“Automation and autonomy are at the forefront of advancing the agriculture industry. The functional resilience and performance of ROS 2 paired with our OEM7 receivers speeds up integration and reduces time to market for our customers developing new equipment,”

said James Szabo, agriculture autonomy product manager.

As the integration of NovAtel’s OEM7 receiver increases in autonomy projects, algorithms for academic investigations, ride-share programs and agricultural autonomy solutions, NovAtel continues to support the growing needs of the robotics community. With the power of ROS 2, developers can create autonomous applications quicker, without the need to develop or adapt existing community drivers. Tested and supported by NovAtel and Hexagon | AutonomouStuff, the driver enables seamless access to the receiver’s GNSS and inertial capabilities so users can simultaneously utilize live, recorded and post-processed data.

“We have many users globally who have already adopted the ROS driver in unmanned operations. From tillage and viticulture operations to broadacre crop spraying. The ROS driver has shortened the transition from prototype to production, allowing users to focus on furthering their autonomous solution without the worry and complexities of third-party interfaces,”

said Eric Wuestefeld, executive vice president, agriculture.

The post Hexagon | NovAtel Delivers ROSTM 2 Compatible Drivers to the OEM7 Receiver appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.

Hexagon | NovAtel is proud to announce that Fendt machines in North America, Europe, and the Middle East equipped with Fendt Guide guidance systems powered by Fuse Smart Farming now come with NovAtel’s SMART7 GNSS receiver as the default configuration choice. Precision guidance systems are integral to advancing precision agriculture globally, and the SMART7 from NovAtel is future-ready and offers the performance and reliability that farmers require.

High-quality, on-time delivery, and exceptional support are the defining factors of a reliable component supplier. NovAtel is proud of its performance in these areas with industry-leading quality and a robust support network for its OEM partners.

“We have been working with NovAtel for years, and their support and willingness to adapt to meet our needs makes them the key GNSS receiver supplier for our Fendt Guide guidance system. They are easy to work with and have high-quality products that integrate seamlessly into our machines,”

said Dr. Bernhard Schmitz, Director, FendtONE Market Readiness and Agronomy EME.

The SMART7 combines the most powerful GNSS receiver available today with a precision antenna in a durable, all-in-one enclosure specifically designed to stand up to the vibration, weather, and temperature demands of harsh agricultural environments. Delivering exceptional positioning, the SMART7 is optimized to succeed in demanding agriculture and off-road applications.

The SMART7 uses multi L-Band tracking to access TerraStar Correction Services globally – bringing repeatable centimeter-level accuracy to any application, anywhere in the world. Access to multi-frequency GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo, and QZSS signals provides better satellite availability, fuelling the positioning solution – even in challenging environments. Resiliency to radio frequency interference is engrained in NovAtel’s hardware designs and the Interference Toolkit firmware suite provides detection and additional protection from any potential intentional or unintentional interference.

Powered by industry-leading NovAtel GNSS+INS technology, the SMART7 uses an optional integrated Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) to provide continuous 3D positioning, velocity, and roll/pitch/azimuth for deeper integration with vehicle guidance and steering systems. Additional optional features on the SMART7 include Wi-Fi and Ethernet for remote connectivity and monitoring.

“We are dedicated to providing high-quality, industry-leading positioning and autonomy solutions to agriculture industry OEMs and integrators. This means being THE partner of choice for precision guidance solutions and helping our customers meet their challenges and goals head-on,”

said Eric Wuestefeld, Executive Vice President, Agriculture at Hexagon | NovAtel.

The post Hexagon | NovAtel GNSS SMART Antenna Now the Default Receiver Selection on Fendt Machines appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.

Research from Hexagon’s Autonomy & Positioning division has resulted in breakthrough innovations in precise point positioning (PPP) that enable nearly instant global centimeter-level accuracy. These developments pave the way to bring “RTK From the Sky” performance to worldwide users through correction service products and GNSS receivers from Hexagon.

“RTK From the Sky” technology provides the quick accuracy of an RTK solution with the high accessibility and availability of PPP. Users will no longer have geographic or regional infrastructure restrictions – they will be free to operate anywhere around the world with the same premium level of positioning performance. “RTK From the Sky” technology removes the traditional PPP barrier of long convergence times as well as internet and radio communication limitations, delivering instantaneous convergence anywhere in the world. This breakthrough establishes the foundation for assured positioning with no downtime in marine, agriculture, and autonomous applications.

To achieve these results, there must be masterful attention to detail throughout the entire positioning ecosystem: no errors conveniently canceled and no errors ignored. All errors are carefully estimated and removed from the final GNSS position faster and more reliably than ever before. This end-to-end fine-tuning of measurement quality and error mitigation establishes the foundation for “RTK From the Sky” performance. No matter the location or application, users will be able to rely upon the highest availability and accuracy of corrections anywhere in the world, without the convergence time.

“In 2020, PPP has become RTK – without the mobility limitations, ‘RTK From the Sky’ has been a very satisfying development. To see this kind of positioning performance available anywhere in the world is the realization of the next step of innovation for GNSS.”

said Sandy Kennedy, VP of Innovation at Hexagon’s Autonomy & Positioning division.

The post Hexagon’s “RTK From the Sky” brings instant GNSS accuracy worldwide appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.

Hexagon’s Autonomy and Positioning division has launched its first autonomy positioning and sensing kits for the agriculture market and validated these solutions in its new autonomous research and development tractor.

Through collaboration between its leading brands NovAtel and AutonomouStuff, both parts of Hexagon, their autonomous positioning and sensing kits were developed as part of Hexagon’s Smart Autonomous Mobility solutions portfolio launched at CES in early 2020. With decades of expertise in GNSS positioning, autonomy, and safety-critical applications, NovAtel and AutonomouStuff created these solutions with agriculture machinery OEMs and robotic machinery manufacturers in mind.

As a demonstrator vehicle for Smart Autonomous Mobility, the autonomous tractor features object detection and classification, simultaneous relative localization and mapping, absolute positioning through GNSS technology, and localization sensor fusing. Built to illustrate the viability of new positioning and sensing kits, the tractor incorporates safety-critical learnings with situational and environmental awareness, and manual remote control when needed. This platform validates how these solutions and capabilities accelerate autonomous development.

The positioning and sensing kits are optimized for autonomous agriculture applications, including products like the SMART7 antenna and autonomous robotic capabilities through the NovAtel OEM7 driver powered by the Robot Operating System (ROS).

The kits also feature TerraStar GNSS Correction Services, ALIGN heading and relative positioning firmware, and SPAN GNSS+INS technology. Though designed for agriculture, the kits integrate seamlessly into other off-road autonomy applications.

“These positioning and sensing kits provide developers with technology bringing assured positioning to autonomy in agriculture,”

explained Michael Martinez, agriculture segment manager at Hexagon | NovAtel.

“Robotic machinery manufacturers or those experienced in autonomy may be unfamiliar with the unique challenges facing agriculture applications. Conversely, those experienced with agriculture may not have the expertise to integrate positioning and sensing products within autonomous solutions. We can help in both cases through these positioning and sensor kits, as demonstrated by our autonomous tractor.

“We’re excited to use this tractor as a platform to validate the human identification, obstacle detection, and enhanced environmental awareness that our sensing kits add to our assured positioning solutions in agriculture,”

said John Buszek, VP of products and services at Hexagon | AutonomouStuff.

“The sensing and positioning technologies we’ve integrated on this demonstration platform showcase the Smart Autonomous Mobility portfolio, which enables and accelerates the development of autonomy in agriculture applications from prototyping to production.”

For more than 30 years, NovAtel has delivered industry-leading GNSS positioning solutions as a trusted provider for the world’s top precision agriculture companies. Combined with AutonomouStuff’s decade of expertise in autonomy and sensor fusion, they significantly reduce the barrier of entry into autonomy to accelerate the time to market for autonomous solutions in agriculture, construction, mining, and other off-road applications.

Source: Hexagon

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