Crossbow Technology, Inc. (also referred to as XBOW) was a

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

-based company with two main products. One was based on sensors and

fibre optic gyroscope A fibre-optic gyroscope (FOG) senses changes in orientation using the Sagnac effect, thus performing the function of a mechanical gyroscope. However its principle of operation is instead based on the interference of light which has passed throu ...

inertial sensor systems. This included inertial measurement units,

attitude and heading reference system An attitude and heading reference system (AHRS) consists of sensors on three axes that provide attitude information for aircraft, including roll, pitch, and yaw. These are sometimes referred to as MARG (Magnetic, Angular Rate, and Gravity) sens ...

s, digital inclinometers and

guidance, navigation and control Guidance, navigation and control (abbreviated GNC, GN&C, or G&C and within the context of NASA operations, often pronounced 'Gintsee' or (IPA) ʤɪnsiː) is a branch of engineering dealing with the design of systems to control the movement o ...

units. And the other was based on

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

and radios using

cellular phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while ...

technology with multiple

environmental sensor Meteorological instruments (or weather instruments), including meteorological sensors (weather sensors), are the equipment used to find the state of the atmosphere at a given time. Each science has its own unique sets of laboratory equipment. Met ...

s that included

asset tracking Asset tracking refers to the method of tracking physical assets, either by scanning barcode labels attached to the assets or by using tags using GPS, BLE, LoRa, or RFID which broadcast their location. These technologies can also be used for indo ...

products.

Company

Crossbow was founded by Mike A. Horton in 1995 to exploit microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) inertial sensors. It was initially based on technology developed at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

supported by A. Richard Newton. Crossbow Technology had investment from

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

and the Paladin Capital Group in 2005. Past products included the AHRS500GA, used in the Capstone Program of the US

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic ...

. When introduced in 2003 it was the first stand-alone, completely solid-state

FAA The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

certified

(AHRS). A follow-on product, the AHRS510GA was designed into the

Eclipse Aviation The Eclipse Aviation Corporation was the Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States-based manufacturer of the Eclipse 500 very light jet (VLJ), and also at one time proposed developing the Eclipse 400 single-engined jet. The company was founded ...

mode 500

very light jet A very light jet (VLJ), entry-level jet or personal jet, previously known as a microjet, is a category of small business jets seating four to eight people. VLJs are considered the lightest business jets and are approved for single-pilot operati ...

. Crossbow products included the CTXD02 digital inclinometer, VG700 vertical gyroscope and GNAV540 INS/GPS

unit. These products were used on airborne, marine and ground platforms such as the Hunter RQ-5A

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controll ...

, ITAS and LRAS targeting systems. Crossbow supplied products for shipment visibility and

. The company provided integrated peel and stick devices, featuring

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such ...

/ GPRS radios,

and sensors. These environmental sensors provided shippers with asset tracking and shipment environment exposure history and tracking capabilities. Crossbow was one of the first suppliers of the Berkeley-style MICA

sensor node A sensor node, also known as a mote (chiefly in North America), is a node in a sensor network that is capable of performing some processing, gathering sensory information and communicating with other connected nodes in the network. A mote is a no ...

s that it called "motes". These run the

TinyOS TinyOS is an embedded, component-based operating system and platform for low-power wireless devices, such as those used in wireless sensor networks (WSNs), smartdust, ubiquitous computing, personal area networks, building automation, and smart m ...

operating system. Follow-on products included the MICA2 (868/916

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...

) and MICAz (2.4 GHz) motes, and the Intel-designed IMOTE2. Crossbow also made a software design platform for its hardware called MoteWorks. Crossbow received awards for these products, including a "Best of Sensors Expo Gold 2006" and the BP Helios Award. In 2008, Crossbow released eKo Pro Series System, a wireless sensor system that monitors crops, vineyard, agriculture and the environment. It's sensors can monitor soil moisture, ambient temperature, leaf wetness of a crop. In the same year, Crossbow Japan released the NeoMote to monitor energy usage in a building and provide a visual display for energy saving. Formerly a joint venture, Crossbow Japan became Sensor Networks and Systems department of Sumitomo Precision Products. On June 5, 2011, Crossbow was acquired by

Moog Inc. Moog ( ) is an American-based designer and manufacturer of electric, electro-hydraulic and hydraulic motion, controls and systems for applications in aerospace, defense, industrial and medical devices. The company operates under four segments: a ...

for about $32 million.

References

External links

*{{webarchive , url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20060407041917/http%3A//www.xbow.com/ , title=Crossbow Technology Inc. official website , date=2006-04-07 Electronics companies of the United States Companies based in San Jose, California