Source: U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Matt Hecht.
Luca Ferrara of SandboxAQ, general manager of navigation, and Berenice Baker of IOT World Today report that Geomagnetic navigation systems using powerful quantum sensors to navigate using the Earth’s magnetic field are one solution to GPS jamming. SandboxAQ reports that since 2018, there has been a 2,000% increase in GPS interference. They write:
When GPS isn’t available, for the general public it is usually a minor inconvenience often solved by getting to a location with better reception. However, it is a far more serious issue for military and civilian aircraft, which are increasingly under threat from GPS jamming and spoofing by nation-states and others.
Geomagnetic navigation systems using powerful quantum sensors to navigate using the Earth’s magnetic field are one solution to this. SandboxAQ, which works at the intersection of AI and quantum technologies, earlier this year released its unspoofable navigation technology AQNav, following extensive trials with the U.S. Air Force (USAF), Boeing and Airbus. In July, SandboxAQ and the USAF successfully demonstrated the technology aboard a USAF C-17 Globemaster III aircraft.
Bringing together quantum and AI technologies, AQNav was recently recognized as one of Time magazine’s best innovations of 2024. Time described the project as a passion project for SandboxAQ general manager of navigation and ex-Googler Luca Ferrara. […]
Luca Ferrara: The concept of magnetic navigation using compasses is ancient. Using maps of the anomaly field, which looks at more information from the Earth’s magnetic field, has its origins in academic groups.
When I was at [Google’s innovation lab] X, when SandboxAQ was still incubated within Google in around 2020, the team was focused on applications of quantum sensing. I got brought over on secondment to look at strategy for this group, and I identified that the core expertise this team was working on, quantum sensing technology, specifically in magnetometry, could be applied to this problem of GPS and navigation. […]
That fuels the passion, because the harder we work to make it real, the sooner it can be in the hands of people, and the sooner it can make an impact on them. That’s a pull that a lot of people like myself are looking for when they look for projects.
Read more here.
Also, read U.S. Air Force Extends Contract with SandboxAQ to Further Develop AQNav Technology
