Intertial Labs launches VINS system for GPS-compromised flight paths

Inertial Labs announced the launch of a visual-aided inertial navigation system that enables aircraft to maintain accurate flightpaths when no reliable GPS/GNSS signal is available.The launch comes as the U.S. Department of Transportation is reporting an increase in GPS signal jamming and spoofing in North America and in much of Western Europe. This affects commercial and military operations, with up to 700 global GPS spoofing and jamming incidences taking place daily. Events are particularly concentrated around war zones, with Lithuanian airspace alone recording over 800 cases of GPS interference during the last three months of 2024. Also affected are the communications and emergency service sectors, which also rely on precise timing and geolocation. VINS enables Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to accomplish very long-range missions in the most GNSS-challenged environments. VINS uses a robust 3D vision-based positioning software from Maxar Raptor to estimate a vehicle’s absolute 3D position by applying Perspective and Point principles to compare patterns captured from an onboard camera with satellite imagery-derived Maxar Precision3D maps.