TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Ground/Sea Vehicles, Sensors, Electronics

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: Unmanned Surface Vehicles, MkV, Combatant Craft Medium Mk1

The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals, their country of origin, and what tasks each would accomplish in the statement of work in accordance with section 3.5.b.(7) of the solicitation.

OBJECTIVE: Develop a small, affordable, rugged, and marinized Inertial Navigation System (INS) utilizing an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) comprised of accelerometers, gyroscopes, heading, speed sensors, etc. and a small rugged CPU. The IMU and the CPU shall withstand the operating environment of Unmanned Surface Vessels (USV) and other Small Boats and Combatant Craft.

DESCRIPTION: The operational requirements of USVs and Small Boats will place them in situations where GPS navigation may be denied, jammed, or spoofed. An INS is capable of accurate navigation without the GPS after its first initialization. An Inertial Navigation System (INS) also enhances the accuracy of navigation when coupled with GPS, heading sensors, speed sensors, etc. which will drastically increase navigation accuracy to USV operations. Currently most, if not all, INS development has been focused on aerial vehicles, large ships, and submarines. These systems are expensive, too large or too small, and not designed to withstand the operating environment of small boats and USVs that encompasses the shocks and vibration therein. This causes a much smaller mean time between failure that requires system replacement adding significant cost to the program. There are some commercially available INS units for smaller vessels, but rely heavily on GPS. These INS drastically lose accuracy when GPS is denied for a trivial length of time as they do not encompass a true heading sensor as a component of their Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU).

This topic seeks to identify and apply innovative solutions for the future combatant craft and Unmanned Surface Vessel navigation and situational awareness that will maintain accuracy when GPS is denied, survive the littoral marine environment, and easily integrate into current and future ECDIS and USV control systems. The INS consists of a CPU and Inertial Measurement Units. The CPU needs to be able to obtain information from the IMUs, process the information accurately, and relay that information to the navigation system on board such as an ECDIS system for manned or the control system for a USV. The IMUs to be utilized shall consist of a minimum of a heading sensor that can maintain accurate heading when GPS is denied, accelerometers, and/or gyroscopes, to calculate rate of turn, and a speed sensor for speed over ground when GPS is denied. These IMUs shall be able to withstand the littoral marine environment described below. The INS shall be capable of communicating with external devices via Controller Area Network (CAN) bus and RS232 serial communication in order to properly interface into the USV control systems and future combatant craft control and navigation systems. The INS shall be "plug and play" utilizing a commercial standard such as NMEA 2000 or NMEA 0183. The INS shall be powered by 10-32 VDC power. The INS shall be capable of operating in a littoral marine environment including but not limited to operating on a 40ft craft in a sea state 3 at speeds of 30 kts encompassing the shock and vibration exhibited in such an environment. It shall be a minimum of IP66, withstand salt spray and dust, and able to operate in temperatures ranging from -40C to 60C. The system shall be compact, light weight, and be comprised of as few components as practical. The INS shall be able to maintain position accuracy drift of less than 0.5nmi/hr by developing intelligent algorithms to minimize integration errors such as recursive Kahlman filtering and by filtering out the accelerations due to the shock and vibration of the craft.

Achieving this goal of developing an INS that is accurate, rugged, and affordable greatly enhances the Navy's capability to meet the objective set forth by Admiral Pottenger, which is the ability to easily convert a manned boat into a USV for a wide array of reconnaissance missions.

PHASE I: Demonstrate the design feasibility of an innovative, rugged, small, light weight, inertial navigation system capable of surviving the littoral marine environment. Perform bench top experimentation where applicable to demonstrate concepts. Complete preliminary design and develop interface control document that addresses the needs as identified above.

PHASE II: Develop, demonstrate, and fabricate a prototype as identified in Phase I. In a laboratory environment demonstrate that the prototype meets the performance goals established in Phase I. Verify final prototype operation in a representative environment and provide results. Develop a cost benefit analysis and a Phase III installation, testing, and validation plan.

PHASE III: Working with the government and industry, construct a full-scale prototype and install on board a selected combatant craft. Conduct extended shipboard testing. The small business will pursue global commercial markets in applying the new technology to commercial craft.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: An INS would be extremely beneficial to the maritime market including the commercial boating industry, yachting, fishing, etc. Any maritime application that requires a high degree of accuracy in maintaining and calculating position.

REFERENCES:
1. Sherryl H. Stovall Basic Inertial Navigation, Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, September 1997

2. Kevin J. Walchko, Michael C. Nechyba, Eric Schwartz, and Antonio Arroyo Embedded, Low Cost Inertial Navigation Systems, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611-6200 2003

3. David H. Titterton, John L. Weston, Strapdown Inertial Navigation Technology, Institute of Electrical Engineers, 2004

4. http://www.navy.mil/navydata/technology/usvmppr.pdf

KEYWORDS: Inertial Navigation System (INS); Unmanned Service Vessels (USV); Inertial Measurement Units (IMU); Accurate; Rugged; Marinized

** TOPIC AUTHOR (TPOC) **

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