DRDO achievements: What can a 17 grams device deliver? A lot including guiding satellites high in the sky and ships on the rough seas. It will also help the Defence protect the country better

By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, Sept 1: What can a 17 grams device deliver? A lot more
including guiding satellites high in the sky and ships on the rough
seas. It will also help the Defence protect the country better.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Saturday
evening formally received a highly miniaturized module with all the
available satellite constellations of global positioning system (GPS)
and global navigation satellite system (GNSS) on a module that weighs
just 17 grams.

Accord Software and Systems, a Bengaluru-based firm, developed the
module named G3oM for the DRDO. Dr VK Saraswat, director-general,
DRDO, received the device on Saturday evening.

It is used in a variety of applications like aircraft, helicopters,
mobile vehicles, boats, ships and survey applications. It also has
tremendous civilian use and can be produced in large numbers at a low
cost.

According to a DRDO statement here, G3oM is a state-of-the-art
technology receiver, which integrates both GPS and Indian SBAS GAGAN
and GLONASS systems. The algorithms designed to run on the modules are
capable of providing superior time to fix, signal sensitivity,
accuracy along with integrity monitoring and anti-spoofing. The
navigation output comprises of GPS, GLONASS and GPS+GLONASS position,
speed and time data.

G3oM supports a scalable architecture designed to cater to future
navigation systems like IRNSS, GALILEO etc. The dual antenna
architecture used in the device augments the receiver performance
during vehicle maneuvers when only one antenna may have the
unobstructed view at any given time. Multi constellation support
removes dependency on GPS or GLONASS alone for navigation system and
in addition enhances the reliability, integrity and availability of
the navigation output as compared to a single constellation receiver.

Mr G Satheesh Reddy, associate director of the city-based Research
Centre Imarat, said the product is bringing a quantum jump in the area
of GNSS technology and paved the way for highly miniaturized GNSS
systems for the future.

Dr SK Chaudhuri, who heads RCI, said the Centre could now produce
miniaturized avionics for variety of airborne applications.