Advanced Navigation Expands Boreas Digital Fiber

USA, July 2023 – Advanced Navigation, the world’s most determined innovator in artificial intelligence for robotic and navigation technologies has announced the expansion of its revolutionary Boreas digital fiber-optic gyroscope (DFOG) range, with the new A Series.

The Boreas A90 and A70 are strategic-grade inertial measurement units (IMU) that deliver acceleration and orientation with superior accuracy, stability and reliability under all conditions with no reliance on GNSS. They also feature automatic gyrocompassing with industry-leading reductions in size, weight, power and cost (SWaP-C) compared to competing systems on the market.

“Our world-first Boreas DFOG technology represented a step-change for fiber-optic gyroscopes. The addition of the A Series ensures we have greater ability to meet the rapidly growing demand for ultra-high accuracy solutions, even in the most demanding conditions.

The A Series is an embodiment of industry-leading performance and cost-effectiveness. We look forward to seeing this technology unlock new possibilities across an expanse of fields, from autonomous vehicles and land surveying to subsea navigation and mining,” said Xavier Orr, CEO and co-founder of Advanced Navigation.

The Boreas A90 and A70 are IMUs that contain ultra-high accuracy DFOG and high performance closed-loop accelerometers. Boreas A90 offers ultra-high performance, while the A70 offers high performance. Featuring ultra-fast gyrocompassing, both systems can acquire and maintain an accurate heading under all conditions with no reliance on GNSS, making them well-suited for surveying, mapping and navigation across subsea, marine, land and air applications.

The Boreas A90 and A70 also offer an optional license to add INS capabilities and enable integration with external GNSS receivers using Advanced Navigation’s comprehensive range of interfaces and communication protocols.

0.005° roll and pitch0.01° seclat latitude heading (gyrocompass)0.001° /hour bias instability1000 Hz update rate

0.01° roll and pitch0.1° seclat latitude heading (gyrocompass)0.01° /hour bias instability1000 Hz update rate

The Boreas range is targeted at applications requiring always available, ultra-high accuracy orientation and navigation scenarios including marine, surveying, subsea, aerospace, robotics, and space.

The Boreas range contains Advanced Navigation’s revolutionary sensor fusion algorithm. This algorithm is more intelligent than the typical extended Kalman filter and is able to extract significantly more information from the data by making use of human-inspired artificial intelligence. It was designed for control applications, with a high level of health monitoring and instability prevention to ensure stable and reliable data.

Advanced Navigation has designed the Boreas range from the ground up for reliability and availability. Both the hardware and software are designed and tested to safety standards and have been environmentally tested to MIL standards.

DFOG is Advanced Navigation’s patented technology, developed over 25 years involving two research institutions. DFOG was created to meet the demand for smaller and more cost-effective FOGs, while increasing reliability and accuracy.

The first generation of FOG made available in 1976 used analog signals and analog signal processing. The second generation was developed in 1994 and is still used to this day. It improved upon the first generation with a hybrid approach using an analog signal in the coil with digital signal processing.

In 2021, FOG evolved into DFOG. This third generation of FOG sets itself apart by being completely digital, providing higher performance and reliability while enabling up to 40% reductions in SWaP-C.

To achieve this, three different, yet complementary, technologies have been developed to improve the capabilities of FOG.

Digital Modulation Techniques: DFOG uses a specially developed digital modulation technique passing spread spectrum signals through the coil. The new digital modulation technique introduced in DFOG technology allows in-run variable errors in the coil to be measured and removed from the measurements. This makes DFOG significantly more stable and reliable than traditional FOGs. It also allows for a smaller FOG with reduced coil length to achieve the accuracy of one with a longer coil.

Revolutionary Optical Chip: By integrating five sensitive components into a single chip and removing all the fibre splices, the size, weight, and power are reduced considerably while significantly improving reliability and performance.

Specially Designed Optical Coil: DFOG employs a specially designed closed-loop optical coil, developed to take full advantage of the digital modulation techniques. The design allows for optimum sensing of in-run variable coil errors using the new digital modulation technique. It also provides a high level of shock and vibration protection for the optical components.

Distinguished Professor Arnan Mitchell, the Director of the Integrated Photonics and Applications Centre at RMIT University, was a key partner in developing DFOG technology with Advanced Navigation. Professor Mitchell is a noted authority on microtechnology and nanotechnology whose work on shrinking the components of a fiber-optic gyroscope onto a single chip proved to be one of the key aspects of DFOG’s revolutionary technology. This innovation allows DFOG to have a significantly lower SWaP-C than other similar FOGs, all the while delivering higher accuracy and reliability.

Professor Mitchell explains, “By printing optical components onto a tiny chip, we are creating more compact and reliable fiber-optic gyroscopes with Advanced Navigation.”

Advanced Navigation was founded in Sydney, Australia in 2012 by engineers Xavier Orr and Chris Shaw to commercialize university research on AI-based inertial navigation. Since 2012, the company has experienced great success and has progressed into several deep and new technology fields. This includes underwater acoustics, GNSS antennas and receivers, radio frequency systems, inertial sensors, robotics, and quantum-enhanced inertial navigation. Today, Advanced Navigation is a supplier to some of the biggest companies in the world, including Airbus, Boeing, Google, Apple, and General Motors. Advanced Navigation is headquartered in Sydney with multiple research facilities throughout Australia and sales offices around the world. Advanced Navigation is an Australian manufacturer exporting globally while maintaining carbon-neutral operations.