and localization. It is powered by the company’s optical gyroscope technology and AI-based sensor fusion engine, the combination engineered to deliver high-accuracy positioning and orientation for applications in the agriculture, construction, robotics, and autonomous vehicle space.

“We are actively engaged with customers who need robust, high-precision optical gyro-based solutions for their autonomous applications,” said Dr. Mario Paniccia, CEO of Anello Photonics.

Anello was co-founded by Paniccia and CTO Mike Horton, pioneers in the field of silicon photonics, sensors, and navigation, with the early support of Catapult Ventures and high-volume fab Tower Semiconductor. Coming out of stealth at CES 2023, Anello displayed the low-noise and -drift SiPhOG™ sensor, which it says is the first silicon photonics optical gyroscope and the smallest optical gyroscope in the world.

“It was a very ambitious thing we took on—creating a fiber gyro on a chip,” Paniccia to Inside GNSS. “We’re measuring a very tiny signal and putting it all into a standard process that’s fabricated in a high-volume fab. To our knowledge, no one’s building or has anything working at this level, let alone full INS systems, with integrated photonics.”

According to Anello, the silicon photonics optical gyroscope technology can be board-mounted and is made with integrated photonics components so it can be processed in high volume just like other integrated circuits. Another key advantage is a low unaided heading drift of less than 0.5°/h.

“This is the sweet spot,” said Paniccia. The MEMS in mobile phones and AirPods—which range from 2.0°/h, with high temperatures pushing that to hundreds and potentially a thousand degrees per hour—are not accurate enough for the autonomy safety case, he added. Typical fiber gyros, “the gold standard” for accuracy, are too big, bulky, and expensive.

“The idea is to bring the performance of high-precision optical gyros from guided missiles and other high-end applications into a form factor and price point that you can put it into the volume market in the autonomous landscape,” he said.

For the new GNSS INS system, the company launched an evaluation kit about a year ago for customer trials.

“It’s the smallest in this case, [with] not only the smallest gyro that we’ve developed and announced but now we have the smallest inertial navigation system that can be put into real solutions and real applications,” said Paniccia.

The near-term markets for Anello’s technology are in construction and farming “where they can pay a little bit of a premium.” An upcoming robotics product uses basically the same core fundamental platform without GPS.

In the future, the company is working to deliver to the high-volume auto market, and that means not only ASIL-D specs but also immunity to temperature and vibration with lower power consumption.

“We’re trying to gear towards ADAS (L2 plus, L3) over time,” concluded Paniccia.

The post Anello Reveals GNSS INS System with ‘World-first’ Optical Gyro appeared first on Inside GNSS - Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design.

Earlier this year, FocalPoint Positioning announced a collaboration with General Motors on the possible application of the UK GPS software company’s Supercorrelation software in future vehicles, including potential enhancements and operational expansion of its Super Cruise hands-free ADAS (advanced driving assistance system) and its upcoming higher-tech sibling Ultra Cruise.

Supercorrelation enables a new class of satellite positioning receivers that can measure the directions of the incoming signals, allowing them to ignore reflected and fake “spoofed” signals. Manuel Del Castillo, VP of Sales and Business Development at FocalPoint Positioning, explained to Inside GNSS that the company’s technology focuses on line-of-sight signals with a unique way of analyzing the Doppler frequency.

“FocalPoint’s solution can predict that doppler and make the antenna work as a synthetic, smart antenna,” he said. “You can do that for all the different angles-of-arrivals of the GPS signals that you’re expecting. That allows you to focus on what you should focus on, and you’re not listening to all the other reflections that come from different angles that are not legitimate.”

That means a GPS chip can compute a position in an urban scenario as if it was on a highway by mitigating the effect of reflections “by a large amount. If you have generally around 20 meters of error, you would get it reduced to around 3 or 2 meters of error,” said Del Castillo.

Much of FocalPoint’s work with General Motors is confidential, but Del Castillo provided some interesting context. He said that the automaker is looking to apply the Supercorrelation solution because it’s a more cost-effective approach.

“Others are suggesting solutions that involve a lot of different hardware pieces that are much more costly,” he said.

GPS is a crucial element used by the ADAS to allow driving handoffs between the human driver and the system. The automaker’s engineers want to use Supercorrelation to extend the use of their systems from highways to cities.

“Right now, they cannot do it because GPS is not reliable enough in cities due to reflections,” said Del Castillo. “We’re facilitating the extension of Super Cruise to urban areas.”

The FocalPoint cooperation with General Motors is generating interest from other OEMs.

“They see it’s a cost-effective way of extending ADAS to cities, and others are seeing the same story,” he said. “We’re in that process with many OEMs right now. It’s very promising, but the challenge for FocalPoint is speedy execution because the supply chain is pretty complex.”

That execution involves convincing not only the OEMs but also the Tier Ones and GPS chipmakers that Supercorrelation should be embedded. The chipmakers include key names like Qualcomm, STMicro, and U-blox. FocalPoint has announced a partnership with U-blox, while many others are evaluating the technology.

The fact that it’s a software solution helps the cause.

“Software is the name of the game right now in automotive,” Del Castillo said.

FocalPoint’s entry into automotive is linked to the success of high-definition maps, he said.

“With an error of about 20 meters in a city, it didn’t make sense to have a map with all the lanes in a street,” he said. “With our technology, we are at the point that we can locate the car in the correct lane.”

He credits the work of Google, Here Technologies, and TomTom, as well as General Motors and other OEMs in bringing in the “lane-by-lane” HD maps.

“We’re going in hand-by-hand with the HD map suppliers because there’s a lot of synergy in what we’re proposing,” he concluded.

The post FocalPoint Software Helps Extend Automotive ADAS Into GPS-challenged Cities appeared first on Inside GNSS - Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design.

Northrop Grumman recently flew its advanced airborne navigation solution for the first time.

The Embedded Global Positioning System (GPS)/Inertial Navigation System (INS) Modernization, or EGI-M, is equipped with an M-Code capable receiver, which enables missions to be conducted in GPS contested and GPS denied environments, according to a news release. The receiver is a core component of Northrop Grumman’s EGI-M program, which is engineered to quickly transmit positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) information.

EGI-M was flown on a testbed aircraft in May, with data confirming the prototype EGI-M solution, the M-Code capable LN-351, performed at standards equal to its current fully integrated LN-251 INS/GPS system, featuring modern fiber optic gyro technology. The LN-251 is a non-dithered navigation system with an embedded 12/24 channel, All-In-View, Selective Availability/Anti-Spoofing Module (SAASM), P(Y) code or Standard Positioning Service (SPS) GPS, according to the Northrup Grumman website.

“This flight test is a major step forward in developing our next generation airborne navigation system,” said Ryan Arrington, the company’s vice president, navigation and cockpit systems, according to the release. “The EGI-M capability developed by Northrop Grumman enables our warfighters to navigate accurately and precisely through hostile and contested environments.”

The fully operational EGI-M system will feature a modular platform interface that’s designed to integrate with current platform navigation systems and will support advanced software and hardware technology upgrades.

Critical design review for EGI-M was completed in 2020. Launch platforms for Northrop Grumman’s EGI-M are the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye and the F-22 Raptor. Additional fixed-wing and rotary-wing platforms across Department of Defense and allied forces have selected EGI-M as their future navigation solution to support mission-critical systems.

The post Northrop Grumman Completes First Successful Test Flight for EGI-M appeared first on Inside GNSS - Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design.

The Pentagon has requested $1.3 billion in its fiscal 2024 budget for bolstering the GPS system, preparing new satellites for launch and moving to a new control system. The biggest changes will come with the new GPS IIIF satellites, still a few years away.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is continuing a major update for the GPS system, requesting $1.3 billion in the fiscal 2024 budget for GPS III satellite support and continuing the upgrade to the GPS III Follow On (GPS IIIF) enhanced satellite series and the next-generation control system. The upgrade will include greater accuracy and more military capability.

GPS III satellites, of which six are in orbit, already have a strengthened anti-jam capability and improved accuracy, along with the ability to tap into other civil GNSS signals, such as Europe’s Galileo. Planned upgrades will usher in a new search and rescue feature and a much more robust anti-jamming capability for troops in theater.

Especially with the fortified anti-jam capability, “this isn’t your grandmother’s GPS,” said Eric Brown, vice president of space mission strategy and advanced capabilities for GPS satellite builder Lockheed Martin.

The $1.3 billion fiscal 2024 request was significant enough for Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III to include it in his top-line highlights for the $842 billion fiscal 2024 defense budget. The funding, which must still be approved by Congress, continues support for GPS III satellites along with the planned upgrade, GPS IIIF.

The budgets for the program in fiscal 2022 and 2023 were $2 billion and $1.7 billion, respectively, including funding for three satellites in FY22 and two in FY23.

Lockheed Martin has completed work on its original GPS III 10-satellite contract and is under contract to provide up to 22 GPS IIIF satellites. The sixth GPS III satellite, GPS III Space Vehicle 06 (GPS III SV06), was launched in January, and the remaining satellites are in storage and waiting for the U.S. Space Force to call them up for launch.

The GPS III satellites continue to provide three-dimensional position, navigation and timing (PNT) for military and civilian users. They are backward compatible with earlier GPS satellites, but add the new Galileo-compatible signal for civilian users and the more powerful M-Code military signal.

Future Capability

In addition to the new L1C civil signal that’s compatible with Europe’s Galileo constellation, the GPS III satellites offer three times better accuracy, up to eight times improved anti-jamming capabilities and a modular design to allow new technologies and capabilities to be added in the future, according to Lockheed Martin. The GPS III signals are broadcast with greater accuracy due to enhanced atomic clocks.

GPS IIIF will add even more capability, starting with GPS IIIF SV11, likely to launch in late 2026. It will include:

• A Regional Military Protection (RMP) capability, which can boost anti-jamming ability in theater by up to 60 times, to make sure U.S. and allied forces can’t be denied access in hostile environments
• A laser retroreflector array that enhances accuracy
• A new search and rescue payload
• A fully digital navigation payload
• The new LM2100 Combat Bus, an enhanced satellite that provides even greater resiliency and cyber hardening, and improved spacecraft power, propulsion and electronics. Lockheed Martin’s Combat Bus will be available starting on GSP IIIF SV13, but it’s already in space as part of the Space Based Infrared System Geosynchronous Earth Orbit 5 satellite, or SBIRS GEO-5, which launched in May 2021 after five years of construction. SBIRS GEO-5 is part of the Space Force’s Overhead Persistent Infrared missile warning constellation, which detects missile launches, supports ballistic missile defense and collects signals intelligence.

OCX and MGUE

The Military GPS User Equipment (MGUE) gives users access to M-Code signals, providing secure and accurate PNT capabilities to warfighters for ground, aircraft, ships, and weapons systems, enabling continued operations in the most contested environments. The fiscal 2024 budget funds the testing and lead platform integration of MGUE Increment 1, design activities to address its pending obsolescence, and development for MGUE Increment 2.

The funding request for the fiscal 2024 budget also supports the ongoing move from the current Operational Control Segment to the GPS Next Generation Operational Control System, or OCX, which will provide command, control and mission support for the GPS constellation, including GPS III and all legacy satellites.

Raytheon Intelligence & Space is the lead contractor for both MGUE and OCX, having been awarded the original OCX contract more than a decade ago and the new OCX 3F contract in the summer of 2021.

The company said the OCX has implemented 100% of the information assurance standards from the U.S. Department of Defense, which gives it “the highest level of cybersecurity protections of any DOD ground-based system. The cyber-secure system will have improved accuracy with better international availability as well as globally deployed modernized receivers with anti-jam capabilities.”

The OCX has another benefit: It can support more than twice as many satellites as the legacy version, which, according to Raytheon, means “those additional satellites will increase coverage in hard-to-reach areas such as urban canyons and mountainous terrain.”

The OCX program is divided into blocks: Initially, Block 0, 1 and 2. Block 0 was delivered in 2017 and supported the launch of the first GPS III satellite a year later, using the OCX Launch and Checkout System, or LCS. The LCS has been used to launch three more GPS satellites since then.

Block 1 will provide full operational capability, including control of legacy satellites, and Block 2, which will be delivered concurrently with Block 1, will add operational control for the new L1C civil signal as well as the updated M-Code signals. Beyond that is OCX Block 3F, which will upgrade the system to synchronize with GPS IIIF satellites and MGUE Increment 2.

According to Air Force budget documents, “the OCX Block 3F effort will develop solutions necessary to launch, command, control, and monitor GPS IIIF spacecraft and include advance collection and integration of RMP high-power regional Military Code (M-Code) signals, rapid warfighter effects, and support to GPS IIIF auxiliary payloads (including Search and Rescue (SAR), Nuclear Detonation (NUDET) Detection System (NDS).”

RMP and SAR

The RMP high-power M-Code signals are what would boost anti-jamming capabilities in theater by up to 60 times. Andre Trotter, Lockheed Martin’s vice president of Navigation Systems, said, “it is a dish, and so we do have the ability to beam or focus a signal into an area of responsibility or an area of interest.” That focused beam will be “giving you a higher gain effect at the same time.”

“This is a set of capabilities that are able to operate in that kind of contested, challenging environment in a way that we wouldn’t have been able to do with the constellation five years ago,” Brown said. “Andre’s team has really been driving this new set of capabilities to respond to the challenges that GPS is facing today.”

That capability will come online with GPS IIIF SV11, as will the new payload for aiding search and rescue operations.

“The search and rescue payload is actually our first international payload, and it is something we have partnered with the Canadian government and also NOAA,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Trotter said.

The SAR payload will tap into the Cospas-Sarsat system of search and rescue satellites to geolocate emergency transponders and provide coordinates to rapidly assist users in distress. “If you are stranded somewhere in the Pacific Ocean or Gulf of Mexico, etc., we have the ability to receive that signal and pass that through the proper channels,” Trotter said. “That capability itself will be starting with SV11, so that will be the first vehicle in GPS IIIF.

“It was a perfect partnership with NOAA, the Canadian government…to add that to our platform,” Trotter said. “And so, from a positioning standpoint, from an availability perspective, it is definitely an upgrade, and it made a lot of sense for us to do so.”

Added Flexibility

Additional capabilities will be coming down the line once the LM LM2100 Combat Bus comes online with GPS IIIF SV 13. It will add greater flexibility to the GPS constellation, company officials said.

“We have the ability to integrate payloads later in the integration cycle, at a lower cost,” Brown said. “Whether it be environments change or threats change, or we have to change capabilities of our satellites, we have the ability to do so later in the timeline. …”

Trotter said the LM2100 Combat Bus brings with it “a tremendous increase in SWaP, size, weight and power, that can be accommodated. And as a result, we’re able to look at a variety of additional auxiliary payloads that are creating certainly a lot of interest across the customer communities.” This provides “the opportunity for GPS truly to be a multi-mission platform versus some of the limitations that we’ve had historically.”

Brown said that could include PNT-related demonstration payloads or “one that we’ve spoken about publicly in the past, is the equipping of the GPS IIIF vehicles with crosslinks allowing GPS to effectively function as a geodata transport network.”

Satellites based on the LM2100 Combat Bus can also host the Augmentation System Port Interface, or ASPIN, allowing satellites to be serviced and upgraded while on orbit.

“ASPIN is the front-end docking adapter that Lockheed Martin developed to allow us to integrate auxiliary payloads later in the process, and even once the vehicle is on orbit,” Brown said. “We recognize that the demands change over the lifecycle of a space vehicle, and…there’s a tremendous need to adapt over a period of time. ASPIN provides that opportunity. So, we’re working very closely with Space Force and others on on-ramping ASPIN into a number of platforms.”

“An analogue that you may think about is in the air domain,” Trotter said. “Every C-130, every F-35 has the opportunity to load different mission packages onboard. And depending on what the mission is really requiring, you would provide a different outfit of capabilities of sensors, weapons and so forth. What we’re trying to do is bring that same mentality into the space domain where you are not limited in terms of capability to what you had at the point of launch, but rather to remove payloads on orbit and then to be able to equip others at the same time.”

The Stewards

The team at Lockheed Martin are the stewards of this technology, Brown said, an important responsibility.

“We should never be satisfied with what we’ve got today,” he said, “but really looking forward to how we can continue improving upon GPS, so that we can improve all of those things, the economy, the way that people transport, and certainly the military advantages that we have, over time.”

The post Washington View: Fiscal 2024 Defense Budget, Continues Push for Greater GPS Capability appeared first on Inside GNSS - Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design.

IRVINE, Calif.—Pasternack, an Infinite Electronics brand and a leading provider of RF, microwave and millimeter-wave products, recently introduced an innovative series of mil-spec GPS/GNSS antennas for use in various small form factor and mobile applications.

Pasternack’s new mil-spec GPS/GNSS antennas are engineered for environmental performance according to the MIL-STD-810G standard and include multi-standard GPS L1, Galileo E1 and GLONASS options.

These MIL-STD-810G GPS/GNSS antennas are IP67 rated. They are available in passive and active versions and provide coverage from 1597 MHz to 1607 MHz. Additionally, these GPS/GNSS antennas feature linear polarization for better cross-polarized isolation, nominal gain options of -3 dBic and 10 dBic, and SMA mounts.

“Our new mil-spec active GNSS antenna units are ideally suited for use in rugged terrain where low-profile, low-drag,bullet-style antennas are required,” said Kevin Hietpas, product line manager.

The post Pasternack Releases New Mil-Spec GPS/GNSS Antennas appeared first on Inside GNSS - Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design.