Research Summaries

Back Non-Standard Navigational Methods for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)

Fiscal Year 2020
Division Research & Sponsored Programs
Department NPS Naval Research Program
Investigator(s) Monarrez, Jr., Aurelio
Kragelund, Sean P.
Sponsor NPS Naval Research Program (Navy)
Summary While the global positioning system (GPS) is an enabling technology for unmanned systems, many unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become overly reliant on GPS for navigation. This study will investigate navigational techniques that can enable continued UAV operations when GPS-only navigation is not possible. Emphasis will be placed on sensors and components which are compatible with a typical Group 2 unmanned aerial system (UAS). The proposed approach will address two aspects of a desired non-standard navigation capability: inertial sensing and vision-based position fixes. First, we will investigate commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) inertial navigation systems (INS) which can augment existing UAS sensors and payloads to enable self-navigation without GPS. We will assess the feasibility and utility of these systems, based upon size, weight, cost, performance, and ease of integration. Second, we will evaluate autonomous self-navigation algorithms which can exploit locally-sensed motion and visible environmental features when GPS is unavailable. This approach will emphasize techniques compatible with an onboard, gimbaled video camera to obtain external position fixes and minimize accumulated self-localization errors. This study will recommend non-standard navigation solutions for two operational scenarios if GPS should become unavailable: 1) return to base without pilot intervention, and 2) continue a surveillance mission with bounded target uncertainty.
Keywords Global Positioning System (GPS) Inertial Measurement Navigation and Control Unmanned Aerial System (UAS)
Publications Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal
Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal