Resilient and Reliable AI-powered APNT in GPS-Denied Areas

BPS (BlueSpace Positioning Solution) Launches at CES 2024

Stanford

SPOF: Single Point of Failure

“Single point of failure” (SPOF) are not the words you want to hear when it comes to safety and mission critical solutions. The National Security Council director Caitlin Durkovich described the Global Positioning System (GPS) as “a significant single point of failure in our country.”¹

For safe and reliable navigation, autonomous vehicles need to know their pose (position and orientation) in the world at all times. In order to achieve this, currently, they heavily rely on accurate GPS measurements every second.

However, GPS signal strength suffers by the time it gets to the Earth - similar to 25-watt light bulb shining 12,500 miles away.² It can easily be jammed or intentionally spoofed by adversaries, and be blocked due to urban canyons, terrain, or underground tunnels. 

What can happen when GPS signals are degraded or denied?

OPSGROUP, an international group of pilots and flight technicians, sounded the alarm as more commercial air lines are experiencing unprecedented GPS spoofing in the Middle Eastern region.³ Several commercial flights near Iran went astray after navigation systems went blind resulting in one of the aircraft almost flying into Iranian airspace without permission.⁴

“Suspected Russian GPS Jamming Risks Fresh Dangers In Black Sea Region” - RadioFreeEurope⁵

In recent years, the Russian government has deliberately and systematically interfered with GPS signals in the ongoing crisis in Ukraine where Russian forces installed powerful radio-jammers designed to interfere with signals that help direct GPS-guided munitions and drones.⁵

“The Kremlin Eats GPS for Breakfast” - Moscow Times⁶

Accurate PNT is necessary for the day to day functioning of critical infrastructure such as the electrical power grid. So critical that the White House issued Executive Order 13905 to strengthen PNT.⁷ There has been concerted efforts by the U.S. Army to find alternative solutions while reducing the reliance on GPS for soldiers in contested environments.⁸ Most recently, Collins Aerospace has been awarded a half billion dollar contract to provide APNT capabilities for vehicles.

How Well Does BPS Perform?

BlueSpace is a pioneer in providing the first APNT product utilizing next-generation 4D sensors. BlueSpace Positioning Solution (BPS) offers significant advantages through superior performance (<0.3% cross track error) in a cost-effective way. 

Benchmarking to the industry standard of roughly 1% error over distance traveled (“CTE” or drift error), BPS performs with higher accuracy across all surfaces. Due to our software’s capability to utilize industrial grade IMUs, significant improvements to SWaP-C are seen, notably in cost. This enables 10x more warfighters to be equipped with APNT in the field where accurate positioning and coordination among multiple units will be critical in successful mission completion.

*Higher error rate attributable to sensor setup with only forward facing lidar.

Compared to existing players that may need to ping GPS every second to maintain their positional accuracy, BPS only pings once a minute (assuming traveling at ~40-50mph). BPS can be more selective about accepting or rejecting degraded GPS measurements without interrupting operations, ensuring we maintain our accuracy over longer distances. Watch as BPS enters GPS-denied tunnels with uninterrupted, reliable performance.

Furthermore, with no additional hardware, BlueSpace provides real time mapping capabilities and situational awareness.

Having edge AI at your fingertips ensures successful missions and uninterrupted operations especially when it’s time critical and in contested areas.

Commercial applications include challenging and dynamic underground mining environments where GPS is prone to disruption or failure. Reliable and consistent positioning of mining equipment and movement is safety critical and monumental to the productivity and safety of mining operations.

Best yet, our edge AI solution has no geofence limitation, and neither prior training data nor HD mapping needs. This is what powers our autonomy solution to be reliable and scalable, both on and off-road.

Interested in trying BPS? Email us: contact@bluespace.ai

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References:

1. “NSC Director: GPS ‘still a Single Point of Failure’ - GPS World.” GPS World - The Business and Technology of Global Navigation and Positioning, 5 Jan. 2022, www.gpsworld.com/nsc-director-gps-still-a-single-point-of-failure/.

2. “The Global Positioning System for Military Users: Current Modernization Plans and Alternatives.” Congressional Budget Office, 28 Oct. 2011, www.cbo.gov/publication/42727#section5.

3. “Flights Misled over Position, Navigation Failure Follows.” International Ops 2023 - OPSGROUP, 28 Sept. 2023, ops.group/blog/gps-spoof-attacks-irs/.

4. “Commercial Flights Are Experiencing ‘unthinkable’ GPS Attacks and Nobody Knows What to Do.” VICE, 20 Nov. 2023, www.vice.com/en/article/m7bk3v/commercial-flights-are-experiencing-unthinkable-gps-attacks-and-nobody-knows-what-to-do.

5. Angelov, Georgi A. “Suspected Russian GPS Jamming Risks Fresh Dangers in Black Sea Region.” RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, RFE/RL, 26 Oct. 2023, www.rferl.org/a/russia-gps-jamming-black-sea-romania-bulgaria-ukraine/32655397.html.

6. Editor. “‘the Kremlin Eats GPS for Breakfast’ - Moscow Times.” RNTF, 26 June 2019, rntfnd.org/2018/09/11/the-kremlin-eats-gps-for-breakfast-moscow-times/.

7. “The Federal Register.” Federal Register :: Request Access, www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/02/18/2020-03337/strengthening-national-resilience-through-responsible-use-of-positioning-navigation-and-timing. Accessed 17 Jan. 2024.

8. “CCDC’s Road Map to Modernizing the Army: Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing.” USAASC, 28 Sept. 2020, asc.army.mil/web/news-ccdcs-road-map-to-modernizing-the-army-assured-positioning-navigation-and-timing/.