GPS Maps Moving
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Written by Bradley S. Melara
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Monday, 09 March 2009 |
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Commercial designers also are adding mapping capability to GPS devices. Commercial technology is outpacing the military in this area, but the military will benefit from the advances, says Magellan's White.
Magellan offers commercial handheld products with graphics displays that "allow the user to not only get a longitude-latitude read out of the position location, but actually see the position location on a map," White says.
He predicts this technology will help land-based military forces such as infantry and special forces units that cannot haul bulky maps but need to know exactly where they are.
The Allied Signal Aerospace Commercial Avionics Systems division in Olathe, Kan., also integrates moving maps in its GPS systems, says GPS Product Manager Brace Hensel. The company's KLN 90B, a 2-inch panel-mounted unit certified for instrument flights, is part of the U.S. Air Force/Navy Joint Primary Aircraft Training System better-known as JPATS, being built by Beech Aircraft Corp. in Wichita, Kan.
AlliedSignal officials also plan to introduce the KLN 900 in May 1996. This device is identical to the 90B except for its Dzus-rail form factor. The 900 also has additional inputs and outputs for turbine installations.
The actual eight-parallel-channel GPS receiver in most of AlliedSignal's products is a credit-card-size sensor board called Xpress that rejects interference from VHF palm radios "that are smack dab on the GPS signal," Hensel says. "In the Xpress development, we have improved the performance over our previous receiver by a factor of 25 dB."
GPS is also making a difference among surveyors, sailors, railroad dispatchers, trucking companies, and even automobile drivers. "I think you'll see GPS becoming more of a commodity, and you'll see an increasing level of integration and the cost of the sensor itself coming down," says Honeywell's Moya.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 09 March 2009 )
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Vehicle GPS Unit