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GPS Toolkit (GPSTk) 1.0 Released

Posted by michael on from the you-are-here dept.

rmach writes "Based on many years of work performed at ARL:UT, we have release GPSTk under the GNU LGPL. GPSTk is a cross platform library and set of applications that provides both fundamental and advanced GPS processing algorithms to the GPS and open source community. A wide array of functions are provided by the GPSTk library, including: RINEX I/O, ephemeris calculation, P-code generation, atmospheric refraction models, and positioning algorithms. GPSTk applications provided more concrete benefits to the user, including: cycle slip detection and removal, calculation of the Total Electron Content (TEC) of the ionosphere, position residual computation, and RINEX file manipulation. The library is about 41,000 SLOC with a COCOMO estimated cost to develop of about $1.3 million. You can also read more about it in the current issue (September '04) of Linux Journal."

22 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. It's probably just me, but.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... I don't even remotely understand what this post is about. ARLUT? RINEX? cycle slip detection? TEC? SLOC? COCOMO?

    1. Re:It's probably just me, but.... by Espectr0 · · Score: 5, Informative

      SLOC means source lines of code. COCOMO (construction code model) is the name of a method used to estimate costs of development, mostly in person-months needed to finish a project.

      --
      Open Source Java Web Forum with LDAP authentication
    2. Re:It's probably just me, but.... by LesPaul75 · · Score: 5, Funny

      No, it's not just you...

      ARL:UT GPSTk GNU LGPL GPS RINEX I/O P-code TEC SLOC COCOMO

      I thought the article was one of those crypto-quotes from the newspaper. I solved it, and it translates to

      CATS:YOU HAVE NO CHANCE TO SURVIVE MAKE YOUR TIME

      Pretty scary, if you ask me.

  2. that's all fine and good, but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    anyone that has worked with GPS and GIS data know the real hard part is fixing and processing all the data. Getting the data into a database in a normalized format is perhaps one of the most challenging parts of building a gps/gis application. luckily companies like NavTech provide good data that is supplemented with their own surveys.

  3. Not sure how this is useful... by skroz · · Score: 4, Funny

    So, uh, like... does this mean I can find a geocache faster?

    --
    -- Minds are like parachutes... they work best when open.
    1. Re:Not sure how this is useful... by afidel · · Score: 5, Interesting

      No, it means you can do precise calculations with cheap equipment. Most of these functions cost thousand of dollars if done in hardware.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
  4. Thank goodness... by k4_pacific · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just the other day, I was trying to find a way to calculate the total electron content of the ionosphere.

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    Unknown host pong.
  5. That's great and all, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm still not gonna stop and ask for directions.

  6. Track editing? by Hanna's+Goblin+Toys · · Score: 4, Interesting

    When I bought my Garmin Etrex, I wanted to use it to store mountain bike rides and overlay them with maps. Easy, right? Bah! I spent two weeks trying to find a way to do this on my Linux box before giving up. I ended up paying out of my rear end to buy expensive Garmin maps and closed source software. Even then, I couldn't mix and match tracks, let alone cut and paste sections of them together to make trail maps.

    The other featuer I've always wanted is to do profile slices of my rides to see climbing and descending rates, especially during races.

    All in all this toolkit sounds hugely promising, as the last time I looked at SF.net/Freshmeat the capabilities were nearly nil. All I want is a simple import module, track overlay over free downloadable maps, and a track editor...

    I'm going to be spending the evening trying to get this stuff working, hopefully it will provide a replacement to my current Garmin/Microsoft solution!

    1. Re:Track editing? by swillden · · Score: 4, Informative

      I spent two weeks trying to find a way to do this on my Linux box before giving up. I ended up paying out of my rear end to buy expensive Garmin maps and closed source software. Even then, I couldn't mix and match tracks, let alone cut and paste sections of them together to make trail maps.

      Depending on exactly what you want to do, there are some in-progress Linux tools that are usable. gpsbabel is a tool that can convert track, route and waypoint files to and from a bunch of different file formats, including the Garmin MapSource files. Some of the file formats are text, so you can do pretty much anything you like by converting to one of those, munging the stuff with your favorite utilities and scripting language, and converting back to MapSource (or whatever).

      For visualization and tracking, check out gpsdrive. You can download maps for it from various on-line sites. Rick Richardson's geo-* tools are a bunch of useful bash and (I think, haven't looked lately) perl scripts that do lots of useful things, like making it easy to download maps and stuff. Most of Rick's stuff is focused on geocaching (for which it's really great, BTW, especially in conjunction with gpx2html.

      The other feature I've always wanted is to do profile slices of my rides to see climbing and descending rates, especially during races.

      I don't know of anything to do this (maybe someone else does?) but if you're a programmer hacking it together yourself wouldn't be too hard, given gpsbabel to convert the data into a mungeable format so you can get the times, positions and altitudes (and I think Rick's code has some stuff for calculating distances).

      All in all this toolkit sounds hugely promising, as the last time I looked at SF.net/Freshmeat the capabilities were nearly nil. All I want is a simple import module, track overlay over free downloadable maps, and a track editor...

      I don't think this toolkit is what you're looking for. Oh, I forgot to mention, look at gpstrans for transferring data between your Vista and Linux. Works fine, and you don't have to use gpsbabel to get the data in a usable format.

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    2. Re:Track editing? by garcia · · Score: 4, Informative

      GPS Visualizer. This site is free and uses SVG to display maps. You can overlay GPX/LOC or track data (among others) over top of maps.

  7. Geocaching with Linux by ylikone · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you use a GPS for geocaching, there is already a set of GPS tools for the Linux user here.

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    Meh.
  8. You know, it's amazing... by tao_of_biology · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's amazing what guys are willing to go through to avoid getting out of the damn car and asking for directions. ;)

    --

    -- "A chicken is an egg's way of making another egg."

  9. What does an FPS have to do with this? by Reorax · · Score: 4, Funny
    "Based on many years of work performed at ARL:UT"

    Advanced Research Labs: Unreal Tournament?

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    This sig is only here so people stop skipping the last lines of my posts.
  10. We're off to a bad start here, unfortunately by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    While I salute and thank the developers here for what looks like may be a useful and valuable package, I just downloaded the library and can see that we're off to a rather bad start.

    Unfortunately, the whole build process requres "jam" (a tool from perforce.com). Arrrgghh!

    That they are using Perforce is a very bad sign. The whole Perforce system is designed by people who didn't understand basic mathematics (as in Set theory), and consequently it's annoying as heck to use.

    Give me BitKeeper or Sun's Teamware (if you have a golden key, and can by-pass the license restrictions) anyday. Or even CVS in a pinch.

    But requiring Jam in a distribution? Have these folks never, ever heard of "configure" and autoconf?

    Hopefully the rest of the code exhibits some technical cluefulness. But right now, I can see that we're off to a bad start.

    To the developers: sorry to give you folks a hard time here, but someone really has to on this.

    1. Re:We're off to a bad start here, unfortunately by rmach · · Score: 4, Informative

      I agree with your critique. However, this code was extract from various projects using "jam" and there was not time/resources to do anything different. We may consider a change for the future and would welcome any community submissions that would improve the build process.

  11. Acronyms and Terms Explained by n2rjt · · Score: 5, Informative
    I have a few of these:

    GPS = global positioning system (but you knew that)

    ephemeris calculation = modeling a satellite's orbit based on a handful of numbers, demonstrated by http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/eph_help.html

    RINEX = Receiver Independent Exchange Format, http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/CORS/Rinex2.html

    SLOC = source lines of code .. a simplistic and rather poor metric used to gauge the effort required to develop software. http://www.dwheeler.com/sloc/

    COCOMO = an obsolete software development cost model http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/bu2/COCOMO.html

  12. This is funny...and it didn't take long to locate! by eufreka · · Score: 4, Funny
    Read this http://gpstk.sourceforge.net/getting-started.html

    Check out item 4 (emphasis added):

    You should know your way around a command line or terminal. For UNIX users, this is a given. For Windows users, using the command line (referred to as "DOS prompt" sometimes) may be a challenge.

    Ouch!

  13. LGPL! by rumblin'rabbit · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Lord be praised, it's under the LGPL. This means corporations can use the package in their software, and have the resulting applications delivered externally, without having to make all of their source in the program publicly available. If it were released under the (full) GPL, the package would find much more limited use.

    Root-Mean-Square (ie, Richard Stallman) won't like it, of course. The FSF strongly recommends all software be under the GPL, not the LGPL. Myself, I think that's a serious mistake. Private enterprise is not, and never has been, the enemy. It's particularly a mistake when you want a package to become a de facto standard, and then do your best to ensure the private sector can't use it.

    I thought I would introduce some politics into what is a rather boring technical /. post.

  14. What this is by thule · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Please correct me if I'm wrong, but this software is very important. This is the software that normally runs inside the GPS, not for drawing maps, but interpreting the GPS radio signals and calculating the lat/long numbers. Why would this be useful? Well, say, you take a project like GnuRadio and make your own GPS receiver. GnuRadio can demodulate the signals and convert it to data. This software would allow you to take the data you receive with GnuRadio and do something with it.

    It seems to me that this is first time that code like this has ever been published under an open license.

  15. Re:Wasn't the Precision code classified? (NO) by spankus · · Score: 5, Informative
    Actually, Precision Code isn't classified, and it lists how to make it in Interface Spec Document 200

    The government encrypts the Pseudo Random Code with an encryption key that makes it hard to track.

    Y-code is simply encrypted P Code.

    Basically, this software package allows you to increase your accuracy, export and import GPS information, and model the ionosphere (a major source of error using the Coarse Acquisition (civilian) signals.

  16. Finally -- a way to control my dog's shit by IronChefMorimoto · · Score: 5, Funny

    Finally -- a means of writing the software required for my GPS-guided canine shock collar defecation system. Now I can just turn the dog loose and not have to worry about her pooping in a different place every time she gets her dump on.

    Shit on the driveway? SHOCK!

    Crap in the neighbor's yard? SHOCK!

    Crap in mean neighbor's yard? NO SHOCK! (subroutine for OPTIONAL shit locations).

    Poop near the mailbox? SHOCK!

    Drop a deuce in the back corner of the yard near all the other piles of shit? NO SHOCK!

    (C) Copyright 2004 by IronChefMorimoto Pet Waste Management Technologies

    IronChefMorimoto