InfiniDome Ltd. and Honeywell International Inc. today said they have signed an agreement to jointly develop and deliver technologies to protect Global Posititioning System signals. The companies said their collaboration is intended to support both commercial and defense applications, as well as a range of vehicle platforms, including commercial aircraft, urban air mobility systems, unmanned aerial systems and surface vehicles.
“In combining Honeywell’s best-in-class navigation sensors with leading-edge GPS resilience technology from InfiniDome, we’re working to develop a first-of-its-kind holistic solution built on tightly integrated layers of protection for all uses of navigation for unmanned air and ground vehicles,” said Omer Sharar, CEO of InfiniDome.
InfiniDome said it provides front-end cybersecurity to protect wireless communications from jamming attacks. The Caesarea, Israel-based company designs systems to monitor and secure the GPS systems in drones and other unmanned systems, vehicle fleets, and critical networks, as well as defense applications.
Autonomous systems must account for GPS unreliability
Around the world, GPS signals are used for navigation, but consistent connection with these signals is not always achievable, noted Honeywell and InfiniDome. Even the latest drones can encounter reception problems in GPS-denied environments, where signal service is marginal or blocked. Examples include near tall buildings or under bridges.
In these instances, it is important for air and surface vehicles to be equipped with technology to readily handle signal disruption and maintain access to critical navigation and timing information, said the partners. As more small vehicles take to the skies and roads in heavily populated areas, GPS signal availability must be maintained to provide accurate navigation, ensure safety and protect property they said.
Honeywell and InfiniDome said their joint system is designed to seamlessly handle loss or lack of GPS signals, therefore greatly reducing the likelihood of collisions and detours. In addition, it will allow customers to increase payloads and decrease mission times without the expensive sensors currently used to handle GPS interferences, they said.
InfiniDome addresses public safety and jamming
Honeywell and InfiniDome said their offering will include hardware, software and services to bring customers increased value compared with existing systems. The technology will also support public safety for quickly evolving low-altitude applications such as cargo drones and urban air transportation vehicles.
“Intentional GPS jamming and spoofing incidents are on the rise, and this partnership will enable a rapid solution to this critical industry need,” said Matt Picchetti, vice president and general manager for navigation and sensors at Honeywell Aerospace. “This partnership will create world-class solutions that will help accelerate the future of flight, especially in urban areas.”
The companies said they expect the system to be commercially available in the first half of 2022. Honeywell and InfiniDome will show a preliminary version of their joint solution at the AUVSI Xponential at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta this week. It is on display in Honeywell’s booth, No. 3523, and InfiniDome’s booth, No. 3309.
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