Locata… Bustin’ Out Sans Satellites (Positioning)

[SatNews] According to the Company, this new technology may well be the next-best technology to be developed since GPS itself…

Locata Corporation will unveil the TimeTenna, a breakthrough positioning antenna technology that, for the first time, allows centimeter-accurate, GPS-style positioning indoors. Building on the company’s ground-breaking new terrestrial positioning system, the Locata technology will enable new high-accuracy positioning, machine automation and robotics applications indoors and is initially aimed at warehousing and industrial applications. The company is demonstrating this revolutionary new technology in a ballroom deep inside Portland’s Oregon Convention Center, the venue for this year’s prestigious Institute of Navigation (ION) GNSS Conference being held September 19-23, 2011.

Locata’s unique high-accuracy terrestrial positioning technology LocataNet™ is already deployed outdoors by partners such as Leica Geosystems and organizations including the U.S. Air Force. Locata’s new indoor solution will enable businesses to automate, locate and direct equipment such as forklifts and other machinery in radio navigation settings where it has previously been impossible. Locata has already taken steps to begin miniaturizing the core antenna technology to ultimately allow high-accuracy positioning indoors for personal devices like mobile phones. To accomplish this technical breakthrough, David Small, Locata’s co-founder, has had to overcome the problem of multipath — the fact that radio signals bounce chaotically indoors and therefore become impossible to track correctly. “Multipath has always been the bane of high-accuracy radio positioning indoors,” said Nunzio Gambale, Chairman and CEO of Locata. “And I can sincerely say David has created a historic world-first with this invention of a completely new type of antenna that mitigates multipath. The TimeTenna is utterly unique in the way that it works.”

Satellite-based GPS signals were not designed to reach indoors and are, therefore, unable to pass through even minor obstructions. When this is added to multipath conditions with signals bouncing repeatedly off walls and/or other objects, accurate and reliable positioning becomes impossible. Locata’s patented Correlator Beam Forming technology, The Small TimeTenna™, named after its creator David Small, is the first system to overcome this multipath interference to enable accurate positioning indoors. “It’s very hard for a layman to appreciate just how difficult multipath is to overcome,” said Gambale. “In positioning and radio circles it’s regularly called ‘the devil’ because it’s everywhere and impossible to defeat. Most engineers are in awe of David and the Locata team’s accomplishment. In the past few weeks, as we’ve begun to show select groups how it’s done, the accolades flowing to our team have been truly unstinting.”

The TimeTenna versions Locata is showing at ION are about the size of a soccer ball and designed for machine automation use. The Locata team is now focused on taking this technology all the way to an iPhone. “If the industry thinks the TimeTenna they’re seeing today is too good to be true, just wait until they see what’s coming next,” added Gambale.

Locata also today released an Interface Control Document (ICD) which defines the requirements related to the interface for the company’s ground-based positioning system. Next, Locata will bring to market a commercialized version of the technology through select integration partners.