SBIR-STTR Award

Self-Contained Signal of Opportunity-Based PNT
Award last edited on: 6/12/2023

Sponsored Program
SBIR
Awarding Agency
DOD : Army
Total Award Amount
$1,211,294
Award Phase
2
Solicitation Topic Code
A20-108
Principal Investigator
Joshua Morales

Company Information

Starnav LLC

3499 10th Street Suite 6
Riverside, CA 92501
   (316) 285-3658
   support@starnav.io
   www.starnav.io
Location: Single
Congr. District: 41
County: Riverside

Phase I

Contract Number: W91RUS-21-C-0014
Start Date: 10/30/2020    Completed: 9/29/2021
Phase I year
2021
Phase I Amount
$111,495
Emerging Global Positioning System (GPS) technologies aim to combat well known GPS vulnerabilities: GPS signals struggle to penetrate through natural and man made structures, are easily jammed by malicious actors, are susceptible to spoofing attacks, which can trick GPS receivers into devising a false PNT solution. The US Army conducts tests of emerging GPS technologies on static, dynamic, and autonomous platforms. A system to provide “ground truth” PNT is needed in order to effectively test these technologies without relying on GPS signals. Current solutions to provide “ground truth” positioning during GPS denial have become very complicated and involve many time-consuming steps. Our solution is produce an easy to deploy system that converts non-PNT radio frequency signals of opportunity into PNT-usable sources during GPS denial. Signals of opportunity include terrestrial transmitted signals: AM/FM radio, cellular, digital television and satellite transmitted signals: low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite signals. These signals are abundant, available at diverse geometric configurations, various frequency bands, and with special signal processing are free to use. These attributes make them attractive as a precise PNT source during GPS-denial. Signals of opportunity were never intended for PNT purposes. As such, they are not equipped with GPS-quality stable atomic oscillators and their positions may be known. Furthermore, receivers to extract measurements from their signals and produce a PNT solution are not readily available on the market. The proposed approach conducts novel processing steps to convert signals of opportunity into GPS-quality signals that are usable for precise PNT in complete GPS-denial.

Phase II

Contract Number: W5170122C0008
Start Date: 8/23/2022    Completed: 8/23/2024
Phase II year
2022
Phase II Amount
$1,099,799
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