SEXTANT: A High-Fidelity Navigation Simulation Testbed

Kevin M. Betts, Brandon K. DeKock, Donald L. Reed, Jason Gewehr, Derrick Bezanson

Abstract:	SAIC has developed the Simulink Experimentation Testbed for Advanced Navigation Technology (SEXTANT), a modular simulation testbed for testing and developing navigation sensor architectures and data fusion algorithms. SEXTANT can be used throughout all phases of project development: from initial mission design and requirements development through detailed algorithm design and embedded code generation for real-time applications. SEXTANT can simulate navigation subsystems on a variety of host platforms (ranging from dismounted soldiers to highspeed aircraft and spacecraft) and allows the user to create sensor packages consisting of both generic sensors (various grades of IMU, GPS, magnetometers, and baro-altimeters) as well as a library of mission specific sensors (such as range measurements from software defined radios). The simulation testbed has a direct interface to a sophisticated visualization package (bdStudio), allowing the developer and mission planner a clear understanding of algorithm performance for pre-planned Design Reference Missions (DRMs) as well as the ability to create new mission scenarios in real-time through the use of the keyboard and joystick interface. SEXTANT was critical to the recent development of the EDGE software package, a sensor fusion algorithm set developed for cooperative urban/indoor navigation under the Ubiquitous Geospatial Intelligence (USGI) program.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 21st International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2008) September 16 - 19, 2008 Savannah International Convention Center Savannah, GA
Pages:	2732 - 2739
Cite this article:	Betts, Kevin M., DeKock, Brandon K., Reed, Donald L., Gewehr, Jason, Bezanson, Derrick, "SEXTANT: A High-Fidelity Navigation Simulation Testbed," Proceedings of the 21st International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2008), Savannah, GA, September 2008, pp. 2732-2739.
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