About Guidance and Navigation Control

Guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) is a discipline of engineering that deals with the design of systems that control the movement of vehicles, such as cars, ships, planes, and spacecraft. Trained humans can often fulfil these functions. Human reaction time is too sluggish to control the movement of a rocket, for example, due to the speed of its dynamics. As a result, for such control, systems, now almost exclusively digital electronics are used. Expertise in GNC systems design and analysis. The focus is on route planning, guidance law and state estimators for navigation systems.

This course covers inertial navigation systems as well as navigational aids. GNC architectures for uncrewed vehicles, aircraft, and watercraft. Inertial sensors and global navigation systems knowledge. Stimulation, modelling, and implementing GNC systems for uncrewed underwater and aerial vehicles, planes, ships, and satellites are required. Using Kalman filters and nonlinear observers, they will learn how to estimate moving objects' position, velocity, and attitude.

What is Guidance and Navigation Control?

The branch of engineering known as guidance, navigation, and control deals with predominantly space-bound vehicles such as aircraft, guided missiles, rockets, and spacecraft. It also applies to the movement of land-based vehicles and ships to some extent. In concerns about the control and direction of any air and space-bound vehicle, the field of guidance, navigation, and control is of critical importance. Because of their rapid speeds and short reaction times, controlling them is beyond human power. It also necessitates an excellent level of precision, which is unattainable for humans.

Students will learn the definitions of guidance, navigation, and control in this course. They are aware of their involvement in applications that require remote control and autonomous operation of all air and space-bound spacecraft. They will discover how these features can help operators, controllers, and pilots work more efficiently. They provide fuel cost savings, turbulence smoothing, and other benefits. They learn that the term "guidance" refers to the needed path of travel for a vehicle. They understand navigation as determining the vehicle's present location and velocity in two or three dimensions. Control refers to the acts that keep the car moving in a specific direction or speed and guide it toward its intended target or destination.

A few topics worth mentioning are dynamics of linear systems, digital control, aerospace navigation, introduction to flying, control theory, process control, missile control systems, and advanced instrumentation.

Eligibility and Career Guidance and Navigation Control

For the master of technology in navigation and guidance, B.Tech./B.E. in Electrical & Electronics Engineering/ Electronics & Communication Engineering from an AICTE/UGC accredited Deemed University in India is required. A passing grade in the Engineering Degree programme is adequate for SC/ST students.

The majority of people who complete this programme go on to work in aviation or the aerospace industry. This field has a lot of potential in the country. Working with central agencies such as ISRO and DRDO, which create technologies for space-based initiatives, could be an option. Alternatives include the defence services and the commercial sector, which develops guidance, navigation, and control systems. Beyond this course, you may pursue a PhD or Mphil degree.