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Home 2022 December

Monthly Archives: December 2022

Geospatial Technologies Monitoring Frigid Arctic Blasts in US

By
Rituparna Sengupta
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0
Geospatial Technologies Monitoring Frigid Arctic Blasts in US

Geospatial technologies are monitoring and capturing information of the frigid Arctic blasts threatening more than half of the US population in the Christmas weekend of 2022. This extreme weather event is bringing in extreme cold, heavy snow and intense wind. The weather system, which may build into a “bomb cyclone,” is already disrupting travel and causing hazardous winter conditions. A front of cold air is flowing down from the Arctic, sending temperatures dipping hazardously on its way.

A severe weather system developing

This severe weather system is being developed by a frigid cold pool of air from the Arctic area being pushed down into the US by wobbling jet stream air currents. This moving body of cold air intensified as it moved into warmer and moister air ahead accelerating its storm potential and creating conditions for a ‘bomb cyclone’ to form. This kind of a destructive wind system forms a rapidly developing storm in which atmospheric pressure falls very quickly over 24 hours.

Whether this storm evolves into a bomb cyclone depends on how fast the pressure dips — but either way, the snowfall plus high winds will make for an intense round of winter weather this Christmas Eve.

Geospatial knowledge to provide accurate winter storm updates

President Biden shared in a White House briefing on this severe winter weather condition that the storm and resultant extreme cold weather is “dangerous and threatening.  This is really a very serious weather alert here.  And it goes from Oklahoma all the way to Wyoming, and Wyoming to Maine.  And it’s of real consequence. So I encourage everyone — everyone, please heed the local warnings.” He advised everyone to “go to Weather.gov for more information.” This portal has GIS maps, satellite images and several relevant geospatial information to provide an accurate understanding of the storm situation.

All the geospatial information available now are bringing in useful weather monitoring information all over the affected areas. This weather data will continue to help all those affected to be well informed of the actual ground situation and take suitable actions accordingly.

Another example is the Geospatial Resource Centre for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) offering FEMA GIS which supports the emergency management community with excellent geospatial information. This platform helps to monitor and adequately prepare for hazard challenges. These effective tools help communities to safeguard from, react to and mitigate against all hazards. The primary mission for the FEMA Enterprise GIS Services is administration, coordination, and dissemination of geographic information for FEMA and the Emergency Management Community.

Geospatial tools offer crisp perspectives on evolving weather patterns. The resultant map depictions offer informative visualizations which show the weather pattern developments in a manner that both scientists and the common man alike can comprehend. In turn, all involved stakeholders like the local governments, nonprofits and other organizations utilize what they understand from these geographic models to plan useful strategies and implement informed decisions.

Threats from the extreme weather conditions

Reportedly almost 325 million Americans are under winter weather warnings and advisories for heavy snow, frigid conditions and other winter weather hazards are stretching from the Pacific Northwest across the Plains and all the way South to the Gulf Coast.

Travel disruptions are being witnessed and this is not a good time as so many people are to travel to be with their families for the holiday festivities. Already almost 8,000 flights around the US were canceled and nearly 3,000 are facing delays. Several roads face closure too. For example roads were closed across Colorado from the town of Ault to the border with Wyoming, as Buckley Air Force Base, some 20 miles east of Denver reported a sharp plummet in temperatures from plummeting 46°F to 7°F in an hour.

Strong destructive winds have arrived with winds up to 45 mph expected as far as 1,000 miles away from the storm center. Major cities including Minneapolis, Chicago, Kansas City, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Columbus and Detroit are under winter storm warnings.

Power outages and road closures

Power outages have engulfed several places with more than 800,000 people having already lost power. Maximum outages have affected areas in New England and the Southeast US according to some reports. Predictions announce that people may continue to lose power over the Christmas weekend coming up amid the cold, due to downed trees and power lines, particularly in the Midwest, Ohio Valley and Northeast US areas. Some of the most extreme conditions is expected to be felt around the Great Lakes region.

Reports arriving in from Portland, Oregon, showed that the officials there have created five emergency shelters. Heavy snow laden weight has caused fallen trees and power lines there and have closed roads across the Portland metro area.

Greater Seattle area has suspended all bus service. The popular national food delivery service Door Dash has suspended delivery service to protect their delivery personnel taking into account the hazardous road conditions in parts of several US states, including Minnesota and Iowa.

Weather conditions to improve after the storm intensity weakens

NOAA’s National Prediction Centre has predicted improved weather conditions in the days following Christmas with temperatures expected to become moderate as temperatures are expected to gradually warm with seasonal to above-normal temperatures soon.

This forecast is offering a great source of hope to look forward to the end of this destructive storm condition soon.

Also Read: Map shows how Climate Change affects extreme weather around the world

USGS Big Game Migration Maps Support Wildlife Conservation Efforts

By
Rituparna Sengupta
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0
USGS Big Game Migration Maps Support Wildlife Conservation Efforts

USGS has published big game migration maps which are playing a critical role to support wildlife conservation efforts. The USGS in collaboration with state and tribal wildlife agencies, recently published the third volume in a series of new maps of big game migration corridors in December 2022. These maps are enabling relevant stakeholders like policy makers, land managers and so on to take appropriate actions to mitigate the impacts of land development on wildlife. The first two sets of maps published by the team were released in 2020 and early 2022.

The mapping details

The maps have provided a visual image of some big game travel routes bringing in deer, elk and pronghorn highways running throughout America’s western states. Individual animal trails may be discerned on the maps and the most interesting parts they reveal are the parts where those trails converge.

“Many ungulate herds must migrate to thrive on the strongly seasonal landscapes of the American West. These corridor maps make it possible to plan for keeping those corridors open,” said Matthew Kauffman, research wildlife biologist with the USGS Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and the report’s lead author at the USGS official national news release for this mapping update.

GPS collar data has helped the mapping team track the animal movement routes and been a great source of identifying trouble points like points of migration route overlap and existing as well as potential obstacles stalling the free migration of the animals.

This unique mapping exercise is being orchestrated by the Corridor Mapping Team who have been working to develop standard techniques to make migration maps accessible to the public. Since its inception in 2018, the Corridor Mapping Team has expanded to include participation from 11 US Western state wildlife-management agencies as well as from multiple tribal and federal agencies.

The migration routes and ranges can be explored at an interactive portal created for the same.

Enhanced conservation efforts

Western United States has a big population of ungulates (hooved mammals). Their presence is certainly a great component of the area’s biodiversity asset. Maintaining the predator–prey balance in the region’s ecosystem is a significant role indeed. Their presence also impacts vegetation cover as well as contributes to economic gains for the local communities by promoting tourism and hunting opportunities.

All these animals participate in seasonal migrations to access required resources which are variably distributed over their surrounding regions as well as in different times of the year. Every year during spring and fall, deer, elk, pronghorn and other hoofed mammals migrate throughout the western US to avoid heavy snow and access the most nutritious forage.

Seeking protection from predator threats as well as other threats are also a catalyst for such migration initiatives. However as the human footprint expands across the western United States, there is growing endangerment for these ungulates in migratory journeys.

Action plans from the mapping results

The mapping exercise has yielded results which have helped in implementing suitable action plans to promote wildlife conservation efforts. The migration maps have been a valuable reference point for state and tribal wildlife agencies to collaborate with respective transportation agencies to conceptualize and begin building wildlife underpasses and overpasses. This would look into the safety of the animals in being able to cross major road networks.

Related activities like displaying message boards and automatic systems along highways to alert drivers and crossing animals have also been initiated as the wildlife travel routes have become clear. The ease of travel for the wildlife is being kept in mind and fences on the route are being removed as well as recreation and tourism activities enveloping these travel routes are being customized to enable the wildlife migration to proceed smoothly.

Land development activities and related stakeholders are also receiving clarity to look into their plans and reduce as well as reorient housing development plans in the areas of concern. Sites of renewable energy projects are also being reconsidered based on these migration plans.

Location Intelligence is revolutionizing wildlife conservation

Location intelligence data captured in clearly depicted maps have been a highly effective tool in strengthening wildlife conservation in present times. Location intelligence information enable researchers in determining the location of animals, migration patterns, and even the social group of an animal. This effective tool is also used by conservationists to monitor and conserve animals in their natural habitat. These information provide rich insights in understanding various aspects of wildlife existence and in turn help the concerned stakeholders formulate appropriate conservation programs.

It is well recognized now that traditional wildlife approaches are insufficient as several wildlife habitat areas are physically impossible to reach and monitor. However, with the recent development of various uses of location intelligence techniques and their mapping outputs have streamlined conservation efforts to be much refined and efficient. In fact this technology has dramatically increased the possibility to access the outermost reaches of the natural world.

Geospatial technologies have today enhanced the preservation plans for animals and provides a great opportunity for the protection of biodiversity by shifting the field dynamics in favor of the wildlife species.

Also Read: GPS tracking for poaching prevention

Will Drones Replace Lifeguards?

By
Mukesh Sharma
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0
Will Drones Replace Lifeguards?
Will drones replace lifeguards?

Drowning is the 3rd leading cause of unintentional injury death worldwide, accounting for 7% of all injury-related deaths. Drones are being used to help lifeguards on busy beaches save people from drowning.

AI Technology Company Exyn Technologies Secures $35M Series B Funding

By
News Desk
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AI Technology Company Exyn Technologies Secures $35M Series B Funding

Exyn Technologies announced a $35 million Series B round. The lead investor, Reliance Industries, a multinational corporation and India’s largest company headquartered in Mumbai, has diverse businesses, including energy, petrochemicals, natural gas, retail, telecommunications, mass media, and textiles.

Exyn will utilize this relationship and investment to break into the Indian market, expand its global footprint into Latin America, Australia, and Africa and bring exposure to its future business verticals.

“We are thrilled to have Reliance Industries backing Exyn,” said Nader Elm, CEO of Exyn Technologies. “With our mission of decreasing the number of injuries and fatalities in ‘physical’ industries gathering data in dangerous environments, having the support of a multinational company will accelerate Exyn’s impact and growth. With the extra funding, we hope to expand our worldwide footprint further to improve safety by keeping those in these dangerous fields around the world out of harm’s way.”

Exyn is a pioneer in AI technology and has commercialized the highest level of aerial drone autonomy in the world, Autonomy Level 4 (AL4.) Exyn’s robots can autonomously navigate previously inaccessible environments without a prior map, existing infrastructure (GPS, communications, etc.), or an operator in the loop.

Subsequently, Exyn has established itself in a dominant position in the mining vertical with this technology and expanded into construction, warehouse, and government use cases, including search & rescue and reconnaissance.

Exyn will use this investment to grow and diversify its sales, marketing, and product teams to support its continued worldwide expansion and movement into new industries and applications.

“AL4, the highest level of aerial autonomy in the market, has been a key differentiator in the mining industry,” said Nader Elm. “The application of our fully autonomous robots is expansive. With this investment and partnership, we look forward to transforming dangerous, physical data collection into a safer and more efficient workflow that can unlock further operational effectiveness and efficiency for our customers. ”

NV5 to Acquire Geospatial Data Software Business from L3Harris

By
News Desk
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NV5 to Acquire Geospatial Data Software Business from L3Harris

NV5 Global announced that it has entered into a definitive purchase agreement to acquire L3Harris Technologies’ Visual Information Solutions commercial geospatial technology and software business.

The acquisition expands NV5’s position as a leading provider of subscription-based software products for the analysis and management of geospatial data.

The acquisition is an all-cash transaction and will be immediately accretive to NV5’s earnings. Closing is subject to regulatory approvals and is currently anticipated to occur during the first half of 2023.

VIS was founded in 1977, and the 150-employee business provides mission-critical, commercial geospatial solutions through proprietary software applications such as ENVI and SARscape, the world’s leading software platforms for analyzing hyperspectral and satellite-based radar data.

Through this transaction, NV5 will acquire 16 U.S. Patents for geospatial data analysis, imaging, real-time weather monitoring, and situational awareness. NV5 will also acquire the trademarks for ENVI, IDL, Jagwire, Amplify, and Helios software applications, including 13 U.S. and non-U.S. Trademark Registrations.

The acquired proprietary software applications and Analytics as a Service (AaaS) solutions are routinely relied upon by the United States Department of Defense as well as federal civilian agencies, including NASA, NOAA, and the USGS.

The proprietary software applications are compatible with over 200 LiDAR, imaging, and satellite data types and support approximately 500,000 global users.

“This acquisition solidifies our position as the nation’s premiere provider of geospatial data solutions and expands NV5’s suite of subscription-based, commercial geospatial software applications,” said Dickerson Wright, PE, Chairman & CEO of NV5.

“The business aligns well with NV5’s existing geospatial sector focus. A significant majority of the acquired business’ revenue is derived from sectors that are historically not impacted by interest rate fluctuations, such as public-sector environmental and defense, utilities, energy, infrastructure, and healthcare,” he added.

Intermap Announces $1 Million Insurance Subscription

By
News Desk
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0
Intermap Announces $1 Million Insurance Subscription

Intermap Technologies announced a $1 million insurance subscription driven by 50% growth in the account’s data utilization. Intermap expects full-year 2022 InsitePro revenue to rise 30% over 2021.

InsitePro is a Software as a Service package that delivers property-specific risk analytics for underwriting flood and fire insurance anywhere in the U.S. and Canada, using Intermap’s proprietary, global, 3D elevation data. InsitePro’s customer base includes multiple top-10 U.S. insurers and syndicates at Lloyd’s of London.

InsitePro was instrumental in strong portfolio performance during the recent devastation caused by Hurricane Ian. That out-performance has ensured continued loyalty from Intermap’s largest insurance clients, reflected by low churn and strong revenue growth at renewal. The most recent renewals include important clients renewing on larger contracts with extended durations.

“Intermap’s global insurance software business continues to grow and provide clients with geospatial intelligence that empowers them to mitigate flood and fire risk,” said Patrick A. Blott, Intermap Chairman and CEO. “Our solution puts complex and critical geospatial technology at the fingertips of underwriters and risk managers, enabling them to grow their written premium and reduce property loss.”

Due to climate change and other factors, the U.S. flood market is one of the largest untapped sources of new premiums for insurers, with over $5 billion in available unwritten premiums per year. InsitePro provides critical data and analytics supporting risk selection and pricing of natural event risk across the United States.

Hexagon Acquires LocLab to Add Automation to Digital Twin Creation

By
News Desk
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Hexagon Acquires LocLab to Add Automation to Digital Twin Creation

Hexagon AB, a global leader in digital reality solutions combining sensor, software and autonomous technologies, announced the acquisition of LocLab, a leader in 3D digital twin content creation.

LocLab’s proprietary technology, enabled by a high degree of automation using proven workflows and artificial intelligence, allows the cost and time-efficient creation of digital twins.

LocLab’s in-house developed toolchain can leverage several data input formats to balance speed, cost and accuracy – such as terrestrial videogrammetry, survey data and point clouds – but only requires photographs or videos at minimum.

Videogrammetry is a highly scalable method that comes in handy when survey accuracy is not needed and speed is preferred.

Whether creating 3D models of machines, buildings and manufacturing facilities or large-scale areas such as transportation networks or entire cities, the AI software compares detected objects with LocLab’s vast object library of 3D elements (street objects, building components, rail equipment, etc.) to semi-automate the creation of a semantically enriched 3D model (i.e., adding context and descriptive elements).

“We continue to advance the utility and potential of the digital twin. We call it the Smart Digital Reality,” says Hexagon President and CEO Ola Rollén. “Like any digital twin, it provides an intuitive 3D hub for data management and information. But it has traits not always associated with digital twins: it’s data-rich, kept up to date in real-time, and workflow-driven, making it seamlessly accessible. And most importantly, it’s autonomously intelligent, meaning it can implement physical world actions independent of human intervention.”

“The foundation of any smart digital reality is the underlying 3D model. If not already part of one of our solutions or readily available via our content program, it can be time and resource-intensive to create,” continued Rollén. “LocLab’s semi-automated modelling process with AI-based object recognition from video data and its enormous library of 3D digital content offers tremendous time savings and cost efficiencies.”

The acquisition brings the previously announced partnership between Hexagon and LocLab to the next level.

It strengthens Hexagon’s ability to make the Smart Digital Reality more accessible to new and existing customers while providing LocLab’s customers with a proven platform for hosting, sharing and keeping 3D digital twins up to date.

 

Terran Orbital Completes Order for SDA’s Tranche Transport Layer

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News Desk
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Terran Orbital Completes Order for SDA’s Tranche Transport Layer

Terran Orbital Corporation a satellite-based solutions primarily serving the aerospace and defense industries, announced the delivery of the final of ten satellite buses to prime contractor Lockheed Martin in support of the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Tranche 0 Transport Layer.

The delivery of the ten Tranche 0 buses proves Terran Orbital’s ability to build modules and deliver vehicles at scale – marking the company’s shift from lower quantity, mission-unique satellites to robust production.

Terran Orbital delivered the satellite buses at a rate greater than one per week over an approximately six-week period.

“The delivery of all ten Tranche 0 satellite buses marks a key milestone, and we are excited to continue effective teamwork as Terran Orbital will also design and build the buses for Lockheed Martin’s SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer satellites.We are always thrilled to work with Lockheed Martin and look forward to delivering the Tranche 1 satellite buses.” said Terran Orbital Co-Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer Marc Bell.

The Tranche 0 constellation, operating in low-Earth Orbit, will provide secure high-bandwidth, low-latency data links to enable the initial warfighting capability of the SDA’s National Defense Space Architecture (NDSA). This beyond-line-of-sight tracking, targeting, and communications will dramatically extend U.S. warfighting options and allow additional coalition and allied partners to eventually bring their capabilities into the network.

Blueprint for Five-Fold Growth of India’s Space Sector

By
Narayan Prasad
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Blueprint for Five-Fold Growth of India’s Space Sector

While deregulation and incentivization have spurred the growth of the country’s space sector and fostered innovation, there’s still a lot to be done to ensure commercial viability for developing a global space hub.

Off late, there has been a lot of buzz in India’s space sector with the formation of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe). The move is emblematic of the government’s intent and motivation to open up the space sector to private participation.

In a recent interview, Pawan Kumar Goenka, Chairman of IN-SPACe mentioned that over 100 Indian space startups have emerged in the past two years.

The industry has also seen some significant activity supporting such intent with the handover of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) production to the HAL and L&T-led consortium recently by New Space India Limited (NSIL) to build five rockets over a four-year term with an estimated cost of 860 Crore INR.

Within the startup landscape, companies such as Pixxel, Dhruva Space, Space Kidz India, etc., have their satellites launched onboard. The most recent success is that of Skyroot Aerospace launching its maiden suborbital rocket successfully.

However, India currently occupies just over 2% share of the global space market. While the government envisions capturing a larger share of the pie, some crucial aspects need to be tackled if India has to become a major space exporter. This has to be done by capitalizing on the talent, infrastructure, and experience built up over the decades.

Exposure to Local Demand

One of the key features of any successful space industry ecosystem around the world has been the hallmark of governments acting as first customers to risky products/services. This is done to enable their maturity to then leverage the fruits of success to scale to markets abroad.

The Government of India should come up with mechanisms to act as an anchor customer for new types of products/services to be developed by the industry. This will allow risk sharing for investment by the private sector in such areas. If the product/service works, it can then scale to customers around the world at a rapid pace.

For example, acting as an anchor customer to procure 50% of imagery produced at 1m resolution can plug the growing demand for satellite imagery in the country. This will allow the industry to compete and take risks to establish such capabilities locally. Once successful, the Indian industry can easily use such a product to then export both satellites and imagery/ imagery-based services abroad.

Currently, the Government of India has made strong efforts to bring in regulatory frameworks with the creation of IN-SPACe. However, to go the full distance in reforms, there’s a need to open up demand for space-based services in various ministries/departments to the private sector.

Exposing the private sector to local demand for space-based services (not just outsourcing of rockets or satellite manufacturing) will lead to rapid digital transformation of several sectors such as agriculture, infrastructure, fisheries, water management, etc., which can help the citizens at a fundamental level in improving their quality of life.

This could be done by integrating by various government ministries/departments. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) can act as a project management platform to then run specific programs with the private sector competing with each other to cater to the demand.

True Regulatory Reform

IN-SPACe, the body that the government created to promote and regulate the space sector in India, does not have a legislative backbone to act independently in the space industry. It still operates within the Department of Space (DoS).

To be able to turn IN-SPACe into a true regulator, the government should provide it with a legislative mandate independent of DoS. This would enable it to function as a real regulator with an arm’s length to ISRO/DoS.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) style legislative reform with an IN-SPACe bill can empower reforms to work at a breakneck pace, enhancing the trust and whetting the appetite of foreign investors to work with the Indian space sector. True singlewindow regulatory reform would come when IN-SPACe does not need to wait for clearances from the Space Commission, DoS or the Cabinet, and has the authorization to take decisions for the regulatory management of space activities in its ambit.

Overhauling Procurement

Governments of advanced space-faring nations have been supporting their space agencies by continuously reforming their procurement processes. This is done by coming up with mechanisms for risk-sharing and fostering the maturity of critical technologies for cutting-edge products/ services.

For example, the US government has supported NASA by creating special procurement reforms in the form of the NASA Space Act Agreement.

This has enabled the agency to enter into and perform such contracts, leases, cooperative agreements, or other transactions as may be necessary for the conduct of its work and on such terms as it may deem appropriate. This has enabled NASA to develop special procurement programs such as the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) and Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) which have had immense consequences for companies such as SpaceX.

Another interesting example is the use of Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts by the defense establishments in the US such as the Space Force to provide contracts for immature technology products to come to fruition by procurement support based on their utility.

The Indian government needs to put in place procurement reforms that will allow innovative risk taking to support R&D / IP development by the private sector (both by SMEs and startups) in areas that have commercial scope. This will allow domestic companies to innovate new technologies of commercial interest at a higher pace, leading to a growth in exports.

Indian government needs to put in place procurement reforms that will allow innovative risk taking to support R&D/IP development by the private sector in areas that have commercial scope

Monitoring for Informed Policymaking

There is no comprehensive study that maps any real indices such as the number of people employed in the Indian space sector, our share of exports in space-based services, or the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into space.

There’s a need for a special division, within the Promotion Directorate of IN-SPACe, to monitor the overall activity from a micro and macroeconomic standpoint. It can be put together with a mix of technologists, economists, social scientists, etc., who can work together to have a continuous measurement framework to monitor the rising space activities in the country.

This will also serve as a framework to measure activity on a year-on-year basis as well as use these metrics as primary information to perform policy changes that are based on concrete evidence-based measurements. Metrics such as FDI, jobs created, the dollar value of exports, and several others can be selected as some of the key drivers for industry growth.

These can be tracked along with specific studies on other metrics such as an increase in air/ water/crop yield quality, reduction in carbon emissions, etc.

For decades, we’ve been relegated to using opinion-based information to build policies. It’s high time now that real frameworks that use economic and social metrics be used to drive policies to build a thriving space sector in the coming years.

Export Support

India is witnessing the emergence of some of the best downstream application companies backed by the country’s software talent pool.

Companies such as Vassar Labs, SatSure, Aquaconnect, CropIn, etc., are great examples of how Indian entrepreneurs have been able to leverage a combination of space and software to build products that cater not just to businesses, but also communities. They have the potential for delivering tremendous societal impact in other developing countries as well. But can have a tremendous societal impact for other developing countries.

The problems, culture, and price points to access/afford solutions in several geographies around the world such as South Asia, Africa, Latin America, etc., are way closer to solutions that are emerging from India as opposed to those from traditional space powers in the west.

However, there is a need to build bridges between solutions made in India with friendly developing geographies for promoting localized adaptation. IN-SPACe can help mature these solutions by working in sync with India’s missions abroad. This can be done by identifying partners who can collaborate with the Indian industry to pass on the benefits to their communities. Over the course of time, this would boost the export of Indian space products and services.

Running thematic trade delegations by hand-holding the Indian industry to directly network with partners abroad could be a starting point.

Realizing the fruits of the latent capacity within the country can happen only when all the aforementioned dimensions are tackled head-on, with an independent focus on every aspect to accelerate the sector’s growth.

Let us hope that the policymakers are listening, and do step in to unleash the enormous potential that the country holds.

India’s First Human Space Flight to be Launched in 2024

By
News Desk
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0
India’s First Human Space Flight to be Launched in 2024

Union Minister of State-Science & Technology; Minister of State -Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today informed that India’s maiden human space flight ‘H1’ mission is targeted to be launched in the fourth quarter of 2024.

In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today,the minister said, in view of the paramount importance of crew safety, two Test Vehicle missions are planned before the ‘G1’ mission to demonstrate the performance of crew escape system and parachute-based deceleration system for different flight conditions.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, the uncrewed ‘G1’ mission is targeted to be launched in the last quarter of 2023 followed by the second uncrewed ‘G2’ mission in the second quarter of 2024, before the final human space flight ‘H1’ mission in the fourth quarter of 2024.

He said, the first uncrewed flight of Gaganyaan programme i.e., ‘G1’ mission is aimed at validating the performance of Human rated launch vehicle, Orbital module propulsion system, mission management, communication system and recovery operations. The mission will carry a humanoid as payload.

The Minister said, the astronaut designates for human space flight mission are identified and are currently undergoing their mission specific training at Bengaluru. First semester of Astronaut training has been completed wherein they have undergone course modules on Theoretical basics, Space medicine, Launch vehicles, spacecraft system and ground support infrastructure.

Regular physical fitness sessions, aeromedical training and flying practice are also part of crew training. Corresponding evaluation and assessment activities have also been completed. The second semester of crew training is currently in progress.

XAG P100 Drone Helps Farmers Practice Sustainable Farming

By
Jeffy Jacob
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0
XAG P100 Drone Helps Farmers Practice Sustainable Farming

XAG has introduced its P100 Agricultural Drone to farmers in the country of Panama, providing an accessible approach to more profitable and sustainable farming practices.

Drone demonstrations and training are being conducted on farms nationwide, while trials on seeding and fertilization have been carried out, especially for rice cultivation. The company XAG reported that its Latin American business on agricultural unmanned devices grew 380% in the first half of 2022.

Drones as Affordable and Sustainable Solution

Previously, large farms used to spray with helicopters, which were expensive and required a manned pilot on board. The XAG P100 Agricultural Drone is more affordable, unmanned with a navigation system that allows it to fly autonomously on pre-set route with a few taps on a smartphone, greatly reducing operational errors.

The rotary atomization technology is a control system unit that applies a variable-rate application to precisely control flow rate, spray width and droplet size.

The drone could spray up to 18 hectares per hour and can be used to evenly spray fertilizing granules, instead of using tractors or manual labour. This leads to Farmers using less fertilizer in a more efficient way but still producing high-yield crops. This also helps avoid soil compaction and minimize yield losses.

XAG P100 Agricultural Drone has also been introduced into Vietnam’s rice paddies with a high rate of success. The drone can sow seeds, spread fertilizers, and spray crops, equipped with the RTK navigation system allowing it to stick on the exact path and avoid overlaps or misses.

Challenges Faced by Farmers

One of the main difficulties faced by rice farmers is the lack of irrigation systems. 80% of rice production in Panama is done by the dry method, which makes it highly dependent on rainfall, while the other 20% use artificial irrigation systems, according to a report on Panama by the Kingdom of Netherlands.

The largest part of the harvest therefore depends on weather conditions, which is becoming increasingly difficult to forecast due to climate change.

A shortage of locally produced rice therefore goes along with the threat of increased import competition. This forces rice farmers to reduce their prices, yielding minimal profit margins.

The government also supports smart farming equipment application to boost yields and improve the income of farmers. As a 40-kilogram large payload Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), the XAG P100 Agricultural Drone addresses the demand to apply precision for rice seeding, fertilizer spreading and pest control.

Panama’s Rice Dependency

With an annual GDP growth rate of almost 5%, Panama belongs to one of the fastest growing economies of Latin America. Over the past few decades, however, this growth stems decreasingly from the agricultural sector.

This has caused concern as more than 40% of Panama’s population lives on the countryside with the majority earning a modest living through small-scale farming.

Hence, while Panama is increasingly perceived as the ‘Gateway to the Americas’, due to its favourable central position and the Panama Canal, the agro sector is left on the backburner. This has led to an urgent need in to shift focus to Cost Saving Sustainability to bring back Agriculture to its profitable roots.

In a country where its people eat more rice than the world average; it is no surprise that its production plays an important role in the Panamanian economy.

Rice is the staple food as well as one of the main crops of Panama. 84,459 hectares of rice were planted in 2022, with an increase of 11,160 hectares on a yearly basis. Although rice is grown in nearly every region of the country, most of the production takes place in the province of Chiriquí.

In face of rising production costs, the government has enacted incentives that encourage farmers to expand rice cultivation and ease the burden on consumers. According to Panama’s Ministry of Agricultural Development, local producers can get a generous subsidy for every kilogram of rice produced.

Emergency Response System to Ensure Public Safety

By
GW Prime
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Emergency Response System to Ensure Public Safety

Uttar Pradesh Police is the largest police force in India, with 250,000 officers in 75 districts. The organization serves a mostly rural population of more than 220 million people.

Previously, police response activities were organized at the district level. Districts had separate public safety answering points (PSAPs) and different control rooms for urban and rural areas.

Computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems only served four cities, forcing citizens to visit their local police stations to report incidents. Each district had different levels of service because different people, software, and processes managed them.

Every incident has a location and location plays a key role in ensuring the help reaches the right place at the right time. When distress calls land at UP 112, the Hexagon system fires off a query to get the location of the call. TRAI mandates that telecom providers share this data for PSAPs across India.

This enables Hexagon to capture the location up to an accuracy of 10M in urban areas and 50-100m in rural areas. While this goes on Hexagon tracks all 5000+ police vehicles using GPS on the map. Instantaneously, the closest police response vehicle is chosen to respond to an emergency based on caller’s location.

Disclaimer: These case studies have been extracted from the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework report.

Top GIS Trends for 2023

By
Nicholas Duggan
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Top GIS Trends for 2023

As the New Year comes into focus, it is time to deliberate on the year that was, and what lies ahead. With technology changing so fast, companies are predicting future trends.

2022, saw the Navy trial a quantum navigation device by using an atomic clock and SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) to navigate for days without a GPS signal on a ship; it also saw Google prove holographic wormholes on their 54-qubit computer, a space GNSS for the Moon called NaviMoon and Esri brought realistic snow and rain to their scenic views.

This piece will look at the top GIS trends for 2023:

Gartner

Gartner predicts that 2023 will see the realization of wireless value outside of communication; the geospatial industry is already mature in this area, so advancements will lead to reaching the higher milestones of GeoAI and automated geospatial feature extraction.

Towards the end of the year, Gartner predicts the growth of super apps appearing; these are larger apps that reach out to smaller apps to provide personalization. Already appearing with some fintech companies, like Revolut, they will require a heavy geospatial element.

This is also the case for the Gartner expectation around industry cloud platforms. Over 40% of companies throughout Europe and the United States are already implementing them, and they will require a heavy geospatial element to be successful.

ArcGIS Pro

Reality Mapping Extension, will allow the capture and analysis of 3D data from aerial, drone, and ground-based sensors in an automated end-to-end process.

Suitability Modeler is a model comparison tool; the comparisons will identify where the various maps are similar and where they differ and will quantify the results.

One capability that stood Esri aside from some others was the ability to work with ENC (Electronic Navigational Charts) data in earlier versions of ArcMap, so it is excellent to see the ability for ENC Chart Viewing appearing, with the ability to view ENC from formats such as S-57 as layers and change chart display settings.

When loading data, the append tool will support an upsert operation, which allows updating existing records with new attribute information or geometry and inserting new records, all within the same operation. 

Indoor Positioning QA, tools that help users to increase the IPS (Internal Positioning System) resolution. There will also be the ability to analyze IPS deployments. Further indoor capabilities come in the form of the Managed Indoor Data Pipeline, whereby managed indoor data pipelines will consist of a suite of new capabilities aimed at organizations desiring a coordinated control process for managing recurring change to floor plans and other indoor information provided by designers and contractors, or in-house operations teams when new construction, remodeling, or other activities alter source information that must subsequently be reflected in the indoor system of record/engagement.

A long-awaited feature that will provide CesiumJS like capability to web scenes is Time Enabled Scene Layers, and this will support time for feature-based scene layers like 3D objects, points, and buildings.

Together with Timeline View it provides the ability to visualize data along a temporal axis, showing where in time the data falls, will give a valuable temporal capability for GeoBIM and planning.

Presentations ability is allowing the creation and sharing of a collection of map and scene views along with titles, graphics, and descriptive text as presentations.

Roof Editing in Stereo, tools specifically designed to create and edit pitches, ridge lines, gables, and other roof-specific features.

Esri already has some great cartographic capability, so it’s a surprise to hear about Layer & Feature effects with the ability to apply visual effects such as blur and drop shadow to layers or a subset of features.

It will be exciting to see Simulation Modelling, which provides the capability to simulate phenomena like airflow and fluid dynamics in 3D/4D. Further into the distance is the cloud drive support – with support for storing ArcGIS Pro files and data in common cloud drives like OneDrive and Google Drive coming towards the end of the year.

QGIS

The following outlines a portion of the Planned features and fixes for QGIS 3.30 (Release 17th Feb 2023)

Filtering in the value relation widget while allowing multiple selections: When using the value relation widget on a form and having “allow multiple selections” enabled, the items were with the specified number of columns.

A fix to new face with mesh editing, when entering “add new face” mode, adding new vertices is done by a simple click outside the mesh. The vertices are created only after the face is validated by a right-click, and backspace undoes the new edge AND new vertices.

Uniformize the mesh editing tool with the vector vertex tool: This provides a more consistent mesh editing interface alongside the vertex editing tool.

Adding processing script templates: Python developers can write processing scripts either sub-classing QgsProcessingAlgorithm or using decorators. Currently, QGIS only offers a template for the sub-classing case. This adds the template with decorators and will be useful for PyQGIS instructors.

Another update for mesh layers is the preview expression result in widgets, allowing expression results to be previewed for a mesh layer. This is exceptionally useful for working with x, y, and z vertices.

Although QGIS has many dissolve and splitting methods, the new dissolve geometries (geometry collection) is unique. Distinct from the combine function, it performs unary_union on a geometry collection, allowing the ability to combine any aggregated geometries instead of only a set of two with the current method. A new split geometry is currently being tested for QGIS 3.30, with allows the user to split any geometry by line or convert polygon.

Exposure of WCS layer time settings in the layer properties source tab: This update adds the time input widgets in the WCS layer properties source widget (adds an input box on the pop-up) and allows the user to change the WCS layer time value through the layer properties dialog.

Fix data corruption in PostgreSQL tables with geometry: This fixes the 32767-character truncation. When handling Oracle Z-enabled data, treat 3D geometry as Z geometry, not 2.5D; Metropole Européenne de Lille sponsored this fix.

WFS improvement to support layers with unknown geometry types with Degree servers or any server implementing IsPoint, IsCurve, and IsSurface filtering functions. It is funded by QGIS-DE user group (QGIS Anwendergruppe Deutschland e.V.). Other interesting additions are LZW compression pre-set for tiff exports, a “Select Within Distance” icon to the selection toolbar, making the extract by location CPU thread-safe, and enabling the vertex tool to edit Z or M values, if the layer supports it (for Vertexes without Z/M).

PostGIS

Expected enhancements at time of writing for PostGIS 3.4 (Release August 2023)

There are only a few enhancements, the most interesting are, dropping support for Proj < 6.1 and PG 11 in PostGIS 3.4. This is not surprising as the latest version of Proj is 9.11 and trying to support so many legacy versions is quite time-consuming.

The most exciting release will be ST Transform: Support PROJ pipelines, which will allow the use of non-standard transformations when one wants to run a quick Helmert rather than a long grid transformation.

Finally, PostGIS allows a function to display to the user what versions of libs PostGIS was compiled against. This will also show compatibility.

Mapbox

With version 2 of Mapbox coming on leaps and bounds, some great new features were announced in the winter 2022 online conference. Mixed in with this were some sneak peeks of what would come soon. As expected, there were some 3D teasers; we may see the ability to use georeferenced 3D models soon:

Geocoding v6, support for structured queries, more detailed information about match quality, and new address metadata, such as building size and delivery-friendly arrival points.

Mobile Maps SDK Flutter Plug-in, cross-platform mobile map development is made easier.

Furthermore, work has been done to lower device power consumption, and there have been improvements to the frame time average. Now maintaining ~60 fps while optimizing for higher frame-per-second processing when possible.

What does it mean?

With Gartner discussing upcoming advancements in wireless value, Esri making more improvements in the GeoBIM space, and QGIS improving its 3D mesh and point cloud capabilities, one may conclude that there will be a stronger 3D push this year, especially around GeoBIM, IoT, and connectivity.

With there being more availability to geospatial data than ever, it is no surprise that all the geospatial providers are working on ways to use the data more efficiently. One area where this coming year could see the biggest growth in geospatial is automation and mitigation of risk.

Around ten years ago, I managed about 200GB of data for a company. Now it is nearer to 10TB and growing. Even with a big team, this can only be managed with automation, including risk analysis. I expect to see AI-based risk tools and automation next year.

Is this the year that Esri releases an open 3D base map or when QGIS announces a complete user interface refresh? Or will we see a new GIS software provider that combines the best elements of all the current GIS?

I think not, but there will be some exciting surprises ahead, and Geospatial World will endeavor to keep you updated as it happens.

EAASI Summit Brings Together the Aerial Surveying Industry in Europe

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News Desk
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EAASI Summit Brings Together the Aerial Surveying Industry in Europe

EAASI

The European Association of Aerial Surveying Industries (EAASI) closed a successful edition of its Partners Summit last 2 December. More than 70 representatives from 40 companies connected to the aerial surveying industry gathered in Rome for 3 days to discuss the current challenges of the industry as well as explore new business opportunities.

The participants attended a series of presentations, panel discussions, and workshops covering a wide range of topics such as climate change, digital twins, or certification and standardization, among others.

The Summit reached a record of participants and confirmed that the yearly conference organized by EAASI is the most important event of the year for the aerial surveying industry in Europe. The Summit also provides a networking platform and facilitates service providers meeting with end users and manufacturers in a relaxed and sociable atmosphere.

In his introduction, Simon Musäus, EAASI President, elaborated on the value of agility in business models and cooperation to achieve the number one goal of the Association: Sustainability of Aerial Surveying. He thanked the Secretary-General and Board Members for their efforts and highlighted the creation of new partnerships with other stakeholders within the geospatial field, such as EuroSDR, EuroGeographics, EUROGI, and the UNGGIM-PSN.

As a particular focus point, he called for a continuation of the increased representation in key events (Geospatial World Forum, FIG Congress, INTERGEO) to promote the association’s role and describe the critical contribution of aerial surveying in all areas of the economy.

One of the key topics of the Summit was sustainable development and how aerial surveying can contribute to monitoring climate change. In this regard, Simon Kay, Deputy Head of Unit at DG CLIMA of the European Commission, presented the first EU-wide voluntary framework to reliably certify high-quality carbon removals.

The proposed regulation will significantly improve the EU’s capacity to quantify, monitor, and verify carbon removals. Higher transparency will ensure trust from stakeholders and the industry and prevent greenwashing. And here is where Kay sees that the aerial surveying industry can contribute significantly: “Accurate monitoring is where industries like your own play a part and will play an increasing part in the legislation that has been agreed,” said Kay.

“Obtaining climate-relevant data compatible with electronic maps will also significantly contribute to improving the quality of national greenhouse gas inventories for the LULUCF (Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry) and improve the quality of forest monitoring activities in line with the upcoming proposal for a regulation on Forest Monitoring,” added. In fact, aerial datasets can play a vital role in quantifying carbon removal activities and in developing new certification methodologies required by the new regulation.

Inje Jonckheere from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) gave an insight into the geospatial work done by the UN in forestry and how remote sensing is used in developing forest inventories and tracking the loss of forest areas in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

A panel of experts moderated by Ed Parsons (Google) discussed the new trends and business opportunities in high-resolution 3D models based on aerial survey data. The speakers represented the industry leaders in processing advanced 3D City models as a base for Digital Twins: ESRI, Melown Technologies/ Hexagon, and Skyline Software.

The event’s sponsors also presented the latest updates and releases in airborne imaging, LiDAR solutions, airborne scanning, and aircraft. The 2022 EAASI Partners Summit was kindly sponsored by ESRI, Hexagon, Phase One, RIEGL, Teledyne Geospatial, Vexcel Imaging, Zeusch Aviation, Diamond Aircraft, and CAE Aviation.

Other highlights of the 3-day Summit included three workshops to address the industry’s current challenges, the external view of aerial surveying by the final clients, and how to advance in the certification and standardization processes.

“The 2022 EAASI Partners Summit had a record attendance, which shows that the aerial surveying industry in Europe is very keen on collaborating to move forward and adapt to new realities. EAASI has been working hard since 2019 to promote aerial mapping and represent the industry in the relevant forums. The Summit offers an excellent opportunity to exchange views, plan the association’s next steps, and engage in discussions about the current challenges and opportunities as we have participants from all the components of the value chain. All companies showed a great interest in cooperation. I hope this interest translates into more active participation in the different activities and working groups we have at EAASI”, said Marcos Martínez-Fernández, Secretary General of the Association.

Autonomous Vehicle Trends 2023 and Milestones From 2022

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IDTechEx
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Autonomous Vehicle Trends 2023 and Milestones From 2022
IDTechEx's example sensor suite resembling what is typically deployed on highly automated vehicles. Source: IDTechEx

Automated technologies across the automotive industry are starting to come of age and the ‘robotaxi’ industry is beginning to see more small commercial deployments.

Autonomous trucks are on the cusp of real-world use, and next-generation sensor technologies are being deployed on vehicles that are for sale.

This article covers some of the most exciting developments and milestones over the last year and makes predictions about what might come next year.

Robotaxis Services Starting to Come Online

The biggest news in 2022, in the world of robotaxis is commercial services have come online in San Francisco. This is a major milestone that the industry has been working towards for some time.

Cruise was the company to reach this point in San Francisco first. In October 2020, Cruise was awarded a driverless testing permit by California DMV, which meant it could run the vehicles without anyone on board, not even a test driver.

The big step came in September 2021 when both Waymo and Cruise were awarded a “driverless deployment permit”.

The final part of the puzzle would be gaining permission to operate a commercial service from California Public Utilities Commission, which was awarded to Cruise in June 2022.

Cruise hopes to prove competence and expand its testing parameters over the coming months and years. Perhaps though, the real question is, what has happened to Waymo?

Waymo has been at the forefront of the autonomous vehicle race for some years, but in 2021 this changed.

IDTechEx uses a metric called ‘miles per disengagement’ to assess the progress and maturity of the autonomous car players. The metric is the number of miles a player such as Waymo completes in a year divided by the number of times a safety driver must intervene with the autonomous system, taking back control.

In practice, this suggests the average number of miles that an autonomous vehicle can complete before coming across a situation that it might not be able to deal with. The two charts below show how Waymo slipped from being the leader in miles per disengagement to ranking seventh.

Waymo’s performance slip came as it ramped up its testing in San Francisco, whereas previously, it had favored less challenging, more suburban environments. IDTechEx suspects that this slip in performance might be related to the fact that Cruise had started a limited service in San Francisco. However, Waymo is now eyeing a deployment in Los Angeles, which generally has a slightly more robotaxi-friendly road network than San Francisco.

Autonomous vehicles
Top players, miles per disengagement, California DMV, 2020. Source: IDTechEx

Autonomous vehicles
Top players, miles per disengagement, California DMV, 2021. Source: IDTechEx

Besides the slipping in its own ranking, Waymo’s performance reduction from nearly 30,000 miles per disengagement down to just 8,000 has a knock-on effect on the industry.

IDTechEx uses the average performance of the top three players to assess how the industry is developing. Since 2015 this number has been growing exponentially and predictably.

With Waymo’s regression in 2021, the average for the top three has not grown as expected. As a result, the timeline for further deployments is likely to be pushed back a little.

Hopefully, Waymo can get back on track this year, and IDTechEx expects to see another year of significant growth in assessing the metric again in the Spring of 2023.

Autonomous vehicles
Miles per disengagement. Source: IDTechEx

Outside of the US, China has also been ramping up its autonomous robotaxi deployments. Baidu, Pony.ai, and AutoX have been making some significant progress.

Baidu and Pony.ai were given permission to start a robotaxi service with no driver behind the wheel in April 2022, with one slight catch. Their services must still have a supervisor present in the vehicle, presumably sitting in the front passenger seat.

AutoX has been growing its robotaxi service in Shenzhen for over a year and now has a service area nearly three times the size of Baidu and Pony.ai’s in Beijing.

Roboshuttles Struggling to Get a Foot Hold

The concept of a roboshuttle-powered future is that these small, shared vehicles will be able to operate more flexibly than a bus. Thus, offering more diverse routes and some working on an on-demand basis.

These vehicles first emerged decades ago but were restricted to running on isolated roads with embedded guidance systems. From a functional perspective, they were comparable to a very cheap but slow autonomous train with very limited capacity.

The pioneers in this industry are EasyMile and Navya, two French companies with similar vehicles and funding of around EUR€100 million each.

The problem is that after many years of trials, they appear no closer to deploying a commercial, fully developed, roboshuttle service. Even more concerning is that interest in these vehicles seems to be on the decline, with the number of companies actively working on roboshuttles appearing to have peaked.

This was a key finding of IDTechEx’s heavy-duty autonomous vehicles report, which can be seen in the figure below. Notable companies such as Local Motors have been forced to close their doors, while others like Continental and Bosch have shown concepts in the past but then gone quiet on the topic.

Autonomous vehicles
Number of active roboshuttle companies. Source: IDTechEx

Not only are the number of active companies declining, but there is also evidence that suggests some key players might be struggling.

Navya’s is a leader in the industry, but its sales have been declining since 2018. Some of this is undoubtedly attributed to the global COVID-19 pandemic, but that would not explain the fall in 2019, and some recovery would be expected by now. It may show in the 2022 financial results that this has now happened for roboshuttles, but IDTechEx expects that the decline will continue.

Roboshuttles will share the challenge of robotaxis in proving that the autonomous technology is mature enough to be trusted with the lives of its passengers. On top of this, they also battle more fundamental regulations governing what constitutes a road-worthy vehicle.

The problem is that in most regions, a vehicle needs a long list of features and engineering criteria to be signed off as road worthy. This list includes things like seat belts, a minimum number of wheels, brakes, lights, etc. – things that make cars safe.

Even if the autonomous technology could be 100% signed-off today, the rules of the road would still likely prohibit these vehicles from being commercially used. This is an area where IDTechEx is seeing progress though.

Nuro, specializing in driverless deliveries, has been pushing for changes to allow their driverless pods to operate on the road. However, this is only a small step towards commercially operational driverless goods delivery vehicles in the US. IDTechEx fears there could be a long road ahead for roboshuttles to get all the law changes that they require.

Despite the pragmatic pessimism of the previous paragraphs, there is still some hope for roboshuttles. Two key activities that IDTechEx would point to for reasons to be optimistic are Cruise’s intentions with the Origin and ZFs acquisition of ‘2getthere’.

Autonomous Trucks, the New Juggernauts of Automated Vehicles

Autonomous trucks have quickly become one of the most exciting autonomous prospects over the past year.

The reason to get excited about this industry to explode in the coming years are:

Firstly, there is a measurable and known driver shortage in the US, Europe, and China. A few factors drive this, key ones being: an aging driver population without the necessary pipeline of replacements, the massive growth in e-commerce, and the need for more freight on the road.

Secondly, there is a significant overlap between the capability of today’s autonomous technology and the demands of the environment that the vehicles will operate in. The first deployments will likely be between distribution hubs separated by vast stretches of interstate. This eliminates lots of the more challenging scenarios for autonomous vehicles, such as pedestrians, stop signs, un-protected left turns, turning right on red lights, and other situations which rely on human judgment.

Finally, autonomous trucks can bring a significant increase in productivity. There is a need to increase fleet capacity, which driverless trucks could do. The operational design domain is within reach of what autonomous technologies can achieve, and there is the prospect of significant productivity uplift per truck with autonomy. IDTechEx is expecting to see announcements of the first commercial ‘driver-out’ routes coming online in the next one to two years.

Another Exciting Year for Automotive Radar

The big news in the world of automotive radar is that consumer vehicles began shipping with next-generation 4D imaging radars early this year.

4D imaging radars bring a significant performance boost compared to the previous generation of radars with a 16X increase in resolution.

For the consumer, this will translate to smoother, more effective ADAS features, improving their experience and, most importantly, improving the functionality of safety features like automatic emergency braking. So far, vehicles that have been fitted with 4D imaging radars include the BMX iX.

Away from the conventional supply chain, some start-ups are getting closer to deploying their next-generation 4D imaging radars, and these have some even more exciting tech! They can be thought of as the next generation beyond those being supplied by Continental and ZF today.

In October 2022, Arbe announced that it has partnered with Veoneer, which is planning to develop radars using Arbe’s reference design. Veoneer says it aims to have pre-production versions of these new 2K 4D imaging radars ready by mid-2023.

Uhnder, though, are going to be entering the market even sooner. Its radar chip will be bought to market by tier-one supplier Magna under the product name Icon. The Icon will be deployed on the upcoming Fisker Ocean, which is due for its first deliveries in November 2022.

LiDAR has finally reached a price point where OEMs are prepared to start integrating it, and there has been a flurry of model adoption announcements this year. 2023 could then be the year of the LiDAR.

Trends in Automotive LiDAR

LiDAR is not a new technology. As the development and applications increased, LiDAR grew the ability to measure angles, velocity and produce detailed 3D maps, but the equipment was costly. It could offer the abilities of radar at a much higher resolution. However, until recently, it was simply too expensive for widespread adoption across the automotive industry.

The last year or so seems to have been a turning point for LiDAR, with more and more OEMs announcing models that will be equipped with them. Volvo will be using Luminar along with Chinese OEM SAIC. Continental and Denso are shipping on Toyotas and Lexus. The Audi A8 carries a Valeo, as do some Mercedes. BMW have chosen Innoviz, as have Volkswagen, and the list goes on.

These examples are mainly premium vehicles so far; however, the automotive industry has a well-demonstrated trickle-down effect, with flagship technologies spreading down the price points over a period of 5-15 years. With the automotive industry’s current focus on safety and the benefits that LiDAR has been promising, this trickle-down effect might look more like a gush/pour/stream/cascade than a trickle.

Three Predictions for 2023

With all the excitement over the past year and the promise for the future, here are three predictions from IDTechEx for 2023.

Robotaxi service expansion: There are now a small handful of robotaxi services coming online in the US. Next year this will grow.

It is unlikely that many new cities will go online; a few will, but the services in existing cities will grow — particularly Cruise in San Francisco, which will be a key service to keep track of.

Commercial ‘driver-out’ autonomous trucking will enter a trialing phase: IDTechEx thinks that in 2023 the first commercial autonomous truck routes without a driver behind the wheel will go online. This will likely start with a single route, perhaps Tucson to Phoenix, as demonstrated by TuSimple. However, IDTechEx thinks a handful of routes and companies will be online by the end of next year.

More level three vehicles in Europe enabled by higher performing radar and LiDAR: So far, there has only been one true level three car on the market, the Mercedes S-Class. However, its level three functionality could only be used in Germany.

IDTechEx thinks that next year more OEMs will be looking to deploy level three vehicles such as BMW, Stellantis, and perhaps more Mercedes models. Additionally, the UK and some European countries will likely allow level three to be used on their roads.

Level three in the US and China is harder to predict as the relevant governing bodies have been as forthcoming or transparent as UNECE on a plan to make it happen. These regions have some of the most pioneering OEMs; they pushed the bounds of what is possible and are lobbying for more regulation around higher automated level deployments.

Greenville to Improve Customer Service and Collaboration with Tyler Technologies

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News Desk
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Greenville to Improve Customer Service and Collaboration with Tyler Technologies

Tyler Technologies announced it has signed an agreement with the city of Greenville, Texas, for Tyler’s Enterprise Permitting & Licensing and Enterprise Asset Management solutions.

The city of Greenville is upgrading its current system, which lacks a robust customer portal and has limited end-user configuration tools. Currently an existing Tyler ERP Pro user, the city decided to expand its partnership with Tyler, citing the company’s stability and proven track record.

“We want the best for our citizens and visitors, and we believe that’s exactly what Tyler Technologies brings with its solutions. With this new program, we expect to reduce cost and wait time in multiple departments throughout our city while improving our services to our community. We are looking forward to having an interactive program to help us connect to the public in a more technological way. This system will open many more doors for communication and adaptability, and the interactive map and the online portal are what we believe customers want for our future.” said Jeremy Qualls, building official and code enforcement manager for the city of Greenville.

Tyler’s Enterprise Permitting & Licensing and Enterprise Asset Management solutions will bring new capabilities and improvements to the city, including:

  • A stable Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud environment
  • Comprehensive GIS based  solution for Public Works
  • Greater mobile access for users
  • New electronic plan review functionality
  • Greater city autonomy for future changes and automation

“We look forward to improving the city of Greenville’s permitting, licensing, and asset management processes. Not only will these solutions help the city boost its service to the public, but they will also bring better internal collaboration across departments, including those who already use other Tyler products.” said Greg Savard, general manager of Tyler’s Civic Services business unit.

Dronedek Looks to the Future of Delivery and Sees Autonomy

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News Desk
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Dronedek Looks to the Future of Delivery and Sees Autonomy

The future of package delivery will be autonomous and tech-driven and consumers should start preparing now to reap its benefits.

“We have reached a place where consumers want things delivered better, faster, fresher and cheaper. Getting the most for the least is what it’s all about. Paying less, not having to leave, having the quality and freshness, right now, is where we want to be.”says Dronedek Founder and Chief Executive Officer Dan O’Toole.

Meeting this consumer demand will speed autonomous delivery, he said, adding that he is optimistic consumers will quickly adapt to the new opportunities.

“Consumers are often skeptical of new technology, and autonomous delivery is no different, but had consumers not already been ready to adapt in earlier times, we’d still be delivering packages by horse and buggy. I am so optimistic about the future. Better, faster, fresher, cheaper are all metrics that deliver on the promise of autonomy,” O’Toole said.

O’Toole plans to have Dronedek mailboxes of the future available for subscription service in the first quarter of 2023. Dronedek mailboxes are secure devices that can accept deliveries of every kind – human, robotic or drone.

Top 4 benefits of autonomous delivery:
  1. No more worry about package theft, damage or inaccurate delivery: Dronedek mailboxes provide a climate-controled, secure receptacle to store deliveries until consumer retrieve them whether they’re delivered by drone, robot or human. They’re controlled by app so sensitive deliveries can be safely shipped and stored.
  2. No noise or privacy issues: Most consumer concerns about autonomous delivery have already been addressed. Dronedek is working with partners to reduce drone noise, and laws already exist to address privacy and safety.
  3. Safety will increase: Autonomous delivery will improve safety around the country. Both aerial drones and unmanned autonomous vehicles have significant operational time under their belts and have proven safer than manned operations in the same scenarios.
  4. A cleaner environment: Autonomous delivery is better for the environment. For every 1 percent of shipped items being delivered autonomously to a Dronedek in the US, 3,000 trucks will no longer be needed. That means fewer greenhouse gases, road repair, lower fuel costs, fewer accidents, fewer injuries, fewer deaths and lower insurance costs.

 

 

Saturn Satellite Close to Secure $500 million for GEO Satellite Program

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News Desk
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Saturn Satellite Close to Secure $500 million for GEO Satellite Program

Saturn Satellite Networks is close to securing funds for another attempt at getting its small geostationary satellite manufacturing business off the ground, according to an executive for the U.S.-based firm.

The company said in a Dec. 20 news release that equity investors have promised to fund nearly half of its $500 million Space BroadbandNetworks-1 (SBN-1) program, which comprises six identical satellites destined for geostationary orbit (GEO) in 2025.

These backers include German investment firm EMP Structured Assets and an unnamed U.S. defense contractor that Saturn vice president Kevin Reyes said would be disclosed “very soon.”

Reyes told that Saturn has a commitment letter from the Export–Import Bank of the United States, the country’s export credit agency, which it plans to initiate in the first quarter of 2023 to cover the rest of the project’s financing needs.

Once Saturn finalizes contracts with equity investors, he said the Melbourne, Florida-headquartered manufacturer would start ordering parts and conduct preliminary and critical design reviews to commence manufacturing, assembly, and testing.

“Actual manufacturing and integration will start later in 2023 or early 2024,” he said via email.

Reyes said the company has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with “a preeminent heavy lift launch system operator” to deploy all six satellites on a single mission in the second half of 2025.

The project aims to put Saturn back on track following setbacks for a company established five years ago by former executives of satellite operator ABS.

The SBN-1 satellites are based on Saturn’s Intelligent Space Node (ISN) platform, which is an evolution of the NationSat platform Saturn developed three years ago after investing in NovaWurks, a satellite developer based in California.

Intersputnik, a Moscow-based intergovernmental organization that resells satellite capacity, had signed up as a customer for the first NationSat mission. This mission was at one point slated to fly on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare mission in 2021.

Reyes declined to identify Intersputnik as the customer for the first NationSat, saying the mission was canceled “as the project did not materialize as anticipated.”

Unlike NationSat, Saturn says its Intelligent Space Node platform uses independently steerable and shapeable beams that would enable their operators to move and tailor capacity to adapt to changing mission needs.

Intelligent Space Node is also designed to operate with about seven kilowatts of power, compared with five kilowatts for the NationSat platform.

In the recent news release, Saturn said phased array antennas from Austin, Texas-based CesiumAstro would enable SBN-1 to provide high-throughput services at more than 120 gigabits per second, despite being much smaller than typical GEO telecoms spacecraft to save costs.

While GEO telecom spacecraft usually weigh thousands of kilograms, Reyes said SBN-1 satellites would have a mass of around 650 kilograms.

SBN-1 has secured more than $1 billion in usage commitments from satellite operators and other end users, according to the news release, via commercial arrangements that include full and partial satellite leases.

Saturn is still marketing the NationSat platform, which Reyes said has completed a preliminary design review and is suitable for operators and countries that prefer a dedicated mission with bespoke payloads.

The company also offers a two-kilowatt satellite platform, called MiniGEOSat, and a version of ISN designed for non-geostationary orbit (NGSO).

Reyes said Saturn has “executed a launch agreement” with a U.S.-based company to deploy its first satellite to NGSO in the second half of 2024.

In addition to serving payload customers, he said the mission aims to demonstrate a broadband constellation called Curvanet that is being developed by Saturn sister company Curvalux.

ROK Technologies Becomes First in Esri Partner Network for ArcGIS

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ROK Technologies Becomes First in Esri Partner Network for ArcGIS

ROK Technologies is recognized as the first to earn the new Kubernetes specialty designation from Esri.

Esri is the global market leader in geographic information system (GIS) software, location intelligence, and mapping. This new specialty designation is only open to Esri Partner Network organizations that want to provide expertise in deploying and managing ArcGIS Enterprise in Kubernetes environments.

This Kubernetes specialty designation is for partners in the Esri Partner network who have expertise in deploying, configuring, and maintaining an ArcGIS Enterprise on Kubernetes as well as expertise in Kubernetes’ best practices. This latest Esri specialty acknowledges ROK as subject matter experts in this key area of growth – Kubernetes environments.

ROK Technologies have focused on empowering GIS organizations with Cloud-first technologies so they can deliver exceptional GIS experiences to their customers.

“We’re proud to be the first Esri Partner Network organization to receive this important designation.ROK Technologies is dedicated to being the master of one thing – taking GIS to the Cloud. Achieving this specialty designation adds an additional core competency in our toolbox that we will use to help organizations harness the true value of the Cloud and develop the best solution to fit their needs.”says Alex Coleman, CEO at ROK Technologies.

Using Esri software, ROK Technologies has crafted GIS Cloud solutions for hundreds of clients ranging in size from Fortune 100 companies to local governments. ROK Technologies functions as an extension of an organization’s IT and GIS departments, by taking over the management of all GIS software and supporting infrastructure.

How Many Satellites are orbiting around Earth in 2022?

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Geospatial World
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How Many Satellites are orbiting around Earth in 2022?
How Many Satellites are orbiting around Earth in 2022?

2022 has witnessed the maximum number of orbital and sub-orbital launches. 149 out of 155 launches were successful in 2022. According to United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), 8261 individual satellites are orbiting the Earth now, out of which 4,852 satellites are active.

USGS Recognizes Sanborn Expertise in AI/ML for Natural Resource Mapping

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USGS Recognizes Sanborn Expertise in AI/ML for Natural Resource Mapping

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the US Geological Survey (USGS) are exploring the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) tools for critical minerals assessments.

In order to solicit innovative solutions, DARPA collaborated with USGS, MITRE, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on an industry competition: The USGS Map Georeferencing Challenge and the Feature Extraction Challenge of the Artificial Intelligence for Critical Mineral Assessment.

At the virtual awards ceremony for the competition held on December 7th, Sanborn earned fourth place and an Honorable Mention. Sanborn successfully demonstrated ways to automate the georeferencing of scanned and raster maps, as well as feature extraction. Starting with a set of 1,000 maps of unknown location and coordinate system, for example, the Sanborn Team, developed routines to scan, recognize text and features, and subsequently fit coordinate points referenced to known locations using a variety of tools in an automated process.

“We enjoyed participating in this competition.It allowed the Sanborn Team to demonstrate our skills in applying AI/ML tools to develop an automated workflow, while helping address an important resource mapping challenge facing the federal government.With the large volumes of imagery, lidar and other data available for analysis these days, helping our customers process data more efficiently with AI/ML tools is a key value-added service that Sanborn can provide,” said Becky Soltanian, VP of Research and Development.

Hexagon AB acquires Qognify

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Hexagon AB acquires Qognify

Hexagon AB, a global company in digital reality solutions combining sensor, software and autonomous technologies announced the acquisition of Qognify, a provider of physical security and enterprise incident management software solutions.

Serving more than 4,000 customers worldwide in banking, government, logistics, manufacturing, retail, transportation and more, Qognify’s solutions link business and operational workflows with video data to minimise the impact of security, safety and operational incidents. End markets include everything from large utility networks and educational campuses to complex industrial facilities – the same customers that also benefit from Hexagon’s computer-aided dispatch (CAD) solutions, which play a crucial role in mobilising the people ultimately responsible for incident resolution.

Qognify’s video management software (VMS) leverages video analytics from camera feeds and cloud technology to provide a single video monitoring solution. The company’s enterprise incident management (EIM) software integrates real-time information from video feeds and many other diverse systems into a single dashboard.

By correlating and analysing disparate data, customers can derive meaningful insights that ensure incidents are managed effectively and efficiently to avoid business disruption.

Hexagon President and CEO Ola Rollén says,”Hexagon has long been a leader in public safety solutions that deliver situational awareness and insights to emergency services and others – improving operations, minimising risk and saving lives. “Qognify’s solutions are a natural expansion of our public safety portfolio, adding comprehensive and tightly integrated video capabilities that can provide dispatchers, responders and investigators with new levels of intelligence to serve and protect their communities.”

“Qognify also extends our real-time monitoring and security reach into new markets and opens up cross-sell opportunities for our award-winning Leica BLK Series of reality capture sensors,” continued Rollén.

“Additionally, integrating video monitoring capabilities into our enterprise asset management solution will help customers further optimise the performance and reliability of their assets.”

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