Oregon State University will receive $6.5 million in federal funding over a five-year period for research related to updating the National Spatial Reference System, a coordinate system that defines geographical elements ranging from longitude and latitude to height and orientation, the college said.
OSU officials said common uses for the NSRS include surveying and mapping and is also an element for the development of autonomous vehicle navigation, among other industrial uses. The last major update to the NSRS was 40 years ago, the college said.
“Society and our technologies are increasingly connected and spatially aware,” said GCAP director Chris Parrish of the OSU College of Engineering. “Groundbreaking advances are occurring in areas like self-driving vehicles, smart cities and geospatial artificial intelligence. What all of those have in common is the need for accurate, consistent spatial coordinates that define locations on, above or below the Earth’s surface.”
