Bae systems locates opportunity to replace gps

[ckalli]

Great Baddow, United Kingdom; BAE Systems has unveiled its latest research on an advanced positioning system that exploits existing transmissions such as Wi-Fi, TV, radio and mobile phone signals, to calculate the user’s location to within a few metres.


Military platforms commonly use Global Positioning Systems (GPS) to find their position and navigate. GPS rely upon a specific and relatively weak satellite signal that is vulnerable to disruption. Known as Navigation via Signals of Opportunity (NAVSOP), BAE Systems’ new system is able to calculate its position by making use of the hundreds of different signals that are all around us.

By exploiting such a wide range of signals, NAVSOP is resistant to hostile interference such as jamming (a particular weakness of GPS) and spoofing, where a bogus signal tricks a device into misidentifying its location. The new system can learn from signals that are initially unidentified to build an ever more accurate and reliable fix on its location. Even the signals from GPS jammers can be exploited by the device to aid navigation under certain conditions.

The real beauty of NAVSOP is that the infrastructure required to make it work is already in place. There is no need to build costly networks of transmitters and the hardware behind the system is already commercially available. Another benefit is that it can be integrated into existing positioning devices to provide superior performance to GPS.

A major advantage of the system is its ability to function in places where GPS is unable to reach, such as dense urban areas and deep inside buildings. It is also able to work in the most remote parts of the world, such as the Arctic, by picking up signals that include Low-Earth-Orbit satellites and other civilian signals.

From aiding soldiers operating in remote or dense urban areas to providing improved security for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), which could face attempts to disrupt their guidance systems, NAVSOP has a wide range of potential military applications.

Among those pioneering this area of research is Dr Ramsey Faragher, a Principal Scientist from BAE Systems Advanced Technology Centre, who recently led a team that received a prestigious award from the Institute of Navigation 1 for a ground-breaking paper on how aspects of the technology work indoors.

Dr Faragher said: "The potential applications of this technology are already generating huge excitement in both civilian and military circles. This research is a great example of BAE Systems working closely with potential customers to not only improve the performance of existing technology, but also tackle their weaknesses head on and find innovative ways to reduce or eliminate them."

James Baker, Managing Director at BAE Systems Advanced Technology Centre, said: "At a time when the need to be innovative and resourceful is more important than ever, this capability represents truly outside-the-box thinking by providing a cost effective system with a wide variety of different applications. This technology is a real game changer when it comes to navigation, which builds upon the rich heritage that both BAE Systems and the UK have in radio engineering."

This research is generating interest in both defence and civilian domains where its uses could include helping fire and rescue services find their way through smoke filled buildings and enhancing the safety of lone workers and security staff.

[vulcanised]

Thanks for posting that.

Most interesting development.

[Sir George Cayley]

Interesting that they are are happy to publish what at first glance appears to be a black project.

A shameless ad for more funding?

SGC

[FlightlessParrot]

Sir George, I doubt if it's a very deep black. Smartphones already do this to prime GPS and/or replace GPS; there were was a fuss about Google collecting data on private WiFi networks a year or so ago. The idea is pretty logical.

[nitpicker330]

I would have thought that any US military jamming Aircraft would be able to Jam the whole freq spectrum quite easily. Thus the above stuff would be useless as well.

[Sciolistes]

A black project? Seems like an obvious line of research.

[F33A]

Can it read street signs aswell? Or does it have Siri to ask for the way?

[Pub User]

I would have thought that any US military jamming Aircraft would be able to Jam the whole freq spectrum quite easily. Thus the above stuff would be useless as well

I, on the other hand, would think that was extremely difficult, without using EMP from a nuke.

Anyone who knows, rather than thinks, care to comment?

[FullWings]

I, on the other hand, would think that was extremely difficult, without using EMP from a nuke.

Quite.

Jamming "DC to daylight" would be difficult, if not impossible, especially for any period of time.

The amount of signal processing power you can cram into a small package these days is amazing. Throw in many modes of operation and a bit of Bayesian statistics and away you go! The "Assisted GPS" on modern phones uses known wifi and/or cell networks to help get quicker and more accurate fixes, I believe.

[Dan Winterland]

You probably already have it - in your pocket! Most smartphones with GPS actually use AGPS (Assisted GPS) which uses the cellphone network to initially fix and then augment the GPS position. Some smartphone's positioning systems won't work outside the cellular network.

[EEngr]

Seems like a good idea. Since quite a few military vehicles are already equipped with ELINT receivers, this is just a matter of adding some software and processing power.

[STBYRUD]

Aside from regular cellular assisted AGPS smartphones also use the known location of wifi networks, so the only thing your android phone does not do is use LEO satellite transmissions

[syseng68k]

Sounds like a really obvious and good idea, but if you consider the spectrum of
possibly usefull signals, say Msf at 60Khz, Loran, 100Khz, R4, 198 Khz,
various hf to 30mHz, tv signals up to 1Ghz and wifi at 2.4Ghz and beyond, the
wideband receiver will be quite complex. I would bet that sdr (software defined
radio) techniques are used extensively. The real ip in all this will be the
software. something we are very good at in this country. Unlike hardware, it
can be built to be very difficult to reverse engineer and copy / steal.

They say that we don't spend enough on r&d in this country, but well done BAE,
whatever the motives...

Regards,

Chris

[FlightPathOBN]

I have been talking about this for some time now....

Its called GBAS....

BUT...as one can easily see, its not a good idea to rely on ground based signals for ac navigation...

another reason why you see that in the world of GPS navigation, everyone has gone underground...