Positioning with Optical/Inertial Navigation and Tree-map Enabled by Radar (POINTER)

To enable precise positioning capabilities in dense forests and jungle areas, QuNav proposes to prototype the technological approach of Positioning with Optical/Inertial Navigation and a Tree-map Enabled by Radar (POINTER). Rather than relying on a single navigation technology, POINTER optimally fuses data from its key technological enablers that include global localization, relative navigation and deep integration. Global localization provides the absolute positioning capability by matching locally observed tree patterns to a geo-referenced tree map. Relative navigation implements lidar and vision aided INS mechanizations for mission segments with no prior map. Deep GNSS/INS integration recovers week satellite signals using their long coherent accumulation in order to provide additional observations for both global and relative navigation updates. Combination of complementary benefits from key enablers serves as a risk mitigation measure for the overall program success. Phase I demonstrated the feasibility of POINTER technology. This demonstration primarily focused on the use of experimental data in order to build the overall confidence in the proposed solution and incorporate lessons learned into the system design. Phase II development will build on Phase I results. The main goal of Phase II is to develop a low-SWAP prototype that enables desired navigation capabilities under dense canopy.