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Locata Corporation is a privately held technology company headquartered in
Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, with a fully owned subsidiary in
Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
,
Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
. Locata has invented a
local positioning system A positioning system is a system for determining the position of an object in space. One of the most well-known and commonly used positioning systems is the Global Positioning System (GPS). Positioning system technologies exist ranging from worl ...
that can either replace or augment
Global Positioning System 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 ...
(GPS) signals when they are blocked, jammed or unreliable. Government, commercial and other organizations use Locata to determine accurate positioning as a local backup to GPS.


History

David Small and Nunzio Gambale started work on the initial Locata concepts in 1994 and founded Locata as a company in 1997. As of December 2013, the company has been granted 122
patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
s around their positioning technology.


Products


LocataNet

A LocataNet is a ground-based
local positioning system A positioning system is a system for determining the position of an object in space. One of the most well-known and commonly used positioning systems is the Global Positioning System (GPS). Positioning system technologies exist ranging from worl ...
that provides positioning information which is indistinguishable from
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 ...
to an appropriately configured receiver. The LocataNet achieves this without the satellites, atomic clocks or ground support structure required by traditional GPS satellite-based systems. To create a LocataNet, LocataLite radio
transceivers In radio communication, a transceiver is an electronic device which is a combination of a radio ''trans''mitter and a re''ceiver'', hence the name. It can both transmit and receive radio waves using an antenna, for communication purposes. Thes ...
are deployed around a defined area. These devices collectively function like a grounded version of a GPS satellite constellation, transmitting radiolocation signals that Locata receivers use to generate a positioning solution, outputting
latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...
,
longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east–west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek letter l ...
and
altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...
, using trilateration in the same way as a traditional GPS receiver. LocataLites can be designed to transmit at any practical frequency or power level. The first commercially deployed designs operate in the same
ISM band The ISM radio bands are portions of the radio spectrum reserved internationally for industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) purposes, excluding applications in telecommunications. Examples of applications for the use of radio frequency (RF) ener ...
as
Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wav ...
, and each LocataLite generally covers an area of up to 10 kilometers in radius in open environments. LocataNets provide all of the Position, Navigation and Time (PNT) functions provided by a GPS satellite constellation, but in a local area, such as an open-cut mine, harbor, military range or other area. This allows operators to set up controlled positioning networks to locate, automate and direct objects with centimeter-level accuracy. Locata’s duplication of PNT is made possible by the company's patented nanosecond-accurate TimeLoc synchronization technology.


VRay

The VRay is an 80-element spherical antenna that provides precise positioning in dense urban environments and indoors where traditional GNSS receivers are susceptible to large multipath errors. By switching on each element for just over one microsecond, the VRay correlator design in a Locata receiver creates virtual beams which mitigate multipath effects by focusing on the direct received signal and filtering out multipath bounces. Because the VRay can sweep many beams simultaneously around an area it also determines the angle and strength of received signals and this information is used to derive the precise 3D attitude of the receiver platform as well. In a partnership with the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), the VRay is being developed for use with GPS receivers as part of a Co-operative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) signed in April 2013. AFIT will design and test several GPS-based variants of Locata-patented antenna and correlator technology to develop the VRay for military GPS use cases.


Partners

Hexagon In geometry, a hexagon (from Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°. Regular hexagon A '' regular hexagon'' has ...
, provider of design, measurement and visualization technologies, is the first company to integrate Locata's terrestrial technology within their Leica Geosystems subsidiary's
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 ...
-
GLONASS GLONASS (russian: ГЛОНАСС, label=none, ; rus, links=no, Глобальная навигационная спутниковая система, r=Global'naya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema, t=Global Navigation Satellite System) is ...
- Galileo-BeiDou receivers.


Deployments


Military

Locata has been awarded a multi-year sole-source contract with the
United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
746th Test Squadron (746 TS) to deploy a LocataNet and provide positioning information when GPS is jammed across a 2,500 square mile area of the
White Sands Missile Range White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a United States Army military testing area and firing range located in the US state of New Mexico. The range was originally established as the White Sands Proving Ground on 9July 1945. White Sands National P ...
in
New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...
. TMC Design, a certified Locata Technology Integrator (LTI) has been let the contract to design, integrate, install and test Locata’s Non-GPS Based Positioning System (NGBPS) at the White Sands Missile Range location. Before the contract was granted, the USAF proved through independent testing that the LocataNet delivers accuracy of eight inches or less to aircraft up to 35 miles away. Locata's NGBPS system will provide the 746 TS with enhanced validation capabilities in GPS denied environments while operating mobile and airborne position, navigation and timing (PNT) equipment and navigation warfare (NAVWAR) systems. Locata is the core component for the USAF's Ultra High Accuracy Reference System (UHARS) which will be deployed at White Sands in 2014 to improve performance of military systems in GPS-denied environments. UHARS is described by the USAF as the new "gold standard truth system for the increasingly demanding test and evaluation of future navigation and navigation warfare systems for the U.S. Department of Defense".


Mining

In partnership with
Leica Geosystems Leica Geosystems (formerly known as Wild Heerbrugg or just Wild) based in eastern Switzerland produces products and systems for surveying and geographical measurement (geomatics). Its products employ a variety of technologies including GPS sa ...
, the first commercial LocataNet is deployed at Newmont’s Boddington Gold Mine (BGM) in
Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
. In this environment, Locata’s technology provides positioning for automation of mining machines as the pit gets deeper and traditional satellite-based GPS coverage becomes unreliable because fewer satellites are in view in the pit, particularly near the mine’s pit walls.


Automotive

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), in partnership with Perrone Robotics, in December 2013 completed the installation of phase 1 of a two-stage Locata network as the first portion of a $30 million upgrade to the Vehicle Research Center (VRC). Locata is the sole-source of positioning information for the precision robotics control required by the VRC for the U.S. testing of next-generation vehicle collision avoidance systems.
''
Inside GNSS ''Inside GNSS'' (IG) is an international controlled circulation trade magazine and website owned by Gibbons Media and Research LLC. It covers space-based positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) technology for engineers, designers, and policy-mak ...
'' As part of the upgrade, VRC researchers are installing new robotic and high-precision positioning technology for both their outdoor track and 300-by-700 foot indoor testing area.


See also

*
Local positioning system A positioning system is a system for determining the position of an object in space. One of the most well-known and commonly used positioning systems is the Global Positioning System (GPS). Positioning system technologies exist ranging from worl ...
*
Pseudolite Pseudolite is a contraction of the term "pseudo-satellite," used to refer to something that is not a satellite which performs a function commonly in the domain of satellites. Pseudolites are most often small transceivers that are used to create ...


References

{{Reflist


External links


Locata Corporation
- Official website Companies based in Canberra Privately held companies of Australia Geopositioning Geographic data and information equipment companies