SBIR/STTR Award attributes
The objective of the present project is the development of a novel non-GPS local full position and orientation referencing system, the feasibility of which was clearly demonstrated as part of the project Phase I efforts. The system is to be used for establishing a full position and orientation referencing system for target designation, for use by fixed and mobile weapon platforms and soldier handheld devices, for guidance and control of smart and guided projectiles, and for other applications in which GPS is currently being used. This novel non-GPS local full position and orientation referencing system is developed using Omnitek’s fully electronic Scanning Polarized RF Reference Sources (SPRS). In this coordinate referencing system, any fixed or moving object determines its full orientation onboard (without requiring two-way communication) relative to the established coordinate referencing system using the developed novel polarized RF orientation sensor geometrical cavities. The object full position (including elevation) is determined using one of the commonly used time-of-flight and triangulation methods. The proposed local coordinate referencing system is capable of being networked with adjacent local coordinate referencing systems to extend its range and accuracy and is highly adaptive and can accommodate input from multiple sources, such as those provided on UAVs, UGVs, forward observers, and other land and air platforms, as well as GPS when available. The proposed local coordinate referencing system is robust, relatively small, low power, rugged, and capable of being deployed very quickly and would automatically network with other referencing sources to provide the desired operational range of 50 km. The system can provide full position, including elevation accuracy, of better than 2 m and sub-degree full orientation accuracy. The proposed local referencing system is highly immune to detection, jamming and spoofing.
