Architecture for asymmetric collaborative navigation

Abstract

Under the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Collaborative Robust Integrated Sensor Positioning (CRISP) program, Northrop Grumman Corporation (NGC) is designing and building a collaborative navigation system for multiple airborne platforms. The collaborative navigation architecture has been designed to take advantage of AFRL's Layered Sensing construct which enables platforms to share information. In particular, the ability to share GPS, relative range, imagery, geo-registered maps, and other measurements opens up many opportunities to improve the navigational accuracy and the robustness to GPS-denied conditions. In the CRISP program, the collaborative navigation system is being designed to be more robust and accurate by leveraging the asymmetry in the sensing, computation, and communication capabilities of disparate platforms. For example, the system takes advantage of higher performing sensors on the high-flyer (HF) platform, which are less susceptible to jamming, and cameras that generate larger sensor footprint and higher resolution images of the terrain. The low-flyers (LFs) have poorer navigation sensors, are more likely to be jammed, and have a more limited view of the terrain. Under this scenario, the HF may assist one or more LFs such that they, too, can have similar accuracy as the HF in a GPS-denied environment.