GLOBAL POSITIONING

SYSTEM: GPS

•Yoosha Abul Hassan

•Ali Saifuddin
•Habib
 Why GPS
• Trying to figure out where you are and
where you're going is probably one of
man's oldest pastimes
• Navigation and positioning are crucial to
so many activities and yet the process has
always been quite cumbersome
• Over the years all kinds of technologies
have tried to simplify the task but every
one has had some disadvantage
 Finally, the U.S. Department of
Defense decided that the military
had to have a super precise form of
worldwide positioning. And
fortunately they had the kind of
money ($12 billion!) it took to build
something really good. 

The result is the Global Positioning

System, a system that's changed
navigation forever.
 What is GPS?
• The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a
worldwide radio-navigation system formed from
a constellation of 24 satellites and their 
ground stations.
• GPS uses these "man-made stars" as reference
points to calculate positions accurate to a matter
of meters. In fact, with advanced forms of GPS
 you can make measurements to better than a
centimeter!

• In a sense it's like giving every square meter on

the planet a unique address.
• GPS receivers have been miniaturized to just a
few integrated circuits and so are becoming very
economical. And that makes the technology
accessible to virtually everyone.

• These days GPS is finding its way into cars,

boats, planes, construction equipment, movie
making gear, farm machinery, laptop computers
and even mobile phones!
 How GPS works?
Here's how GPS works in five logical steps:
• The basis of GPS is "triangulation" from satellites.
• To "triangulate," a GPS receiver measures distance
using the travel time of radio signals.
• To measure travel time, GPS needs very accurate timing
which it achieves with some tricks.
• Along with distance, you need to know exactly where the
satellites are in space. High orbits and careful monitoring
are the secret.
• Finally you must correct for any delays the signal
experiences as it travels through the atmosphere.
 Putting GPS to work
• GPS technology has matured into a resource that goes far beyond
its original design goals. These days scientists, sportsmen, farmers,
soldiers, pilots, surveyors, hikers, delivery drivers, sailors,
dispatchers, lumberjacks, fire-fighters, and people from many other
walks of life are using GPS in ways that make their work more
productive, safer, and sometimes even easier.

In this section you will see a few examples of real-world applications of

GPS. These applications fall into five broad categories.

Location - determining a basic position

Navigation - getting from one location to another
Tracking - monitoring the movement of people and things
Mapping - creating maps of the world
Timing - bringing precise timing to the world
 Location
"Where am I?"
• The first and most obvious application of GPS is the
simple determination of a "position" or location. GPS is
the first positioning system to offer highly precise
location data for any point on the planet, in any weather.
That alone would be enough to qualify it as a major
utility, but the accuracy of GPS and the creativity of its
users is pushing it into some surprising realms.
• Knowing the precise location of something, or someone,
is especially critical when the consequences of
inaccurate data are measured in human terms. For
example, when a stranded motorist was lost in a South
Dakota blizzard for 2 days, GPS helped rescuers find
her.
 Navigation
"Where am I going?"
• GPS helps you determine exactly where you are, but
sometimes important to know how to get somewhere
else. GPS was originally designed to provide navigation
information for ships and planes. So it's no surprise that
while this technology is appropriate for navigating on
water, it's also very useful in the air and on the land.
On the Water
• It's interesting that the sea, one of our oldest channels of
transportation, has been revolutionized by GPS, the
newest navigation technology. Trimble introduced the
world's first GPS receiver for marine navigation in 1985.
And as you would expect, navigating the world's oceans
and waterways is more precise than ever.
• By providing more precise navigation tools and accurate landing
systems, GPS not only makes flying safer, but also more efficient.
With precise point-to-point navigation, GPS saves fuel and extends
an aircraft's range by ensuring pilots don't stray from the most direct
routes to their destinations.
• GPS accuracy will also allow closer aircraft separations on more
direct routes, which in turn means more planes can occupy our
limited airspace. This is especially helpful when you're landing a
plane in the middle of mountains. And small medical evac
helicopters benefit from the extra minutes saved by the accuracy of
GPS navigation.
•
• Finding your way across the land is an ancient art and science. The
stars, the compass, and good memory for landmarks helped you get
from here to there. Even advice from someone along the way came
into play. But, landmarks change, stars shift position, and
compasses are affected by magnets and weather. And if you've
ever sought directions from a local, you know it can just add to the
confusion. The situation has never been perfect.
• Today hikers, bikers, skiers, and drivers apply GPS to the age-old
challenge of finding their way.Borge Ousland used Trimble GPS to
navigate the snow and ice to ski his way to the top of the world and
into the record books. And two wilderness rangers employed GPS
to establish a route across the Continental Divide for horse riders
and packers.
• If navigation is the process of getting something from one location to
another, then tracking is the process of monitoring it as it moves along.
• Commerce relies on fleets of vehicles to deliver goods and services either
across a crowded city or through nationwide corridors. So, effective fleet
management has direct bottom-line implications, such as telling a customer
when a package will arrive, spacing buses for the best scheduled service,
directing the nearest ambulance to an accident, or helping tankers avoid
hazards.
• GPS used in conjunction with communication links and computers can
provide the backbone for systems tailored to applications in agriculture,
mass transit, urban delivery, public safety, and vessel and vehicle tracking.
So it's no surprise that police, ambulance, and fire departments are adopting
systems like Trimble's GPS-based AVL (Automatic Vehicle Location)
Manager to pinpoint both the location of the emergency and the location of
the nearest response vehicle on a computer map. With this kind of clear
visual picture of the situation, dispatchers can react immediately and
confidently.
Chicago developed a GPS tracking
system to monitor emergency
vehicles through their streets,
saving precious time responding to
911 calls. And on the commercial
front, two taxi companies in
Australia track their cabs for better
profit and improved safety.
 Mapping
"Where is everything else?"
• It's a big world out there, and using GPS to survey and map it
precisely saves time and money in this most stringent of all
applications. Today, Trimble GPS makes it possible for a single
surveyor to accomplish in a day what used to take weeks with an
entire team. And they can do their work with a higher level of
accuracy than ever before.
• Trimble pioneered the technology which is now the method of
choice for performing control surveys, and the effect on surveying in
general has been considerable. You've seen how GPS pinpoints a
position, a route, and a fleet of vehicles. Mapping is the art and
science of using GPS to locate items, then create maps and models
of everything in the world. And we do mean everything. Mountains,
rivers, forests and other landforms. Roads, routes, and city streets.
Endangered animals, precious minerals and all sorts of resources.
Damage and disasters, trash and archeological treasures. GPS is
mapping the world.
 Timing
"When will it all happen?"
• Although GPS is well-known for navigation, tracking, and mapping, it's also used to
disseminate precise time, time intervals, and frequency. Time is a powerful
commodity, and exact time is more powerful still. Knowing that a group of timed
events is perfectly synchronized is often very important. GPS makes the job of
"synchronizing our watches" easy and reliable.
• There are three fundamental ways we use time. As a universal marker, time tells us
when things happened or when they will. As a way to synchronize people, events,
even other types of signals, time helps keep the world on schedule. And as a way to
tell how long things last, time provides and accurate, unambiguous sense of duration.
• GPS satellites carry highly accurate atomic clocks. And in order for the system to
work, our GPS receivers here on the ground synchronize themselves to these clocks.
That means that every GPS receiver is, in essence, an atomic accuracy clock.
• Astronomers, power companies, computer networks, communications systems,
banks, and radio and television stations can benefit from this precise timing.
One investment banking firm uses GPS to guarantee their transactions are recorded
simultaneously at all offices around the world. And a majorPacific Northwest utility
company makes sure their power is distributed at just the right time along their 14,797
miles of transmission lines.