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What’s new: An article about a celestial nav system that can be strapped on drones.
Why it’s important:
- It is relatively easy to jam or spoof GNSS signals on most drones making them ineffective. And we know of instances when accidental interference has caused drones to crash.
- Drones are very sensitive to SWAP-C (Size, Weight, And Power – Cost) The system described seems to have low SWAP-C.
What else to know:
- We followed the link in the Spatial Source article and glanced over the academic paper. The researchers were routinely getting LOCATION ACCURACY WITHIN 4 KILOMETERS! Not sure this is a practical alternative to GNSS quite yet.
- This is why we don’t get over-excited about quantum and other PNT developments hyped in the press. Even with technologies that are proven to have reasonable accuracies, security, good SWAP-C, and so on, there are still a host of challenges getting things fielded. For example, any tech that might be used in commercial aviation has a multi-year approval and integration process to go through. So having good tech is just the start of the journey/ solution.
Jamming-proof celestial navigation for drones
By jnally on 15 January, 2025
Australian researchers have responded to a surge in jamming attacks to develop a navigation system that uses visual data from stars rather than relying on the GNSS.
Remote sensing engineers from the University of South Australia have combined celestial navigation with vision-based technology to provide an alternative means of night-time navigation in environments where GNSS is unavailable or unreliable.
UniSA researcher Dr Samuel Teague says the lightweight system can be integrated into standard drones.
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