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Fleet management systems have been around a while and have become so complex that it has evolved into Field Resource Management. This article explores 5 reasons why all fleets need at least a basic Field Resource Management system.
A new set of government tests showed that LightSquared’s proposed mobile broadband network disrupted the signal strength to all GPS devices in the test area. The National Space-Based PNT Advisory Board reported yesterday that a series of 32 tests showed significant interference on GPS system receivers used by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), John Deer, U.S. Coast Guard, NASA and Garmin (GRMN).
Last week, construction giant Deere & Co. reported that during recent testing in New Mexico, LightSquared’s network hobbled it’s GPS systems more than 20 miles away. Local law enforcement also reported police cars and ambulances lost GPS signals. A separate Federal Aviation Administration-commissioned study found that “GPS operations below 2000 feet (elevation) would be unavailable over a large radius of metro (areas)” for aircraft.
While all global-positioning system (GPS) devices tested were affected, the severity of the loss of service varied, said Deane Bunce, co-chair of the National PNT Engineering Forum, a federal advisory group of engineers that oversaw the government tests, according to the Wall St. Journal. Mr. Bunce said some GPS devices lost signal strength while others were knocked out completely. For example, the government tests found that General Motors’ (GM) OnStar system saw a “significant degradation of service” on most receivers tested.
The possibilities of GPS technology applications for tracking people and assets are endless. Here is a great example of how GPS technology can be used to help bicyclists make the world a better place.
OnAsset Intelligence Inc. and Push America have come together to provide a location monitoring and tracking system for bicyclists on a 12,000 mile cross-country bike ride called the Journey of Hope, which raises funds for people with disabilities. The cross-country bicycle journey began last week in Seattle, and will start June 12 from San Francisco. Approximately 80 bicyclists are planning to ride into Washington, D.C. this year.
The tracking system will help to keep the bicycle riders safe. For example, if a rider gets lost or loses his riding partner, he can log into the tracking system and figure out where to go. If someone steals his bike along the journey, then authorities will be able to quickly recover the bicycle. The GPS tracking system also gives confidence to donors, whose donations are typically based upon the number of miles completed by the rider, because the donor can monitor the rider’s actual progress.
OnAsset Intelligence Inc. and Push America have come together to provide a location monitoring and tracking system for bicyclists on a 12,000 mile cross-country bike ride called the Journey of Hope, which raises funds for people with disabilities. The cross-country bicycle journey began last week in Seattle, and will tracking softwarestart June 12 from San Francisco. Approximately 80 bicyclists are planning to ride into Washington, D.C.
The tracking system will help to keep the bicycle riders safe. For example, if a rider gets lost or loses his riding partner, he can log into the tracking system and figure out where to go. If someone steals his bike along the journey, then authorities will be able to quickly recover the bicycle. The GPS tracking system also gives confidence to donors, whose donations are typically based upon the number of miles completed by the rider, because the donor can monitor the rider’s actual progress.
Cuckoo birds may be going extinct, and no one knows why. Scientists have been struggling to explain a catastrophic decline in the number of birds alive on earth. The number of cuckoos has declined by two-thirds in the last 25 years, leaving as few as 7,000 breeding pairs migrating to the UK from Africa each spring. This is a real tragedy as the cuckoo’s distinctive call has long been heralded as the start of spring in the UK.
In an effort to try and save the beautiful species, scientists and conservationists in the UK are teaming up to place GPS tracking systems on several cuckoos. With no one quite sure what is behind the decline, there are very real concerns about the cuckoo’s future.
This week American researchers at Ohio State University revealed they have a new tool for detecting illegal nuclear explosions: the Earth’s global positioning system (GPS). The discovery was announced this week at a Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) meeting.
Researchers have discovered that nuclear tests leave a mark on the part of the upper atmosphere known as the ionosphere. After a nuclear explosion, there is a change in ionospheric electron density, as a bubble of disturbed particles spread out from the test site and across the planet. As the GPS signal passes through the edge of the bubble, the change in electron density disturbs the signal in a noticeable way.
Even though the GPS system was designed for location purposes, the technology has always been especially sensitive to atmospheric disturbances, said Dorota Grejner-Brzezinska, a professor of geodetic science at Ohio State University. The GPS system can help confirm that a nuclear test has taken place – especially when the test was underground, so that its effect in the air is very subtle, and otherwise nearly impossible to detect.
An all-new Green GPS system, developed by computer scientists at the University of Illinois, is able to calculate the most fuel-efficient driving routes, saving as much as 13 percent over other routes in initial tests.
“Unlike existing Internet services, such as Google Maps and MapQuest, which provide either the fastest or the shortest route between two points, a Green GPS system collects the necessary information to compute … the most fuel-efficient route” explained Ph.D. candidate Raghu Kiran Ganti, one of three student researchers working with Principal Investigator and Associate Professor of Computer Science Tarek Abdelzaher. “The most fuel-efficient route between two points may be different from the shortest and fastest routes.”
For example, taking the fast route on a freeway may not be economical because fuel consumption increases in a non-linear manner with speed, or because the route is longer. Similarly, the shortest route, over city streets, may be objectionable because of downtown congestion and traffic.
In the state of California, convicted sex offenders and high-risk gang members are monitored with GPS tracking systems when they get out of prison on parole. But parole officers have become over-burdened and claim that there are too many parolees to keep track of.
California has come up with a viable solution. The state has decided to hire a private company to take over some of the work. The Department of Corrections is hiring the companies that provide the GPS tracking systems to also monitor and screen the alerts. They will send only the high priority problems to parole officers.
GPS tracking systems are currently installed in the “official” vehicles of legislators in Costa Rica. This week 29 of the 55 Legislators announced that they want the GPS tracking systems removed from their cars.
According to Mendoza and the Legislature’s executive director, Antonio Ayala, they have seen a significant fuel savings in travel and legislative budget since the installation of the tracking system. Maybe this is where the problem lies, legislators cannot anymore “fudge” their travel expenses and can be located – at least their vehicles – at any given time, the Costa Rica News reported.
Reverend Robin Hoover, a human-rights activist, is supplying men and women in the business of smuggling illegal immigrants across the US and Mexico border with GPS tracking devices, hoping to prevent the migrants from dying on the journey, according to a recent story in the Christian Science Monitor. As summer approaches, temperatures near the California, Arizona and Texas borders are well above 100 degrees, and can be very dangerous.
It is not uncommon for migrants to die while attempting to illegally cross the border. During the past decade, authorities have recovered over 2,000 bodies in the desert.
Tigers are one of the Earth’s most endangered species. At the beginning of this century there were about 100,000 wild tigers. Today there are less than 5,000 of these beautiful creatures alive, making tigers one of the world’s fastest disappearing species.
Two weeks ago a very rare tiger was killed by poachers on the Indo-Nepal border, according to wildlife officials. The adult male tiger’s body was found last week, approximately June 1, 2011. A WWF survey carried out in 2008 found just 121 adult tigers of breeding age in Nepal, so this is a real tragedy.
The tiger had been fitted with a collar carrying a GPS tracking system. The GPS tracking system enabled scientists to monitor the tiger in the wild.
According to Tikaram Adhikari, a warden at Bardia National Park in Nepal, the endangered tiger was last traced by the tracking system on May 9.”Next two days, we could not locate it. Then, early this week, we found that it had been killed by poachers,” he said.
“The tiger was moving towards human settlements. After seeing the tiger, the poachers offered him poisoned beef. It died after consuming the food… Four locals have been arrested on suspicion of poaching,” Adhikari said.
