2011 Kepler Award

Presented to: Dr. Gary McGraw

Citation: For his contributions to GPS in the areas of high accuracy, high integrity and highly survivable precision guidance and control of aircraft.

Dr. Gary McGraw has made significant contributions to the field of satellite navigation and has become a central figure in a number of navigation technology development efforts. As a member of Rockwell Collins' Advanced Technology Center, he made many contributions to the development of GPS-based precision approach and landing systems. He was instrumental in the receiver development and system architecture definition for the Rockwell Collins team that demonstrated the first triplex differential GPS autoland system during the Boeing GPS Autoland Program. He was also heavily involved in the work of RTCA SC-159 in the development of industry standards for GPS landing systems, in particular leading the effort that developed the first set of standardized models for use in the certification of GPS-based avionics. These models have become internationally accepted and widely used. He also contributed significantly to the development of radio frequency interference industry standards for GPS receivers. Dr. McGraw also participated in early GPS Modernization activities, including the M-code definition team, definition of the GPS L5 signal as member of RTCA SC 159, and the GPS-III System Analysis & Requirements Development program. Dr. McGraw led the development of a number of GPS signal processing concepts in the areas of multipath mitigation and in the use of dual-frequency measurements in advanced differential GPS architectures. This dual frequency differential architecture is the basis for the next generation military landing and test range systems. He pioneered the use of anti-jam GPS systems for high accuracy and high integrity applications. Dr. McGraw also led the development of the GPS Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (RAIM) algorithms now in use in all Rockwell Collins commercial avionics GPS products.

Dr. McGraw currently leads the Navigation and Control Section of the Rockwell Collins Advanced Technology Center. He and the team he leads develop and analyze advanced navigation system concepts and work to transition technologies to internal business units as well as external agencies under contract. This work includes developing technologies for GPS denied positioning, precision positioning and timing, GPS anti-jam and anti-spoofing, and autonomous path planning. Dr. McGraw has numerous conference and journal publications and holds 14 patents. He has served the ION as conference track chair and session chair on several occasions and is an Associate Editor of the ION journal NAVIGATION.