Sensors

Athena Announces Micro-Size Guidance Solutions

By Sensors Staff Jul 17, 2006 1:00am
FARNBOROUGH, U.K. /BUSINESS WIRE/ -- Athena Technologies announced from the Farnborough International Air Show the release of two revolutionary "micro" size navigation solutions for manned and unmanned air vehicles (UAVs). The Micro INS and the Micro GuideStar both include an inertial navigation system (INS), global positioning pystem (GPS), and air data sensor system (ADAHRS), and the Micro GuideStar also includes full flight control capability. The Micros are available to navigate and/or autonomously control many different types of vehicles, such as drones, missiles, target UAVs, hand-launched UAVs, ground robots, and general aviation aircraft for various commercial applications. In addition, the smaller, lighter systems can be used by the military as personal navigation and tracking for land warriors.

Each Micro solution is the size of a small cell phone, weighs only four ounces (115 g), and offers plug-and-play integration into an aircraft or ground vehicle in record time, reducing the overall time to market for vehicle manufacturers. Based on low cost, high performance MEMS sensors with high MTBF (mean time between failure), the Micro INS and Micro GuideStar perform with the highest level of precision and reliability but at an affordable price. The affordability also enables vehicle manufacturers to use multiple Micro systems for extra redundancy and reliability for unmanned applications. The combination of the Micro with other technologies, such as voice-recognition technology and sense-and-avoid systems, provides a near-term solution for the safe integration of manned and unmanned aircraft in the National Air Space.

Dr. David Vos, Athena Technologies CEO and CTO commented: "We are pleased to release our newest and smallest Micro INS and GuideStar products, offering customers miniaturized, all-in-one solutions with computer, sensors, and optional mission management and flight control software. These new products use the same field-proven technology that has evolved over two decades and that is today being used to navigate and control more than a dozen UAV platforms, tallying well over 100,000 flight hours."

About the Micro INS and Micro GuideStar

  • Dimensions: 4.5 by 2 by 1 in.3 (114 by 51 by 25 mm3)
  • Volume: 8.0 in.3 (130 cm3)
  • Weight: 4 ounces (115 g)
  • Built-in tri-axial magnetometer with automatic hard iron compensation
  • Built-in air data system pressure transducers, including static and airspeed
  • Kalman filter INS/GPS, providing high-accuracy navigation and control state vector
  • 0.1° attitude accuracy, 0.3° heading accuracy
  • Electrical and mechanical design and manufacturing process that meets stringent environmental requirements, including temperature, shock, vibration, electromagnetic interference, and humidity
  • C/A Code GPS Receiver, WAAS enabled and differential ready (optional integration with external GPS receiver, including SAASM—Micro GuideStar only)
  • Software module providing Athena's full suite of advanced flight control capability (Micro GuideStar only)

About Athena Technologies Inc.
Athena Technologies is a premier developer and producer of navigation and control systems. Founded in 1998, the company produces the GuideStar family of versatile, compact, and cost-effective flight control systems for applications such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), target drones, and missiles. The company is an independent, privately held firm with headquarters in Northern Virginia. Additional information is available at the company's Web site.