Advanced Navigation’s Spatial Dual INS for Gremlins
Advanced Navigation’s Spatial Dual inertial navigation system (INS) has been selected by Dynetics for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Gremlins programme, the company announced on 19 July.
Dynetics has been selected by DARPA to demonstrate the capability to launch UAS from aircraft and quickly recover them in mid-air.
The Gremlin UAS has been designed to be launched from a C-130 as well as combat aircraft. Once the mission is accomplished another aircraft retrieves the Gremlins and transports them back to an operational base.
Gremlins UAS are designed to be low cost and reusable within 24 hours after a mission.
The Spatial Dual selected by Dynetics is a ruggedised miniature GPS aided INS and attitude and heading reference system that provide accurate position, velocity, acceleration and orientation under challenging environment.
The system combines temperature calibrated accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers and a pressure sensor with a dual antenna RTK GNSS receiver. These are coupled in a sophisticated fusion algorithm to deliver accurate navigation and orientation.
Tim Keeter, deputy programme manager and chief engineer for Gremlins at Dynetics, said: ‘The unmanned air vehicles utilised in these future operations will carry a variety of different sensors and other payloads, working together to manage and conduct complex, highly-adaptive operations in contested environments.
‘When they complete their mission, they return to airborne manned platforms to be recovered to a forward operating base where they can be quickly refurbished and put back into the fight. The potential to overwhelm an adversary continuously with multiple volleys is tremendous.’
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