Autonomous Video-based Navigation for Airborne Platforms

OKSI's existing autonomous video-based navigation techniques will be upgraded to improve the extraction of platform attitude and altitude from the video imagery. This will be combined with motion vector extraction, which has already been developed, to produce full autonomous capabilities for low altitude high-speed platforms. Under Phase-I, a laboratory simulator and a synthetic data generator will be used initially to test the algorithm enhancements. OKSI's video navigation flight instrumentation package will be modified to provide a brassboard demonstration of the proposed configuration and will be flown on a manned platform to collect data for testing and demonstrating the proposed navigation enhancements. In Phase-II, real time processing will be incorporated for a full system demonstration. The OKSI technique fully relies on the video imagery for navigation and is only using landmark geospatial data (e.g., satellite imagery, DTED) periodically for position verification and updates.