GPS World, January 2017

TAKING POSITION Kamikaze Satellites vs GPS 8 GPS WORLD WWW GPSWORLD COM JANUARY 2017 Q Why do we need to take integrity seriously in the vehicle environment A Since the 1980s surveyors and geodesists have used GPS for high accuracy positioning We take for granted centimeter and even millimeter level accuracy positioning capability that is faster more reliable at a lower cost and with fewer constraints than ever before However the demand for trustworthy positioning dismisses such achievements and the mantra is more availability and greater integrity to support highly automated driving Our positioning and navigation community must rise to this challenge A In autonomous vehicles a GNSS inertial module will be just one of several sensors used for location The risk of contributing to accidents and serious injury will be decomposed and allocated between subsystems by the OEM or system designer Taking aviation as a model the allocation to GNSS may be in the form of an alarm limit of a few meters with integrity risk less than 10 6 hour However multipath and obstructed sky make automotive risk far more difficult than aviation Carrier phase techniques will come into play and new approaches to protection limit estimation will be needed A Advanced sensor fusion techniques now make it possible to achieve very accurate PVT results by combining multiple dissimilar sensors Once we rely on these capabilities for autonomous driving the primary threat to safety will come from confluences of rare events that were not observed or foreseen during system development Design for integrity focuses attention on the identification and mitigation of potentially hazardous anomalies before they happen not afterward CHRIS RIZOS PROFESSOR GEODESY AND NAVIGATION UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES ROD BRYANT SENIOR DIRECTOR TECHNOLOGY POSITIONING U BLOX SAM PULLEN SENIOR RESEARCH ENGINEER STANFORD UNIVERSITY CONSULTANT SAM PULLEN CONSULTING BY Tracy Cozzens MANAGING EDITOR A spaceborne laser zaps a GPS satellite disabling it A kamikaze satellite hits and destroys other nations critical satellites Another satellite moves beside an Intelsat bird and listens in A new CNN special considers all of these possibilities in an exploration of an arms race in space showcasing the devastation that would be caused by space warfare and how the U S military is preparing War in Space The Next Battlefield premiered Nov 29 on CNN It provides the general public with an understanding of the critical nature of GPS ranging from mundane activities such as daily commutes and withdrawing money from a bank to the reliance on GPS for soldiers and intelligence agencies defending the U S The documentary explores the belief by many in the military and civilian experts that war in space is inevitable with particular attention to methods China and Russia might use to interfere with or disable GPS CNN goes inside Lockheed Martins facility where it is building the nextgeneration GPS III satellite as well as U S Space Command at Peterson Air Force Base and visits the 2SOPS team at Schriever Air Force Base CNN national security correspondent Jim Sciutto interviews the chain of command for space warfare including Gen William L Shelton and Gen John Hyten both former commanders of Air Force Space Command Gen Hyten is now commander of U S Strategic Command Also interviewed are Adm Cecil Haney Ret former commander of U S Strategic Command Lt Gen David Buck commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Space and Defensive Duty Officer 1st Lt Andrew Engle a newly created position to monitor threats in space If you havent seen this documentary you can still watch it through on demand on cable and via the CNNgo app T C