NGC Awarded Follow-On Contract for USAF's GPS-Challenged Navigation an
Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has been awarded a phase three
navigation system related contract from the U.S. Air Force Research
Laboratory to continue improving geo-registration accuracy for
positioning and pointing applications, even in GPS-denied conditions.
In the first two phases of the Maintain Accurate Geo-registration via Image-nav Compensation (MAGIC) program, Northrop Grumman integrated
geo-registration algorithms in a vision-aided inertial navigation
system.
Modern airborne systems require accurate and reliable
positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) information for a number of
mission profiles, including targeting, surveillance, and reconnaissance.
In particular, the ability to, in real-time, precisely navigate and to
accurately geo-register imagery collected by the airborne platform is
critical in information gathering scenarios and in communicating
information between systems and users. Under the Air Force Research
Laboratory, Sensors Directorate (AFRL/RY) Maintain Accurate
Geo-Registration via Image-Nav Compensation (MAGIC) program, Northrop
Grumman Corporation (NGC) and partner Toyon Research Corporation are
designing and building a joint navigation/geo-registration system to
advance the state-of-the-art in this area. The system is designed to
fuse data from an inertial measurement unit (IMU), a passive
electro-optical (EO) sensor, the Global Positioning System (GPS), as
well as external global reference data (e.g. Digital Terrain Elevation
Data (DTED)). In particular, the system makes no assumptions about the
availability or quality of GPS and therefore can operate under
GPS-denied, degraded GPS, or partial GPS constellation conditions. Additionally,
advanced image processing enables the system to, in real-time, refine
the sensor calibration models and external reference data in order to
provide extremely accurate navigation and geo-registration results.
Having successfully demonstrated a prototype system in phase one
and prepared for flight tests in phase two, the company will continue
to develop capabilities for incorporating 3-D maps, improving
performance and quantifying uncertainties associated with image-based
navigation in phase three, as well as conduct additional test flights to
prove real-time performance in realistic environments.
Geo-registration of data is critical for accurate interaction between
systems, such as locating targets and handing off coordinates to other
aircraft. Geo-registration of images involves pairing unreferenced
images with the physical locations or exact coordinates of depicted
items. This allows aircraft to create accurate maps by stitching
together photos and correlating them with their world-based locations,
which is useful for intelligence gathering and targeting.
"We continue to refine our new positioning and geo-registration
solution to offer greater situational awareness to warfighters,
especially in GPS-denied situations," said Charles Volk, vice president, Advanced Navigation Systems business unit, Northrop Grumman.
Partnered with Toyon Research Corporation, Northrop Grumman is building
on its experience in vision-aided inertial navigation under past
programs such as Collaborative Robust Integrated Sensor Positioning,
which matched image features and processed visual motion estimations for
precise navigation without relying on GPS.
The MAGIC program's objective is to develop and demonstrate advanced
real-time geo-registration and navigation algorithms using a combination
of cameras, an inertial measurement unit and any available GPS
information. The program aims to capitalize on recent advances in the
availability of low size, weight, power and cost camera systems that
make the inclusion of camera information in navigation and
geo-registration systems for airborne vehicles a significant
opportunity.
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