Chinese Satellites, Beidou Navigation System and related technologies

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China’s BeiDou outpaces GPS to become top navigation service provider

By Global Times Published: Dec 14, 2022 10:10 PM Updated: Dec 14, 2022 10:02 PM


File photo of a model of the Beidou Satellite Navigation System.Photo:Xinhua

File photo of a model of the Beidou Satellite Navigation System.Photo:Xinhua

China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) has become the top guidance service provider for domestic Gaode Map, according to a statement released by the Beijing Institute of Space Science and Technology Information on Wednesday.

Based on the average number of satellites called by domestic navigation apps for each positioning, BeiDou satellites have been called the most, 30 percent more than the second-ranked GPS, the China Media Group (CMG) reported.

Gaode Map has used BeiDou satellites to make more than 210 billion positioning calls each day. The combination of BDS and map navigation is providing better services to the public, read the statement.

Map apps users can check the number of BeiDou satellites currently offering service in real time during navigation, including each one's code, azimuth angle, height angle, frequency, signal strength and other factors.

Although the news only became public on Wednesday, the BDS has actually long surpassed GPS in serving domestic map apps, Liu Dingding, a Beijing-based veteran market analyst, told the Global Times.

Another domestic map giant, Baidu Maps, announced an official switch to the BeiDou system on September 30, with daily positioning uses exceeding 100 billion for the first time.

BeiDou playing a dominant role in the domestic navigation sector is of great significance. For starters, as a homegrown technology, it is free from external meddling, and it could ensure data and information security. In addition, the positioning quality of BDS has proved in many scenarios to be much better than GPS, Liu said.

A Beijing resident told the Global Times that the BeiDou system is more accurate than GPS. "I use Baidu Maps app to plan a route and navigate whenever I drive. With BeiDou, Baidu Maps now knows whether I'm on the main road or the side road right next to it, which usually cannot be distinguished by GPS," said the person.

Liu noted that the application of BDS in navigation apps is only the tip of the iceberg. The system has been widely used in many industrial and agricultural sectors, from port management and grain production to providing disaster relief.

An intelligent farm in Handan, North China's Hebei Province, has installed BeiDou-supported positioning and navigation devices, automatic steering devices and remote-control devices on autonomous tractors to sow seeds and spray pesticides.

The total output value of China's satellite navigation and location-based service industry exceeded 470 billion yuan ($64 billion) in 2021, with a compound annual growth rate of over 20 percent, said a
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As of the end of 2021, BDS had been installed in more than 7.8 million road transport vehicles nationwide. Approximately 8,000 BDS terminals were in use on the country's railway network, and more than 100,000 agricultural machines were equipped with self-driving systems based on BDS.

BDS has seen accelerated development and use overseas too, Liu noted.

Beidou products, technologies and services have been applied in more than 120 countries and regions, the Xinhua News Agency reported in October.
 

sunnymaxi

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On January 8, 2023, Lin Baojun, chief designer of the Beidou-3 satellite system and vice president of the Institute of Microsatellite Innovation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, gave a speech at Fudan University, saying that the overall core indicators of the Beidou navigation system More than GPS.

Recall that on December 27, 2018, at the press conference of the State Council Information Office, Ran Chengqi, director of the China Satellite Navigation System Management Office and spokesperson for the Beidou Satellite Navigation System, officially announced that the basic system of Beidou-3 was completed and began to provide global services. .

At this time 4 years ago, the service index promised by the Beidou system was a positioning accuracy of 10 meters, and now it has achieved 5 meters or even better (the global non-differential positioning accuracy of GPS civil C/A code is about 10 meters). Areas can achieve a positioning accuracy of 2 to 3 meters.

As for Beidou's timing accuracy external service, the commitment 4 years ago was 20 nanoseconds, and now it can provide 10 nanosecond timing accuracy (after canceling SA interference, the two-way timing accuracy of GPS civilian C/A code is about 20-nanoseconds).

As of November 2022, AutoNavi Maps has called Beidou satellites for more than 210 billion times a day, and the Beidou call rate has surpassed other satellite navigation systems such as GPS.

BeiDou-Navigation-Satellite-System-2-1024x576.jpg
 

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China forms all-weather remote sensing monitoring system for all waters, islands: top aerospace authorities


By Global Times Published: Jan 19, 2023 01:28 AM


APSTAR-6E Communications Satellite Photo: Courtesy of China Academy of Space Technology

APSTAR-6E Communications Satellite Photo: Courtesy of China Academy of Space Technology


China’s space technology was deeply applied in the country’s various industries in 2022, forming an all-weather remote sensing monitoring system for infrastructure including all sea areas and islands under its jurisdiction, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) said on Wednesday during the release of the Blue Book of China Aerospace Science and Technology Activities.

China has developed a series of satellites for ocean color, marine dynamics and surveillance, which have formed the capability of continuously and frequently covering observations of global waters, and have achieved remarkable results in applications in areas including island management, marine resource investigation and supervision, marine environmental monitoring and forecasting.

In 2022, China's marine satellites continued to carry out remote sensing inspections of key islands and reefs. In particular, they strengthened monitoring of the waters around Huangyan Island, Diaoyu Island and all the islands of Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha Islands, providing important data support for the management of sea areas and comprehensive management of the islands.

China's marine satellites also continued to carry out remote sensing detection of key islands and reefs in 2022, in particular strengthening the monitoring of the waters around Huangyan Island, Diaoyu Island, as well as the Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha Islands, providing a significant basis for the utilization of waters and coastal islands, the report noted.

In addition, China’s marine satellites are also carrying out global ocean observation and forecasting, providing services for global marine dynamic environment monitoring, marine forecasting and disaster monitoring, as well as remote sensing monitoring of global sea level changes.

China's marine satellites have successfully provided important data and technical support for monitoring and warnings for fires, typhoons and storm surges at home and abroad.

Lin Mingsen, director of the National Satellite Ocean Application Service, said China will further strengthen the integration of artificial intelligence, big data and other technologies with satellite remote sensing systems, so as to provide high-quality marine satellite public service products and promote the level of marine management in China.
 

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China's Baidu plans to launch ChatGPT – style bot ERNIE in March: company

Move marks Chinese firm’s foray into global generative AI field


Chinese tech company Baidu is expected to launch a ChatGPT-style bot, named ERNIE Bot, which will open for public use in March, making it the first among its Chinese counterparts in joining a global race in the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot sector after OpenAI's ChatGPT prompted widespread attention.

"ERNIE is doing a sprint before finally going online," Baidu told the Global Times on Tuesday, noting that its ERNIE Bot may start "beta testing earlier to keep up with Google and Microsoft."

The announcement prompted Baidu's Hong Kong-listed shares to jump more than 15 percent on Tuesday.

ERNIE, meaning "Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration," is an AI-powered language model with deep semantic understanding and generation capabilities across modalities and languages, according to Baidu.

Powered by knowledge-enhanced cross-modal models, ERNIE can accurately understand the semantics and mapping relationships in language and images, integrating learning from cross-modal knowledge such as language and vision, Wang Haifeng, Baidu's chief technology officer, said at the company's annual flagship developer conference Baidu Create 2022 in January.

Insiders close to the matter told the Global Times that Baidu's work on the bot may have started in September last year, when CEO Robin Li said the development of AI has shown "directional changes at both the technical level and the commercial application level."

In a statement sent to the Global Times on Tuesday, Baidu said that ChatGPT is a milestone and watershed in AI development, which means that AI technology has reached a critical point, and it called for an early development of the emerging technology.

The Chinese search engine giant, along with Alibaba Group and Tencent, forms China's trinity of tech giants known as BAT. It has been investing heavily in AI for years in the fields of self-driving cars and chips designed to power AI applications.

With a full-stack layout in the four-layer AI architecture, including the underlying chips, deep-learning framework, large models, and top-layer search applications, Baidu has a grasp of all ChatGPT-related technology, indicating tech strength among rivals in the arena, Liu Dingding, a veteran industry analyst, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Baidu's move also represents the first presence of a Chinese tech company amid global giants' rush into the sector. Google and Microsoft have all "fought for an early launch."

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai announced in a blog post on Monday that the company will be launching a conversational AI service named Bard, which will be available for user testing before its public release in the near future. Pichai also stated that Google is planning to integrate AI features into its search engine to provide synthesized results for complex queries.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has integrated OpenAI's image-generating software into its Bing search engine, according to Reuters.

"Baidu may primarily focus on the Chinese language, environment and market, making it different from other global giants," Liu said.

Beyond Baidu, industry players told the Global Times a growing number of large and small companies are also developing bots, with some eyeing launches within this year. But they said that considering its combined strength, Baidu could be the most likely rival to global giants.

ChatGPT is currently not available in China, but topics related to the bot have been a buzz on social medial for months, with many centered around whether Chinese tech firms can outperform their US counterparts.

In the face of competition from foreign companies, domestic companies can explore catching up with ChatGPT in terms of algorithm experiences, analysts said.

Because of the differences between the internet environments, Chinese companies "have a market for success," Pan Helin, joint director of the Research Center for Digital Economics and Financial Innovation affiliated with Zhejiang University's International Business School, told the Global Times.

Analysts said that Chinese tech enterprises also have unique advantages in expanding AI application scenarios globally.

China has made significant progress in developing the AI industry. China's Intellectual Property (IP) office received 1.59 million of the total 3.4 million patent applications filed worldwide in 2021, according to a World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI) report released in November.

Patents filed in China are similar in magnitude to the combined total of the next 12 countries ranked from second to 13th, according to the WIPI, which compiled its latest data based on information provided by some 150 countries and regions.
 

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Hubei plans to be key center for BeiDou systems​


By Chen Meiling | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2023-02-09 16:45

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A model of the Beidou navigation system is displayed during Airshow China 2012 in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, in this file photo. [Photo/IC]

Hubei province plans to develop an industrial center for China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, with an investment of up to 100 billion yuan ($14.7 billion) by 2025, local authorities said.

From 2023 to 2025, the province will improve its innovative capabilities, make breakthroughs in core technologies, create applications for BeiDou at large scale, enhance industrial chains, encourage more market entities to take part, reconstruct the industrial landscape and introduce more high-end talent, according to a three-year plan to develop the system, which was released by the Hubei Development and Reform Commission on Wednesday.

The province's output of BeiDou-related industries are expected to total 65 billion yuan by 2023, 80 billion yuan by 2024 and 100 billion yuan by 2025. By the end of 2025, Hubei aims to be contributing more than 10 percent of the output of China's BeiDou industry, it said.

The output value of core technologies and applications linked to BeiDou in Hubei — such as chips, algorithms, software, navigation data, terminal devices and infrastructure — exceeded 10 billion yuan in 2021, 7.7 percent of the country's total, according to the provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology.
 

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Luojia-3 01 satellite completes key technical tests


A model of the Luojia-1 01 satellite is displayed at the fourth China International Import Expo in Shanghai, November 9, 2021. /CFP


A model of the Luojia-1 01 satellite is displayed at the fourth China International Import Expo in Shanghai, November 9, 2021. /CFP

The Luojia-3 01 satellite has completed several technical tests, and its multi-mode intelligent remote sensing service capability has reached the expected target, according to Wuhan University.

The Luojia-3 01 is an intelligent remote-sensing scientific experiment satellite, mainly developed by Wuhan University and launched by a Long March-2D rocket on January 15.

It adopts the in-orbit high-rate compression and transmission technology independently developed by Wuhan University. Its maximum transmission speed can reach two gigabytes (GB) per minute, which effectively solves the transmission delay caused by limited bandwidth.

It makes a breakthrough in autonomously discovering and identifying objects of interest. It can also operate target detection, moving-target tracking and scene classification. The accuracy of in-orbit target detection and moving-target tracking can meet the requirements of most real-time intelligent analysis applications.

In addition, the multi-angle imaging data obtained by the Luojia-3 01 satellite can be processed by sensor correction, stereo image matching and intensive matching reconstruction to obtain high-quality three-dimensional terrain data, and construct three-dimensional models of buildings or specific targets, which will play a crucial role in urban planning management, natural disaster assessment and other fields.
 

tphuang

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Gaode map is now using Beidou positioning more than 300 billion time a day.

Since November, Beidou has been used for more positioning request on Gaode than anything else, so it's now the dominant positioning system in use in China.

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From reading the comment section here, looks like Baidu map adding support for Beidou navigation is a big part here.
 

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Huawei whisper talked about the effect of having Beidou in mapping apps. With higher quality maps, navigation has gotten a lot better and will enable L4/L5 ADAS.

All of which makes me wonder how you get there while still using American GPS and the 4G network here in America.
 

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China to build a wider, smarter, and more integrated national comprehensive space-time system by 2035 with next-generation BeiDou Navigation Satellite System as core, China Satellite Navigation Office said, adding BeiDou-3 system has proved its quality since its operation in 2020..

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