Goodrich has unveiled MicroNav, a solid-state inertial guidance system with integrated GPS that, at 75g - and the size of an espresso cup - could deliver a new era of freedom to designers of small unmanned aircraft, rockets and guided munitions.
MicroNav is a three-axis motion sensor and GPS chip, which is about a quarter the size of the Goodrich unit that keeps Raytheon's Excalibur guided artillery shell on course.
The new unit builds on 10 years of work between US-based Goodrich and Japanese firm Sumitomo Precision Products, and ultimately derives from the first solid-state, silicon-based micro electro-mechanical system (MEMS) developed by Goodrich for early Segway personal mobility devices.
The majority of that joint venture's production is sold to commercial applications including automotive use but, as Alison Fenn, marketing director for Goodrich sensors and integrated systems in Plymouth, UK, said, MicroNav is designed to grapple with far more challenging guidance issues than any encountered on the road.
While a car moves only in two dimensions at a fairly constant speed, an aircraft or guided missile follows a more complicated path.
Thus, Fenn said, while automotive navigation systems can be aided by an inertial MEMS unit when GPS is temporarily unavailable - in a tunnel, for example - an aircraft needs a more precise system, as MEMS measurements invariably "drift".
However, MEMS units have a big advantage over traditional guidance technologies in cost, weight and size. In tandem with GPS', they provide a viable option for unmanned air vehicles or munitions.
Source: Flight International
