ROCKWELL HAS delivered the first navigation processor for Alliant Techsystems' Outrider unmanned air-vehicle (UAV) - using the smallest inertial sensor commercially available.
The processor has Rockwell's digital quartz inertial-measurement-unit (DQI) and reduces cost by using data from the global-positioning-system (GPS) receiver which is part of the UAV's automated launch and recovery system.
Rockwell says that its DQI "-represents the first generation of micro-electromechanical sensors for inertial sensing, batch-produced from a quartz substrate". The device uses a vibrating quartz sensor to produce a "simple, small and reliable" digital inertial-measurement unit, the US company says. The smallest inertial sensor available, the DQI is suitable for use in smart weapons, missiles and UAVs, "-resulting in reduced cost of ownership and improved accuracy", Rockwell says.
The navigation-processor (NP) version of the DQI includes a Kalman filter, which allows for initialisation of the UAV's guidance system and "aiding" of the inertial-navigation system using data from the GPS receiver and/or other sensors. Rockwell's Autonetics and Missile Systems division is producing 38 DQI-NPs for Alliant. The Outrider is being developed to meet the US Department of Defense's Tactical UAV requirement for a vehicle with a 3h endurance at 200km (110nm) range, able to be launched and recovered on land or at sea.
Source: Flight International
