Continuous Optical Mapping for Munitions Using Terrain Elevation and Reconstruction (COMMUTER)

Contemporary tactical missiles use Global Positioning Systems (GPS) as an economical means of self-localization and target location identification, but GPS signals are subject to jamming and intermittent unavailability. When a missile loses its ability to reliably self-locate, its strike capability is compromised. Traditional methods have compensated by adding another navigation system, such as an inertial measurement unit (IMU), or TERCOM, but each of these systems is subject to limitations (e.g. an IMU drifts over time and TERCOM uses active radar sensing, compromising covertness). In our prior Phase I effort, we assessed the feasibility of a system called Continuous Optical Mapping for Munitions Using Terrain Elevation and Reconstruction, or COMMUTER, that can estimate the geo-location and orientation of an air vehicle in real time given an onboard library of shape-based landmark features, and a real-time stream of images from an onboard camera. The system uses an onboard processor and data storage, but does not require GPS, active sensing, or any prior information about the expected flight path. In this Phase II proposal, we outline how our approach will be refined and expanded into a full scope prototype that is robust and effective under a full range of operating conditions and scenarios.