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INS, GNSS, RADAR, ILS /MLS and LIDAR are discussed briefly. Micro Electro

Mechanical System (MEMS) technology is a fast growing semiconductor technology

with their inherent advantages like small size, low power consumption and very cost

effective. Heavy mechanical components like accelerometers and gyroscopes of the

inertial measurement units are replaced with MEMS based devices. How the MEMS

are helpful to design the navigation for Micro Areal Vehicles (MAVs) is explained

briefly. Integration of low cost and light weight MEMS based navigation devices

with other navigation systems will address the challenges in the navigation of MAVs

to resemble the natural fliers.

Keywords Migration · Navigation · Birds and insects navigation · Bionavigation ·

Bio-mimicking navigation · GNSS · INS · ILS/MLS · MAVs · MEMS

Navigation—A General Overview

Navigation is the art of directing a vehicle such as an aircraft or a person from

one place to another place. Many methods and models like stellar, solar, magnetic,

olfactory and other orientation and navigation systems are relatively well known in

biological fliers. Orientation using Electromagnetic induction is common in some

fishes, aquatic mammals (whales and dolphins) and other biological fliers. However,

each type of model that has been proposed, has its theoretical and observational

basis and its own serious limitations due to Nano-technological implications. Further

studies¹ have revealed that multiple mechanisms appear to exist in nature, which also

adds to the complexity in understanding the navigation problems.

In the early stages of navigation, various instruments like compass, clock, theodo-

lite and chronometers were used. Many methods for navigation and orientation,

including the sensors for aerial vehicles are being proposed in the scientific liter-

ature. It is well known that pigeons and some other birds use the land marks and

magnetic orientation during migration and home coming. If the weather conditions

are not favorable and more so during night, visual piloting by using land marks

during prolonged migration may be a challenging task. Stellar navigation using the

location of bright stars, seems more common in some nocturnal migrant fliers such

as Song birds. However, this may not be feasible for many non-avian migrating

fliers [1]. Navigation is mainly controlled by animal’s internal environment (Physio-

logical and Hormonal status), influenced by genetically and external environmental

factors viz., fast sensory feedback systems which in turn are controlled by various

segments of the brain as may be required in different phylogeny of animals. Social

relationships in migratory swarms and collision avoidance in certain groups of fliers,

also influence the long distance migration and navigation to a certain extent. It is

rather difficult to separate migration and navigation in natural fliers. Prof. N. Srini-

vasan from Australian National University has shown how honeybees use vision for

1 This is a general article where fundamental aspects of navigation have been mentioned and only

a few references have been quoted.