As technology matures, Real Time Kinematic (RTK) global positioning system (GPS) receivers are providing increased performance in accuracy, on-the-fly (OTF) initialization times, measurement speed, and latency. Leica's Dozer 2000 machine guidance system combines an MC1000 GPS sensor, graphic intensive guidance software, a digital terrain model, and a digital site plan. Figure 1 shows the operator's view of the system. The end result is a highly accurate, extremely responsive local navigation system. Engineers can easily upload design information onto a touch-screen machine guidance personal computer (PC) and greatly reduce earthmoving costs while simultaneously recording "as-built" inspection data.The Leiea MC1000 machine control sensor is a true 10-Hz, centimeter-level-accuracy, open-architecture GPS sensor specifically designed for machine guidance and control. At the heart of the MClOOO's performance are a very stable oven-controlled oscillator (3 X 10~1 1 /s shortterm stability), a low-power Intel 486-DX4-80 processor, and four user-configurable input/output (I/O) ports. Special algorithms mitigate the effects ofmultipath and Selective Availability (SA) while providing centimeter accuracy up to 10 times per second with only 30 milliseconds' latency. The high update rate and low latency are essential for machine guidance and control.The MC1000 GPS reference station is capable of outputting RTK and Differential GPS (DGPS) data simultaneously, providing an entire site with GPS information for machine guidance and control, tracking and dispatching of vehicles, and support of survey crews.This article describes how recent advances in technology have combined to produce the Leiea Dozer 2000-a machine guidance system that is ideal for a wide range of earthmoving and inspection applications.
Advances in imaging technology and sensors have made airborne remote sensing systems viable for many applications that require reasonably good resolution at low cost. Digital cameras are making their mark on the market by providing high resolution at very high rates. This paper describes an aircraft-mounted imaging system (AMIS) that is being designed and developed at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (A&M-CC) with the support of a grant from NASA. The approach is to first develop and test a one-camera system that will be upgraded into a five-camera system that offers multi-spectral capabilities. AMIS will be low cost, rugged, portable and has its own battery power source. Its immediate use will be to acquire images of the Coastal area in the Gulf of Mexico for a variety of studies covering vast spectra from near ultraviolet region to near infrared region. This paper describes AMIS and its characteristics, discusses the process for selecting the major components, and presents the progress.
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