Software Deployable GPS-Denied UAV Autonomy: Alt-PNT via Software Upload, No-Emit, No Pre-Loaded Terrain Maps, Scalable Across UAV Platforms
AFWERX · AFWERX STRATFI · AFWERX
Award
Description
Resulting from the proposed effort, an Alt-PNT solution is integrated with a Teal or TPOC selected UAV, the system is tested and flight demonstrated. Beyond flight demonstrations, portability analysis and integration plans for other Group 1 UAV, Group 3 UAV, and Air Launched Effects are included in Phase II portability and scalability analysis/integration plan deliverables. Results of the Phase II effort yield the ideal launch-point for refinement and deployment through follow-on Phase III, STRATFI/TACFI, or other follow-on efforts.The key Phase II goals and technical objectives include: 1. Update Alt-Nav solution for existing mono-camera embedded within sUAS 2. Add gimbal-pointing reconciliation algorithms to enable Alt-PNT on UAV-embedded gimbaled camera 3. Optimize Alt-Nav algorithms to run on sUAS embedded Qualcomm Snapdragon compute 4. Verify portability and scalability of Alt-PNT algorithms for additional UAV and night-time CONOPs 5. Verify & characterize performance of delivered GPS-Denied Alt-Nav solution using existing sUAS camera and compute through flight demonstrations By accomplishing these technical objectives, the goals of the effort are achieved. Alt-PNT algorithms are updated to run on sUAS cameras and compute, gimbal-pointing reconciliation algorithms are added, the code is optimized to deploy to existing available compute, the scalability of the solution across sUAS and UAV is verified, a deployment plan for Phase III operationalization is defined, and the solution is flight-tested and demonstrated through GPS-Denied flights.