Posted on 06/07/2016 9:25:27 AM PDT by MarchonDC09122009
FAA Warns of GPS Outages This Month During Mysterious Tests on the West Coast
http://gizmodo.com/faa-warns-of-gps-outages-this-month-during-mysterious-t-1780866590
You could with a field coil or a magnet. ;)
“No matter the mode of transport, it’s a pretty good idea to have a clue how to navigate without the technology.”
North is that direction to the east, right? Like where that blue thingy on my phone points?
Also, if I have a paper roadmap, how do I download updates? And how can I determine the terrain? Is there like a 3D effect on paper that I am not aware of?
I can navigate anywhere! Follow me, I know the way! :-P
““driverless” cars use GPS. How would this work out if all cars were “driverless” as some people would like to see?”
GPS is typically only used for vehicle tracking and route planning. Don’t confuse autonomous vehicle operation with the way your GPS based navigator works. In the case of a navigator, it is using GPS to tell you exactly where to turn.
Autonomous vehicles rely on sensor data mounted around the vehicle to drive much like you’d use your eyes and ears when driving w/o a navigator and told how to get somewhere in advance. GPS is only used in the route planning stages. GPS *could* be used to interrupt the planned route if things like congestion are detected. However, GPS would *never* be used to tell the car’s steering subsystem to make a turn for example.
Any engineer that uses any GPS data to control the vehicle with respect to actual driving needs removed from the project ... like yesterday ... that’s just flat out dangerous.
Good training for sure.
I have not been to Antarctica yet, I was repeating hearsay from soneone who went there. When I go I will fer shur have GPS since one million-acre slab of snow looks pretty much like any other!
I am not a proponent of self driving cars any more than I am of having pilotless planes (I am a pilot, call me old school), but for over a decade now, differential GPS has been used for autonomous control of vehicles, specifically for example agricultural tractors where the DGPS allowed the tractor to plow perfect rows to within a centimeter. I cant speak to how much of an impact that has been on the farming industry, but just thought I'd make that comment.
I’ll make a deal with you, you go to Antarctica and check it out, and I’ll go to some south pacific islands and check it out. We can swap stories when (if) I get back. ;)
Yeah, read that but thanks!
Wonder what the scheduled airlines will have to say about that?
GPS satellites are not in geosynchronous orbit. The constellation is designed so that at least 6 satellites are in view from almost anywhere on earth and those 6 are constantly changing. You need to see 4 for the system to work.
I’ll come back with meteorites!
“North is that direction to the east, right?”
I think it was Glen Beck years ago on how stupid the average person was. He would call people up and ask them “At YOUR house - in which direction does the sun rise? North, south, east, or west? Now remember - this is at YOUR house.”
He would have people go out their front door (”okay, so you’re saying just like on the map with north on top, the front of your house is north?....)
:-)
Flying an A-10 before INS was a real challenge. . .1:250 maps required a real map reading/navigating skill and an ability to fold and “juggle” the maps. . .let alone if your flight profile took you from one map to another. . .
“specifically for example agricultural tractors where the DGPS allowed the tractor to plow perfect rows to within a centimeter”
Yes, you are 100% correct there :-). That’s a totally different problem though :-). I’m throwing around the idea of making a self-driving lawn mower using a bunch of spare parts I have in the garage ... I’d be using GPS for that :-). To prevent someone from being attacked by a lawnmower, I only need a sensor/algorithm to detect something in or near the path of the lawnmower so that it stops until it feels safe enough to continue (I don’t have to worry too much about random lifeforms jumping in front of it ... this is just for personal use / fun and games and nothing I’d ever sell).
I should have specified autonomous automobiles on our roads (so called self-driving cars). It’s a totally different scenario with a vastly different number of problems to solve.
I work in the industry (robotics in general) ... I have mixed feelings when it comes to self-driving cars personally. I can see *how* they work. I can see how we have the technology to make it happen rather quickly. I can see how it *could* be very safe.
What I don’t see is the patience these companies are going to be required to have to meet 99.99999% safety standards nor do I see the discipline required by engineers to implement the hardware and software properly given today’s trend of overpromising results and understaffing projects.
I mean, look at what VW and some other companies do just to bypass environmental regulations. If you perform similar tricks with autonomous cars, no matter how benign they seem, you WILL increase the probability of killing people. That’s what scares me. I guess its more of a question of being mature enough as a society to let these things run in the wild.
The Denver sectional is a mess. We are smack dab in the middle of three sectionals (Denver, Wichita, and Cheyenne), a Class B and C, and a multitude of Ds, not to mention a dozen restricted airspaces to watch out for. Map reading is a fun skill to keep alive.
P.S. Not to mention the Cumulogranite clouds to the west.
No matter the mode of transport, it’s a pretty good idea to have a clue how to navigate without the technology.
...
I wonder what they used when sextants got jammed.
Hah.. .reminds me of an old crusty A-10 instructor I had back in the day; “Son, you can never beat the low fly record, only tie it.”
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