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"Are we too reliant on GPS?"

Posted by Chris Anderson on March 14, 2011 at 12:30pm

3689394566?profile=originalGood article from O'Reilly Radar. It's worth reading it all, but here's the nut:

The core issue is that GPS technology has been built into many crucial infrastructure applications, from transportation systems to power grids, and in many cases there is no fallback option should the GPS signals suddenly become unavailable. GPS has many advantages, but it is not particularly secure or robust in terms of interference, due to its relatively weak signal strength. GPS hasn't failed in any major way yet, but concerns are growing with recent reports of strong solar storms that have the potential to disrupt GPS satellites, and a troubling, growing black market of GPS-jamming devices.

One of the advantages of military UAVs is that they're often designed to operate in "GPS denied" environments, by using dead reckoning, image processing and other navigation techniques. Indoor work with SLAM, which doesn't use GPS, is useful in developing alternatives, too.
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  • T3
    Krzysztof Bosak March 14, 2011 at 5:49pm

    All those jamming devices either: jam the whole city or do not jam the UAV flying in nearby fields.

    In the first case it is already nationwide security issue for the US as it would mean somebody is trying to gain immediate advantage over superior-equipped force and ppl will have more important task to do at that time, nothing would be like before.

    If GPS fails on massive and irrecoverable scale, either the sats or most guarded US  outposts are under attack, the enemy posesses either nuclear or wp or the ability to launch antisatellite (so also less precise ICBMs) and we are deep into nuclear war 30min later and therefore from our perspective in such case there are no problems with UAV flight at all.

    Short term problems we are experiencing all the time and it is enough for UAV to recover after a few minutes of outage, at worst it will fly random pattern.

    If it fails from natural reasons, it would be a moment when all Kadaffis of the world would know that their bunker cannot be bombed (maybe for hours, BUT MAYBE FOR DAYS) with conventional precision weapons, opening immediate chance to rush evil plan whatever it is.

    I think our perspective is, that truly, the forces supporting functionality of GPS are so tense, that even if GPS fails from natural reasons, the consequences coming from somebody taking the advantage would be so intense that the influence on our small UAVs is negligent and it would be much more important to stockpile food.

    In other words DIY non-GPS navigator is useless junk compared to DIYBUNKER.org

  • hamish March 14, 2011 at 5:25pm

    Hmph, wonder if this article was prompted by the one last week on the BBC.  Or maybe he wrote it as a drumroll to the upcoming GALILEO !  Oh wait, thats for europe only :P 

    Apparently the ground stations underwent testing lately, and test satelites are already in orbit, with more destined to leave in april.

     

    But yeah, the DiyDrones mars rover can't rely on any satelite systems!

  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson March 14, 2011 at 4:45pm
    Darren, the actual use case for the Google car is more like fancy cruise-control: driving in traffic so you can take your eyes off the road and do your email and texting safely. It's not actually meant to go from door-to-door (although it technically could, with enough planning on very well-known routes, but that's not the intended use).
  • Darren March 14, 2011 at 4:32pm

    I should re-iterate... "what plans" should read "what data is used for"

    after reading... it sounded too much like AI with the other verbage...

  • Darren March 14, 2011 at 4:27pm
    But what plans its waypoints? and determins if its not on the right lane on the highway to get off at the right exit?
  • 3D Robotics
    Chris Anderson March 14, 2011 at 4:21pm
    I've ridden in the Google autonomous car. It's mostly guided by a 64-beam Lidar unit, augmented by optical video for longer range. GPS is secondary and is actually not used in highway use.
  • MarcS March 14, 2011 at 4:04pm

    Darren, now I see what you mean. I did not look into it, but i don´t think any web based google program is controlling their autonomous cars... Don´t know what they have in mind with that research anyway...

     

    Ahmed, the method for localization you think about was used by the first IPhone that did not have GPS. Was not too useful if not in a crowded city having lots of micro-cells. And, you are relying on someone elses network again...

  • Ahmed March 14, 2011 at 3:33pm
    Where I live, UAE, we have a lot of those communication towers from the telecom service provider. Depending on the closest tower, the name of the town shows up on the cell phone screen. But for sure if the closest one isn't working, you still get connected to the second closest tower.

    Isn't possible to get an accurate location if you can connect to 3 different towers? I am not that smart in those type of things, but this idea came into my mind for some time now.
  • Darren March 14, 2011 at 3:09pm
    to put a final thought of the google claim today... its interesting they can use it to drive an atonomous car around risking life and limb (even with a backup person behind the wheel, virtual or not) but we cant as interested parties in thier technology cant utilize said same for such purposes. leagish aint my style if you can tell.. :)
  • MarcS March 14, 2011 at 2:55pm

    Hi Darren,

    the highway intersection is a good example. The data the recognition would be based on is such objects clearly distinguishable from the surrounding. If you are not flying sahara of Canadian forests there should be a chance of finding some :-)

    As the data would be stored offline, on board, it´s not about using any online tools as realtime navigation aid...

    I just took a look and the openstreetmap raw data looks promising. Let´s take some aerial photos and try...

    (Ok, some software, image to structure matching to do... :-)

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