Airborne Unmanned Refueling Multi-aperture Optical Navigation

To address the Air Force need for a GPS-denied relative navigation (RelNav) technology to be used by Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) refueling, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new Airborne Unmanned Refueling Multi-aperture Optical Navigation (AURUM-ON) system. The proposed navigation system is based on a novel compound-eye insect optic(s) and proven avionic components to achieve a low size, weight, and power (SWaP) mature system design. The innovation in wide field of view, multi-aperture configuration, customized beacons, high bandwidth, and custom embedded processing will enable the AURUM-ON system to detect, track and guide RPA during air-to-air refueling. As a result, AURUM-ON offers accuracy, availability, continuity, and wide-angle tracking without gimbals in a high-integrity solution directly addressing the Air Forces air platform requirements. In Phase I, POC will design a system and demonstrate the feasibility of AURUM-ON through analysis of expected required navigation performance (RNP) capabilities in terms of accuracy, integrity, availability, and continuity; discuss data and equipment requirements; and identify government-furnished equipment (GFI) required for Phase II. In Phase II, POC plans to build an AURUM-ON prototype for laboratory testing with hardware-in-the-loop simulation to evaluate RNP metrics and certification impacts.