Quantum sensing moves closer to reality
By Ivan Petrunin and Nicholas J. Napoli|December 2024
The Sensor Systems and Information Fusion Technical Committee advances technology for sensing phenomena, fusion of data across sensors or networks, and autonomous collaboration between information systems.
New sensing systems and continuing improvement of the performance and intelligence of fusion solutions dominated this year’s research and development headlines.
In August, Northrop Grumman announced it completed the first flight test campaign of its Electronically Scanned Multifunction Reconfigurable Integrated Sensor. Designed to work simultaneously as a radar, electronic warfare and communication system, this sensor is based on a fully digital active electronically scanned array and an easily scaled and reconfigurable architecture for applicability across platforms and domains.
A series of demonstrations of quantum sensor systems was conducted worldwide. In January, the U.K. Royal Navy worked alongside quantum technology experts on experiments aiming to improve the performance and security of positioning and navigation solutions at sea. In the last round of testing, the quantum accelerometer technology was taken aboard the U.K.’s Ministry of Defense cargo ship to evaluate how it would perform under the real-life conditions of ship vibration and motion as a step toward implementing quantum sensing for navigation. Researchers conducted several tests that indicated quantum sensors could soon enable precise and safe navigation for defense and commercial applications in the event there is a disruption with GPS and other navigational systems.
In May, Boeing flew a six-axis quantum inertial measurement unit, developed in collaboration with the California-based company AOSense, aboard a Beechcraft 1900D. Also in May, the “ultra-cold-atom-based” navigation system built by U.S. company Infleqtion completed an eight-hour flight from Boscombe Down in the U.K. aboard an Avro RJ100, a short-haul commercial flight. The U.K. has pledged to deploy quantum navigation systems on all its commercial aircraft by 2030.
In September, Eutelsat America Corp. of Washington, D.C., and OneWeb Technologies of Texas began consumer sales of their software-defined outdoor receiver, Astra. The receiver provides users with enhanced situational awareness and resilience to global navigation satellite system outages via integration with alternative position, navigation and timing services such as Iridium’s.
In March, the European Space Agency awarded contracts to consortiums led by Thales Alenia Space and GMV Aerospace and Defence S.A.U. for the development of low-Earth orbit constellations that can provide end-to-end PNT services. The teams comprise some 50 entities from 14 countries representing a combination of space primes and small- and medium-sized businesses. The deliverables include five satellites, ground and user segments, as well as experimentation and service demonstration in different industries’ representative user environments. The planned demonstrations join existing research projects and experiments aimed at overcoming the vulnerability of existing GNSS-based solutions.
In January, Texas Instruments at the Consumer Electronics Show introduced the new millimeter-wave radar chips supporting satellite radar architectures. With the design, higher levels of autonomy are possible due to improved sensor fusion and decision-making in advanced driver assistance systems. TI called this semiconductor the first single-chip radar sensor designed for satellite architectures that allows developers to use 360-degree sensor coverage and sensor fusion algorithms.
In May, Lattice Semiconductors of Oregon presented at the Embedded Vision Summit a new 3D sensor fusion reference design for autonomous application development. The design enables enhanced perception, reliability and improved decision-making with advanced 3D sensing delivered by the new solid-state lidar design, as well as with artificial intelligence-supported synchronization and sensor fusion for lidar, radar and camera sensors. Η
