An Affordable Rugged Inertial-Based Navigation System for Highly Accurate Position and Attitude Estimation Without the Use of GPS Navy SBIR FY2010.3 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2010.3 Topic No.: N103-221 Topic Title: An Affordable Rugged Inertial-Based Navigation System for Highly Accurate Position and Attitude Estimation Without the Use of GPS Proposal No.: N103-221-0100 Firm: Impact Technologies, LLC 200 Canal View Blvd Rochester, New York 14623-2851 Contact: Liang Tang Phone: (585) 424-1990 Web Site: www.impact-tek.com Abstract: Impact Technologies, in collaboration with the Rochester Institute of Technology, Virginia Tech and the Boeing Company, proposes to develop and demonstrate a rugged, GPS-independent, miniature, low-power and light-weight device that provides highly accurate position and attitude measurements for USV operations in harsh marine environments encompassing highly dynamic maneuvers and vibrational effects. In contrast to the conventional GPS-dependent devices, our device implements an Unscented Kalman Filter-based three-dimensional position and attitude estimator that makes use of low-cost sensors such as accelerometers and rate gyros. The key innovation is to identify the local gravitational position in real-time and use it to bound sensor drift errors to achieve highly accurate state estimation. The objective is achieved by a unique hardware design that combines a dual-arc accelerometer array with three-axis rate gyros and optional heading sensors. High vibration effects are estimated and eliminated by subtracting the imposed loading from the accelerometer measurements to provide a highly robust system. Preliminary simulation studies have demonstrated a position estimation accuracy that exceeds Navy's requirements (< 0.5 nmi/hr drift rate). While Phase I will focus on proof-of-concept software-in-the-loop demonstration, a hardware prototype will be fabricated, tested on Virginia Tech's USV platform and delivered to Navy in Phase II. Benefits: The proposed device and associated technologies have applications in military and Homeland Security as well as across a broad range of industrial and civilian applications including Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), tracking and targeting, law enforcement, border patrol, counter-terrorism surveillance, research & rescue missions, and pipeline inspection. For example, the proposed system can be used to develop maps of cave networks using robot networks where GPS is not available. Also, the proposed system has potential commercial applications in air vehicles (both micro and large scale vehicles) providing navigation and attitude information in GPS denied environments. The successful completion of this project will also benefit the Army's Future Combat System (FCS) program by enabling Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) agile flight operations in urban warfare environments. Return