Autonomous Nano GNATS

Centeye, with subcontractor support from Airgility, proposes a Phase 1 effort to develop a marsupial system in which a sUAS "mother ship" carries up to five autonomous nano air vehicles (NAVs) to an area of interest to perform a remote chemical sampling mission in a GPS-denied environment. For Phase 1, multiple concepts for addressing navigation of NAVs between the mother ship and the chemical sampling site and for approaching the mother ship for capture/docking will be explored through open- and close-loop flight testing. This includes incorporating possible methods by which a system operator may designate target locations for sampling. Concepts for implementing transport, launch, and capture of NAVs by the mother ship will also be explored. We anticipate using a collision resilient Centeye NAV platform with on-board autonomy and obstacle negotiation developed in previous efforts. We will build the autonomy stack to have a transparent and open architecture to allow modification by the customer. This work will be performed to benefit both civil and military applications.