A global communications company, Viasat, announced it has reached non-binding Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with Ligado Networks and Skylo Technologies intended to offer first generation standards based Direct-to-Device (D2D) satellite services via Ligado’s SkyTerra satellite network. Viasat and Ligado have already partnered closely for years to provide a range of Mobile Satellite Services over SkyTerra.
The expanded agreement intends to add Skylo’s technology for 3GPP Release-17 NTN industry standard waveforms and spectrum and also adds their sales and services capabilities to the team. Ligado’s SkyTerra-1 satellite network can enable these services over North America and surrounding waters. The partners aim to bring smartphone messaging, wearable connectivity, and IoT services enabling cellular devices to connect seamlessly via satellite.
“The 3GPP NB-IoT standards, delivered over Ligado’s powerful SkyTerra-1 satellite, can help to rapidly enable a broad range of services using on orbit Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) networks,” said Mark Dankberg, Chairman and CEO, Viasat.
Ligado Networks President and CEO Doug Smith added, “Viasat has consistently delivered trusted, high-quality services to its global customer base, and we’re looking forward to expanding our longstanding collaboration with them to fully leverage our unique satellite capabilities and to create a path for further evolution of our services to meet the demand for increasingly capable D2D connectivity.”
“Enterprise IoT and consumer device markets are now demanding ubiquitous global coverage for applications such as logistics, agriculture, energy, maritime and emergency or out-of-coverage messaging,” said Parth Trivedi, CEO and co-founder of Skylo.
Honda will showcase the new capabilities of the latest generation of its prototype Honda Autonomous Work Vehicle (AWV) to improve construction industry and worksite efficiencies at CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2023.
Jason VanBuren, systems engineering manager at American Honda Motor Co. said, “We believe the Honda AWV can be a valuable solution to supporting construction teams while also enhancing worksite efficiencies and safety. Leveraging Honda’s decades of experience developing reliable, safe and clean mobility technology, we aim to address issues such as labor shortages and improved environmental performance.”
The fully programmable all-electric Honda AWV leverages the company’s emerging advanced autonomous technology to create a rugged off-road work vehicle that is designed to support construction-related activities and enhance workforce productivity.
With the ability to operate autonomously or manually via remote control, the Honda AWV could provide a wide range of services to industries that need autonomous operation or delivery solutions, especially where workforce constraints make other solutions impractical. The company is also exploring the development of attachments and tools that could make the vehicle a suitable platform for many work environments.
Honda successfully field tested the second-generation Honda AWV at a large-scale solar construction site in the Southwest U.S.
Key features of the third-generation Honda AWV include:
Increased bed size to 2 pallets and greater loading capacity of 2000 pounds
Improved navigation in locations where GNSS service is weak or unavailable
Simplified tablet-based programming interface and cloud connectivity
Higher speed in autonomous mode – up to 10 miles per hour (mph)
Increased battery size and longer operating time of up to 10 hours
Enhanced avoidance function for vehicles stopped on road
Lower bed for easier loading and improved ergonomics
The Honda AWV employs a suite of sensors to operate autonomously, using GPS for location, radar and lidar for obstacle detection and cameras for remote monitoring. Previous field tests have also successfully verified that multiple Honda AWVs can transport and deliver construction materials and supplies at precise points along a pre-set route.
neXat’s new Maritime Unit will offer satcom installations on a variety of boats and on-board IT services including radar, Video Graphics Array (VGA), and Digital Visual Interface (DVI) cabling.
The unit will be headed up by the former owner of Belgosat, Mario Alen, and is part of neXat’s Operations department, led by Founding Partner & Chief Operations Officer Caroline De Vos.
Caroline De Vos, Founding Partner & Chief Operations Officer said, “neXat is pleased to have taken this opportunity and we look forward to welcoming Mario to the team. His established skills and knowledge of the sector will help us thrive in this new business venture.”
Mario will strengthen the neXat team by sharing his knowledge and expertise to help customers in the maritime and industrial sectors access video, voice and data communications at sea and onshore through a variety of solutions, including satellite, IoT, CCTV, and powerline connectivity.
The first year of the new business venture will see the start of the installations process, before expanding at a later stage to maintenance and site survey activities.
The present decade has so far been eventful but not encouraging. Business as usual was disrupted by Covid and the Ukraine war. These events have catalyzed global recession, which has hit the poor and the marginalized.
Climate change is progressing unchecked, all COPs notwithstanding. Unusual and destructive weathers are being witnessed worldwide. In this scenario, what can we expect in 2023?
Geospatial companies weathered the Covid pandemic. Covid provided an opportunity in terms of healthcare. Covid restrictions also showed the effects of unbridled development were reversible. Something that could be used to combat Climate Change.
War in Ukraine opened an entirely new prospect in terms of testing geospatially enabled weapons as well as the use of geospatial for reportage.
When the war ends relief, rehabilitation and rebuilding will need geospatial intervention. The rebuilding could also look at green technologies and environmental sustainability.
Covid and the war have spawned a global recession. How will this impact development? In what way can geospatial help in terms of supporting low-cost solutions to developmental issues? Climate change is here to stay.
The canals of Venice have dried up and India faces an unusually hot spring with the ominous prediction of a severe summer.
The stress must be on sustainability and resilience. Unbridled ‘development’ is a thing of the past. We need solutions for the conservation of scarce resources. Green buildings, mass rapid transportation, distributed facilities and assets, and a sustainable lifestyle are opportunities of the future.
Way ahead
The future is going to be a period when geospatial systems mature and move from a technology push to solutions pull. While technology is attractive and Proof of Concepts of applications are numerous, the need is for the deployment of geospatial information beyond PoC. We do not need technology in search of applications but applications in search of technology.
Geospatial systems provide data and information needed to address a problem. However, solutions need more than data. Any solution has several dimensions – human, societal, environmental, administrative, and political. In developing an optimal solution geospatial data and information plays a significant role.
To serve this role, the geospatial system needs to become a part of the solution by subsuming its identity in the solution.
This can be seen in Location-Based Services, where the underlying communications, GIS, and GNSS services provide seamless access to positioning and navigation without the user needing to know about the details of how the services are provided.
Widespreadadoption
Geospatial must find value outside the geospatial ecosystem and it is beginning to move in that direction. Insurance companies, banks, and finance are adopting geospatial data. Perhaps, one of the most significant moves has happened in India where banks have bought into a geospatial solutions company.
Marine resources have rarely been addressed beyond coastal mapping and ship navigation. The land-water-atmosphere interaction is one of the key areas of study when it comes to climate change.
The extension of geospatial technologies to this area is intensifying as the realization dawns that the oceans are not a universal dump for human generated waste.
There is talk about purpose-oriented data sets, Digital Twins, AI, Cloud, and Metaverse. We seem to have mislaid Smart Cities!
These are technologies and not solutions. Technologies must progress and geospatial systems have always adapted and adopted systems to move ahead. That is necessary but not sufficient.
It is only when these become universal in usage and become goto systems for solution providers that the value will be realized. The map marks the beginning of a great journey. The real utility comes when the map ends, and a challenging and uncertain future beckons.
Will geospatial systems participate in the creative destruction of old systems in the interest of a sustainable future? The call for sustainable progress insists that it must even if it means the creative destruction of standalone geospatial systems.
As the climate crisis demands a strong and immediate reaction, satellite imagery holds many keys to measuring, adapting, and transforming our environment and practices. Ever-growing geospatial data sources are part of the answer, but equally essential is accelerating the development of services relying on Earth Observation. This resource has only begun to reveal its potential for impact, thanks to a novel asset: artificial intelligence (AI), which combines analytical power with processing velocity.
Time is of the essence. Not a day goes by without a fresh warning, yet another projection confirming the impending disaster. The general disruption has even started migrating from the fields of statistics and modeling to the real world. As glaciers dwindle and wetlands dry out, or extreme heat episodes, droughts, and floods wreak havoc across the planet at a disquieting pace.
Satellite images are precious material to measure, predict and adapt to these phenomena. Thanks to constant improvement in AI techniques applied to geospatial imagery, the availability of the data it contains, is significantly accelerated.
The applications are many: vegetation and biodiversity health assessment, urban heat island identification, methane emissions measurement, or ocean watch, to name a few that help public and private organizations implement mitigation and compensation strategies.
But AI-driven satellite imagery processing is about more than just supporting resilience plans. As geopolitical roadblocks continue to hinder the adoption of systemic measures meant to tackle the climate and environmental crisis, automated Earth data collection and analysis provide a formidable resource to achieve tangible progress.
Supporting the transformation of supply chains is but one of these applications. At the same time, objective, continuous, and scalable data delivered by geospatial AI is an invaluable asset to inform sustainable forest management or agro-ecological transition initiatives.
For the farming industry, remote sensing and deep learning are major assets for widespread transformation by providing objective assessments. Not only does satellite data help directly monitor the implementation of more sustainable practices such as soil cover, crop rotation diversification.
Geospatial AI also brings out indirect indicators, validated by research and ground observations, on crucial aspects such as carbon storage, water retention, or organic soil fertility.
This is just one example of the almost inexhaustible potential of satellite imagery, thanks to the AI-led boost in strategic data extraction and near real-time mobilization. Putting such a rich and precious resource at the service of citizens has been a landmark decision by the European Commission, through the launch of the Copernicus program, in partnership with the European Space Agency.
For several years now, Europeans have been able to rely on freely available satellite images to monitor the environment. With their high revisit frequency, Sentinel missions provide an invaluable wealth of information on Earth’s transformations.
These space data are used by the various Copernicus services. Nevertheless, the significant value is also derived from them in other spheres: institutional, academic, and economic – all of them are also teaming up as part of the International Space Climate Observatory initiatives.
Thanks to this new information, once reliable, objective, dynamic, and immediately available, public research and businesses can respond to the environmental challenges met by territories and production systems more rapidly and efficiently every day.
In the field of climate, now the challenge is for these innovative players to scale up the impact of spatial data. There are several paths to explore to achieve this:
Making satellite imagery and data easily understandable and usable by non-experts in a spatialized or analytical manner
Shifting from one-shot analysis to continuous information streams
Adjusting the extraction of spatial data to any scale of the territorial grid
Putting the reservoir of information from the Copernicus program at the service of global issues through world-scale products based on proven models used on the European territory is more robust than global models.
But beyond the mobilization of data, the challenge is also to develop services that rely on this new information and to industrialize its use for all benefits. It is the ambition of the European Union’s space program to contribute to the development of these “downstream” applications.
This is also the objective of the French government, which, after initial support through the France Relance plan with the help of the National Center for Space Studies (CNES), aims to “develop and promote economic models based on data or space services downstream in the value chain” as part of its major France 2030 investment plan.
These supporting actions are essential to ensuring the European development of players already engaged in such global-scale, continuous data production from satellite imagery. Many innovative companies can rapidly develop use cases that revolutionize the monitoring of natural, agricultural, and urban areas.
These new space specialists are destined to become essential links in the chain of economic transformation by tapping into Earth observation for the benefit of all: public authorities, but also, and above all, businesses, whose production models will have to significantly reshape to meet the challenges of today and the decades to come.
Founded in 2019, Indian space startup Pixxel is building a constellation of hyperspectral imaging satellites and aims to become the pioneer of Earth monitoring. Awais Ahmed, the founder, was part of the SpaceX team in 2017 and built India’s first Hyperloop Pod for the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod competition. This inspired him to work in the space sector.
With the recently launched Anand satellite with ISRO, Pixxel is the first Indian private space startup to leverage ISRO’s satellite testing facility and the first to demonstrate the launch of a satellite into space.
“There is still a big gap in what we need to be seeing from space and what is actually visible from space, that was the reason for us getting into space sector,” says Awais Ahmed, CEO, Pixxel.
There is a need to examine greenhouse gas emissions or methane leaks, poisonous gas leaks, and poisonous chemical leaks that are occurring in our environment and to develop efficient and scalable technology solutions.
To solve existing problems related to monitoring, Pixxel decided to build and deploy a new kind of imaging technology called spectral imaging which provides high detailing. However, one of the challenges was to build that in a cost-effective manner as no one has commercially done that before
Anand’s Launch
With the launch of the satellite, Pixxel has completed its demo satellites. Their plan was to prove that hyperspectral imaging satellites are possible to build in a cost-effective manner and deploy technology demonstration satellites.
Pixxel took help from retired ISRO scientists, who had worked on satellite imaging and satellites before. They were able to find the same suppliers who worked with ISRO earlier, and they used the same hardware systems that were actually previously built and deployed in space through.
“Right now we are in the process of building six more satellites, which will be much larger, with longer lifetime and more capable, in terms of the resolution. We are planning to launch them in the second half of 2023. In 2024, we will follow it up with about 18 more satellites. We are looking at a total of 24 satellite launches in the next two years,” adds Ahmed.
“Anand really taught us, how to build and test satellites that has helped us put three satellites in space now,” he adds.
Benefits of Hyperspectral Imaging
“The vision for Pixxel is to be a health pioneer for our planet. By providing hyperspectral data, we are building models and the solutions on top of this data, ensuring that agriculture can become more efficient,” adds Ahmed.
The amount of emissions, leaks for greenhouse gases and poisonous chemicals and deforestation can be better mapped and fought against. They want to do that at global scale in a variety on a different industries by creating a health pioneer for the planet.
Everything that the human eyes see is in a combination of three wavelengths, RGB, (red, green and blue) from the laptop and phone screen to all the DSLR falls in the RGB spectrum. If one or two infrared bands are added it RGB, it becomes multispectral imaging, which is one step beyond the RGB visible range.
Multispectral imaging is used in night vision goggles, used by the army to see heat signatures in the night, which are otherwise not visible to normal human eyes.
Difference between conventional imagery and hyperspectral imagery: Photo Credit: Pixxel
With hyperspectral, the information capturing goes to hundreds of wavelengths and the entirety of the visible range, but also in the infrared range. This is why hyperspectral is more efficient and has more value than the other kinds that’s emerging in space today. In Pixxel’s case, it captures 300 wavelengths.
In the case of an agricultural company that has millions of acres of farmland and the farmers want to know what’s happening there. With an RGB satellite, they would be able to just look at the overall farm with their normal human eyes.
With multispectral satellites, which are predominant in space today, you’ll be able to go one step beyond that, thanks to infrared imagery, you will be able to see the health status of the crops, whether they are doing good, bad, or moderately fine.
With a hyperspectral image, the actual amount of methane leak can be identified and stopped from causing harm to the environment, etc. That’s what really sets hyperspectral apart from today’s satellite imaging technologies.
State of Space Ecosystem in India
“The number of startups today have only incorporated in the last four years. We are at a very early stages compared to decades of experience that most of the geographies have,” says Ahmed.
He further adds that the next 5-10 years will be very exciting. Tens if not hundreds of space companies will actually come into the fore and some of them will actually start competing in the global arena, going head- to-head with the space behemoths around the globe. “We are still quite a few years away from other major geographies like US or Canada or Europe,” he adds.
Challenges Faced by Space Tech Startups
The government of India has made it clear that they want to support the private space startups, which in a way is boosting the investors’ confidence to invest in them but yet there are a lot of doubts like clarity in policy, ease of foreign direct investment etc.
“We need clarity on the policy in order to figure out the parameters or bounds within which we can play around. There exist a few early stage options for raising funding for space startups in the country. There are only a few private investors in the country with a risk appetite to invest in space technologies,” says Ahmed.
Ahmed further states that the government needs to be a big funder for these technologies because in the earlier stages, no one from a private commercial standpoint will want to take risks, only the government can, in order to ensure that the ecosystem grows. Either by providing grant funding at the earlier stages in a variety of different ways or by being a buyer or procurer of this data.
He points out three challenges: creating the policy in place, ensuring ease of doing business in the country to attract foreign capital. And finally, the government being the biggest supporter, not only from evangelism or from a policy standpoint, but by actually funding it in the early stages and by becoming a customer of some of these technologies.
Space Sustainability and Orbital Awareness in India
Space regimes around the globe have found a way of actually formalizing space sustainability in a variety of different ways. For example, in the US if one wants to obtain a license to be able to launch a spacecraft one of the things that they have to demonstrate is that if satellite that’s going to go up in space, can deorbit and come down and disintegrate in space, so as to not leave any debris after the end of its operations.
Now, that same policy has been adopted by different countries around the globe and that’s something that Ahmed believes will be followed here in India as well.
ISRO has a space tracking mechanism where one can track how the different spacecraft are and if there are going to be any collisions, and to be able to communicate to the satellites and ensure that the collisions can be avoided.
Ahmed says that from a spacecraft standpoint, where companies and organizations have to launch tens of satellites or maybe hundreds of satellites, ensuring that these satellites do not just end up there without doing anything, needs to be taken care of. “That’s something that we have seen in the policy drafts that will come out, and hopefully it will be there in the final policy too,” he adds.
BRINC LEMUR 2 deploying with its White Light Floodlight deployed
BRINC, an American developer and manufacturer of technology in the service of public safety, announced the release of its next-generation drone, LEMUR 2. LEMUR 2 is designed to enable law enforcement and public safety professionals to survey areas too dangerous to send a person, assess a threat profile, and de-escalate conflict without putting individuals in harm’s way.
The LEMUR 2 builds on the LEMUR and introduces new features such as their proprietary BRINC Autonomy Engine, where the drone’s onboard LiDAR sensor creates a 3D map of its surroundings in real-time to enable a suite of capabilities. This includes a 360-degree standby hover that doesn’t rely on light or GPS systems and an obstacle awareness system that dynamically adjusts speed around objects while still providing complete control to the drone operator for tactical maneuvers.
Blake Resnick, CEO of BRINC commented on the news, “The LEMUR 2 is the next era of first response technology that will undoubtedly make law enforcement and emergency services in our country more efficient and safer for all involved.”
Alongside this autonomy system is combined with 10 unique systems for supporting its autonomy systems, visual / night / thermal imaging, and two-way comms. This includes a LiDAR sensor, tracking camera, multiple night vision illuminators, a spotlight with strobe, 4K camera, FLIR thermal imager, microphone and loudspeaker.
Video and data is transmitted locally to a custom BRINC controller, and encrypted using AES-256 protocols. The LEMUR 2 is also mesh network compatible, allowing for multiple drones to extend each other’s range in large buildings or underground. With an integrated 4G LTE-powered connection, LEMUR 2 drones can securely stream a live camera view and 2D floor plans to stakeholders off-site through the new BRINC LiveOps web platform.
Communications Data Group (CDG) has announced the launch of active tracking, dynamic route building, and Liveshare capabilities for its integration between Samsara and CDG’s MBS (Modularity Billing System) consumer and enterprise BSS/OSS solution.
This evolution of CDG’s existing integration with Samsara allows MBS to determine a technician’s current location, status, and proximity to open orders and tickets. In addition, MBS can now dynamically build routes within Samsara’s platform based on assigned jobs assigned. This integration also exports live GPS location data from Samsara to notify customers when technicians are enroute.
According to CDG’s Vice President of Product Development, Mike Chalk, “Deepening our MBS integration with Samsara allows us to promote our operator-driven mission by advancing MBS’s workforce planning capabilities, as well as enhancing the provider’s customer experience.”
Samsara’s Connected Operations Platform makes it easy for organizations to access, analyze, and act upon real-time data from warehouses, trucks, trailers, and equipment to improve their safety, efficiency, and sustainability. With an open API, Samsara’s platform enables customers to connect their third-party applications and unlock a holistic view of their physical operations.
Hyundai Mobis announced that it jointly developed the Electronic Leveling Control (ELC) with Hyundai Motor Company. ELC can be applied in different environments, such as rough roads, highways, and parking lots. The two companies are currently verifying the reliability of the technology using test vehicles.
ELC allows the driver to adjust the height of the vehicle by up to 6 cm upwards or downwards to best fit the driving circumstances. ELC uses an electric hydraulic pump to control the height of the vehicle from all four wheels.
Sensors attached to the car detect the changes in the vehicle height depending on the driving speed and the gross vehicle weight, and the car automatically controls the height. Drivers can also manually adjust the height as needed. Hyundai Mobis plans to develop an ELC technology in connection with the front-road-scanning camera and navigation data in the future.
There are many benefits of controlling vehicle height. In EVs, you can protect the high-voltage batteries that are installed at the bottom of the vehicle, by raising the height. You can prevent the underside of your car from being scratched while driving on rough surfaces such as road curbs, unpaved roads, and speed bumps. Lowering the vehicle when driving on highways minimizes air resistance, thereby increasing the cruising distance. It also improves the driving performance because the center of gravity becomes lower.
When applying the ELC on PBVs, you can lower the vehicle height depending on whether the vehicle door is open or closed, thus improving passenger convenience when loading and unloading baggage or when getting in or out of the vehicle. With ELC, PBVs can maintain the proper height even when too much baggage is loaded or when a lot of people have got in the vehicle without being overly pressed down.
What is great about ELC is that you can enjoy the features you expect to see in premium air suspension systems, including protecting the underside of the vehicle, improved energy efficiency, enhanced convenience when getting on or off the vehicle, and maintaining a certain vehicle height.
Park Jung-hun, Vice President, Head of the Safety Parts Lab, Hyundai Mobis, said, “ELC is a technology that has been developed to be applicable not only in the EV and the PBV market, but also in high-performance cars. We expect ELC to attract a huge amount of attention in the future mobility market as it will materialize different new features.”
Hyundai Mobis is zeroing in on R&D exercises that give a competitive advantage in key technologies required in future mobility, and that fulfill the purpose of the vehicles while at the same time satisfying user needs. In particular, Hyundai Mobis is focused on securing advanced software and semiconductor technologies that are designed to deliver total mobility solutions that blend autonomous vehicle sensors and brake, steering, suspension, and lighting systems.
