Positioning
Robert Bull, Ordnance Survey
Location is an enabler. It is the key that unlocks the merging of the digital world and the physical world. It can unlock efficiencies that have long been present in computing environments, but in the real world. The goal is to be the location infrastructure for future applications, making location universal, easy to integrate, and reliable.
To that end, Point One Navigation’s Polaris, a cloud-based positional correction and positioning platform, helps advance emerging sectors such as automotives, robotics, surveying, and mobility. It joined the OS Channel Partner Programme, and integrated the OS Net network into its own Polaris.
An accessible, scalable data model
During its participation in the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Grand Challenge: a task designed to ‘accelerate the development of autonomous vehicle technologies’, it recognised its GPS limits with the positioning software of the time insufficient to solve a problem. The goal became how to make positioning and location technology accessible and universal. It wanted something appropriate that could be supported by modern interfaces.
Location is an enabler. It is the key that unlocks the merging of the digital world, and the physical world. The problem was, however, that as a California-based organisation, the USA did not have a national-scale model for positioning and coordinates, and it would be subject to 50 separate states’ legalisation and procedures.
While there are smaller networks that cover areas of the USA, there remained a need for something larger and scalable. It was looking for an Ordnance Survey of the USA – a one-map network.
Use cases
It was the lessons of terrestrial cellular distribution (phone signals) across the USA, that were used and applied to the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), to build something that could be deployed at a country-wide scale. It wanted to optimise wherever possible, and create a positioning service for industries, including automotives, robotics, surveying, and mobility.
There is potential for use cases now and in the future:
- Precision agriculture and agricultural robotics – drones and robots that can navigate independently for crop scanning/photogrammetry, fruit picking, and precision application of fertiliser and pesticide.
- Damage prevention and construction – mapping and location of underground assets, precision surveying, construction robotics, and inspection.
- Transportation and logistics – Advanced Driver Assistance (ADAS) and working towards the goal of achieving semi-driverless technology. This also includes assistance in last mile delivery efficiency – getting a delivery driver two steps closer to the door.
- Drone mapping and photogrammetry – drone mapping, path planning, and increasing the efficiency of creating comprehensive maps.
- Robotics – any robot that operates outside benefits from precision, such as automated lawn mowers and grounds maintenance.
- Public services – location services for USA’s Enhanced 911 – a system that links a location to the 9-1-1 call – plus construction, and other public uses, as well as potentially UK emergency services.
The future
Organisations worldwide will be judged by the data they use – it will be about enabling high-quality data, making data never seen before. Today we’re enabling technologies; tomorrow, we’ll be building new systems.
Looking to the future, integrated OS base stations to improve accuracy, precision, reliability, and interoperability in the UK, will be a focus. The partnership will also enable plans to be put into action within the robotics sector and smart products – applications with short design cycles, where it’s possible to integrate new data and their positioning APIs, quickly.
Another focus will be the automotive industry which continues to grow and develop. Plus, there will be more robotics, moving capabilities from the digital world to the physical world, and these will need highly precise locations.
Organisations worldwide will be judged by the data they use – it will be about enabling high-quality data, making data never seen before. Today is about enabling technologies; tomorrow is about building new systems.
Robert Bull, Ordnance Survey
Image courtesy of Ordnance Survey.