Live Maps for Unmanned Air Systems in UK
Createc has been funded by the UK Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE) to work on a software solution that can be easily incorporated into existing unmanned air systems (UAS) using only on-board passive sensors and a previous map.
The Live Maps: Air project aimed to demonstrate how a small UAS could navigate without global positioning system (GPS) while simultaneously validating and updating untrusted maps. This could add a new capability to the current generation of in-service small UAS.
Createc’s algorithms have been tested and developed using the BlackStart platform developed by Blue Bear Systems Research and the Black Hornet developed by Prox Dynamics and flown by Blue Bear.
The location drift compared to GPS using just the flexible-map algorithm has been demonstrated to be around 10-20%. With the Live Maps: Air algorithms used to correct the trajectory, these error rates reduce to around 1-5%. Because the errors are corrected by reference to a static map, errors don’t increase continuously over time; when distinctive locations are overflown most error that has been accumulated to that point is eliminated.
Beyond this project there are further areas of development which could result in minimal integration costs for existing small UAS platforms to enable them to fly in GPS denied environments.
Dr Matthew Mellor, Managing Director, Createc says:
CDEMODSMEMODCreatec is a Research and Development consultancy founded in 2010, based in Cockermouth, Cumbria. Createc has 11 employees working on imaging and sensing projects primarily for the civil nuclear and defence markets.
About CDECDE funds novel, high-risk, high-potential-benefit research. We work with the broadest possible range of science and technology providers, including academia and small companies, to develop cost-effective capabilities for UK armed forces and national security.
CDE is part of Dstl.
Source: Press Release
