Notable Innovations
- Mark 14 Gunsight - improved gunsight accuracy of anti-aircraft guns used aboard naval vessels in WWII
- SPIRE - forerunner of autopilot systems now used in commercial aviation; advanced the accuracy and safety of airplane navigation
- GEORGE — World’s first algebraic compiler
- Q-guidance equation
- Apollo Guidance Computer - first deployed computer to exploit integrated circuit technology of on-board, autonomous navigation in space
- Digital Fly-by-wire - control system that allowed a pilot to control the aircraft without being connected mechanically to the aircraft’s control surfaces
- Fault-tolerant Computing – several computers work on a task simultaneously. If any one of the computers fails, the others can take over a vital capability when the safety of an aircraft or other system is at stake.
- Micro-electromechanical (MEMS) technologies
- Autonomous systems algorithms - autonomous rendezvous and docking of spacecraft; systems for underwater vehicles
- GPS coupled with inertial navigation system - allows for continuous navigation when the vehicle or system goes into a GPS-denied environment
Read more about this topic: Charles Stark Draper Laboratory
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