Collaborative Navigation via Landmark Data Fusion
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional navigation systems, such as inertial navigation systems, degrade in performance in environments where GPS signals are unavailable, leading to reduced accuracy and reliability, particularly in urban and military applications where precise navigation is critical.
Innovation Solution
A collaborative navigation system that enables multiple navigation systems to communicate and share state information, including inertial data and environmental sensor data, to improve navigation accuracy by fusing estimates of common landmarks and features, even in GPS-denied environments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If conventional inertial navigation systems operate independently without GPS signals, then system simplicity is maintained, but navigation accuracy and reliability deteriorate in GPS-denied environments
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple independent navigation systems into a collaborative network where mobile units share sensor data and navigation solutions. This merging allows the system to achieve higher navigation accuracy through data fusion while distributing the computational complexity across multiple units rather than concentrating it in a single complex system.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces communication protocols and data fusion algorithms as intermediaries that enable collaboration between independent navigation systems. These intermediaries facilitate the exchange of sensor data and navigation solutions, allowing units to improve their accuracy without requiring direct physical integration or significant modification of their core systems.
2Reliability
If multiple navigation systems communicate and share data collaboratively, then navigation accuracy improves through data fusion, but system complexity and communication requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the navigation problem into independent modules that can be executed by each mobile unit individually. Each unit maintains its own navigation solution while selectively sharing specific sensor data types, allowing collaboration without requiring a monolithic complex communication system. This segmentation enables reliability improvement through redundancy while keeping communication requirements manageable.
3Measurement precision
If indigenous sensors are used alone to determine navigation solution, then system independence is maintained, but performance degrades in environments with unavailability of certain measurement classes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes navigation systems multi-functional by enabling them to operate effectively in both GPS-available and GPS-denied environments, as well as in various terrain types. Through collaborative data sharing, a single navigation system architecture can adapt to different environmental conditions and measurement availability, achieving universal performance across diverse operational scenarios.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method for collaborative navigation is provided. The system comprises a first mobile unit, at least one inertial measurement unit on the first mobile unit, and at least one environment sensor on the first mobile unit. A navigator module in the first mobile unit is configured to receive inertial data from the inertial measurement unit. An object characterization module is configured to receive sensor data from the environment sensor and a navigation solution from the navigator module. A common object geo-locator module is configured to receive a first set of descriptors from the object characterization module and a second set of descriptors from another mobile unit. A data association module is configured to receive common descriptors from the common object geo-locator module. The first mobile unit is configured to operatively communicate with one or more additional mobile units that are configured for collaborative navigation with the first mobile unit.