From Left: Manoj Narayanan, Chief Executive Officer of Loka Wireless, and John Brosnan, Managing Director, BAE Systems, South East Asia signing the software evaluation agreement. |
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – During LIMA ’15, the aerospace and maritime exhibition which was held in Langkawi last week, BAE Systems, the global defence, security and aerospace manufacturer, signed an agreement with an upcoming Malaysian SME. The agreement allows Loka Wireless Sdn Bhd to evaluate BAE Systems’ Navigation via Signals of Opportunity (NAVSOP) technology.
Unlike
GPS, which uses satellite signals, NAVSOP is an advanced positioning
system that exploits existing
transmissions such as Wi-Fi, TV, radio and mobile phone signals to
calculate the user’s location to within a few metres. The unique feature
of NAVSOP is that it is able to calculate a location in areas such as
indoor spaces and urban canyons where GPS is unable
to provide an accurate location.
With
the emergence of Location Based Services (LBS) and location based
Internet of Things, (IoT),
accurate indoor positioning has become ever more important and NAVSOP
is expected to be a key enabler for such applications. Examples of IoT
applications using NAVSOP include Location Aware Wearables, Location
Aware Robotic Navigation, real-time location &
monitoring systems at Ports, Mines, and O&G platforms.
Loka
Wireless, based in Kuala Lumpur, is a Malaysian systems developer,
which currently develops and
markets Machine to Machine (M2M) and Internet of Things wireless
communications systems. Under the terms of the agreement Loka Wireless
will evaluate the NAVSOP technology, with a view to potential further
development in Malaysia.
Manoj
Narayanan, Chief Executive Officer of Loka Wireless, commented: “We are
delighted that BAE Systems
has given us the opportunity to evaluate this advanced technology.
Loka Wireless already has a strong background in developing location
based wireless communications systems and we believe NAVSOP fits
perfectly into our plans to provide indoor location based
M2M & IoT products. As a fast-moving Malaysian SME, we are
looking to grow our portfolio of high technology products, as well as
supporting the Economic Transformation Plan through the creation of jobs
and new technologies.”
John
Brosnan, Managing Director, BAE Systems, South East Asia, added: “We
are delighted to be working
closely with Loka Wireless, allowing them to evaluate the performance
of this exciting NAVSOP technology, whilst giving them the opportunity
to see what the next steps might be for the technology in Malaysia. Our
agreement with Loka Wireless is a perfect
example of how BAE Systems is looking at sustainable innovation in high
technology sectors of the Malaysian economy.”
Technical Details
By
exploiting such a wide range of signals, NAVSOP is resistant to hostile
interference such as jamming
(a particular weakness of GPS) and spoofing, where a bogus signal
tricks a device into misidentifying its location. The new system can
learn from signals that are initially unidentified to build an ever more
accurate and reliable fix on its location. Even
the signals from GPS jammers can be exploited by the device to aid
navigation under certain conditions.
The
real beauty of NAVSOP is that the infrastructure required to make it
work is already in place.
There is no need to build costly networks of transmitters and the
hardware behind the system is already commercially available. Another
benefit is that it can be integrated into existing positioning devices
to provide superior performance to GPS.
A
major advantage of the system is its ability to function in places
where GPS is unable to reach,
such as dense urban areas and deep inside buildings. It is also able to
work in the most remote parts of the world, such as the Arctic, by
picking up signals that include Low-Earth-Orbit satellites and other
civilian signals.
From
aiding soldiers operating in remote or dense urban areas to providing
improved security for Unmanned
Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), which could face attempts to disrupt their
guidance systems, NAVSOP has a wide range of potential military and
commercial applications.