Argos system is used for locating and collecting data by satellite, but unlike GPS the position of the mobile devices (beacons) is known to the system and not to the mobile devices themselves
With more than 11,000 active platforms throughout the world, Argos has become an important system of reference when it comes to observing and monitoring the environment on a worldwide scale.
Specialising in the manufacturing of products dedicated to this system for 30 years, the French company Elta is presenting its latest line of Argos data transmitters: the Hal-2 and the VHal-2.
Said to be extremely reliable, these new high-performance products have been designed to operate in the most hostile environments.
The new generation Argos Hal-2 (high accuracy locator) transmitter claims excellent frequency stability, making it possible to pinpoint to an accuracy of 300-370m.
The VHal-2 (very high accuracy locator) transmitter is fitted with an integrated GPS device.
It enables even more accurate pinpointing to within a few metres, while at the same time retaining the same general features and overall performances as the Hal-2.
Owing to their very low electric power consumption (less than 50uA), elaborate miniaturisation, and sturdiness, Elta says this line can be adapted to all environmental applications, even the most demanding and most critical.
As a former Argos data collecting platform (DCP) manufacturer, Elta took into consideration all the requirements of DCP integrators and users as early as the design phase of its new transmitters.
These products are said to be virtually compatible and can be integrated into any data collecting system: data collecting platform (meteorological, hydrological, seismological, volcano monitoring), collecting or transmission system, mobile device tracking solution, etc.
The Argos system is a worldwide system used for locating and collecting data by satellite.
It is related to the satellite positioning systems such as the GPS.
The main difference comes from the fact that the position of the mobile devices (Argos beacons) is known to the system (data processing centres) and not to the mobile devices themselves, as is the case with the GPS.
This system is dedicated to environmental applications.
Argos is able to pinpoint with an accuracy of less than 300m any mobile device (at sea (including meteorological buoys, animals, fishing boats, containers, etc); on the ground (containers, trucks, trains, people, etc); or in the air (balloons, stratospheric probes, animals, etc) fitted with an Argos transmitter.
It also enables data transmitted by sensors connected to the transmitter (temperature of a container, impact, vibration, humidity, toxic fumes, explosions, leaks, rainfall measurements, wind speed) to be retrieved.
Elta is seeking commercial partners to distribute its Argos transmitters internationally, in particular distributors whose customers are integrators or solutions providers for mobile device tracking, monitoring of the environment, industrial risk management and/or data collection in hostile environments.
