Unmanned navigation with a novel laser and smart software

This paper develops a novel navigation technology for the automation of laser based sensor dependent functions in systems undergoing motion. These functions include tracking, missile interception, amphibious navigation, rendezvous, docking, under water and dry terrain mapping as well as high precision machinery operation and microscopy surgery. The system that will benefit from this technology includes: unmanned autonomous aerospace vehicles, missile or projectile trackers, planetary landers, manufacturing processes, and a host of others. This technology is based on the Scannerless Imaging Laser Radar sensor (SRI) developed at Sandia Laboratory as coupled with Cross-Plane Tracking (CPT) software developed at NASA-JSC and enhanced by the author of this manuscript by introducing evolutionary computation. This paper will discuss the two primary technologies (the SRI and CPT) as well as providing results from the combination of the two technologies using a set of ancillary software modules where a genetic algorithm is proposed. Results from a recent space shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) is presented to illustrate the combination of these two technologies and how the precision of those techniques would be benefited by the incorporation of evolutionary computation to provide data for the function listed above. The next steps in the development of a real-time tracking sensor are highlighted and discussed in terms of the provided examples.