PNT Enhanced by Visual Odometry

Signals from GPS are the world standard and backbone for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) for both civilian and military needs, but both natural environments, evolving adversary countermeasures, and challenging terrain can seriously weaken or deny access to these critical signals. Commercial and military systems have been developed over the years, in an attempt to meet ever-growing needs. However, these systems tend to be large, heavy, require significant power, and are very expensive. Our solution, escPNT™ is a commercially available product that directly aligns with Section 1618 of the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), “Backup and Complementary Positioning, Navigation and Timing Capabilities of Global Positioning System (GPS)”. Low SWaP-C enables us to meet growing market demand in currently very underserved (including small UAS, personal (dismounted), precision weapons, etc.).  escPNT™ is designed to take advantage of any/all sources of position and timing information to derive a resilient, and accurate position. Our Base Product utilizes external data sources that include 3 GNSS receivers, EO/IR data, odometry (for ground vehicles), cellular data and Real-time Kinematic (RTK) corrections. On-board sensors include a crystal clock, accurate Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), barometer, and temperature sensor.  The Hydra Fusion Tools™ (developed by Lockheed Martin CDL Systems) provide a commercial ‘reality capture’ software product to generate a 3D map or model from an incoming image feed (video or still images). It is the only product of its kind that can generate 3D reconstructions in real-time as the images are being captured. For this project we will integrate the positioning algorithm from Hydra into our escPNT™ sensor fusion, to enable greater position/attitude accuracy of the air vehicle in total GPS denial and provide 3D terrain mapping capabilities.