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

"Under this proposed SBIR effort, NAVSYS will develop an integrated video and inertial sensor system design, capable of being used to provide a back-up navigation capability for a UAV in the event of GPS jamming. The system will be able to automaticallyperform landmark identification and tracking from the video imagery. The location of these landmarks extracted from the video imagery will be applied as video updates (VUPTs) to the on-board inertial navigation solution to reset the navigation error driftfrom the inertial sensors.Under the Phase I project, the video/navigation system operation will be prototyped and tested using a flight test data collected through a CRADA with the Air Force Academy. The design will heavily leverage our previous activities developing avideo/inertial precision targeting system and also low cost GPS/inertial UAV avionics. In Phase I a design will be developed for a low cost, miniature video/inertial sensor and gimbal payload, to be built under the Phase II project, that will be suitablefor installation on a small UAV. Market opportunities for this product exist for manned and unmanned aircraft guidance, unmanned ground vehicle guidance, in-building or underground navigation, and also to provide a video tracking capability for instrumenting flight tests. Thevideo/navigation technology provides a robust navigation capability during periods where GPS is unavailable and can also provide precision target c