GPS World, November 2017

taking position silver lining in summer of smoke 8 Gps World www gpsworld com November 2017 Q How did GNSS signal simulation play a role in the latest product that you developed A During development of dualfrequency gLOnaSS Rtk support for the Piksi Multi gnSS receiver gnSS signal simulation was used to test corner cases that are infrequent but catastrophic such as whole constellation failures We combined this with our custom built hardware in the loop infrastructure to test nightly on relevant gnSS scenarios gaining statistical significance through thousands of runs of the receiver this iterative approach allowed us to develop gLOnaSS Rtk support in a mere five months A gnSS signal simulation was used in all stages of our gnSS chip design and development Simplified single or multi satellite simulations were used to verify search and track channel designs and carefully calibrated simulations were used to characterize receiver losses Later full system simulations were used in large scale regression testing interference testing and corner case tests Simulator testing has been critical for supporting new signals that werent widely available in the early chip design phases A We use gnSS simulators throughout the design cycle from prototyping to mass production the benefits of testing in a reliable repeatable lab environment became very clear when we needed to exercise co location of Bluetooth and gnSS in a module testing in a controlled signal environment allowed us to keep the gnSS signals constant while adjusting the Bluetooth signal levels allowing us to verify the robustness of our design over the full temperature and voltage range Jenny dormoy head of engineering Swift navigation AndreAs WArloe Senior director SyStemS engineering WireleSS communicationS and connectivity broadcom limited GeorGiA FrousiAkis vice PreSident gnSS r d telit wireleSS SolutionS by Tracy Cozzens Managing Editor H ere in the U S this past summer saw an unprecedented number of emergency situations Hurricanes blasted Texas Florida the U S Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico leaving people stranded and without power while wildfires ravaged the west So far this year 15 separate weather and climate disasters have each caused at least 1 billion in damages in the U S according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA meaning 2017 could tie 2011 for the most billion dollar disasters The USA Today chart above shows those events In Oregon where I live we experienced unprecendented smoky skies from wildfires the hazardous air quality affected the health of many The silver lining Growing expertise in the fields of disaster response mapping location awareness UAVs and imagery We continue to improve our ability to respond to disasters such as with Waze traffic alerts for wildfire evacuations and UAVs that bring a virtual doctor to a crisis scene along with medicine We use stateof the art technology to learn more about how why and when disasters happen with tools such as UAVs that penetrate the mysteries of active hurricanes Read more on pages 32 and 34