GNSS – Satellite Positioning

It is estimated that, already, 6-7% of GDP in Western countries, i.e. €800 billion in the European Union, is dependent on satellite radio navigation

PNT data is therefore now a major economic asset.

The primary source of PNT data is GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems). GNSS is a technology “umbrella” term, which includes all satellite positioning systems including:
GPS: The original satellite positioning technology, developed, owned and controlled by the U.S. military.
GLONASS: The Russian system developed, owned and controlled by the Russian military.
BEIDOU: The Chinese system developed, owned and controlled by the Chinese military.
GALILEO: The European system developed, owned and controlled by the EC and the first wholly civilian system.
GPS and Glonass are already well established and functioning as full constellations (minimum 24 satellites), Beidou is partly operational and as at 2015 Galileo should become operational during the next 2 or 3 years or so. By 2017/18, 100 plus satellites could be available to the user, with the additional benefit of extra, more powerful, signals being added to GPS, GLONASS and GALILEO.

Blackroc Technology have produced a range of solutions across the complete spectrum of GNSS accuracy requirements, at cost effective pricing, called the Procyon™ range and the Geopod™ range. The Procyon range is based on one of the world’s most popular rugged handheld computing platforms – the Motorola Workabout Pro. The Geopod range is a tablet mount-on unit which enables a tablet PC with the very highest levels of accuracy in GNSS positioning.
Both ranges have laser rangefinding as an optional addition to enable highly accurate heighting or offset GNSS positioning.
Both ranges offer GPS fix accuracy in real time from sub-meter to 1cm (RTK) accuracy.