GPS in an Automated Age… …and its implications for the future of alternative energy, travel, and tomorrow’s breakfast. David Fort April 23, 2007

David Fort Areas of Focus  Aeronautical  Automotive  Nautical

April 23, 2007 David Fort Flying Windmills

April 23, 2007 David Fort The Basic Idea  Position tethered, light weight roto-copters above the jet stream winds over 15,000 ft. high.  Tether provides energy to the copter, and energy generated by the propellers is passed down the tether.

April 23, 2007 David Fort Harvesting High Altitude Winds  The Benefits:  Minimal environmental footprint  More consistent winds, so rotors can operate close to full capacity  Local topography does not matter

April 23, 2007 David Fort Controversy over Flying Windmills  Many different possible sources for energy in the future: corn- based ethanol, nuclear fission, solar power, etc.  Sky WindPower Corporation would argue that its approach is superior to all of these.  Is it correct? I don’t know; I’m not an engineer. What is certain is that if this technology is going to take off, GPS will play a major role in its implementation.  For those of you skeptical about the general technology at play, refer to the peer reviewed IEEE paper, “Harvesting High Altitude Wind Power,” accessible online.

April 23, 2007 David Fort The role the GPS plays  Determining Attitude (i.e. pitch, roll, and yaw)  Pinpoints position and angle of helicopters even tens of thousands of feet high; allows for maximal wind collection  Reduces risk of collision or wind shadowing

April 23, 2007 David Fort Automated Landing

April 23, 2007 David Fort STOVL Success  STOVL (Short take-off vehicle landing)  In 2005, QinetiQ, a leader in world defense and security companies, engineered the first successful, completely automated landing of an aircraft onto a ship.  Used relative-GPS-based system to coordinate aircraft movement with that of moving ship. Required precision in 4D, in order to account for both spatial and temporal restraints.

April 23, 2007 David Fort Technology Implications  Allows for landing in any weather and at any time of day  Takes pressure off pilot after mentally exhausting mission  Reduces risk of human error inherent in dangerous and highly sensitive landing procedures

April 23, 2007 David Fort Ghost Drivers

April 23, 2007 David Fort Robotic Cars  Positive implications:  Frees driver’s attention  Provides a check against human carelessness  Reduces personnel requirement for dangerous military missions  Possible Drawbacks:  High costs  GPS is only accurate to at best within meters. In heavy traffic, higher precision is needed in order to avoid collisions.

April 23, 2007 David Fort What Role Does GPS Play?  GPS’ role in automated cars is rather limited. GPS must be integrated with sensor and laser technology in order to account for obstacles in the road and heavy traffic.  GPS already plays a role in terms of navigation and personal convenience (e.g. ONSTAR), but is unlikely to facilitate safe, fully automatic performance in the near future in urban areas.  Likely improvements predicted to be in the form of “increasingly sophisticated cruise controls”

April 23, 2007 David Fort The Maritime Realm

April 23, 2007 David Fort AIS  Automated Identification System  Uses augmented GPS for accurate positioning data  Primarily taking off in Europe in response to oil tanker accidents

April 23, 2007 David Fort Why bother with AIS?  Expensive, and possibly intrusive, to outfit all ships with AIS receivers  However, here benefits outweigh the cost  In addition to GPS accurate position, AIS relays ship identity, speed, course, and even cargo information  System can handle 2000 reports a minute  Greatly improves ship routing in crowded shipping lanes; results in fewer collisions…

April 23, 2007 David Fort …ensuring that tomorrow’s banana shipment survives the trip from Port Au Prince to Princeton

April 23, 2007 David Fort Conclusions  Technologies may seem far-fetched, but with the aid of positioning tools may actually be feasible in the not-too-distant future.  Whatever forms these automated inventions take, they will almost certainly require GPS to make them work. Moreover, falling price and mainstreaming of GPS technologies will make these technologies even more cost-efficient.  These technological advances will play a significant role in your everyday life

April 23, 2007 David Fort References   “QinetiQ achieves world’s first automatic landing of a STOVL aricraft onto a ship.” Qs_JSF_world_first.html, Online, April 21, 2007 “QinetiQ achieves world’s first automatic landing of a STOVL aricraft onto a ship.” Qs_JSF_world_first.html   “To All Ships at Sea,” e=, Online, April 21, e   SkyWind Power Corporation website   Twitchguru.com