IMA NEWS - Feb. 2002

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IMA (Institute of Mathematical Analysis) news is delivered every month. 

Attending ION NTM 2002

NTM (National Technical Meeting) 2002 of ION (Institute Of Navigation) was held on January 28th through 30th at San Diego, California. The author presented a paper on Underground GPS. He was surprised by the first presentation in the same session. A doctor candidate of Stanford University read the paper. The topic discusses on the positioning of an unmanned vehicle on Mars surface. No GPS satellites are orbiting around Mars. Instead of satellite, they use GPS signal sources called pseudolites. The scale of their research is really big.

When the same problem is considered on earth, the position of pseudolites is assumed to be given, but it becomes unknown on Mars. A method for determining the pseudolite position precisely must de developed. The Stanford group has succeeded in solving this problem and conducted experiments for the verification of their method.

The author has been studying GPS for several years. However, his research is always one step behind to his great regret. In the world of technology, a theme without any realistic needs is nonsense. An advanced target emerges only in an advanced society.

The author has been indifferent to other planets than earth such as Mars. However, knowing the closeness of the work by Stanford people to Underground GPS by the authors, the space has become much familiar to him, and his vision has been widened at a burst.

What will be the next target of R & D, when the precise positioning on Mars is realized? The intensive reading of the papers by Stanford people may give a suggestion and may give a proposal for minor improvement. However, it is not exciting. The author would have no chance to participate in this kind of research, but would like to make an original proposal in ideas at least. He would like to surprise researches in US. How enjoyable it would be if succeeded!

Jobs in January

(1) Proposal for practical use of an Underground GPS, especially on signal
sources
(2) Proposal for R&D of a high sensitivity GPS
(3) Proposal for practical use of a high sensitivity GPS receiver (collection of
information in US)
(4) Submission of a paper to the Society of Naval Architects of Japan
        http://www.snaj.or.jp
(5) Presentation of a paper on an underground GPS at ION NTM 2002 (Jan., San Diego)
        http://www.ion.org/meetings/ntm2002program.html#sessions

Schedule in and after February

(1) Proposal for practical use of an Underground GPS
(2) Proposal for R&D of a high precision GPS
(3) Proposal for R&D of a high sensitivity GPS
(4) Proposal for an experimental system of Modulation/Demodulation
Experiment
(5) Presentation of a paper on GPS Acoustics at UT2002 (April, Tokyo)
         http://underwater.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ut02/Welcome.html
(6) Presentation of a paper at the Spring Meeting for the Society of Naval Architects of Japan
         http://www.snaj.or.jp
(7) Presentation a paper on a new method in wave tank experiments at OMAE Symposium (June, Oslo)
        http://www.asmeconferences.org/omae02/Author/NewAbstract.cfm

Essay: Difference of Scale

After attending ION NTM 2002, the author visited NavCom Technologies in Redondo Beach near from Los Angels. The offices of this company are elegant buildings located at waterfront. Looking from windows, many yachts are moored. The environment is really enviable. This company is a R & D company in cutting edge technology including GPS. It was a venture established about 15 years ago, but it is now a 100% subsidiary of John Deere, a huge agriculture company founded in 1838. I have got acquainted with Mr. Chris Litton, sales manager, on the occasion of symposiums and exhibitions. He is a son of the president too.

Chris is a good-natured person and welcomed me. He invited me not only lunch but also dinner. So, he and the author could spend a lot of time on talking various topics. Mr. Hatch, President of ION, is a Vice President of this company, and the author discussed with him for about two hours. Mr. Hatch is an open-hearted person. He is the inventor of Hatch Filter famous in the field of GPS. According to what I heard from Chris, he seems to be a very unique person.

Mr. Hatch is an earnest believer of Baptist and a father of 13 children. Furthermore, he educated his children by himself. This is impossible in Japan. Elementary education of nine years is compulsory in Japan, but in US, the situation seems to be different. In short, the scale is different between in Japan and in US.

However, if the scale is different, a strong belief may be necessary to practice it. His strong belief is a big surprise to me. In a society where the author belongs, this kind of strong belief, especially in intellectual people, is very rare. From this meaning, the author feels the difference of scale. Generally speaking, political leaders in US seem to have stronger leadership than Japanese ones. This may root in this kind of difference.

Mr. Hatch is skeptical about the theory of relativity by Einstein, and wrote a book on the subject. According to Chris, the book is not popular. Every time the author visit US, he encounters things he can't imagine in Japan. US is always very attractive to the author.