Hypersonic Vehicles Intelligent Alternative Navigation

The plasma sheath around hypersonic vehicles prevents radio communication, telemetry, and Global Positioning System (GPS) signal reception and makes it impossible to use electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) imaging sensors for navigation as well. Thus, to address the Navy’s need for a navigation system that can provide precise navigation for the entire flight trajectory of a hypersonic vehicle operating in GPS-degraded/denied environments, Intellisense Systems, Inc., (Intellisense) proposes to develop an innovative, completely autonomous and closed Hypersonic Vehicle Intelligent Alternative Navigation (HYVIAN) system providing drift-free GPS-accurate (<5 m (<15 ft) of circular error probability) positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) of hypersonic vehicles without GPS at all, along the whole trajectory, including its terminal phase, as specified by the Navy. Specifically, innovations in HYVIAN are based on precise local measurements of gradients of geophysical fields (which penetrate through plasma sheaths, unlike GPS and other radio signals) along the hypersonic vehicle’s trajectory and projection of measurements on precise geophysical field maps using a Bayesian nonlinear filter algorithm. HYVIAN is reinforced by artificial intelligence/machine learning algorithms to significantly increase the accuracy of PNT output. Finally, HYVIAN provides GPS-accurate longitude, latitude, altitude, heading, and precise attitude (roll, pitch, yaw with accuracy ~1 arcmin) of the hypersonic vehicle with a frequency of 1000 Hz, delivering GPS-compatible output signals. The proposed HYVIAN uses commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) sensors only, and satisfies the size, weight, and power constraint because it uses microelectromechanical system sensors and fiber-optic gyros. In Phase I, Intellisense will develop HYVIAN system concept solutions for use in hypersonic vehicles and establish  HYVIAN to meet the Navy’s requirements. We will perform modeling and simulation and preliminary experimental demonstration of a HYVIAN that will meet the required navigation success metrics in the hypersonic vehicle terminal phase. Simulations will be run in three different Navy scenarios to verify the effectiveness of HYVIAN. We will develop an initial prototype design to be implemented in Phase II. All hardware and software requirements will be defined. In Phase II, Intellisense plans to develop a HYVIAN prototype and evaluate, test, and validate the system’s feasibility to meet Navy objectives. The final test and evaluation of HYVIAN will be carried out under relevant operating conditions as close to hypersonic flight conditions as possible.