Austin, TX — The Radionavigation Laboratory congratulates Ken Pesyna for being selected to receive the Innovative Signals Analysis Fellowship for the 2011-2012 academic year. The fellowship comes with a $4,000 stipend.
In addition to being a member of the Radionavigation Laboratory, Ken is a member of the Wireless Systems Innovation Laboratory under the supervision of Dr. Robert Heath.
Boston, MA — MIT Professor Dr. Kerri Cahoy, an expert in radio occultation, invited Dr. Todd Humphreys to present on development of the FOTON GPS radio occultation receiver. The presentation was an Invited Enrichment Lecture for her graduate-level Satellite Engineering class and other students and faculty of the MIT AeroAstro department.
Coincident with Dr. Humphreys’s visit, students Ingrid Beerer, Clayton Crail, Jason Herrera, Robert Legge, Whitney Lohmeyer, and Annie Marinan from Dr. Cahoy’s Satellite Engineering course presented the final report of their semester-long feasibility study for the GeoScan Project. The students gave an excellent overview of all the sensors that they hope to pack into the hosted payload bay of the 66 IridiumNext satellites, which will begin to be launched in 2015. A GPS-based occultation sensor is one of the primary system sensor instruments proposed for GeoScan. Lars Dyrud, who has been the primary organizer of GeoScan project, was in attendance. Program directors from NSF attended the students’ presentation virtually.
Portland, OR — Dr. Todd Humphreys chaired an ION GNSS 2011 panel session on “Improving Security of GNSS Receivers.” Dr. Humphreys began the panel with introductory remarks [pptx] noting the increasing trend of spoofing research over the past few years and also presented on practical cryptographic civil GPS signal authentication [pptx]. The panel consisted of five members from industry and academia:
Austin, TX — Outside of the four papers contributed solely by RNL to ION GNSS, RNL members were co-authors on four other papers:
Portland, OR — Six members of RNL attended ION GNSS 2011 in Portland, Oregon to present research. Four papers were presented:
The last paper, which Kyle Wesson presented, won the best presentation award in Session E4: Next Generation GNSS Integrity 1.
At right: Members of RNL are about to enjoy a sushi dinner following the conference. Left to right: Zak Kassas, Daniel Shepard, Todd Humphreys, Jahshan Bhatti, Kyle Wesson, Ken Pesyna, and Ryan Mitch (Cornell).
Whether it’s investigating ways to preserve the security of GPS signals or developing new types of receivers, the field of radionavigation is ripe with possibility—and Dr. Todd Humphreys does not hesitate for a moment in defining how his research team fits into the mix. “What’s the next big thing in GPS?” he asks. “That’s what we’re trying to pursue. In fact, that’s what we’re trying to create.”
Continue reading the Aerospace Engineering Feature.
Austin, TX — Dr. Todd Humphreys briefed the United States Patent and Trademark Office via webcast on the state of the art and future trends in radionavigation on Thursday, 14 April 2011. Examiners were present from the main USPTO site as well as satellite locations. Dr. Humphreys talked about:
You can download and view the presentation here [pptx].
You can read more about the presentation here.
Austin, TX — Dr. Mark Psiaki visited RNL on 31 March and 1 April and gave two presentations:
UPDATE: Dr. Psiaki has written a paper on the Blind Tricyclist non-linear estimation problem available here [pdf]. Simulation functions and data are also available online.
Austin, TX — Members of the Radionavigation Laboratory briefed visitors from the DHS, USCG, NSWC, JNWC, and USSTRATCOM on several aspects of GPS security and integrity including: effects of GPS spoofing on power grid monitoring, anti-spoofing techniques for civil GPS, and GPS interference detection and localization techniques.
Meeting Agenda and Participants
“Signals from GPS satellites now help you to call your mother, power your home, and even land your plane—but a cheap plastic box can jam it all.”
Continue reading the NewScientist article, which features a discussion with Dr. Humphreys on GPS spoofing in the “Faking It” section.