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Article: System revolutionizes surveying and navigation. (NAVSTAR Global Positioning System (GPS)) (includes buyers guide of GPS receivers and glossary of GPS terms)
- Article from:
- EDN
- Article date:
- January 7, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. (US). This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a radio-navigation system that employs RF transmitters in 24 satellites. GPS receivers decode the satellites' signals to calculate the latitude, longitude, and altitude of a position on earth. The positioning accuracy ranges from 40m to less than 1cm. This description seems straight-forward, but imagine the possibilities.
GPS applications appear limitless (see Table 1). You'll be designing them into surveying and navigational equipment, airplanes, boats, and trucks--and that's just for starters.
Already GPS receivers on airplanes and boats are providing accuracies 10 to 100 times better than those achieved by ...