Physical Optics Corporation — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: N191-003

Description

To address the Navy’s need for a capability using optically sensed features of the environment and ocean as external references for augmenting aircraft navigation when flying over water without the use of the Global Positioning System (GPS), Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new gimbal-less Redundant, Autonomous Over-Water Aircraft Navigation (ROWAN) system. It is based on a precise and fully autonomous calculation of an aircraft’s position and orientation using continuous optical flow computation from video images of the local underlying water surface during the day/night and under any weather conditions for low- and medium-altitude flights. ROWAN is drift-free and provides the aircraft’s true, accurate position at each moment in a geodesic frame of reference, which directly addresses the PMA-266 Navy and Marine Corp Multi-Mission Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) acquisition program requirements. In Phase I, POC will demonstrate the feasibility of ROWAN through combinations of laboratory and basic in-flight tests of the Phase I technology readiness level (TRL)/manufacturing readiness level (MRL)-4 prototype. In Phase II, POC plans to continue development of the system, build a system-level prototype (TRL-6/MRL-5/-6), perform extensive in-flight testing, and demonstrate a navigation precision similar to that of the GPS for the Navy.