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GPS-BASED AUTONOMOUS SPACE NAVIGATION

Award Information

Agency:
Department of Transportation 		Branch:
N/A 		Award ID:
18792 		Program Year/Program:
1992 / SBIR
Agency Tracking Number:
18792 		Solicitation Year:
N/A 		Solicitation Topic Code:
N/A 		Solicitation Number:
N/A
Small Business Information
Arrowsmith Technologies Inc
1301 West 25th Street Suite 300 Austin, TX 78705
View profile »
Woman-Owned: No
Minority-Owned: No
HUBZone-Owned: No
 
Phase 1
Fiscal Year: 1992
Title: GPS-BASED AUTONOMOUS SPACE NAVIGATION
Agency: DOT
Contract: N/A
Award Amount: $49,844.00
 

Abstract:

COMMERCIAL AND GOVERNMENT SPACE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS DEPEND ON GROUND SUPPORT FOR NAVIGATION. THE GROUND SOLUTION CAN BE COSTLY AND MAY PROVIDE LESS ACCURACY THAN NEEDED. A GPS-BASED REAL-TIME AUTONOMOUS SPACECRAFT NAVIGATION SYSTEM IS PROPOSED. AN ALGORITHM WILL BE DEVELOPED WHICH COMBINES GPS-DERIVED POINT POSITION ESTIMATES WITH A PROPAGATED A PRIORI POSITION ESTIMATE. THE POINT POSITIONS ARE COMPUTED BY DIRECT ALGEBRAIC SOLUTION OF THE PSEUDORANGE EQUATIONS WITHOUT RESORTING TO LINEARIZATION. THE MOST APPROPRIATE METHOD FOR PROPAGATION OF THE A PRIORI ESTIMATE WILL BE DETERMINED FROM METHODS SUCH AS MONTE CARLO ANALYSIS, INTEGRATION OF PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS, AND STATE TRANSITION EQUATIONS DERIVED FROM THE ORBITAL EQUATION OF MOTION. A BAYESIAN UPDATE WILL BE USED TO COMBINE THE GPS POINT ESTIMATE WITH THE A PRIORI ESTIMATE. THE MAXIMUM A POSTERIORI VALUE OF THE POSITION DENSITY FUNCTION WILL DEFINE THE BEST VEHICLE POSITION ESTIMATE. THE ALGORITHM WILL BE IMPLEMENTED ON A DESK TOP COMPUTER AND TESTED FOR ACCURACY, EASE OF IMPLEMENTATION, AND COMPUTATIONAL BURDEN. THE DELIVERABLES WILL INCLUDE THE COMPUTATIONAL ALGORITHM, THE COMPUTER CODE, THE TEST RESULTS, AND A PLAN FOR PHASE II IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ALGORITHM ON PROTOTYPE HARDWARE.

Principal Investigator:

James W Chaffee
Director R & D
0

Business Contact:

Small Business Information at Submission:

Arrowsmith Technologies Inc
1301 West 25th Street Suite 300 Austin, TX 78705

EIN/Tax ID:
DUNS: N/A
Number of Employees: N/A
Woman-Owned: No
Minority-Owned: No
HUBZone-Owned: No