Stanford University
GPS Group Faculty
Per K. Enge is a Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University, where he is the Kleiner-Perkins, Mayfield, Sequoia Capital Professor in the School of Engineering. He directs the GPS Research Laboratory, which develops satellite navigation systems based on the Global Positioning System (GPS). These navigation systems augment GPS to improve accuracy and provide real time error bounds. In addition, the laboratory is developing a suite of technologies to mitigate the navigator's vulnerability to radio frequency interference. The laboratory has pioneered two such systems that are now operational. The first system uses a network of medium frequency radiobeacons to broadcast differential GPS corrections to maritime and land users. This system was developed for the U.S. Coast Guard, and today it covers much of the world's coastline and an increasing inland area. It provides differential GPS data to approximately 1.5 million users. The second is the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) that was developed for the FAA. WAAS already serves millions of users, and became operational for aircraft in 2003. The laboratory is currently working on auto-land systems based on GPS. Amongst these, the Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS) will supports larger airplanes at high-traffic hub airports, and the Joint Precision Approach Landing System (JPALS) will support aircraft carrier operations. Per has received the Kepler, Thurlow and Burka Awards from the Institute of Navigation (ION) for his work. He is also a Fellow of the ION and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He received his PhD from the University of Illinois in 1983, where he designed a direct-sequence multiple-access communication system that provided an orthogonal signal set to each user.
Professor Parkinson's research focused on the control of spacecraft, aircraft and robots; navigation and positioning, especially using the Global Positioning System; and innovation management. Now in emeritus status, he is also co-principal investigator and associate program manager for Gravity Probe B (GP-B), a NASA-sponsored space program in collaboration with Stanford University to test Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. He is the Principal Investigator for the FAA/LAAS grant to investigate the applications of GPS for civil aircraft. This program includes flight tests of innovative landing systems and use for Air Traffic Control.
Professor Powell's research interests focuses on Navigation and Control, applied to aircraft, spacecraft and automobiles. He is the author of over 100 papers and two texts on Control Systems. Professor Powell's research is concerned with GPS based aircraft and ground vehicle navigation. His research aims at the development of precision navigation for aircraft automatic landings in poor visibility conditions, the use of GPS for aircraft surveillance, collision avoidance and automatic navigation, the use of GPS-based attitude with inertial instruments for an aircraft attitude reference, and the use of pseudolites to augment GPS for ground vehicle navigation near obstructions, and automobile navigation using GPS.