Distributed Inertial Sensor Tactical Navigation Tool (DISTANT)

The Department of Defense has expressed a need for an inexpensive inertial navigation system (INS), based on small-size, low-cost inertial sensors. Earlier designs could not be employed in many practical applications due to their restrictive specifications (high cost and low accuracy). Since 1995, the technical staff of VeNIS Technologies has been actively developing a design methodology for producing just such an accurate and inexpensive INS, based on distributed accelerometers in combination with small-size and low-cost gyros. Based on this methodology, several prototypes of inexpensive integrated gyros (i- gyros) and i-gyro-based INS have been designed and tested. Tests of those prototypes have confirmed the validity of the proposed design methodology. The work already completed on this INS will lead to the development of a DISTANT (distributed inertial sensor tactical navigation tool). Phase I of this SBIR will concentrate on the development of virtual gyroscopes of the first and second type, on the combination of virtual gyros with small-size, low-cost gyroscopes and on the design of the resulting INS. Computer modeling of the proposed methods, as well as construction of prototypes and subsequent hardware testing are also among the proposed goals of Phase I. (Phase I abstract)