Blog Layout

COLLISION AVOIDANCE: HELP URGENTLY NEEDED

COLLISION AVOIDANCE: HELP URGENTLY NEEDED

Let me begin with a quote worth repeating — “Do we really need to wait for a catastrophe before taking action against GNSS vulnerabilities ?” — and follow with an extension of scope beyond. 


It’s encouraging to see LinkedIn discussions recognizing ADSB limitations that preclude dependable collision avoidance capability – but that recognition needs to be far more widespread. The limitations are both severe and multifaceted including, in addition to vulnerability from inadequate security,

 * accuracy goals based on present position instead of the monumentally more important relative velocity — ADSB allows 10 meter/sec velocity error (!), without characterization as vectorial or relative or probabilistic.

 * the glaring but near-universal flaw of sharing coordinates, thereby failing to exploit what made differential operation spectacularly successful: work with individual measurements separately.


Note that these deficiencies existed long before the emergence of unmanned vehicles. The need to correct them is as fundamental as it is urgent. I’ve communicated these concerns over and over, most recently receiving a gratifying response from my June 11 presentation to the satnav National Advisory Board , with details available from URLs at the end.

 In that presentation I cited a successful flight validation achieving accuracy on the order of cm/sec, for the crucially important relative velocity between vehicles that can be on or near a collision course. That is a thousand times less error than the 10 meter/sec allowed by ADSB. Furthermore, reduction by a thousand in each of two directions translates into a million times less area of uncertainty. To realize this crucial safety improvement no new discoveries are needed and no new equipment needs to be invented; only the content of transmitted data needs to change: measurements rather than coordinates. Yet usage of the method is not being planned. After initially proposed before 2000, a limited support program started circa 2010 is the only step taken toward this direction.


No claim is made that the last word has been spoken or that introduction of the needed modifications — nor accompanying regulation — would be trivial.  The intent here is not criticism and complaints for the sake of criticism and complaints.  Emphasizing unwelcome reality always caries risk of drawing wrath.  Nevertheless, especially now with growing usage of unmanned vehicles, sounding an alarm is better than passively waiting for a calamity. So here’s an alarm: Inadequate preparation for collision avoidance is a microcosm of a much wider overall flaw in today’s decision-making process. For years substantial numbers of qualified people have spent extensive effort trying to prevent cataclysmic failures in one area or another involving PNT (position/navigation/timing).  They definitely deserve attention and action.


Anything approaching a thorough compilation of worthy advocacy would require considerable length; just a few recent examples are cited here.  Explanations tracing inaction to current shortcomings can logically include a diagnosis of dissatisfaction expressed at a pinnacle of authority within DoD . An even more current offering is only the latest expression of regret over insufficient support for satnav, describing a highly relevant chain of inaction over a multiyear period. Near the beginning of that period, a cover story for Coordinates magazine repeated a quote from the previous month’s cover story   The quote worth repeating, cited at the start of this, is a perfect expression of the frustration prevalent over a decade following the universally acclaimed 2001 Volpe report. Now, almost a decade-and-a-half after that report, partial progress toward a solution coexists with minimal progress toward collision avoidance — while unmanned vehicles are already threatening passenger flight safety. Now to extend the quote: “Do we really need to wait for a catastrophe before making better use of measurements — GNSS or otherwise — to prevent collisions in the presence of increased manned and unmanned traffic?”


By James Farrell 09 May, 2023
A look back in time by James L Farrell, PHD - 2023
11 Apr, 2020
Apologies for little posting lately. Much activity included some with deadlines; this will focus primarily on the few years leading up to Covid.
11 Apr, 2020
GNSS Aided Navigation & Tracking
By James Farrell 30 Aug, 2018
Apologies for little posting lately. Much activity included some with deadlines; this will be limited to the past twelve months. In 2017 my involvement in the annual GNSS+ Conference again included teaching the satnav/inertial integration tutorial sessions with OhioU Prof. Frank vanGraas. Part I and Part II are likewise being offered for Sept 2018. Also...Read More
28 Jun, 2018
Once again I am privileged to work with Ohio University Prof. Frank vanGraas, in presenting tutorial sessions at the Institute of Navigation’s GNSS-19 conference. In 2019, as in several consecutive previous years, two sessions will cover integrated navigation with Kalman filtering.  Descriptions of the part 1 session and part 2 session are now available online. By way of...Read More
30 Apr, 2018
The Institute of Navigation’s GNSS+ 2018 Conference provides me the privilege of collaborating with two of the industry’s pillars of expertise. Ohio University Professor Frank van Graas and I are offering fundamental and advanced tutorials.  Then on the last day of the conference I’m coauthored with William Woodward, Chairman of SAE Int’l Aerospace Avionics Systems Division and hardware lead...Read More
24 Apr, 2018
A new SAE standard for GPS receivers is a natural complement to a newly receptive posture toward innovation unmistakably expressed at high levels in FAA and Mitre (ICNS 2018).  Techniques introduced over decades by this author (many on this site) can finally become operational. 1980s euphoria over GPS success was understandable but decision-makers, lulled into complacency, defined requirements in adherence...Read More
22 Mar, 2018
At April’s ICNS meeting (Integrated Communications Navigation and Surveillance) as coauthor with Bill Woodward (Chairman, SAE International Aerospace Avionics Systems Division), I’ll present “NEW INTERFACE REQUIREMENTS: IMPLICATIONS for FUTURE“.  By “future” we indicate the initiation of a task to conclude with a SAE standard that will necessitate appearance of separate satellite measurements to be included...Read More
16 Jul, 2016
A recent video describes a pair of long-awaited developments that promise dramatic benefits in achievable navigation and tracking performance.  Marked improvements will occur, not only in accuracy and availability; over four decades this topic has arisen in connection with myriad operations, many documented in material cited from other blogs here. 
12 Feb, 2016
For reasons, consider a line from a song in Gilbert-&-Sullivan’s Gondoliers: “When everybody is somebody, then nobody is anybody” — (too many cooks) For consequences, consider this question: Should an intolerable reality remain indefinitely intolerable? While much of the advocacy expressed in my publications and website have focused on tracking and navigation, this tract concentrates...Read More
More Posts
Share by: