A transportable quantum sensor for high accuracy inertial navigation

The high accuracy and long-term stability of cold atom, quantum-enhanced, inertial sensors make them well suited to long range navigation applications. In the laboratory, these sensors have demonstrated performance far exceeding their classical counterparts.

Early transportable demonstrators of this technology are now starting to leave the lab, include in our group at Imperial which has deployed in both maritime and rail environments.

Through this PhD I will ruggedise a transportable cold atom sensor, improving its resilience and robustness to enable its operation across various platforms.

This will provide an opportunity to increase the accuracy in the field and support development of a future satellite free navigation system. Until now the Imperial field work has focused on acceleration sensing using a quantum sensor.

Building on recent advances in rotation sensing in the lab, I will extend field work to quantum enhanced gyroscopic systems providing an opportunity to gather critical first data using this sensor.