SBIR-STTR Award

Robotic Research currently possesses a fully developed WarLoc™ (Warfighter Localization) system, that provides users with intra-squad localization in GPS denied environments using an Inertial Navigation System (INS) and Ultra-wideband (UWB) radios. This system also makes use of non-degraded GPS when available. Ranging radios provide distance measurements between sensors. For example, a pair of ranging radios could measure 10 kilometers between devices. This information can aid the localization solution by eliminating dead-reckoning error and improves the long-term drift characteristics. Robotic Research proposes augmenting WarLoc™ to operate in degraded GPS environments, which will allow the users to share GPS satellite clock errors and pseudo ranges. The proposed system will make use of the existing integrated UWB and communication radios. Robotic Research’s existing position estimation and navigation techniques will be complimented by sharing and combining partial satellite pseudo ranges from different nodes in the network. This augmented solution with intra-node range measurements will then provide a globally referenced position solution for the entire group of Warfighters. This is done by feeding all the measurements received by a node into an estimation algorithm to keep track of its own position as well as the position of other nodes within communication range.

In Phase II, Robotic Research, LLC plans to expand on the work done on the Phase I contract. With technical objectives and approaches such as sequential GPS Solution, Integrate CSAC with UWB radios, Test and Compare CSACs, Testing and Analysis for Army Programs of Record, these objectives will help push forward the anticipated benefits and commercial applications of the research done.