I am a high tech, services oriented firm. This means that I don’t buy lots of equipment or keep raw material for manufacturing, rather we work with ideas, and produce intangible products like reports, and databases, and software. As such I do not have a strong feel for what other manufacturing or high fixed asset firms face, but let me tell you what I have faced. I’ll start with a little story. A couple of years ago, I was facing cash flow challenges, and my SBDC mentor suggested I go meet with managers at several local banks to tell them about my business and see if they would help me. So I first went to meet with a vice president at an Oregon based bank. I told him of my company, my corporate record, my plans. My financials showed high debt and no assets. I asked if he could set up a cash flow account so I could borrow funds as I needed them. He said financially he could not do this since I had no assets to use as collateral. He recommended I work on my financials to get them in order and we could talk again.

So I worked on my financials, but still with debt and no assets, I went and met with the president of another local bank. I told him the same story. I was an up and coming company with solid receivables. I was paying off debt and was seeking a cash flow line of credit. He looked at my financials and said my debt was too high and I had no collateral to loan money against. Contracts continued to come in and I continued to add employees. At one point, last spring, I was able to pay off my line of credit, but still had an outstanding balance on a credit card. Over the summer I hired a couple of interns and was a bit careless in watching my billable hours and cash flows. When the autumn came around I was again maxed out on my credit, and had to go to my wife and tell her our paycheck would be late (for the first time since I set up shop in Oregon). At this point I had $22K in credit card debt and $51K of unsecured debt.

My wife (who has a business degree and a very smart head on her shoulders) sat down with me and worked out a plan for paying the company’s bills, making payroll for our employees, and for getting back on the plus side. I executed the plan to the letter, sitting down with our employees and explaining the need to work billable hours to help get us out of this situation. Only with some good invoices could we make it. We tightened up, cut our spending, worked hard for our clients, and as the months went by the overdraft was paid off, the cash flow line of credit was paid off, and the credit card debt was paid off. Today I have no long term debt and $20K in the checking account.

So, what is the lesson from this story? The lesson for me is that I did not need another loan. What I needed was guidance from those smarter and more experienced than me. I needed to get my house in order, learning to manage my business more efficiently, relying less on money to pull me out of difficulty and more on sound business practices. And how did I learn this? By my SBDC mentor, by experienced bank officers, by my common-sense wife.

My takeaway from all of this is that the greatest benefit to small businesses is knowledge. This comes in many forms. I have been sending my employees to classes. My administrative assistant has taken classes in accounting, in QuickBooks, and in best practices for being an administrative assistant. One of my engineers has taken classes in managing people, and is scheduled to take a class in project management. And I have completed a two year class in small business management at our local Small Business Development Center. I strongly recommend that any small business get educated on how to run a small business and that it send employees to classes to help them learn to do their jobs better.

Question – What steps could state or federal government agencies take to help make small businesses successful?

My answer – While the tendency for many agencies is to set up programs to lend money, I believe the focus should be on training businesses to be successful. It is easy to find courses on how to start a business or on how to win government contracts. What is sometimes difficult to find is classes on how to run a business in a down economy or on how to manage a government contract. Here is what I see happening. A person in a leadership position says, “The economy is down. Small businesses are hurting. Do they need training? No, the community colleges and the SBDCs can handle that. They must need something else. So we will work on lending them money.” What the person in the leadership position is not seeing is that the courses are not the right courses, or that the courses are not well attended, or that the businesses are not sending people to courses. What we need is a campaign to educate small businesses in being successful in the new economy. This consists of the following:

• First, teach the teachers – offer classes for the educators in SBDCs to learn ways to help small businesses in a down economy. Have them learn practical steps businesses can take to take advantage of the Web in getting new clients or finding new opportunities. Teach them how to set up plans to get finances under control.
• Second, provide a media campaign – make the small businesses aware of the opportunities through this program. Sign them up for not just one class, but for multiple classes, whether it is breaking into new markets, retooling for new products, or educating employees to learn good work habits. Too often classes are offered, but are poorly attended because people are unaware of them. Think entrepreneurially, moving beyond mere newspaper ads to making direct contact with businesses by telephone, but tables at events, by presentations to Chambers and Rotary meetings, or by forums on special topics.
• Finally, incentivize the directors and deans at community colleges – offer funding for schools if they send their teachers to the classes, and offer subsidies to defray the costs of courses not well attended at first. Help to update web sites and set up social networks so the businesses will not only join the program, but stay with the program year after year.

These are only a few ideas of what can be done. What is needed is to see that a dollar spent on a loan make come back as two dollars in sales or as a failed business. But a dollar spent on education will result in smarter business owners and employees, and lead to more profitable and successful businesses. And who knows, maybe the owner could one day become their state’s small business person of the year!

Oregon is well positioned to serve the state and the nation in the responsible consideration of wave energy as a viable source of renewable energy. It is home to the Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center which is a national resource in assessing the performance and endurance of wave energy devices in the ocean. Oregon is also home to a cutting-edge wave energy research facility at Oregon State University, leading the nation in exploring the technologies that could be used for the generation of sustainable, non-polluting energy. Oregon has the industry muscle and experience on the ocean to manufacture and deploy wave energy devices. And finally, Oregon is home to the Oregon Wave Energy Trust, which has taken a leadership role for not only Oregon but for the nation in the responsible investigation of all aspects of wave energy development, including its impacts to the environment and stakeholders concerns.

Thus, Oregon is in a unique position in our nation to (1) explore the costs, environmental and social impacts, and benefits of wave energy; (2) manufacture wave energy conversion devices for use throughout the Pacific Northwest; and (3) deploy wave energy conversion devices in its waters, thereby contributing to a reduced dependence on fossil fuels for supplying energy to homes and businesses.

Recognizing the foregoing, I recommend the following:

1.     Oregon should leverage its expertise in testing of ocean renewable energy and allocate space in the territorial sea for the testing of wave energy conversion devices of all kinds (near shore and off shore)

2.     Oregon should anticipate and support the responsible use of the territorial sea for use by developers and power companies for the deployment and operation of wave energy conversion devices.

The legislature seeks ways wisely to spend state revenues. In your search, forget not the great value found in investment in marine science to support sustainable fisheries, understand ocean behaviors, and protect its ecosystem. Organizations such as OSU’s Coastal Experiment Station help lead many of these initiatives. The numbers in support of ocean research are clear: tens of millions of dollars in direct revenues from the Federal government, hundreds of jobs for government and state employees, universities, and contractors. We know it is prudent to leverage state funds to obtain other dollars. Other states have large military bases that bring in projects and jobs. In Oregon our federal contribution is ocean research, — in marine science, in fisheries, and in wave energy. The investment you have made has already begun to pay off. Continue to make this investment and continue to fuel this economic growth for our state.

Thank you for coming to the Oregon Coast.”

So back to the original question, why should I have been selected? Well, let me tell you a bit about what I do, and you will learn a lot about this region, and perhaps get an inkling behind the opportunity for business development in this little part of Oregon.

I came to Newport in February 2007, and started consulting for a government client on GPS policy matters. Not bad work for one individual, but it can get mighty lonely. Not long after that I met Guy Faust, director of the Small Business Development Center. I was interested in working with the SBDC based on my excellent experience with SCORE years before in Colorado Springs. Guy put me in touch with Ron Spisso, an SBDC advisor who ran a multi-year Small Business Management course. I signed up for the two year SBM program, which included two hours per month of one on one mentoring. Ron suggested I join the local Chamber of Commerce and attend its meetings. Each week the Chamber has a luncheon, with a different speaker from the community. It did not take me long to realize that by attending the Chamber luncheons once a week, within a year I would have heard from every major player in the community. In the fall, I learned of a class entitled Leadership Lincoln, combining lecture and workshop formats and taught by area resident John Baker, who gave local leaders everything they needed to know about how Lincoln County operated, from the hospital to the school district to the government agencies and the court system.

After getting my business going in Newport, I spoke with my business mentor Ron Spisso about the need for a local technology group in the county. Such a group could support local businesses such as mine, and provide networking opportunities and connections to the many groups active in the area. So Ron connected me up with several other technology leaders, such as Curt Abbott (programmer), Misty Lambrecht (web site developer), Greg Scott (former dean of OSU business school), and Paul Lucas (local entrepreneur in voice response technology). We formed the Lincoln County Technology Solutions Alliance, and began to hold public meetings on technology topics of interest and involved area high schools students. As chair for this group, I was invited to join the Yaquina Bay Economic Foundation, a group of business and government leaders who support economic development activities in the region. The beneficial effect of the YBEF has been immense, creating our community college and our Aquarium (rated one of the top ten in the nation). It was not long after joining, I asked the group to support an initiative to make technology development a priority for our region. To date the LCTSA has held or sponsored over 15 public meetings on technology ranging from business focus (web site optimization, use of social media, and communications security) to technology focus (wave energy technology, smart grid program for electrical power, navigation aids at the airport, ). We have also had student groups give presentations on their work in robotics, video technology, and computer numerically controlled machines.

As I got involved in all these groups, I learned about issues facing our region and the coast we live on. I attended meetings conducted by the Oregon Wave Energy Trust, Oregon Sea Grant, Ocean Policy Advisory Council, and lectures on the ocean at Hatfield Marine Science Center. And I began to think there were problems needing solving that my little company could take on. Like any small company, we submitted many proposals and got many rejections. But we learned from our mistakes and began to bid on work that was accepted. An infrastructure assessment on wave energy development in Oregon. An information kiosk for Oregon albacore tuna. A database to hold fish catch and genetic data for Oregon salmon. A fish catch traceability system for the Gulf of Mexico. We worked hard and provided quality products and services, and before you know it, we developed a reputation as a company that understands client needs and provides effective technical solutions. Each year sales have increased and we have hired employees. I’ve been proud to offer family wage jobs with full benefits, – paid time off and health care.

So how is it that I have reached this point in developing our small business? It is through engaging with my community, taking advantage of all it has to offer, and helping to improve not just my company, but the community at large. So here is a list of those organizations that have contributed to my company’s success.

• Small Business Development Center
  • Provided classes for me and my employees, including small business management, QuickBooks training, accounting
• Small Business Management program
  • Provided counseling and guidance on growing my business from a consulting company of one to a thriving company employing many
• Chamber of Commerce
  • Weekly lunches provide speakers from throughout county have taught me about every part of the community where we work
• Leadership Lincoln
  • Provided networking experiences with business and government leaders in the community
• Lincoln County Technology Solutions Alliance
  • Fostered an understanding and use of technology in our region and supporting networking among technology professionals
• Yaquina Bay Economic Foundation
  • Provided a venue to tap into the vision and leadership of area leaders, and encourage collaboration and unified action to help our region.

Many people focus only on developing their own business in an effort to make it profitable. The approach I have taken and which I recommend to others is to also work to make the community successful, and then both the community and business will be successful. This has been a most successful approach for me.

Full script: tile.py
Dependencies: Python Image Library and Crazed Monkey’s googletilecutter.sh
Demo: Project CROOS (click “charts” in the top right)

For the Project CROOS Fisherman Portal we needed to create a custom overlay for Google Maps. Follow the link and click “charts” on the top right corner of the map once the map has fully loaded to see the result. To add a custom overlay an image has to be specified for every tile on the map. The javascript api implementation can be found here and here, but that is another topic for another day. This article addresses cutting the image into tiles that and be referenced with the getTileUrl() function.

We started by using a bash script found at Crazed Monkey. Unfortunately this only works at one zoom level so full implementation would require resizing the image in GMIP and repeatedly running the script for every zoom level. Additionally the tile coordinates and padding must be calculated; a very tedious task for more than one zoom level. To get around this I wrote a python script that resizes and recalculates for all levels. The full script can be found here. It is invoked with:

$ python /path/to/script/tile.py /path/to/image/imagename.png N_latitude,W_longitude S_latitude,E_longintude > output.sh
$ bash /path/to/script/output.sh

More succinctly:

$ python ./tile.py <path>/img.png N,W S,E > output.sh
$ ./output.sh

The path to the image MUST be the full path. Note the lack of spaces around the comma separating each component of the coordinate pairs. This is important because the script takes 3 arguments. The output of tile.py is saved to output.sh which executes the tile cutter program.

The script starts out with two functions used to calculate the tile number and pixel number of a given lat/long pair. A more in depth analysis of the coordinate system can be found at Mark McClure’s site out of UNCA. In short Google Maps divides the world into 2^z tiles (where z is the zoom level), by dividing every tile in half at every zoom level. Each tile consists of 256 pixels. These functions convert the corners of the image to Google Maps coordinates.

def latlon2xy(z,lat,lon):
    x,y = latlon2px(z,lat,lon)
    x = int(x/256),int(x%256)
    y = int(y/256),int(y%256)
    return x,y

def latlon2px(z,lat,lon):
    x = 2**z*(lon+180)/360*256
    y = -(.5*math.log((1+math.sin(math.radians(lat)))/(1-math.sin(math.radians(lat))))\
/math.pi-1)*256*2**(z-1)    #hyper complex Mercator projection super trig... blech!
    return x,y

Next the variables to be used are parsed from the command line and processed into working variables:

imageFile = sys.argv[1]
imageName = imageFile.split('/')[-1]
imageDir = '/'.join(imageFile.split('/')[:-1])
latlon1 = eval(sys.argv[2])
latlon2 = eval(sys.argv[3])
img = Image.open(imageFile)
size = img.size
prev = (1,2)
cutter = './googletilecutter-0.11.sh'

The path to crazedmonkey’s cutter script should be set (if it is not in the same directory as the python script). Finally the script iterates over the zoom levels. The values of z should be changed to suit your needs. This for loop resizes the image (so that one image pixel equals one map pixel) and prints out a bash script that will execute the cutter script for the given padding and tile number.

for z in range(5,13):     #zoom levels 5-12
    px1 = latlon2px(z,*latlon1)
    px2 = latlon2px(z,*latlon2)
    width = int(px2[0]-px1[0])
    height = int(px2[1]-px1[1])
    x,y = latlon2xy(z,*latlon1)
    tile = '%s,%s'%(x[0],y[0])
    padding = '%s,%s'%(x[1],y[1])
    try:
        os.mkdir(os.path.join(imageDir,str(z)))
    except:
        pass
    os.chdir(os.path.join(imageDir,str(z)))
    if size[0]*1.5
        img5 = img
    else:
        img5 = img.resize((width, height), Image.NEAREST)
    newImage = os.path.join(os.getcwd(),imageName[:-4]+"-%s"%z+imageName[-4:])
    print img5.size
    img5.save(imageName[:-4]+"-%s"%z+imageName[-4:])
    print 'cd '+os.getcwd()
    print '%s -o %s -t %s -z %s -p %s %s'%(cutter,z,tile,z,padding,newImage)
    prev = tile,padding

The greater than sign (%gt;output.sh) in the first line of the first code block of this article was used to output this script to a file that can then be executed from the command line. At this point you may be wondering “why not just use os.system() or pipe the commands into bash”. Originally the tile cutter script was invoked with os.system(), but memory issues occurred at zoom level 10. By executing the code after the fact, I was able to get up to zoom level 12. The end result will be a folder for every zoom level containing an image for every map tile. For example ./11/z11x321y767.png at z=11, x=321, y=767 (which I believe is the southern Oregon coast).

And now, a few final thoughts on how this could be improved. One weakness in the script is that it requires a continuous image. If two images are used that line up with each other, then there will exist a gap in the overlay where the images meet equal to the “padding” parameter of the tile cutter script. One work around would be to alter the command line to accept multiple files and then use the Python Image Library to correct this phenomenon. An easier work around (but not as modular) would be to make sure that the border on each image lines up with a tile border in Google Maps. At the tile border the padding is 0, and once you correct for zoom level z, the correction will hold true for every zoom level greater than z.

Additionally the script is relying on googletilecutter.sh unnecessarily. We could have taken this one step further and used PIL to cut the map into tiles. This may have allowed us to go to higher zoom levels. However, budget constraints (and a tiny bit of laziness) prevented this. Since there was no obvious advantage to rewriting the script from scratch we stopped short of writing it all in house.

That’s it for now. I’ll be happy to answer any questions.

Full script: tile.py
Demo: Project CROOS (click “charts” in the top left once the map has loaded)

A group of people got together a few years back and decided they could do much to foster a steady, sustainable salmon industry by applying principles of science and sound management, along with information transparency. The project they started, the Collaborative Research on Oregon Ocean Salmon (ProjectCROOS), was funded in June 2006 through the Oregon Legislature Emergency Board. ProjectCROOS is located at the Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon. Researchers, working in cooperative partnerships with Oregon salmon fishers, have been combining at-sea and laboratory research to develop refined spatial and temporal approaches for significantly reducing overfishing of weak salmon stocks and avoiding long term closures of the salmon fishery. This is done by collecting data on the fish caught, tying it in with genetic samples analyzed by scientists, and then making the data available back to scientists, fishers, and fishery managers in a timely fashion.

The full benefit of such fishery data is reduction in bycatch (fish not desired to be caught, such as weak salmon stocks or fish other than salmon), more efficient fishing trips, more productive yields within set quota limits, and a sustainable fishery. For the consumer, there are benefits as well, with information on individual fish caught being made available immediately after the fish is brought ashore. Restaurateurs can now know which fisher and vessel caught their fish and verify where they were caught, supporting such brands as Oregon Troll Salmon, and then pass this information along to their diners.

How did ProjectCROOS accomplish all this? Well, first it started working with the fishers directly, rather than scientists, to serve as at-sea researchers collecting the data onboard the vessel when they catch the fish. Information such as fish length, GPS catch location, and the vessel and captain’s name are recorded and then later entered into a database on shore through a convenient web portal. Scientists are still part of the ProjectCROOS team, analyzing fish samples (scale samples, otoliths, milt, and eggs) to determine sex, maturity, and stock (river of origin) and then entering their findings into the database.

Live caught fishery data has a special restriction on it, being protected by congressional law. The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act was enacted in 1996 to conserve and manage the fishery resources found off the coasts of the United States and the anadromous species and Continental Shelf fishery resources of the United States. The law protects the confidentiality of the information submitted so that no one may access this information without authorization by its owner, — in this case the fisher who caught the fish. It does provide for the information to be made public if done in an aggregate or summary form that does not disclose the identity of the person submitting the information. The effect of this ruling is that the data is locked down and only accessible to those having authorization. Yet, if a fisher does want information on the fish to be made available (such as where the fish was caught), this can be done.

So I see a number of benefits for each member of ProjectCROOS:

• Fishers – They can use the fishery data to support more effective management of their fishing operations. They can compute statistics like fish caught per unit effort or fish per trip. They can look at map overlays showing where fish were found at various times throughout the season. In the future, oceanographic and meteorological data will be available to overlay on top of the fishery data to help the fisher more effectively locate fish. The result will be less time spent fishing and less fuel consumed, resulting in lower labor and fuel costs and less pollution.
• Fishery managers – They too can get valuable statistics to support their season projections and marketing plans, such as the number of fish caught per week, per month or per season.
• State and federal regulators – They can use the data to assess fish caught against quota and monitor the fish to the stock level rather than just to the species level. This would benefit fishers by keeping the season open for abundant fish stocks, and only restricting the harvest of fish with weak stocks.
• Scientists – They will have a vast array of information on the salmon, showing the number of fish caught, when they were caught, where the fish spawned, and where they were caught, besides information on fish age, size, and sex.
• Public – The public is able to have much more visibility into the fish they are buying, not only ensuring that it is wildcaught, but learning first hand about the fisher who caught the fish. This information is available right now for select fish on the Pacific Fish Trax website.

The future looks bright for the salmon fishery in the Pacific Northwest. Through today’s technology we are able to help each member of the salmon fish community, — the scientists, managers, regulators, fishers, and the public, — get a better understanding of the fishery each season, and use this information to ensure there is an abundance of wildcaught salmon year after year.

At the national level, the U.S. Government is now poised to implement the objectives of the National PNT Architecture. In this phase the architecture team proposed that smarter methods be investigated and adopted in implementing space-based navigation services. Today the tendency is for people to use global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) in one way, namely to provide independent estimates of user position and time states. The result is that GNSS is identified as having limitations when it comes to short term outages. These outages could be due to intentional or unintentional interference, masking, attenuation, ionosphere scintillation, obscuration, and multipath. With multiple independent phenomena occurring simultaneously, the result can be repeated breaks in phase tracking and an inability to resolve carrier phase cycle ambiguities. A solution for many is to launch more satellites or add additional signals to fill in these gaps. But there are techniques which can be used that do not require more signals, but in fact make better use of the signals that already exist.

Some of these techniques, such as Integrated navigation systems – that is, integration of GNSS with inertial measurement units (IMU) or with visual sensors, – are very well known These can result in complex and expensive systems. Another path only beginning to be explored is the use of partial, even fragmented, information.

Taking advantage of partial information

Neither temporarily high dilutions of precision (DOP) nor gaps in sufficient satellite counts should readily translate into loss of service. An overabundance of satellite signals so far has produced receiver designs having a high dependency on frequent full fixes. Justifications offered for such designs include exploitation of the full benefit from that abundance, self-sufficiency of receiver autonomous integrity monitoring (RAIM) with overabundance, and conceptual simplicity. Thus we routinely demand five satellites for fault detection and six for fault exclusion ─ with each subset of four having low enough geometric DOP (GDOP) to provide accurate instantaneous position. A reduction in availability necessary to support these capabilities has widened with satellite aging and vulnerability to interference. It is widely acknowledged that in future interference environments, more satellites cannot guarantee invulnerability. It is thus imperative to explore means of providing robust solutions that don’t require expensive upgrades to the constellation or to users nor dramatic scientific breakthroughs.

Fortunately there are low-cost solutions, containing multiple ingredients. We identify a survey of these ingredients here, and provide the reader references to a more detailed treatment of each.

For centuries we have worked from the basis that our ancient mariners would have never reached their destinations if they had insisted on full fixes. Clearly they used partial data on many an occasion ─ and for a half-century we’ve known how to do that optimally. The first key, then, is for today’s user-segment to capitalize on that self-evident opportunity. For example, allowing alternative communication paths, such as Mode-S squitters described in references 3 and 4, to send pseudoranges (with carrier phase adjustments and bandwidth-reduction methods currently in development) would instantly:

• enable usage of information that is lost in today’s “all-or-nothing” demand for full fixes,

• minimize or eliminate garble in a crowded environment [see reference 5], and

• allow participants to account for effects ignored in conventional approaches.

This last item yields a host of benefits. The most obvious is accounting for not only estimator covariances (that is, correlations between – and unequal variances of – errors in different directions, plus nonuniform sensitivities to each measurement), but dynamics. There is a dramatic reduction in latency effects while providing precise streaming dynamic history from 1-sec sequential changes in carrier phase − with no need to resolve integer ambiguity, and with the ability to continue operation through gaps in phase track continuity As if all that weren’t enough, 1-sec changes are insensitive to errors in instantaneous SV location; only the change over 1-sec needs to be precise and, for multi-constellation interoperability, it clearly doesn’t matter whether a 1-sec change came from GPS or any other satellite group (any timing difference, just as any integer offset, cancels from 1-sec subtraction). Furthermore, ionosphere/troposphere adjustments change so little in one second that 1-sec changes need no mask angle — a highly significant geometry benefit.

Protection against signals with large ranging errors is readily obtained. Each individual 1-sec phase change and each pseudorange can be acceptance-tested by single-measurement RAIM, which has been shown in full conformance to both Kalman estimation and rigorous matrix decomposition for parity. Thus we are free to reject any measurement at any time without rejecting every measurement at that time. For those hesitant to use that feature (e.g., due to unfamiliarity), the single-measurement RAIM tests can readily be followed by conventional (multi-SV) testing; nothing is lost.

All these issues and more have been validated in flight, with and without an IMU. We are quite confident that this is a compelling list of features − and there are still more than this limited space can contain.

Not yet flight-validated but firmly established in algorithmic form, and presently undergoing development, are ways to capitalize on these improvements for collision avoidance. Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) azimuth information lacks both accuracy and timeliness, thus necessitating last-moment disruptive, potentially dangerous, and often unnecessary climb/dive maneuvers. By communicating pseudorange measurements with adaptations as described above, repetitive dynamic trim commands could produce closest-approach separations in the horizontal plane combined with a gradual climb.

Next steps

The question is, how can the U.S. Government do more to help users overcome the limitations of GPS in their local environment? Adding more satellites (there are already 31) or improving their placement is always helpful, but the industry can do much on the user side with government help. If we are to extract maximum benefit from whatever resources exist, we must break some entrenched habits. Communicating with time-stamped measurements rather than rapidly perishable coordinates is an essential first step. Combining that information with algorithms already documented, with no proprietary rights claimed, affords enormous improvement in accuracy, integrity, availability, and continuity of service. Methods advocated herein are best matched with fast Fourier transform (FFT)-based receiver configurations, which eliminate the need for correlators and track loops. For a more detailed treatment on this see reference 6. Equipment could be certified by standardized blind tests derived from specified scenarios with degradations intentionally inserted into data streams. Testing is another whole issue requiring more space, but rest assured: only change – not any magic – is required.

Conclusion

High satellite availability over the past several years has led the navigation community to depend on full fixes and overdetermined solutions, deemphasizing the use of dynamics. Familiarity and preoccupation with instantaneous position have allowed robustness to become a casualty of convenience. The authors believe that marked improvements are entirely within reach, without a need for straining budgets or scientific breakthroughs, by exploiting a combination of well-known methods with other techniques which, due to relatively recent appearance, are largely unknown. The U.S. Government can take the lead by having its agencies actively explore and implement these options in helping their applications evolve to improve service using today’s available GPS resources.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect those of the U.S. Government or any of its departments or agencies.

References

[1] Robust Design for GNSS Integration, James L. Farrell, Proceedings of ION GNSS 2008, Savannah, Georgia link: http://jameslfarrell.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/robust.pdf

[2] Aging SV’s – We Have Solutions, James L. Farrell, Proceedings of ION GNSS 2009, Savannah, Georgia link: http://jameslfarrell.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/gnss09.pdf

[3] Aircraft surveillance based on GPS position broadcasts from Mode S beacon transponders, E. Bayliss, et al, Proceedings of ION GPS-94.

[4] GNSS Aided Navigation and Tracking, James L. Farrell, Amer. Literary Press link: http://jameslfarrell.com/published-books-gnss-aided-navigation-and-tracking/

gnss-aided-navigation-and-tracking

[5] GPS for military surveillance, G.A. van Sickle, GPS World, Nov. 1996.

[6] Comparison of two approaches for GNSS receiver algorithms: batch processing and sequential processing considerations, vanGraas, et. al., Proceedings of ION GNSS-2005

Copyright © 2010 John W. Lavrakas and James L. Farrell

But where does this data come from? We create data everyday when we log onto our computers and send email, when we purchase an item with a credit card, when we make a phone call. These are obvious forms of digital data and many of us have come to accept this as a normal part of our everyday life. But there are other forms of data. A simple observation like the sky is overcast or the water is cold can also be data. Data is simply a systematic way to organize observations about the environment we are in. There is no requirement that these observation need to be in a digital format.

I have recently been involved in an exciting project that seeks to transform observations from an everyday activity into valuable data about our world. Project CROOS (Collaborative Research in Oregon Ocean Salmon) is collecting data based on observations that up until now were not digital in nature. The goal of CROOS is to track and identify salmon stocks off the Oregon coast to help better understand and manage the fishery. The innovative approach is that the fisherman themselves are collecting the data as they go about their  profession.

A fisherman acts a data collector while at sea. Just as a fisherman harvests the bounty of the ocean they can now harvest the data from the ocean as well. They act as yet another node in the vast trans-human data network we have built. They tap into another equally complex data stream. Schools of salmon live their lives tracking prey, following water masses, and detecting small gradients in physical and chemical tracers in both ocean and freshwater environments. They integrate vast amounts of data over their lives, using it to guide their actions. So when a fisherman hooks a salmon from the cold depths of the ocean, there is data there. The fisherman notes the time, latitude, longitude, depth, and various other information about the fish. This is a small summary of  all the data the fish has assimilated and processed throughout  its life cycle. By collecting and then digitizing these observations the fisherman has added valuable information to our ever-growing network of data.

As humans we observe our environment and use our observations to make decisions. It follows then that the better our observations are and the more observations we make, the better our decisions can be. CROOS data collected by fisherman can help geneticists and biologists determine the rivers of origins of the fish being caught off our coast. This information can help us manage salmon on individual stock levels  as opposed to state and regional levels. Fisherman can shift their fishing effort away from areas with weak stocks and focus their efforts on healthy stocks. And the salmon can go about their life cycles eventually returning to the rivers and streams were they were born to give rise to the next generation.

Small communities offer unique opportunities to help businesses be successful. One is to form strong business relationships with local vendors. In this day and age when everyone is looking for the cheapest cost, they often overlook what may be the “best value”.  By “best value”, I mean doing business with a company that will provide a quality product or service, work with you, and go the extra mile to make sure you are pleased. Let me tell you of two recent encounters I had as a small business in obtaining services here in Newport, Oregon. Recently our company completed an important report for the state on the development technology of wave energy. Because of its importance in guiding Oregonians in the development of this alternate means of sustainable energy, we wanted our report to be both attractive and clear in presenting its information. So we contracted with two local businesses: Mandish Design and Lazerquick.  For us, like so many small businesses, cost was an issue. We just did not have a lot of money to put into these reports. But we wanted them to look good. Both companies we knew had good reputations for working with their clients. So we presented each a budget for what we could afford, and they in turn found ways to provide what we needed to make the report look good.

In each case, the work was not as straightforward as we had hoped. We weren’t sure what graphics we needed in all cases or how they should look, but the graphic artist, Dan Mandish, was patient in working with us in selecting each graphic and making sure all our needs were addressed. Likewise, in printing the document that we developed on one system (a Mac in Microsoft Word) and converted it to a PDF for printing on another system (a PC), we were faced with difficulties in having the fonts print off correctly. With patience and a lot of extra effort, we were able to finally get the document printed exactly the way we wanted it. The owner of Lazerquick, Rose Reed, worked long hours the final day to make sure the report printed the way we wanted it. Many times we have dealt with companies that either don’t understand what we want, don’t have the skills to do the special things we want done, or end up charging us more because the project took longer than had thought. It is the custom at our company to ensure the customer not pay more than the agreed upon price, even if things do not go as expected. And when we find other companies that work as we do, it is very much appreciated.

What if you have tried this and still have had the work turn out not the way you have wanted? Well, there are two choices. One is the obvious one of taking your business elsewhere. And this is your prerogative, and one I have exercised on occasion. The one I like better, though, is one in which you go to the company providing the bad service and remind them you would like to develop a long term working relationship with them. Let them know your expectations. And if work is substandard, let them know how they can correct the situation to foster a lasting relationship. Always be courteous, respectful, and professional, and more often than not, the company will work with you.

The lesson is clear. When seeking or providing products or services from businesses, find local businesses that provide the types of products and services you want, and work with them to build a working relationship. The result will be better value for you. And you might even make a new friend.

The service provided by GPS has historically been excellent with each succeeding year demonstrating improvements in reduced range, position, and timing errors and better availability of signals.  Despite these improvements, however, signal and service aberrations have occurred, resulting in brief periods of poor performance for users.  Examples include large range errors resulting from clock runoffs by SVN22/PRN22 and SVN23/PRN23 experienced in July 2001 and January 2004, respectively, and large range errors in the SVN54/PRN18 signal due to ephemeris errors experienced in April 2007.  These anomalies highlight the issue.  How can the magnitude and duration of these errors be minimized?  One way is to improve the monitoring of the GPS signals and service, thereby providing early detection and resolution of these anomalies. 

On January 1, 2004, the user range error from the signal of PRN 23 grew to more than 200,000 meters in magnitude.

Figure credit: University of Texas Applied Research Laboratories

There are other objectives that can be met in providing civil GPS signal and service monitoring.  Monitoring of the signal improves the situational awareness to the satellite operators, providing an up-to-date assessment of GPS performance worldwide.  It provides the U.S. Government the hard evidence that it is meeting its commitments for GPS service to its users.  And when monitoring data is stored in a database, it can be used for predicting potential future failures and analyzing past events.

In designing the original GPS ground control system, called the operational control system (OCS), the developers provided a means to monitor the military signals, but chose not to include capability to continuously monitor the civil signals and service.  Besides this limitation, the original tracking network had only five monitor stations, leaving area gaps where some signals could not be tracked.  This has since been mitigated somewhat by the addition of real-time data from ten monitor stations of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), eliminating the gaps and providing redundant observations for each signal[1].  However this only addresses P(Y)-code signals, and the OCS remains unable to continuously process the civil signal (C/A code).

As GPS is modernized, and new civil signals (L2C, L5, and L1C) are added, the problem compounds.  The need to continuously monitor the new civil GPS signals as well as the old grows with the expanding capability. To remove the ambiguity as to what monitoring services are required for the civil GPS service, Tom Nagle, currently Program Manager, Civil Applications at the GPS Wing, initiated the development of a GPS Civil Monitoring Performance Specification (CMPS) published by the U.S. Department of Transportation, that would provide a clear statement as to what is meant by monitoring the civil GPS signals and service.  The current version of the CMPS was released in April 2009, and is available at the Space-Based Positioning, Navigation & Timing web site: http://pnt.gov/public/docs/2009/CMPS2009.pdf.

 The CMPS provides a comprehensive compilation of requirements for monitoring the GPS civil service and signals.  It does not define new requirements for GPS, but instead interprets existing high-level requirements that call for monitoring all signals all the time.  It accomplishes this by translating the commitments contained in guidance documents such as the GPS Standard Positioning Service Performance Standard and requirements contained in the signal interface specifications into a set of monitoring requirements.  These requirements are generally in the form of specific metrics that are be evaluated and thresholds that are to be met.

 In addition to requirements regarding direct monitoring of the service and signals, the CMPS considers requirements associated with non-broadcast data, reliability of monitoring, reporting dissemination, and archiving of results. It provides background material on the requirements (notes, algorithms, and explanations).  It even provides a partitioning of requirements indicating which are civil only, and which requirements overlap military needs.  

The CMPS was driven by the need to improve service to civil users of GPS.  The document is intended to be used to guide the U.S. Government in implementing ways to monitor the GPS civil signal and service.  A number of benefits result from having improved monitoring capability.

• The reduced probability of failures adversely affecting users.  When such failures do occur, the magnitude and duration of range errors will be mitigated. 
• Satellite operators will have full situational awareness into the service being provided to civil users.  Anomalies affecting civil users will be unambiguously identified for rapid isolation and resolution. 
• With access to an up-to-date database of performance data, the operators will be able to identify potential failures earlier and head them off before they occur.
• With archived data, operators will be able to perform historical analysis, such as investigations into service performance at the time of a transportation incident involving GPS.
• The U.S. Government will have the ability to quantitatively confirm that GPS is meeting its performance objectives.

The 2009 version of the CMPS provides comprehensive and unambiguous guidance on what is needed to support civil monitoring of the GPS signals and service.  The CMPS provides traceability back to source documents ensuring all essential signals and services are monitored. It provides much helpful background information, including use cases, algorithms, and detailed discussions that go beyond the statement of the requirement to explain how to effectively implement the requirement.  The CMPS will be a valuable resource for those involved in the modernization of GPS, to ensure user needs will continue to be met as new signals and services are implemented.

The material in this blog was derived from the paper “Proving the Walk Matches the Talk – Verification of GPS Performance Assertions”, presented by John Lavrakas and Brent Renfro at the Institute of Navigation International Technical Meeting, January 2010, San Diego, CA, USA. For a copy of the paper, go to www.ion.org.

This blog will also be available on the GPS World website in their TechTalk section at http://techtalk.sidt.gpsworld.com/.