Creating detailed street maps and keeping them updated is an expensive and time-consuming task performed mostly by large companies. They ignore the many parts of the world where this task is not profitable, even though the need is high due to rapid growth and change in the street network, such as in Thailand. To automate the process and make accurate digital maps available in any country, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and […]

February 27, 2020 Everybody on the Avalanche Canada team lives and breathes avalanche safety, and knows their forecasts can be the deciding factor for a recreator making a life or death decision. More and more, people are heading into Canada’s mammoth mountain ranges in the winter months to recreate. As a result, they’re turning to Avalanche Canada to provide critical information about avalanche conditions to help make decisions and keep themselves safe in the backcountry. […]

Whether robots are exploring caves on other planets or disaster areas here on Earth, autonomy enables them to navigate extreme environments without human guidance or access to GPS. The Subterranean Challenge, or SubT, is testing this kind of cutting-edge technology. Sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the contest concluded its second circuit on Wednesday, Feb. 27. Taking first in the competition was CoSTAR, a 12-robot, 60-person team led by […]

Image: Left Hand Robotics New BOLT platform enables equipment manufacturers to automate outdoor jobs, adding autonomous navigation, connected sensors and real-time operations to machines. Left Hand Robotics, pioneer and manufacturer of self-driving smart robots for commercial turf and snow, has launched BOLT, a technology platform that transforms outdoor machinery and power equipment into smarter, more efficient, ready-to-work robots. BOLT brings autonomous navigation, connected sensors, and real-time robot operations to outdoor power equipment and machines doing […]

March 2, 2020 On Dec. 17, it was -15 degrees outside and, after a long day working on his Alaskan homestead, Tyson Steele had forgotten to stoke the woodstove fire before drifting off to sleep. Awoken by a chill in the middle of night, he quickly tossed a big piece of cardboard, some split logs and tinder into the fire and went back to bed. That decision would unfold into a nightmare that Steele had […]

Photo: Quantum Reversal Quantum Reversal has released the QR100, a novel L1/L2 GPS anti-jamming unit, and the QR101, an  L1/L2 GPS anti-jamming antenna, designed for the commercial market to solve the issue of unintentional RF interference or jamming. The QR100 uses three external passive or active GPS antennas of the user’s choice, while the QR101 has three passive L1/L2 antennas embedded inside the enclosure. Low power consumption of 1 Watt and low cost allow for […]

February 28, 2020 In Lawrence, Kansas, a team at the University of Kansas School of Aerospace Engineering has taken technology from the 1970s and created a tool designed to gather environmental research data. The technology? A 1974 Cessna 172. The team has specially modified the aircraft with an advanced airborne radar designed to measure regional snow thickness throughout South Dakota’s Black Hills region. The Mission After spending four years in the hangar, the KU team […]

Four new satellites of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) have recently passed tests in orbit and joined the system to provide positioning, navigation and timing services. The four satellites include the 47th, 48th, 52nd and 53rd satellites of the BDS family, according to China’s Satellite Navigation System Management Office. All of them, operating in medium Earth orbit, were developed by the China Academy of Space Technology under the China […]

More launches planned for March and May Four new satellites of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) have passed tests in orbit and joined the system to provide positioning, navigation and timing services, according to China news service Xinhuanet. The four satellites include the 47th, 48th, 52nd and 53rd satellites of the BDS family, according to China’s Satellite Navigation System Management Office. All of them, operating in medium Earth orbit, were developed by the China […]

February 28, 2020 What started out as a fairly routine backcountry freeride on snowbikes — dirt bikes with ski and track conversions designed for deep snow — turned into an unexpected situation that left Craig Hunter and three other party members stranded in a deep ravine in freezing temperatures. In his own words, Hunter shared with Garmin the details of their 40-hour ordeal, SOS, night in the woods and rescue in the Canadian Chic Chocs. […]