Ship-Relative Instant Multispectral Positioning System

In this effort we report the new Ship Relative Instant Multispectral Positioning System for rapid initialization and real-time acquisition of relative pose for navigation inputs to the flight control system based on infrared multispectral guidance and novel electro-optic sensors with the goal of meeting the challenging Navy requirements for fully automated landing of the fixed wing aircraft on an aircraft carrier. The selection of eye safe infrared wavelength band around 1.5 microns for the system operation minimizes the risks for the pilots, maximizes signal-to-noise ratio due to lower solar background, expands the system reach due to lower scattering in the atmosphere and allows for the overall system cost reduction due to the use of readily available components from developed industry of optical communications. The feasibility of rapidly initializing detection, tracking and relative pose estimation through concept modeling and breadboard prototype testing will be presented.