Swift Navigation Introduces Starling, a GNSS Positioning Engine, and Availability with Broadcom’s Dual Frequency BCM47755 Chip
Swift Navigation, a San Francisco-based tech firm building centimeter-accurate GNSS technology and a Cloud-based Corrections Service to power a world of autonomous vehicles, today announced the availability of its Starling™ Positioning Engine with Broadcom’s industry-leading dual-frequency GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) receiver chip, the BCM47755. This new solution is capable of delivering centimeter accuracy with minimal power consumption and small footprint for rapidly expanding precise positioning applications.
Swift unveiled its Starling Positioning Engine, a modular and portable GNSS high-precision positioning engine that leverages Swift’s Skylark™ Cloud Corrections Service. Starling revolutionizes the architecture and cost structure of precise positioning applications. Platform independent, Starling is an advanced GNSS processing engine that enhances the measurements from commercially available GNSS receivers to provide true precision and integrity capabilities. Swift’s Starling software is GNSS receiver agnostic and works with a variety of GNSS chips and inertial sensors. Starling features multi-band, multi-constellation support to provide centimeter-level accuracy and supports the calculation of integrity outputs to provide absolute position, velocity and time (PVT).
Swift showcased the integration of Starling with the Broadcom® BCM47755 chip—the latest generation of Broadcom GNSS receiver chip—during a recent test drive in California. The synergistic benefits of integrating Starling with the BCM47755 measurement engine include low system-level power consumption and a smaller PCB (printed circuit board) footprint. The successful integration illustrated the accuracy of the combined solution and forthcoming offerings for autonomous vehicles including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), robotics, asset tracking, fleet management and other applications requiring precise positioning. The BCM47755 simultaneously supports GPS and GLONASS in the L1 frequency band or GPS and Galileo in both the L1/E1 and L5/E5a frequency bands. Starling combines the GNSS raw observations from the BCM47755 with corrections from Swift’s Skylark Cloud Corrections Service to deliver centimeter-level positioning.
Horizontal Position
50% 90% Availability (%)
Starling with BCM47755 0.417 m 0.884 m 100%
“Broadcom is delighted to work with Swift in their integration of Starling and Skylark with our BCM47755,” said Vijay Nagarajan, Senior Director of Product Marketing for the Wireless Communications and Connectivity Division at Broadcom. “This is an exciting development for Swift and Broadcom, bringing together innovative hardware and software for the precise positioning market.”
“Swift has taken its mature Starling Positioning Engine that has long been powering Swift’s Piksi® Multi and Duro® receivers and made it interoperable with other industry leading chipsets to provide customers with a broader selection of precise autonomous navigation solutions,” added Samir Kapoor, EVP Engineering & Product at Swift Navigation. “We are excited to offer an integrated solution with the Broadcom BCM47755 GNSS receiver chip.”
Swift has developed an out-of-the-box evaluation platform for the combined Swift/Broadcom solution, called the Starling + BCM47755 Evaluation Kit, which will be available to order in Q4 2018. To learn more, contact sales@swiftnav.com. The Evaluation Kit includes:
Starling Evaluation Board
Cortex-A7 Processor Running Starling Positioning Engine on Linux
Broadcom BCM47755 Chip
I/O – RS-232, Ethernet, USB, CAN
Supports SBP, NMEA and RTCM3 Protocols
Built in NTRIP Client
Built in Client for Skylark, Swift’s Cloud-Based GNSS Corrections Service
Dual Frequency, Multi-Constellation Antenna
External Cell Modem
Power Supply, Cabling and Accessories
Evaluation Kit Hardware Design Documentation, including Schematics and Layout
Evaluation Kit User Manual, Swift Console PC Application and Firmware Image