Practical navigation-aid using forward-looking passive imaging information

To detect the diverging error of inertial navigation within autonomous aerial vehicle, it can be proposed to use an passive imaging device with its automatic recognition capability. And both down and forward-looking type of imaging device could be used for the aiding application. But, while the prevalent down-looking type inherently excludes height channel, forward-looking type can include the full dimension of engagement geometry so as for aiding to ensure the converging performance. In this paper, it is investigated how effectively the information from the forward-looking imaging device could be applied to a useful navigation-aid by a flexible three dimensional passive ranging concept proposed. And also, major essential limitations to be considered are studied by means of the analysis for the error-transferring characteristics.