N15A-T014 TITLE: Aircraft Carrier-based Precision Ship-Relative Navigation Guidance for Aircraft Landing under Emissions Control Conditions

TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Air Platform, Sensors

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: Seabased Automated Landing Recovery System (SALRS)

OBJECTIVE: Design, develop, and demonstrate a ship based landing guidance system that can provide continuous, high integrity, navigation quality range and bearing data for a fixed wing aircraft during landing approach to an aircraft carrier.

DESCRIPTION: Aircraft carriers need a system to provide continuous, high integrity, precision ship-relative navigation (PS-RN) data to manned and unmanned aircraft for automated and reduced pilot workload approach and landing. Under some conditions, it must operate without any radio frequency (RF) emissions. The challenge is to develop an aircraft carrier-based PS-RN system with the following attributes:
1. No RF emissions.
2. Enable all aircraft within a range of 4 nautical miles (nm) and 10 degrees of the final approach path (aligned with ship landing area centerline with a 3.5 degree glideslope) to execute and approach.
3. Primary system and sensor(s) limited to installation on the aircraft carrier. Any aircraft mounted equipment should be small, low power, and easily integrated.
4. Operable in all lighting conditions, from sun aligned with the approach path, to complete darkness.
5. Operable at reduced range in rain and fog.
6. Capable of providing both ship-relative and earth-relative navigation data.
7. Accurate to within at most 1/10 degree in azimuth and elevation, and 1 percent of range.
8. Guidance quality navigation (high integrity, continuous, stable, update rate of 40 Hertz (Hz) or greater).
9. Provides PS-RN guidance all the way to aircraft touchdown on the ship.
10. Optional additional capabilities: ability to pass data to, and receive data from, the aircraft; ability to identify aircraft type and configuration.

PHASE I: Develop a concept design for a ship based PS-RN system that can solve the problem as outlined in the description section. Demonstrate system operation in simulation, using recorded data from aircraft landings. Provide data on system accuracy, integrity, reliability, range, operability in all lighting conditions, performance in degraded weather, and physical layout on the aircraft carrier. Describe trade studies that have been conducted to determine the best hardware and software components.

PHASE II: Continue to refine the Phase I design and develop a prototype PS-RN system. Demonstrate prototype system operation in flight testing using surrogate aircraft at a shore-based airfield. Include as much variation in lighting and weather as is possible during the period of performance. Use a motion platform to demonstrate determination of relative navigation in a ship and earth-oriented frame of reference simultaneously.

PHASE III: Demonstrate system performance via operational demonstrations using Navy carrier based aircraft, at NAWCAD Patuxent River or Lakehurst. Support the Navy in transitioning the technology for Navy use.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: This system could be used as a low cost navigation guidance system for civil aircraft landing at land- based airports. It could also be used for helicopters landing on oil well platforms and for similar aircraft landing applications.

REFERENCES:
1. Mian, Ajmal S., Realtime Visual Tracking of Aircrafts, Proceedings of the International Conference on Digital Image Computing: Techniques and Applications, DICTA 2008, Canberra, ACT, Australia, 1-3 December 2008

2. Sandmann, David; Dyer, John W., Fagan, John E., Alexander, Dean, Visual Aircraft Tracking System for Departures, Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (I2MTC) Proceedings, 2014 IEEE International

KEYWORDS: EO/IR; aircraft; landing; ship; Navy; unmanned

** TOPIC AUTHOR (TPOC) **

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