Wide Area Wireless Networked Navigators

Networked cooperative personnel and multiple manned/unmanned vehicles play important roles in the Future Combat System (FCS), Future Force Warrior, Future Special Operations Forces (SOF), Land Warrior and Homeland Defense applications. Multi-sensor fusion based navigation and high bandwidth wireless communications are two of the key techniques for these applications. The navigation system is required to be a wide area wireless networked real-time multi-agent information fusion and decision-aid system to deploy in a battlespace environment. AGNC’s coremicro Palm Navigator (CPN), inherently embedded with the networking functions for multiple platform tracking, is chosen as the Wide Area Wireless Networked Navigator System for the US Army ARDEC’s Multiple Platform Coordination (MPC) demonstration system. The CPN is a self-contained interruption-free multiple platform communications, non-GPS tracking and decision aid system. It is not a closed system. It is modularized and open to other systems. Applications of the CPN system include tracking of family members; tracking of cab vehicles of a taxi company; tracking of law enforcement officials pursuing suspects. In a military environment, the soldiers can track each other during military missions by using the CPN. Pilots of aircraft in a formation can use the CPN to maintain formation flight and evade potential collision.