A Low-Cost, High-Precision Navigator, Phase II

Integrating MIDAAS with a commercial-grade IMU will provide tactical-grade navigation accuracies at a low-cost, which in turn will enable science payload instrument stability and highly accurate pointing accuracy for NASA's manned and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). This low-power novel navigation system will satisfy the size, weight and power (SWAP) constraints of most civilian and military small-scale remotely operated vehicles and unmanned systems. Furthermore, the improved attitude accuracy of the navigation system will enable precision flight control for repeatable terrain monitoring. The GPS/A technology is also applicable to spin-stabilized platforms such as sounding rockets and space launch vehicles. Furthermore, a unique ultra-tightly coupled (UTC) anti-jam (AJ) GPS navigation architecture makes the system inherently more robust to interference and significantly improves the attitude estimate, thereby improving the probability of successfully completing a mission even in the presence of unintentional and intentional interference. The MIDAAS GPS-based attitude (GPS/A) sensor technology and inertial navigation system (INS) is applicable to a wide range of military and civilian applications including manned and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), micro air vehicles (MAVs), unattended ground sensors (UGS), handheld positioning units, recreational/virtual reality orienting devices, radio-controlled (RC) vehicles, ground vehicles, and far-target locators (FTL). The technology appeals to customers who desire robust position and attitude measurements for platforms that have stringent cost and size, weight and power (C-SWAP) constraints. The gyro-less system can also provide accurate attitude measurements for spin-stabilized projectiles and launch systems with roll rates at least as high as 300 Hz. More »