Swift Navigation – Enabling future of autonomous vehicles to navigate and understand the world

The Silicon Review

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) have the potential to transform urban living. By offering the opportunity for safe, efficient, accessible, and affordable transportation, they promise not only a novel system of mobility but also a novel approach to the urban lifestyle. Yet these benefits are far from guaranteed. Scholars have shown that AVs have the potential for numerous negative impacts in contraposition to their positive potential, depending, of course, on the form of their implementation. They could combine with other growing trends in the mobility space (such as shared use or mass electrification) to introduce a positive rupture in today's mobility system.

Swift Navigation is one such firm that provides precise positioning solutions for an automotive, autonomous vehicle, mobile, and mass-market applications. Swift has evolved from creating the industry's first low-cost, high-accuracy, real-time kinematic (RTK) GPS receiver to delivering an ecosystem of GNSS positioning solutions for autonomous applications. Swift Navigation continues to innovate with its ecosystem of precise positioning solutions for independent applications. The firm offers a full suite of positioning solutions that are accurate, affordable, and easily integrated while being reliable and secure for a variety of autonomous applications requiring precision positioning. Swift products are designed and assembled in California, USA, and benefit thousands of customers worldwide.

Cutting-edge products offered by Swift Navigation

Skylark: It delivers lane-level, precise positioning to autonomous vehicles across continents via a cloud-based corrections service. Skylark's cutting-edge positioning algorithms provide a continuous stream of multi-constellation, multi-frequency GNSS corrections for a highly available service that combines lane-level accuracy and world-class integrity at a continental scale. Skylark is hardware-independent, giving customers a choice in today's rapidly improving and affordable GNSS sensor ecosystem. OEMs can benefit from the lane-level positioning Skylark delivers using a host of third-party receivers. Skylark provides continental coverage across the United States and Europe with global expansion plans underway. Contact Swift for more information on coverage plans in your region. Skylark is a scalable, secure, and highly available cloud service, delivering a continuous stream of real-time corrections. Skylark supports State Space Representation (SSR) formats for broadcast to millions of devices. Ntrip and RTCM are also supported for compatibility with existing equipment.

Starling: It is a receiver-agnostic precise positioning engine designed for automotive and autonomous vehicle applications. Starling is an advanced, high-precision positioning engine that works with various automotive-grade GNSS chipsets and inertial sensors, making it ideal for autonomous applications. Starling's software is platform-independent and enhances commercially available GNSS receivers' measurements to provide centimeter-accurate results with high integrity. Starling supports the calculation of precise position, velocity, and time (PVT). When combined with inertial sensor measurements, wheel odometer, and other sensor inputs, Starling can assist with vehicle localization, decision, and control. Starling works with multi-frequency, multi-constellation automotive and commercial-grade GNSS measurement engines offering automotive companies a choice in selecting the best components for their autonomous sensor suite, Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) applications, and Automated Driving Systems. Starling has been designed for fast portability and runs on leading automotive processors and operating systems.

Piksi Multi: It is a multi-band, multi-constellation RTK GNSS receiver board that provides centimeter-level accurate positioning at a low cost. Being multi-band means fast convergence times measured in seconds, not minutes. Access to multiple satellite constellations improves availability, reliability, and range between base and rover. With Piksi Multi, you'll benefit from faster system start times and reacquisition, critical to robotic systems. It's easy to get started with a comprehensive Piksi Multi Evaluation Kit. Swift Navigation is built on the notion that highly-precise RTK solutions should be offered at an affordable price. Piksi Multi embraces the foundation of unmatched affordability and is available at a much lower cost than comparable systems.

Duro: It is a ruggedized multi-band, multi-constellation centimeter-accurate GNSS receiver. Duro is an enclosed version of the multi-band, multi-constellation Piksi Multi RTK GNSS receiver. It is ideal for agricultural, robotics, maritime, rail, and outdoor industrial applications. The easy-to-deploy Duro is protected against weather, moisture, vibration, dust, water immersion, and the unexpected that can occur in long-term outdoor deployments. Duro leverages design principles typically used in military hardware to create an IP67-rated receiver with its M12 connectors sealed and industry-standard, requiring no external sealing for deployment, even the harshest conditions.

Meet the formidable leader

Timothy Harris is the Co-Founder and also serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Swift Navigation. He is focused on building a world-class organization that will power the next generation of GPS-enabled autonomous vehicles and robots. A proven leader in the high-accuracy GPS industry, Mr. Tim leads teams excited to drive innovation and challenge each other to achieve visionary change. Before Swift, he worked in supply chain consulting for OR Soft Jaenicke GmbH in Halle, Germany, and in corporate finance for Emerge Digital Group, where he oversaw M&A and strategic partnerships for a digital media holding company. He has a JD degree from Boston University and a BA degree from the University of California at Berkeley.