Saving Space and Time: The Tractor That Einstein Built

About this technology

Overview

In 1984, NASA initiated the Gravity Probe B (GP-B) program to test two unverified predictions of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity.To test these predictions, the Space Agency and researchers at Stanford University developed an experiment that would check, with extreme precision, tiny changes in the spin direction of four gyroscopes contained in an Earth satellite orbiting at a 400-mile altitude directly over the Earth's poles. The researchers assessed using Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to control the attitude of the GP-B spacecraft accurately. At that time, the best GPS receivers could only provide accuracy to nearly 1 meter, but the GP-B spacecraft required a system 100 times more accurate. They created new technologies, then branched out, testing the new Real Time Kinematic (RTK) GPS technology. The thinking of the researchers shifted again from automatically landing aircraft, to automating precision farming and construction equipment. A group of the Stanford researchers in Menlo Park, California, created their own company, Novariant Corporation (originally called IntegriNautics Corporation), and submitted a proposal to NASA's Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program at Langley Research Center. In partnership with NASA, the FAA, and Stanford, the firm planned to research and develop a highly reliable navigations system for precision approach and landing, using navigation signals transmitted by satellites and similar signals transmitted by low-cost 'Integrity Beacons' on the ground." The STTR contract had also identified other potential applications, including commercial ones for automated agricultural and construction equipment. In 1996, Novariant spawned a subsidiary, AutoFarm, to focus on agricultural applications of its GPS auto-steering technology, and a tractor-steering technology was trademarked with the name RTK (Real-Time Kinematic) AutoSteer. RTK AutoSteer was released in 1999 to farmers in California, Arizona, and Australia.