Australian company Q-CTRL has announced the first real-world demonstration of its commercial quantum navigation system, Ironstone Opal, which it says is 50 times more accurate than traditional global positioning systems (GPS).
Australian company Q-CTRL has announced the first real-world demonstration of its commercial quantum navigation system, Ironstone Opal, which it says is 50 times more accurate than traditional global positioning systems (GPS).
As Interesting Engineering reports, many planes, and cars currently rely heavily on GPS for navigation. However, this system can be jammed, fooled, or even disabled, especially during military conflicts or cyberattacks.
Last fall, many posts appeared in the Ukrainian segments of popular social networks from users who said that their alarm clocks had gone off at an untimely time due to automatic time changes. They also indicated a change in geolocation, for example, from Kyiv to Kursk, or the territory of Belarus.
Such anomalies are observed during air alert, when electronic warfare systems are activated, trying to confuse Iranian-Russian Shahed drones and return them back to Russian territory. Therefore, in the capital of Ukraine, GPS can sometimes show the user a location in the Bryansk or Kursk regions.
When GPS spoofing is used, real signals from satellites are replaced with false ones. Therefore, the enemy drone continues to believe that it is flying the correct route, but in fact its real position differs from the coordinates it receives.
Q-CTRL claims that GPS jamming disrupts around 1,000 flights every day. It is estimated that disruptions of this magnitude cost the global economy around $1 billion every day. Therefore, creating a reliable GPS backup is critical, especially for defense and autonomous systems.
To this end, Q-CTRL has developed a new system called Ironstone Opal, which uses quantum sensors to navigate without GPS. It is passive (meaning it does not emit signals that can be detected or jammed) and very accurate.
The Q-CTRL system does not rely on satellites and can read the Earth’s magnetic field, which varies slightly depending on location (like a magnetic fingerprint or a map). The system can determine where the user is by measuring these changes using magnetometers.
This is made possible by using the company’s own quantum sensors, which are incredibly sensitive and stable. The system also comes with special AI-based software that filters out interference such as vibrations or electromagnetic noise.
The system is small and compact and could theoretically be installed on drones, cars, and of course, airplanes. Q-CTRL conducted several real-world tests on the ground and in the air to validate the technology. They found that it can operate completely independently of GPS.
The company claims that its «quantum GPS» was 50 times more accurate than traditional GPS backup systems (such as inertial navigation systems, or INS).
Even when installed inside an aircraft, where interference is much stronger, Ironstone Opal outperformed existing systems by at least a factor of 11. This is the first time that quantum technology has outperformed current technology in a real-world commercial or military application.
Due to its stealthy, jamming-proof and high-precision nature, this technology is very attractive to military forces, particularly Australia, the UK, and the US. However, it could also prove valuable to commercial aviation companies, autonomous vehicles and drones.
«At Q-CTRL, we are excited to be a global pioneer in moving quantum sensing from research to the field, bringing real-world capabilities previously only dreamed of. This is our first major release of the system, and we are excited to see more to come as we implement new quantum navigation technologies adapted for other commercial and defense platforms,» the startup says.
Last month, Maxar Intelligence announced the release of its Raptor software for autonomous systems, which it claims is the first technology that allows drones to navigate without GPS.
Last fall, three American guys built a drone in 24 hours that didn’t need GPS. They were inspired by Ukrainians who had returned from the front lines and were looking for new technologies at a hackathon in San Francisco.
