GPS World, August 2013

THE BUSINESS DEFENSE Northrop to Provide Improved GPS Challenged Navigation to Air Force Northrop Grumman Corporation has been awarded a phase two inertial navigation system related contract from the U S Air Force Research Laboratory to continue improving georegistration and pointing applications even in GPSdenied conditions Geo registration of data is critical for accurate interaction between systems such as locating targets and handing off coordinates to another aircraft Geo registration of images involves pairing unreferenced images with the physical locations or exact coordinates of depicted items This allows aircraft to create accurate maps by stitching together photos and correlating them with their world based locations which is useful for intelligence gathering and targeting In phase one of the Maintain Accurate Geo registration via Imagenav EVENTS accuracy for positioning ION GNSS September 16 20 Nashville Tennessee www ion org meetings The annual international technical meeting of the Satellite Division of the Institute of Navigation will be held at the Nashville Convention Center Tutorials take place September 16 17 Intergeo 2013 October 8 10 Essen Germany www intergeo de Intergeo is a leading conference trade fair for geodesy geoinformation and land management With more than half a million event website users and 16000 visitors from 80 countries at Intergeo itself it is one of the key platforms for industry dialogue International Symposium on GNSS October 22 25 Istanbul www isgnss2013 org ISGNSS 2013 will be held at Congress Center in Yildiz Technical University It is being organized by Bulent Ecevit University of Zonguldak Yildiz Technical University of Istanbul and Turkish Chamber of Survey and Compensation MAGIC program Northrop Grumman integrated geo registration algorithms in a visionaided inertial navigation system that can operate in GPS denied conditions In phase two the contractor will flighttest the integrated system as well as incorporate additional improvements such as highly detailed 3D map generation in the algorithm Our positioning and georegistration solution will help to precisely locate our own aircraft positions and target locations particularly in challenging high threat environments where the adversary might be jamming GPS said Charles Volk vice president of Northrop Grummans Advanced Navigation Systems business unit Additionally this will increase the situational awareness of warfighters and help to keep them safer Partnered with Toyon Research Corporation Northrop Grumman is building on its experience in visionaided inertial navigation under past programs such as Collaborative Robust Integrated Sensor Positioning which matched image features and processed visual motion estimations for precise navigation without relying on GPS The MAGIC programs objective is to develop and demonstrate advanced real time geo registration and navigation algorithms using a combination of cameras an inertial measurement unit and GPS information when available The program aims to capitalize on recent advances in the availability of low size weight power and cost camera systems that make the inclusion of camera information in navigation and geo registration systems for airborne vehicles a significant opportunity European Navigation Conference ENC GNSS 2014 April 14 17 2014 Rotterdam Netherlands www enc gnss2014 com ENC GNSS 2014 will cover all aspects of positioning navigation and timing developments and applications Special sessions will be organized for innovations and their commercialization Cadastre Engineers The symposium has been organized since 1999 by the International Program Committee of International Symposium on GPS GNSS ICG 8 Eighth Meeting of the International Committee on GNSS November 10 14 Dubai UAE www icg8dubai ae ICG 8 will include a technical visit to the Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology to explore DubaiSat 1 the UAEs remote sensing satellite Fourth ESA Colloquium on Galileo December 4 6 Prague Czech Republic www congrexprojects com 2013 events 13c15 The fourth International Colloquium on Scientific and Fundamental Aspects of the Galileo Programme will makes an essential contribution to the European Space Agencys implementation and definition of the evolution of the European GNSS The gathering of major academic players provides a scientific reference for institutional executives and industry as well as offering a unique platform for promoting innovative GNSS initiatives at large Sixth European Workshop on GNSS Signals and Signals Processing December 5 6 Munich Germany http ifen bauv unibw de gnss signals workshop GPS World August 2013 www gpsworld com 28