UDRI Positioning, Navigation, and Timing researchers perform software development, integration and testing support of ongoing PNT research in collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) focused on three distinct capabilities.
Alternative Navigation
UDRI supports Alternative Navigation (Alt-Nav) by conducting software development, integration, and testing using the AFRL owned AgilePod™ as the sensor testbed. Our Alt-Nav researchers have experience working with navigation and essential flight hardware, software interfacing and development using open architecture methods, and collaborating with internal and external partners. UDRI's Alt-Nav team maintains the Agile Dashboard, a website based user interface for real time data inspection and control of the AgilePod™ sensors.
Global Navigation Satellite Systems
Our Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) researchers support AFRL with software and hardware development and integration testing of various GNSS technologies. This support includes projects and experiments for the recent launch of the Department of Defense (DoD) NTS-3 experimental navigation satellite system. Our primary focus has been improvements to GNSSTA, a government owned, reprogrammable, software defined, GNSS receiver developed by MITRE. Our GNSS researchers work on usability improvements for GNSSTA to ease execution, improve data collection and quickly summarize test results.
Capabilities
- Software development, integration, and testing using the AFRL owned AgilePod™
- Utilizing open architectures
- Collaborating with internal and external partners
- Leveraging hyperspectral imagery for vision navigation research
- Software and hardware development and integration testing of various GNSS technologies
- Supporting projects and experiments for the upcoming launch of the NTS-3 satellite
- Improvements to GNSSTA, a government owned, reprogrammable, software defined, GNSS receiver developed by MITRE
- Implementing new GPS signals for the hardware version of GNSSTA running on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)
- Supporting the GNSS simulation testbed that is owned and housed in AFRL
- Software development and testing for GPS situational awareness
- Experience with optimization