ESA probing navigation via quantum technologies

Last Updated: 25/03/2022 07:56     Created at: 24/03/2022 07:27

Hyper-sensitive quantum technology-based sensors could be employed as supplementary elements for navigation solutions, including tracking local variations in gravity that could be matched onto regional and global gravity maps.

The company iXblue is leading a NAVISP Element 1 project consortium to develop a compact 3-axis Cold Atom Interferometry accelerometer/gravity sensor, aimed for use aboard boats, aircraft and boats as well as at fixed sites.

This could be used both on a dead reckoning basis – to accurately sum up all subsequent accelerations relative to a starting point, without the gradually accumulated drift of classical inertial sensors – and also to fix positions, by matching locally measured gravity to a detailed gravity map.

NAVISP Element 1 is dedicated to innovation of the European industry in the wide PNT sector.