Education - Navigation
NOTE: Short courses are availabale only upon request, at our location or at yours. To request a course brochure, a registration form, or to request a course cost-estimate call 215-682-4000.
One Day Courses in Navigation:
Power Seminar in Navigation - The art and science of navigation spanning the classical techniques of celestial astronomy to the future applications of advanced Intelligent Transportation Systems. The history and future of navigation. The role of navigation in military systems. The status and fundamentals of radio, satellite and inertial navigation.
Inertial Navigation Overview - Critical role of inertial navigation systems in modern military warfare. The history, advantages and disadvantages of inertial navigation. A description and demonstration of systems presently in use or in development. Introductory lectures on the theory and operation of accelerometers, gyroscopes, gimballed and strapdown systems. A futuristic look at new applications and microelectromechanical sensors.
Geophysical Navigation Overview - The utilization of geophysical fields including bathymetry, gravity and magnetics and their impact on navigation systems. Emphasis is on interrelationships with inertial navigators. The modalities of effects including correlation navigation, compensation for vertical deflections, commonality of geophysical and inertial sensors, and collocation algorithms.
Navigation and Man - This course emphasizes the historical development of navigation systems. It spans modern civilization from the earliest celestial navigation techniques to the latest global satellite navigation system events. The course addresses the impact of navigation in today’s civil and military environment and projects them to future applications.
Two, Three or Four Day Courses in navigation:
Modern Radio and Satellite Navigation Systems - Description of major satellite navigation systems proceeding from the early experiments on the Soviet Sputnik satellite through the evolution of the GPS. The attributes of earlier radio navigation systems such as LORAN, OMEGA, DECCA and TRANSIT. Advantages of satellite navigation with respect to global coverage, uniform coordinate system, high accuracy, time dissemination, three dimensional capability, velocity determination, and attitude information. Radio navigation propagation including phase measurement techniques, propagation link errors, multipath effects, wideband noise and jamming/spoofing. The signal structures of GPS and its sister system GLONASS. The basic measurements of pseudorange and deltarange as they relate to the signal structure and to the navigation solution outputs. The levels of GPS accuracy proceeding from commercial standard positioning code correlation accuracies to post-time static survey phase differencing. The orbital parameters and physical characteristics of the GPS/GLONASS satellites and the data messages which describe their almanacs and ephemerides. The evolution of satellite launchings from TRANSIT satellites to future Block III satellites . Receiver design tradeoffs including switching (multiplexing and sequential) and continuous tracking receivers: dual frequency vs. single frequency; standard positioning service vs. precise positioning service; stand alone vs. integrated; and embedded vs. discrete. The role of GPS as a component of an overall navigation and communication systems and the development of Automatic Vehicle Location and Intelligent Transportation Systems. Differential GPS and its application for high accuracy surveying, aircraft approach and landing, and other precision positioning tasks. The future of GPS highlighting Modernization and GPS/GLONASS/GALILEO systems.
Fundamentals of Navigation - The attributes of navigation systems and the fundamental range, range rate, acceleration, angular and angular rate measurements of navigation systems. The fundamentals of lines of postion, the shape of the earth, basic navigation terminology, and dead reckoning//trajectory generation algorithms. Maps, charts, geographical information systems (GIS) and celestial navigation concepts. Coordinate systems and their kinematics as related to inertial navigation. Inertial navigation sensors and inertial system mechanizations. The fundamentals of electromagnetic propagation as they apply to radionavigation. The characteristics of radionavigation and satellite systems (emphasizing GPS). Trends in navigation focusing on its utility for GIS and Network Centric Warfare.
Control and Kinematics in Navigation - Theory and practical applications of inertial navigation systems and advanced navigation system integration concepts. The fundamental vector and matrix operations and coordinate system definitions, Historical, present day and future inertial navigation applications. Practical examples of existing inertial sensor and inertial system performance. Detailed mechanization approaches to strapdown and gimballed systems. The importance and error modalities of gravitational effects. State space canonical formulations of inertial navigation error propagations. The role of estimation in navigation systems with a hands-on approach to Kalman filters and modern GPS-INS integration techniques.
GPS Problem Solving Workshop - This workshop emphasizes numerical problem solving as applied to the Global Positioning System. The problem solving is primarily based on examples and data provided in Eng and Misra, “GPS, Signals, Measurements and Performance”. The course features the practical and computational aspects of GPS, while also providing contextual instructional material. The course includes student operation with actual GPS receivers and utilization of data sets from these receivers. Solutions to most problems, programmed in MATLAB will be provided. The Workshop concludes with a tutorial session on GPS vulnerability and forecasts on navigation in the next decade. A Scientific background and MATLAB are recommended.
Instructor Profile:
 Marvin B. May |
Marvin B. May is responsible for Navigation Technology and education at Penn State’s Applied Research Laboratory Navigation Research and Development Center in Warminster, PA. He has a BSEE from City College of NY and Masters Degrees from New York University and Polytechnic, and is a Professional Engineer. He is an adjunct professor at several universities and teaches Master’s Degree navigation courses for the Penn State Great Valley Graduate Center. At the Naval Command, Control and Ocean Surveillance Center he was a project leader on radio and inertial navigation systems, and has headed projects on applications of geophysical measurements to inertial navigators. He served for eight years as the Chief Analyst of the Global Positioning System Division at NCCOSC and has published widely in the navigation arena. Mr. May has been Chairman of the Greater Philadelphia Chapter and is the national Marine Navigation representative and Historian of the Institute of Navigation. |
Directions to NRDC, Warminster:
From Philadelphia - Take I-95 South to I476 and follow to Plymouth Meeting. Take PA Turnpike (I-276) East to Exit 27 (Willow Grove). Keep right after tollbooths. Take Route 611 North to first traffic light and turn right onto Mill Road. (Note: Mill Road changes to Warminster Road at Route 263.) Take Warminster Road until it ends on County Line Road; turn right. At first traffic light, turn left onto Newtown Road. (Newtown Road will jag at Street Road.) Turn right onto Street Road, then turn left at the Johnsville Reformed Church onto Newtown Road. After five blocks, turn right and follow the road to the NRDC on the left.
From I-95 North - Take I-95 to Route 132 West (Street Road). Continue about ten miles and turn right onto Newtown Road at the Johnsville Reformed Church in Warminster. After five blocks, turn right and follow the road to the NRDC on the left.