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Belarus will soon be sharing GNSS data with the EUREF Permanent Network (EPN), the press service of the State Property Committee of Belarus told Belarus news agency BelTA.

Beginning March 1, the Belarusian state enterprise Belgeodeziya will start uploading data to two GNSS data processing centers. Until now, Belarus has been the only European country without a EUREF Permanent GNSS Network (EPN) station.

The EPN consists of

• a network of continuously operating GNSS (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou.) reference stations
• data centers providing access to the station dat,
• analysis centers that analyze the GNSS data
• product centers or coordinators that generate the EPN products
• a central bureau responsible for the daily monitoring and management of the EPN.

The EPN network is operated under the umbrella of the IAG (International Association of Geodesy) Regional Reference Frame sub-commission for Europe, EUREF.

Instructed by the State Property Committee, Belgeodeziya has added four Belarusian GNSS stations to the EPN, which unites more than 100 European agencies and universities.

Joining the network will provide Belarusian geodesists with direct access to international standards on the operation of permanent GNSS stations.

More launches planned for March and May

Four new satellites of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) have passed tests in orbit and joined the system to provide positioning, navigation and timing services, according to China news service Xinhuanet.

The four satellites include the 47th, 48th, 52nd and 53rd satellites of the BDS family, according to China’s Satellite Navigation System Management Office.

All of them, operating in medium Earth orbit, were developed by the China Academy of Space Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

The 47th and 48th BDS satellites were launched on Sept. 23, 2019, and the 52nd and 53rd BDS satellites were launched on Dec. 16, 2019.

Two to the Last. The China Satellite Navigation System Management Office said the last two Beidou-3 satellite launches will take place in March and May, and complete the Beidou system.

China began to construct its navigation system, named after the Chinese term for the Big Dipper constellation, in the 1990s and started serving the Asia-Pacific Region in 2012.

Over the past two years, China has successfully sent 28 BDS-3 satellites and two BDS-2 satellites into orbit.

China plans to launch more BDS satellites in March and May to complete the global network.

Quantum Reversal has released the QR100, a novel L1/L2 GPS anti-jamming unit, and the QR101, an  L1/L2 GPS anti-jamming antenna, designed for the commercial market to solve the issue of unintentional RF interference or jamming.

The QR100 uses three external passive or active GPS antennas of the user’s choice, while the QR101 has three passive L1/L2 antennas embedded inside the enclosure. Low power consumption of 1 Watt and low cost allow for a wide range of applications where the continuity of GPS service is a must.

“Clever RF signal nulling in the RF domain allowed us to eliminate the need for signal processing, and hence, significantly reducing the power consumption when compared to existing military solutions,” said Waldemar Kunysz, Quantum Reversal President and CTO.

The technology prevents the RF front-end from saturation when the interfering signal is very strong due to its power or close proximity to the antenna. This extends the range of the operation for mobile applications and reduces susceptibility to nearby sources of interference for any type of fixed installations.

Learn more at the company’s website.

Topcon Agriculture and CropZilla have signed a licensing agreement for use of the Topcon Agriculture Platform (TAP) application programming interface (API) in the CropZilla Web Mobile Analytics platforms.

TAP is a software-to-software interface designed to benefit the end-user by providing a simple and seamless way for sharing data between software systems.

With the Topcon interface, CropZilla is able to acquire machine data from a common device on the machine, adding simplicity and value to each grower wanting to utilize both tools to manage data. Users simply create an account with TAP and CropZilla and the data sharing is effortless, the companies said.

“Topcon’s strategy as it relates to our new digital solution platform is one of partnerships, connectivity, and collaboration. This partnership with CropZilla is the first step of several towards deeper integration with a premier colleague and embodies our philosophy ideally. It demonstrates that two companies can collaborate to provide additional value to the producer, dealer, and OEM,” said Brian Sorbe, VP and GM for Topcon Agriculture.

Brian Watkins, CEO of CropZilla, said, “We’re excited to add Topcon Ag to our expanding ecosystem of partners for CropZilla. We have a common desire with Topcon to create immense value to growers as painlessly as possible. This is only the first step and is a great example of that in action.”

RoboSense is offering the solid-state lidar RS-LiDAR-M1Simple (Simple Sensor Version), which is less than half the size of the previous version at 4.3  x 1.9 x 4.7 inches (110 x 50 x 120 millimeters).

It is equipped with enhanced hardware performance virtually equal to the serial production version provided to OEMs. The main body design of this automotive-grade solid-state lidar is finalized and ready for shipment.

The RS-LiDAR-M1Smart main body is embedded with an artificial intelligence (AI) perception algorithm that takes advantage of lidar’s potential to transform conventional 3D lidar sensors to a full data analysis and comprehension system, outputting semantic-level structured environment information in real time to be used directly for autonomous vehicle decision making.

The RS-LiDAR-M1 family has the performance advantages of traditional mechanical lidar, simultaneously taking into consideration requirements for the mass production of vehicles.

The RS-LiDAR-M1Smart Features

• Adapts to complex traffic conditions.
• Supports multiple driving scenarios.
• Supports dense traffic flow, such as mixing pedestrians and vehicles in intersections during peak hours.
• Comprehensive perception of a wide range of dynamic, static and background objects.
• Achieves semantic-level prediction for 3D point clouds.
• Handles the challenges caused by two-wheel vehicles (motorcycles, bicycles, etc.) and pedestrians who do not follow traffic rules.
• Over-segmentation and under-segmentation are fixed based on the clustering algorithm. The robustness against sparse point clouds ensures the integrity of object detection.
• Outputs two redundant channels of data: the original point cloud and the object list. The two channels of data are redundant to provide vehicles with a wide range of sensing results, including dynamic and static and inside and outside the road.

Livox Technology Company has introduced two high-performance, mass-produced lidar sensors, the Horizon and Tele-15, which feature a new scanning method that offers improved sensing performance at a low cost.

The lidar sensors are aimed at L3/L4 autonomous driving, smart cities, mapping, mobile robotics and more.

“The growth potential of the lidar industry has been hindered for too long by ultra-high costs and slow manufacturing rates,” said Henri Deng, global marketing director at Livox. “Livox seeks to change this by providing access to high-quality lidar systems that are easily integrated into a wide array of different use applications. Through our technology, we hope to be the catalyst for the rapid adoption of lidar in the quickly growing industries of autonomous driving, mobile robotics, mapping, surveying and more.”

The environment scanned by a Livox sensor increases with longer integration time as the laser explores new spaces within its field of view (FOV). A Livox Mid-40 or Mid-100 sensor generates a unique flower-like scanning pattern to create a 3D image of the surrounding environment.

Image fidelity increases rapidly over time. In comparison, conventional lidar sensors use horizontal linear scanning methods that run the risk of blind spots, causing some objects in their FOV to remain undetected regardless of how long the scan lasts.

The non-repetitive scanning method of the Livox lidar sensors enables nearly 100% FOV coverage with longer integration time.

The Horizon and Tele-15 are high-performance lidar sensors designed for L3/L4 autonomous driving applications. The Horizon has a detection range of up to 260 meters with a horizontal FOV (HFOV) of 81.7° which can cover four road lanes at a distance of 10 meters. Its FOV coverage ratio is comparable with a 64-line mechanical lidar at the integration time of 0.1 sec. Using five Horizon units enable full 360° coverage.

Made for advanced long-distance detection, the Livox Tele-15 offers the compact size, high-precision and durability while vastly extending the real-time mapping range. The Tele-15 can scan 99.8% area within its 15° circular FOV at 0.1s.

The Tele-15 can successfully detect an object up to 500 meters away. As a result, Tele-15’s performance allows autonomous driving systems to detect remote objects well in advance, providing more reaction time even at high speeds.

Two new small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) are available to the U.S. government defense and security markets.

Auterion Government Solutions Inc. and Quantum-Systems GmbH have partnered to bring the Vector and Scorpion to market. The partnership brings together high-quality sUAS hardware with a secure, scalable, open source, operating system, Auterion OS.

Auterion OS is employed on sUAS from small multi-rotors to hybrid VTOL Group 2 air vehicles. The open-source operating system aligns with the Defense Department’s Group 1 UAS Architecture.

2-in-1 UAS

Vector and Scorpion form a 2-in-1 system kit. Scorpion is a tri-copter that can be used for dynamic urban environments and other mission sets that require a combination of maneuverability and hover to collect intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) data, as well as situation awareness information. If required, it comes with a tethering system to enable 24/7 operations.

By configuring the base fuselage with fixed wings and tail section, Scorpion transforms into Vector, an energy-efficient, fixed-wing VTOL for longer range, longer endurance ISR missions.

Command and control

Quantum-Systems uses a proprietary flight control stack as well as its qBase command and control software on the two air vehicles.

When the platforms are integrated with Auterion Enterprise PX4 software, Auterion Ground Station software, and the Auterion Hand-Held Ground Control Station (H-GCS) they form an open ecosystem that is aligned and integrated with DoD’s Group 1 UAS Architecture and requirements for a common Group 1 control system.

The integration enables these sUAS to be extensible, tailorable and interoperable for customers in both the U.S. defense and security markets.

“We are excited to be working with Quantum-Systems to bring forth a new, integrated, rucksack portable sUAS that we feel will transform the way our customers collect, process and disseminate ISR and Situation Awareness information, in all environments,” said David Sharpin, CEO of AGS.

“By setting up a U.S. entity, Quantum-Systems will move closer to the customer while working on setting up a large-scale U.S. production,” said Florian Seibel, CEO of Quantum-Systems.

Aireon and EUROCONTROL have signed a 10-year agreement to integrate space-based ADS-B data into their air traffic management processes across it’s 41 Member States and two Comprehensive Agreement (CA) States.

The space-based automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) data will enhance aircraft management capabilities, contributing to improve predictability, capacity, environmental impact supporting sustainable growth throughout the European region.

It will also support other applications, such as crisis management, contingency management, environmental monitoring, performance monitoring and expanded datasets for post-analysis, traffic statistics and safety-related assessments.

Spanning 43 countries from Turkey to Ireland, Finland to Portugal, EUROCONTROL’s aircraft management states encompass over 11.5 million square kilometers of terrestrial airspace, as well as part of the airspace over the North Atlantic, Mediterranean and Baltic.

Aireon data will be integrated into the EUROCONTROL’s enhanced tactical flow management system (ETFMS), which provides data to European aviation stakeholders, regardless of operational borders, in real time.

Space-based ADS-B data will enrich ETFMS’s complex traffic demand and slot allocation calculations, which currently rely on ground-based surveillance data and flight plan processing systems. As a result, Aireon’s data will support Europe’s primary flow management system to be more accurate in its trajectory predictions and unlock an otherwise unavailable operational capacity.

“With Aireon’s high-integrity, high-quality data, the EUROCONTROL network manager will have the ability to work with information from beyond the European airspace,” said Eamonn Brennan, director general, EUROCONTROL. “Full integration of Aireon space-based ADS-B data will allow us to be more accurate in our trajectory predictions and ensure higher levels of safety, predictability and efficiency in our flow management operations. This partnership is the latest development in our effort to ensure European airspace is one of the most dynamic and efficient in the world.”

EUROCONTROL. Having been nominated as the Network Manager by the European Commission until the end of 2029, EUROCONTROL is driving a coordinated and technologically advanced approach to the challenges faced by the European air traffic network.

Helping address the improvements that are needed in operations, cybersecurity, service provision, crisis management, airspace design, utilization and more, EUROCONTROL provides support and expertise to air navigation service providers (ANSPs), airlines, airports and military partners in the region to help make European aviation, safe, synchronized, efficient and environmentally friendly.

Aerion. In 2019, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certified Aireon as the first provider of aircraft surveillance-as-a-service. Additionally, Aireon has the only global, single-source dataset available to the industry.

For EUROCONTROL, this means that once the service is integrated into its systems, it will have unprecedented visibility into the full picture of aircraft arriving, departing and crossing over Europe over an area of six flight hours and 3,000 nautical miles around EUROCONTROL Member States.

“EUROCONTROL is a leader in air traffic flow management. They are the first customer to use Aireon data well beyond their own area of responsibility. This will enable them to maximize the effectiveness of their processes and procedures by including long-range arrivals and neighboring States into their capacity and demand measures,” said Don Thoma, CEO, Aireon. “EUROCONTROL recognizes the global value in connecting ANSPs through a common, high-fidelity, global data source that provides situational awareness of actual aircraft position information. We look forward to the benefits all EUROCONTROL customers will see in the near, medium and long-term.”

Aireon’s data will also be integrated in EUROCONTROL’s new system called iNM, which will implement incremental updates to all of EUROCONTROL’s operational systems and digital infrastructure in the course of this decade.

Raven Industries has partnered with Razor Tracking, an SaaS and mobile application-based fleet tracking and management system, to provide ag retailers and enterprise farms with an expanded fleet and asset tracking suite through the company’s Slingshot platform.

As a result of this partnership, Slingshot Fleet Tracking will be available as the integrated logistics tracking component of the Raven Slingshot platform. According to Raven, Slingshot Fleet Tracking allows users to seamlessly and wirelessly connect their office to the field by providing accurate location and machine running data in real-time. This partnership gives ag retailers and growers immediate fleet information — including work, idle and transit times — to better manage their equipment, assets and operations, the companies said.

“This agreement enables Raven to quickly expand unmatched value to our growing ag retailer and grower customer base,” said Paul Welbig, director of Slingshot services & logistics for Raven Applied Technology. “From machine performance to diagnostics, and now expanded tracking of both in-field and operation support assets, users of Raven’s Connected Workflow can expect 20% efficiencies gained when using the technology delivered through the integrated Slingshot platform. This partnership continues our focus to offer efficiency-driving solutions that help reduce variability and increase profitability for our customers.”

By leveraging Razor Tracking’s capabilities, Slingshot Fleet Tracking provides users with accurate real-time data on where their vehicles and assets are located to better maintain schedules for dispatching and increase overall efficiency, the companies added. Through the partnership, users will now also be able to monitor non-Raven equipped assets, including other battery-connected equipment and non-powered equipment.

Customers will be able to subscribe to Slingshot Fleet Tracking to use it in their own operations beginning June 2020.

U-blox, a global provider of leading positioning and wireless communication technologies, has extended its SARA-R4 family of LTE-M / NB-IoT and EGPRS cellular modules to include variants with the hardware and software features necessary to enable end-to-end security features and services for internet of things (IoT) data, devices and ecosystems.

“The new SARA-R422 product series offers superior security protection, industrial output power to grant best coverage even in weak signal conditions, and everywhere location using state-of-the-art u-blox GNSS technology,” said Rado Sustersic, senior product manager, Product Center Cellular at u‑blox. “These represent valuable functionalities tailored specifically to the LPWA IoT market.”

M8 GNSS. The SARA-R422M8S is pre-integrated with the u-blox M8 GNSS (global navigation satellite system) receiver and a separate GNSS antenna interface. This provides highly reliable, accurate positioning data simultaneously with LTE communications.

The module also supports hybrid positioning strategies, in which positioning data provided by satellite constellations is enhanced with data from the u-blox CellLocate service, ensuring that location data is always available everywhere.

The SARA-R4 series is designed for a wide range of mission-critical IoT solutions such as connected healthcare, industrial monitoring, point of sale and vending terminals, tracking and telematics devices, as well as smart lighting solutions and building automation.

Security. Security features include a unique and immutable root of trust (RoT) for each device, as well as access to a scalable pre-shared key (PSK) management system. This provides the foundation for a trusted set of advanced security functionalities to enable data encryption and decryption, both on‑device as well as from‑device‑to‑cloud.

The choice of PSK-based security, rather than the more complex and computationally intensive public key infrastructure (PKI) approach, strikes the right balance between implementation costs and level of security protection for many IoT applications.

Robustness. All SARA-R422 modules provide 23-dBm output power, allowing the end device to properly operate in all network conditions. This means no issues at cell edges, no coverage issues in weak signal conditions, and, even more importantly, no unwanted re-transmission that shortens battery life by increasing transmit time and overall system power consumption.

The series is designed for long working lifetimes in the field, through the inclusion of support for LWM2M, a lightweight machine-to-machine communications protocol ideal for IoT applications with the possibility of updating the firmware of modules already in the field over the air via the uFOTA (Firmware Over The Air) client/server firmware service provided by u-blox.

The u-blox SARA-R4 series will be presented at Embedded World in Nuremberg, Germany, Feb. 25-27, at Hall 3/Stand 3-139.