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A low-cost unmanned aerial vehicle with towed miniature atomic magnetometer array

Award Information
Agency: Department of Defense
Branch: Navy
Contract: N68335-13-C-0233
Agency Tracking Number: N121-006-0914
Amount: $749,033.00
Phase: Phase II
Program: SBIR
Solicitation Topic Code: N121-006
Solicitation Number: 2012.1
Timeline
Solicitation Year: 2012
Award Year: 2013
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): 2013-05-31
Award End Date (Contract End Date): 2015-06-05
Small Business Information
848 Alexander Road
Princeton, NJ -
United States
DUNS: 794039441
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: Yes
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 Thomas Kornack
 Chief Scientist
 (609) 759-0859
 kornack@twinleaf.com
Business Contact
 Elizabeth Foley
Title: President
Phone: (609) 759-0859
Email: foley@twinleaf.com
Research Institution
N/A
Abstract

The Navy seeks to deploy sensitive atomic magnetometers on small, inexpensive UAVs that deploy from a sonobuoy tube. There are three primary challenges with this approach: First, existing magnetometer systems are too large to fit on a typical tube-launched UAV. Second, sources of magnetic noise such as the motor are close to the sensors and have the potential to overwhelm the sensors. Third, existing UAVs are built using magnetic materials that can degrade the performance of the magnetometers. This proposal describes a development program to solve this engineering challenge: First, Use Twinleaf"s new SAM-2 atomic magnetometer system that has been uniquely designed to fit on a sonobuoy-launched UAV when it becomes available in 2013. Second, implement magnetic noise and heading error compensation algorithms in the SAM-2 control unit that were first developed in Phase I of this project. Design and integrate sensors on a Latitude Engineering low-magnetic-noise Non-Articulating Magnetic Anomaly Detection NAMAD UAV design that is uniquely suited to fly magnetic field sensors.

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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