Affordable Rugged MEMS Inertial Navigation System for Unmanned Surface Vehicles Navy SBIR FY2010.3 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2010.3 Topic No.: N103-221 Topic Title: Affordable Rugged MEMS Inertial Navigation System for Unmanned Surface Vehicles Proposal No.: N103-221-0482 Firm: Crossbow Technology, Inc. 1421 McCarthy Blvd Milpitas, California 95035-7433 Contact: John Zhang Phone: (408) 965-3391 Web Site: http://www.xbow.com Abstract: This Phase I SBIR project will design, fabricate and evaluate a rugged, small, light weight inertial navigation IMU system suitable for the littoral marine environment. The proposed system incorporates state-of-the-art MEMS inertial sensors, interface to aiding sources including a 3-axis magnetometer, speed sensor and GPS from either SAASM or commercial grade receiver and a CPU running an extended Kalman filter software to enable sustained navigation in both GPS and GPS denied environments. During Phase I, various next generation sensor components and system designs will be examined in laboratory bench testing and with computer simulations to ascertain the extent the IMU will maintain the desired position and attitude navigation accuracy when GPS signal is lost, the ability to survive in a littoral marine environment, and the relative impact on performance, size, weight, cost, and power. Based on the attainment of satisfactory results, a preliminary system design and an interface control document will be developed. In Phase II, the proposed system will be prototyped and field tested in a relevant marine environment. Benefits: This proposal represents an innovative approach to a rugged, low cost, small, inertial navigation system. This system will provide a combined military and commercial product that can be exploited in applications requiring high accuracy navigation performance in a compact, affordable, ruggedized form factor. This system would benefit manned and unmanned military and commercial maritime surface vehicles, undersea vehicles, and ground systems where size, weight, cost and power are critical factors. Return