Plug-and-play stand-alone multi-frequency PPK/RTK navigation receiver
Keep precise navigation simple with MEDEA plug-and-play stand-alone multi-frequency GNSS receiver. It is small and lightweight, especially suited for small rovers such as unmanned vehicles, but can be used as well as base station with its external antenna allowing permanent deployment configurations.
MEDEA operations are straightforward thanks to its standard interfaces for real-time navigation (specially for unmanned vehicles use cases). All sensor data can be stored into the microSD, allowing for precise post processing techniques such as PPK, PPP and hybrid GNSS-IMU positioning.
It can work as well as timing GNSS receiver, detecting and time-tagging (GPS time) external events within nanosecond resolution.
MEDEA is the entry point to accurate and affordable navigation.
Highlights:
While the “MEDEA GNSS Receiver” and “Surveyor” pledges allows you to build your own GNSS CORS station, the “PPK kit for drone photogrammetry” pledge can be operated for the following use cases.
Use MEDEA as your multi-frequency multi-constellation real-time receiver in standalone configuration (horizontal accuracies of 1.5 m). MEDEA is specially conceived to be connected to unmanned vehicle controllers with a UART interface (Pixhawk-like). Being a multi-constellation GNSS with RF shielding maximises the SNR values in any acquisition scenario, which improves the robustness of the position fixes.
Use MEDEA as a PPK GNSS module in order to combine it afterwards with JASON, Rokubun Precise Positioning-as-a-Service, to achieve centimetric accuracy (*). High rate measurements (GNSS and aiding sensors) and detected external events (i.e. camera triggers) stored in your MEDEA microSD card can uploaded to our JASON to produce a file with precise coordinates of the detected photos, or used for your own advanced navigation algorithms combining data from different sensors (hybrid GNSS + IMU + barometer navigation).
MEDEA receiver + JASON PPK operation for drones is as simple as a three step procedure:
* when in the coverage zone of JASON service (chek it here).
Grabbing two MEDEA units you get a complete PPK end-2-end standalone solution. Just set up one MEDEA as a base station and another as a rover and use afterwards JASON to carry out the PPK processing getting centimetric accuracy geolocation. This configuration is useful if not in a JASON covered area or if you want to have a standalone precise positioning solution. Settting your end-to-end PPK solution with your two MEDEAs and JASON is as easy as following 4 steps:
Eventually you can use MEDEA as an RTK receiver using its internal RTK enginge (need external connectivity to furnish NTRIP streams with an add-on radio not provided within our pledges).
PPK, that stands for Post-processing Kinematics, is essentially the same GNSS processing technique used in RTK positioning but carried out post-facto. For applications in need of accuracy not requiring real time it is the best option, since it allows for a much cheaper and less cumbersome solution since connectivity in your GNSS devices is no longer needed.
The object of this campaign is framed in a wider scope project that is briefly described as follows.
After winning the Catalonia Regional Price of the Galileo Masters 2018 for the MEDEA single-frequency GNSS receiver prototype, Rokubun is currently upgrading it to a MEDEA multi-frequency GNSS navigation computer, which is based on the u-blox ZED-F9P multi-frequency and multi-constellation chipset.
The single-frequency MEDEA prototype consists on a sensor board (with the GNSS chipset, IMU, barometer, extra magnetometers, …) and the application board, with a small yet powerful processor to embed any program you need (NTRIP caster, RTKLib, your own navigation engine, webserver UI…) and a 3G+ modem.
The MEDEA sensor board (SB), object of this campaign, can operate independently from the application board. This means that is able to collect all the data (GNSS raw observables, IMU, time events, …) in the SD card for later processing, specially well suited for PPK applications such as drone photogrammetry. The MEDEA SB has the same functionalities as our previous Argonaut receiver. Also, due to the fact that the Ublox chipset contains an RTK engine, you can use it also as a navigation unit if you provide it with connectivity. Actually, the upcoming application board will have 3G and WiFi connectivity to the sensor board for this purpose.
With MEDEA SB production prototype implemented, we have started to perform some first tests on the data quality we can get from the receiver. To do this we have set-up a series of dynamic (automotive) and static tests using a multi-band Tallysman TW7972 antenna.
See some results obtained with the MEDEA SB + JASON combination for an April 2019 car drive acquisition in rural areas here. You can download this datapackage, that contains the obtained sample Rinex3.03 file (used to generate the solution with our Positioning-as-a-Service) as well as the resulting KML.
Hardware development and manufacturing is expensive and decreases proportionally to the number of manufactured units. MEDEA SB has been already developed up to production prototype. Therefore, the campaign funds will be used to cover the manufacturing costs. However, some effort costs have been accounted in order to manage production issues: manufacturing and validating the final version for production and fine tuning final firmware version. Campaign goal has been set to hit 100 units in order to reach the >=100 pricing tier for all the components and manufacturing costs.
The cost structure for the campaign goal is as follows:
Read this section if you are new to Kickstarter and you are not sure on how to become a “backer” (a person that supports the project) by giving funds to the project (“pledge”).
Depending on the amount of your “pledge” you will get a “reward”. The “rewards” (and their minimum “pledge” amount) are located at the right column of this page. For example, if you “pledge” €355 or more, you will receive a MEDEA GNSS board as well as a 1 year subscription to Jason (Rokubun Positioning-as-a-Service). In addition, if the project hits more than €60.000 (“stretch goal”), you will also receive the files to 3D print an enclosing case. To support the project, do the following:
Besides backing the project, feel free to share the link to the kickstarter campaign to your social media outlets such as twitter or to your network and contacts that might be interested.
Get 3D printer files to print your MEDEA casing (this will include nuts and bolts for assembly).
This is our intended calendar for the whole process after the end of the campaign (Kick-Off, KO):
FINAL HW
Risk: Final HW version will be simplified with respect to current MEDEA SB prototype in order to optimize costs. This involves the development of a final HW version, its validation and testing.
Countermeasure: As soon as the campaign momentum suggests that goals will be met, Rokubun will start the development of the final HW MEDEA SB version in collaboration with a specialized partner.
DELAYS IN DELIVERY AND PRODUCTION
Risk: MEDEAs are rather complex with multiple components from different providers that can deliver later than expected.
Countermeasure: As soon as the campaign momentum suggests that goals will be met, Rokubun will start the provisioning process of the parts for manufacturing in order to maximize the available time to absorb potential delivery delays. As per the production, several providers have been queried and safety calendar margins of 100% of the average expected production time have been added to estimate the delivery date.
DELAYS IN REWARD DELIVERY
Risk: Internal firmware (FW) final modifications, validation, testing and flashing of all the MEDEA can be cumbersome if lots of units are to be prepared.
Countermeasure: The current MEDEA SB prototype available in Rokubun will allow us to work on the final FW version, since no differences with the final HW version will impact the FW. Regarding the flashing and validation process, Rokubun will scale the dedicated resources to this task according to the number of units to be prepared.