AGEN - Atomic Gyroscope for Enhanced Navigation
Overview
Background & policy context:
Aircraft navigation and safety in the absence of GPS/Galileo signals can be improved by higher performance Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) and thus by higher performance gyroscopes.
Objectives:
The Atomic Gyroscope for Enhanced Navigation (AGEN) project aims to show the feasibility of the developing such an inertial grade gyroscope for aircraft navigation and delivering higher performances than Ring Laser Gyroscopes while having small dimensions and power consumption. Atomic gyroscopes hold the promise of reaching even better performance levels, but their state of development is presently in the research stage and user requirements in terms of size, power consumption, cost and performances will be analysed and targeted. Such a development may open up new application fields such as unmanned commercial flights, enhanced navigation for UAVs, enhanced marine, sub-marine and Unmanned Surface Vehicle navigation.
Methodology:
A conceptual design will be performed, allowing for a trade-off between various concepts. Laboratory tests will be restricted 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.
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