Published on: June 2026
AI-DRIVEN GPS AND VISION-FREE NAVIGATION FOR MILITARY DRONES: A REVIEW OF THE CLAK FRAMEWORK AND EMERGING TRENDS IN GPS-DENIED UAV AUTONOMY
Major Ankur Singh Pathania
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Abstract
Reliable navigation in Global Navigation Satellite System denied environments has emerged as a critical requirement for modern unmanned aerial vehicle operations, particularly in military scenarios characterized by electronic warfare, signal spoofing, and contested electromagnetic environments. Conventional UAV navigation systems rely extensively on GPS and optical sensing, making them vulnerable to jamming, low-visibility conditions, and adversarial countermeasures. This paper examines the CLAK framework, an artificial intelligence-based navigation architecture that enables drones to perform autonomous positioning without dependence on GPS or camera-based systems. The study analyzes the framework’s sensor fusion approach, which integrates LiDAR, inertial measurement units, and barometric sensing with deep-learning architectures including convolutional neural networks, bidirectional long short-term memory (BiLSTM) networks, and attention mechanisms. The paper further situates CLAK within the broader evolution of GPS-denied navigation technologies, including inertial navigation systems, visual SLAM, visual-inertial odometry, and learning-based inertial navigation methods. Operational implications for military UAV applications such as autonomous swarming, urban reconnaissance, subterranean operations, and low-signature missions are evaluated. The study also discusses limitations related to domain adaptation, adversarial vulnerability, computational integration, and verification challenges. The paper concludes that AI-enabled non-visual navigation frameworks represent a significant advancement in resilient autonomous systems and are likely to become central components of future multi-domain military operations
How to Cite this Paper
Pathania, M. A. S. (2026). AI-Driven GPS And Vision-Free Navigation for Military Drones: A Review of the CLAK Framework and Emerging Trends in GPS-Denied UAV Autonomy. International Journal of Creative and Open Research in Engineering and Management, <i>02</i>(6). https://doi.org/10.55041/ijcope.v2i6.107
Pathania, Major. "AI-Driven GPS And Vision-Free Navigation for Military Drones: A Review of the CLAK Framework and Emerging Trends in GPS-Denied UAV Autonomy." International Journal of Creative and Open Research in Engineering and Management, vol. 02, no. 6, 2026, pp. . doi:https://doi.org/10.55041/ijcope.v2i6.107.
Pathania, Major. "AI-Driven GPS And Vision-Free Navigation for Military Drones: A Review of the CLAK Framework and Emerging Trends in GPS-Denied UAV Autonomy." International Journal of Creative and Open Research in Engineering and Management 02, no. 6 (2026). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.55041/ijcope.v2i6.107.
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- •Published on: Jun 09 2026
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