US Navy tests drone landing on moving ships without GPS or pilot

NAWCAD demonstrated a drone landing on a moving ship without GPS, satellite navigation or a human pilot, relying only on onboard cameras, motion sensors and software. The technology is ready for testing on fleet aircraft and scaling to larger drones.

• Landing uses onboard cameras, motion sensors and GNC algorithms
• Software predicts deck motion and times the touchdown
• Earlier approaches needed ship-mounted radar and ship modifications
• System works with nearly any drone flight computer