GPS as an Enabling Technology Supporting Autonomous Ocean Deployed Craft

摘要

The Department of the Navy conducts a number of Follow-on Commander-in-Chief Evaluation Tests (FCETs) each year. These submarine-launched, fleet ballistic missile tests are conducted in broad ocean areas and require unique instrumentation systems to collect data of interest. In support of these FCETs, Applied Research Laboratories, The University of Texas at Austin (ARL:UT) has developed a small, self-propelled autonomous surface craft (ASC) capable of carrying an instrumentation package into close proximity of the missile re-entry body impact points. GPS is a critical enabling technology that supports both real-time position and navigation of these craft, as well as providing timing and post-processed, high precision positional information. The current ARL:UT ASC design carries a High Explosive Radio Telemetry (HERT) payload for the Los Alamos National Laboratory in order to collect specialized data from reentry bodies. This paper presents a general description of the ASC and the missions it has performed to date. It then focuses on GPS and the three areas in which it supports these missions. In the first area, real time navigation, the ASC uses its GPS position to determine distance from and course to a programmed station-keeping point. In the second area, timing, time of day data from the GPS receiver is used to time-tag data files so that events in the data can be precisely timed. Third is the use of the on board recorded GPS data that is post-processed together with data from a remote reference station to produce a precise position for the ASC during specific events. The station keeping, navigation and timing abilities of the ASC system will be illustrated using data collected during at-sea deployments.