TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER OPPORTUNITY: Location Corrections Through Differential Networks System (LAR-TOPS-296)

NASA’s Technology Transfer Program solicits inquiries from companies interested in obtaining license rights to commercialize, manufacture and market the following technology. License rights may be issued on an exclusive or nonexclusive basis and may include specific fields of use. NASA provides no funding in conjunction with these potential licenses.

THE TECHNOLOGY: In recent years, the development and use of internet enabled mobile devices with built in GPS receivers (e.g. cell phones, tablet computers) have seen substantial increases. Correspondingly, the quantity and variety of applications using the GPS capabilities of these devices have also increased.

However, one limiting factor for some desired uses, such as establishing drop zones for package delivery, is that these devices typically have limited precise positioning capabilities due to minimizing Size, Weight, Power and Cost (SWaP-C) for their GPS antennas and chip sets. Research suggests that the expected positional accuracy for a typical mobile device (cell phone or tablet computer) is around 3-10 meters, which is prohibitive for applications that require higher precision.

The system is designed to work with any internet enabled mobile device that has access to its GPS pseudorange, code phase and potentially carrier phase measurements. The system makes use of GPS measurements or corrections obtained from a stationary base station to refine its positioning estimate using established computational techniques such as those associated with differential GPS, Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) GPS and/or the Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS).

The location information from mobile and fixed base signals can be integrated using established such as those used for differential GPS, Such methods remove errors common to the measurements of both devices (the mobile and base station) thereby increasing accuracy of the mobile device position estimates.

To express interest in this opportunity, please submit a license application through NASA’s Automated Technology Licensing Application System (ATLAS) by visiting https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/LAR-TOPS-296 If you have any questions, please e-mail NASA’s Technology Transfer Program at Agency-Patent-Licensing@mail.nasa.gov with the title of this Technology Transfer Opportunity as listed in this beta.SAM.gov notice and your preferred contact information.

For more information about licensing other NASA-developed technologies, please visit the NASA Technology Transfer Portal at https://technology.nasa.gov/ These responses are provided to members of NASA’s Technology Transfer Program for the purpose of promoting public awareness of NASA-developed technology products, and conducting preliminary market research to determine public interest in and potential for future licensing opportunities. No follow-on procurement is expected to result from responses to this Notice.