Image-based Navigation for Shipboard Landing (ImageNav-SL)
Autonomous landing of a Vertical Takeoff and Landing Unmanned Air Vehicle (VTUAV), such as Fire Scout, on the deck of a moving ship requires a precise and accurate ship-relative navigation solution. The existing automated landing system consists of ship-based radar equipment and airborne transponder equipment that utilizes round-trip Radio Frequency (RF) characteristics to determine relative positions. This approach is prone to component failure as well as unavailability of the required RF spectrum issues that may require abandoning an expensive asset at sea. The proposed Image-based Navigation for Shipboard Landing (ImageNav-SL) system can act as a backup or replacement for the existing radar-transponder based solution and enables recovery in the aforementioned scenarios. In the proposed effort, SSCI will develop the ImageNav-SL onboard reference navigation data subsystem for the Fire Scout. ImageNav-SL will provide ship-relative navigation data to the Fire Scout"s onboard guidance controller during approach and landing phases. ImageNav-SL computes the landing deck"s position and orientation directly in vehicle coordinates using existing visual aids and without dependencies on a ship-to-platform synchronous datalink (with associated latencies and potential failures) or GPS. ImageNav-SL leverages existing real-time, EO/IR software libraries developed by SSCI for GPS-denied navigation and precision targeting over land.
Small Business Information at Submission:
Scientific Systems Company, Inc
500 West Cummings Park - Ste 3000 Woburn, MA -
Number of Employees: