Field-configurable and modular navigational system for autonomous vehicle

A navigational system for an unmanned maritime vehicle comprising:

• a) a backplane comprising ports for hosting a plurality of daughterboards and a data connection for receiving data from an inertial measurement unit (IMU);
• b) a modular microcontroller daughterboard removably and communicably coupled to the backplane and comprising a microcontroller and a non-volatile storage;
• c) a first modular daughterboard removably and communicably coupled to the backplane and comprising a first GPS RTK receiver;
• and
• d) a second modular daughterboard removably and communicably coupled to the backplane and comprising a second GPS RTK receiver;
• and
• e) an inertial measurement unit (IMU) removably and communicably coupled to the data connection of the backplane;
• wherein the microcontroller is in communication with hardware components of the system comprising the first GPS RTK receiver, the second GPS RTK receiver, and the IMU, wherein the system provides a plurality of operational modes, wherein the system is field-configurable to switch between the operational modes in a failover cascade based on remote or programmatic triggers, and wherein the plurality of operational modes comprise:
• a) a first dual-receiver GPS RTK positioning mode using the first GPS RTK receiver, the second GPS RTK receiver, and the IMU;
• b) a second dual-receiver GPS RTK positioning mode using the first GPS RTK receiver and the second GPS RTK receiver;
• c) a first single-receiver GPS RTK positioning mode using the first RTK GPS receiver or the second RTK GPS receiver and the IMU;
• and
• d) a second single-receiver GPS RTK positioning mode using the first RTK GPS receiver or the second RTK GPS receiver.