GPS World, April 2011

THE BUSINESS SURVEY Trimble to Acquire OmniSTAR Assets for Land Apps Trimble has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire certain assets related to the OmniSTAR GNSS signal corrections business from Fugro N V The acquisition is expected to significantly expand Trimbles worldwide ability to provide corrections services for land based agriculture construction mapping and geographic information system GIS and survey applications Trimble and Fugro also entered into a multi year service agreement which includes Fugros ongoing operation of its correction network and satellite service broadcast systems that power the OmniSTAR service Fugros offshore marine business is unaffected Closing of the transaction anticipated in the first quarter is subject to certain closing conditions Financial terms were not disclosed OmniSTAR provides space based GNSS correction services that can improve the accuracy of a GNSS receiver for precise positioning applications The four levels of OmniSTAR service are VBS offers sub meter positioning XP service delivers better than 20 centimeter accuracy HP service delivers greater than 10 centimeter accuracy The new OmniSTAR G2 service combines GPS plus GLONASS based corrections for decimeter level positioning Trimble first offered RTK technology in the early 1990s which enabled high accuracy corrections for field applications to achieve centimeter level positioning Trimble subsequently introduced VRS technology in 2000 and shortly after that Trimble VRS Now Service With the addition of the OmniSTAR services Trimble says it will offer a full range of high precision positioning capabilities which now includes satellitedelivered corrections Trimble said its agriculture customers now use Omni STAR services for planting harvesting and variable rate application so the expanded portfolio will provide more options to farmers as well as surveying construction and GIS professionals The OmniSTAR business will be reported as part of Trimbles Engineering and Construction segment GALILEO SSTLs European GNSS Payload Passes Design Review Payloads being delivered by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd SSTL for Europes future satellite navigation system have passed the Preliminary Design Review PDR having proved to a panel including the European Space Agency ESA that they demonstrated a sufficient level of design maturity SSTL is teamed with OHB System of Bremen Germany for the provision of the first 14 satellites in the Full Operational Capability or FOC phase of the Galileo system OHB is the prime contractor and builder of the spacecraft platform and SSTL is responsible for delivering the satellites navigation payloads which form the heart of the navigation system While there are still technical challenges to overcome the conclusion of the PDR demonstrates customer confidence in the proposed design and the ability of our SSTL team to deliver on time said SSTL CEO Matt Perkins Each FOC payload will comprise a number of subsystems that will combine to generate the navigation messages broadcast by the satellites directly to a users receiver on Earth Each payload comprises numerous subsystems from specialist European suppliers including two types of atomic clocks signal generators high power amplifiers and antennas The first of these subsystems is being delivered to SSTL now Production schedules for the FOC payloads are extremely challenging to all parties involved SSTL said The delivery of the first payload is scheduled for late 2011 after which a production line will be started and the subsequent payloads will be delivered at six week intervals SSTL will shortly commence work on the Engineering Model Payload which will provide early evidence of the FOC payloads capabilities in support of the satellite Critical Design Review scheduled for later summer 2011 A secure cleanroom in SSTLs new technical facility due for completion in May will be used to test and integrate this Engineering Model and the FOC payloads MACHINE CONTROL Geneq Introduces L1 L2 RTK Receiver Geneq Inc has released the SXBlue GPS L1 L2 dual frequency GPS RTK receiver Weighing 268 grams at 1126 x 854 x 353 centimeters the SXBlue L1 L2 GPS is designed to be mounted on vehicles and use the vehicles power for machine control applications such as agriculture mining construction and other high precision applications It has a long range Class 1 Bluetooth implementation capable of distances of up to 100 meters 300 feet and RS 232 interface port making it suitable for vehicle mounting in a variety of configurations and for being controlled from a PDA tablet or notebook computer www gpsworld com April 2011 GPS World 27