All-Weather Landmark Identification, Correlation, Geolocation, and Inertial Measurement Unit

The proposed navigation solution for a small UAV in a GPS denied environment uses an image-aided navigation method for overcoming GPS denial. Under the Phase I effort, methods for robust extraction of landmark models were developed to allow automatic generation of a scene object database for use by an airborne system. A correlation-based approach to provide velocity aiding using imagery was developed and demonstrated on airborne data. The resulting image-aiding navigation capability has applicability to the problem of controlling and navigating unmanned platforms in areas where GPS is not available, either due to hostile jamming or obstructions such as those encountered by ground-based systems in urban or forested terrain. Under this Phase II effort it is proposed to build and test a small payload with the image-aided navigation capability. This will be installed and flight tested on a small UAV to demonstrate the ability to navigate during periods where GPS is denied.