Soldiers equipped with Oak Ridge National Laboratory's TRI-NAV system will know their precise location regardless of foliage, terrain, buildings and attempts by the enemy to jam global positioning system signals, says Steve Smith, lead researcher for the project and a member of ORNL's Engineering Science & Technology Division. The key to the proprietary system, which requires very little power for the user's unit, is that it seamlessly combines highly advanced GPS, an inertial navigation unit and the new ORNL-developed Theater Positioning System. The TRI-NAV (Triply Redundant Integrated Navigation and Asset Visibility) system also features precision timing to ensure that the three systems work together to provide instant and highly accurate location information, which is critical to soldiers in combat situations. A novel radio frequency scheme for the Theater Positioning System signals uses a special spread-spectrum system that makes it difficult to jam TRI-NAV. Gary Steimer of the National Security Directorate expects the final soldier unit to be about the size of a cellular telephone and accurate to better than one meter. The Department of Defense has funded portions of this project.
Menu