Honeywell HGuide o480 INS/GNSS navigator with AIM+ anti-jamming

The HGuide o480 fuses data from an onboard IMU and a Septentrio GNSS receiver in Honeywell navigation software, which outputs position, attitude and timing. AIM+ anti-jamming technology keeps the navigator running through moderate GNSS jamming. If jamming persists, the unit navigates on the IMU alone, which suffices for short outages. In extended outages, position and heading errors grow gradually, a consequence of the size, weight, power and cost limits on the IMU.

Navigation aids suited to the platform reduce that drift. Velocity can come from sensors on wheels or gearboxes, or from Honeywell’s HRVS radar ground-speed sensor, and a Honeywell magnetometer can provide heading. Where more performance is needed, the o480 accepts input from higher-grade Honeywell IMUs such as the HG4930, which needs no export license.

With suitable aids, land, aerial and marine platforms can navigate long distances without GNSS, and in initial testing land and aerial platforms reach gross errors under 0.5% of total distance traveled. Darren Fisher, business development at Honeywell, notes that AI and visual targeting change the navigator’s task: it mainly has to bring a platform within visual range, after which onboard video or AI takes over once an operator approves.

The navigator is smaller than a business card and is designed and built in the EU. Honeywell positions it for rapid deployment and scalable production, at a price point aimed at attritable military assets and a range of industrial applications.

Why it matters

Conflict in Ukraine shows how much autonomous, low-cost platforms such as ISR UAVs, loitering munitions and unmanned ground vehicles depend on navigation that survives jammed or spoofed GNSS signals, the setting in which Honeywell places the o480. The navigator handles outages in stages: the IMU covers short gaps, while velocity or heading aids chosen for the platform limit drift in longer ones.

Built in the EU and sold without export license restrictions, the o480 reaches integrators worldwide. Honeywell’s HGuide range also includes the n580 inertial navigation system.

Honeywell Aerospace also lists the Compact Inertial Navigation System and the Vision Aided Navigation system on NomyParts.