TECHNOLOGY SERVICE CORP — Department of Defense SBIR Phase II: AF141-253
TECHNOLOGY SERVICE CORP — SBIR Phase II award from Department of Defense.
- Amount
- $1,499,982
- Agency
- Department of Defense · Air Force
- Program / Phase
- SBIR · Phase II
- Topic
- AF141-253
- Solicitation
- 2014.1
- NAICS
- —
- Place of performance
- VA
- Period
- 2016-12-20 → 2018-12-31
Description
The current dependency on GPS for autonomous operation of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) creates a significant challenge in Anti-Access Area Denial (A2AD) environments. The proposed SBIR effort extends the Technology Service Corporation (TSC) Location, Identification & Flight Tracking System (LIFTS) technology to enable remote autonomous UAS landings where GPS and alternate PNT data is unavailable or insufficient for autonomous landing. The LIFTS Remote Autonomous UAS Landing (RAUL) effort will continue the development of a RF cooperative pseudolite navigation system that shall include the LIFTS sensor component, designed for installation on a UAS platform, and one or more navigation fiducial components (i.e. tag) designed for installation at a remote UAS landing site. The tasks under this effort shall include the development of flight ready prototype LIFTS sensors and tags, ground-based sensor performance evaluations, UAS LIFTS payload integration, ground and taxi tests and performance analysis and a remote autonomous UAS landing test and evaluation using an AFRL-designated UAS platform.