Multiple Assets Position Determination in a 3-Dimensional Environment Using the APRS Protocol
Abstract
Increased situational awareness in the battlefield is one of the main objectives in today's operations and applies to all levels of commands. Several attempts have been made to use tracking devices for detecting and continuously updating the positional data of friendly assets on a map. Current applications like Falcon View fulfill their objective in presenting the location of targets of interest on a digital mapping environment. Falcon View is a geographic information system (GIS) used extensively by DoD for mission planning purposes. When the requirement is to track airborne assets such as aircraft or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), none of the current applications can present the results in three-dimensions. Instead they project the received tracks on the ground in 2-dimensions creating a false or impaired perspective of the true tactical situation. This thesis develops and tests a software application in a plug-in form integrated into the open-source NASA World Wind mapping engine. The application is designed to determine the tracks of both airborne and groundmoving assets in three dimensions. It also tests the concept in a real-world environment and verify the impact it has on situational awareness at various command levels.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2007
- Accession Number
- ADA474028
Entities
People
- Evangelos K. Fourtzitzis
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School