AGEN

Atomic Gyroscope for Enhanced Navigation

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Aircraft navigation and safety in the absence of GPS/Galileo signals can be improved by higher performances Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) and thus by higher performances gyroscopes. The “Atomic Gyroscope for Enhanced Navigation (AGEN)” project aims at showing the feasibility of the development of such an inertial grade gyroscope for aircraft navigation and delivering higher performances than Ring Laser Gyroscopes while having small dimensions and power consumption. Atom (atomic) gyroscopes hold the promise of reaching even better performances, but their state of development is presently in the “research” stage and user’s requirements in terms of size, power consumption, cost and performances will be analyzed and targeted. Such a development may open up new application fields such as unmanned commercial flight, enhanced navigation for UAVs, enhanced marine, sub-marine and Unmanned Surface Vehicle navigation. A conceptual design will be performed, allowing the trade-off between various concepts. Laboratory tests will be restrained to validating the gas cell, the heart of an atomic gyroscope, showing the feasibility of such a concept. This development will bring redundancy and will enhance the robustness of guiding systems relying on Galileo.. Finally, an assessment and a roadmap of the future development steps will be performed.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Since the middle of the last century, developments related to the 'conquest of space' have led to the satellite-based Global Positioning System (GPS) of high precision and continuous global coverage. However, an EU-funded project poses the question 'What if GPS isn't available?'.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

GPS is used everywhere in our daily lives, but it cannot support underwater and indoor navigation as its signals are easily disturbed. GPS-based navigation systems are also unable to work alone for the navigation of aeroplanes. The latter still use inertial navigation systems founded on laser-based interferometer and mechanical gyroscopes, even though their accuracy drifts over time.

However, conventional gyroscopes can form the basis of a next-generation navigation system that gauges an aeroplane's position much more accurately.

The 'Atomic gyroscope for enhanced navigation' (https://sites.google.com/a/tekever.com/agen-fp7/ (AGEN)) project aims to advance the technology in today's aeroplane navigation systems to work with atoms.

For an ensemble of noble gas atoms, the nuclei spin can be kept pointing at its original direction just as the mechanical rotor in a mechanical gyroscope.

This yields an atomic spin gyroscope. If it could be produced at portable size with high impact resistance, the atomic spin gyroscope would be the desired replacement of the older technology.

To achieve its aims, AGEN brings together two research and development centres with a small to medium-sized enterprise oriented towards innovative technologies. The project partners investigated existing nuclear magnetic resonance and atomic co-magnetometer technologies to compare their limitations against required performances. This was followed by the conceptual design of the atomic gyroscope and production of its main components.

By the end of the first year, theoretical models had been developed to address the issue of magnetic field gradients, which need to be precisely controlled so that the aeroplane rotation rate can be effectively distinguished from the detected precession frequency. In its second year, main test points were identified, and specific benchmark tests were conducted to evaluate the micro-fabricated gas cells and detection efficiency.

The structure of the atomic spin gyroscope is simple, allowing it to be manufactured with micro-fabrication processes. The gyroscope being developed with the technology for chip-scale atomic sensors, such as atomic clocks and magnetometers, is a new research direction expected to reach grade precision, which was difficult to accomplish with existing micro-electromechanical systems-based gyroscopes. If the AGEN project is successful, Europe may come one step closer to becoming a leader in atomic gyroscopes.