Controlled Dynamics

About Controlled Dynamics

Controlled Dynamics is a company that received a Department of Defense SBIR/STTR grant for a project entitled: Small Light-Weight Precision Localization and Geo-registration System. The abstract given for this project is as follows: Airborne navigation, reconnaissance, surveillance, and targeting are critical missions that must be performed by the U.S. military in environments where reliable GPS services are unavailable or intentionally denied. Vision-aided inertial navigation has the potential to satisfy this need, though many of the existing approaches are not well suited for on-board application in the turbulent flight environment experienced with small UAV platforms. To provide a robust capability applicable from small UAVs to manned systems, CDI and SARA, Inc. have teamed to develop the Geo-Vision LOS/INS. This solution uses a flight-proven combination of inertially stabilized cameras and centralized optimal estimation. Landmark tracking provides precision geo-registration and accurate estimation of the platform's position, velocity and orientation. Between landmark updates, feature/target tracking maintains the solution accuracy and provides precision localization and feature/target location estimation. To establish the technical feasibility of our approach, Phase I will develop performance predictions for typical mission scenarios and verify those predictions through ground tests with a proof-of-concept system on a moving vehicle. Applicable to a small UAV, this testbed consists of a low-cost MEMs IMU co-located with a small digital camera. Using an established network of industrial support, Phase II will develop a tightly integrated prototype and conduct flight testing on a UAV for system performance characterization and tuning. Upon completion of Phase II, our team will take the Geo-Vision LOS/INS system into production.