Tag: FOG

Advanced Navigation launches Boreas D70 digital fiber-optic gyroscope
Photo: Advanced Navigation

Advanced Navigation has announced the Boreas D70, a fiber-optic gyroscope (FOG) inertial navigation system (INS).

The D70 is the latest release in the Boreas digital FOG (DFOG) series, offering a new performance grade with superior accuracy, exceptional stability and reliability. The technology is suited to surveying, mapping and navigation across subsea, marine, land and air applications.

“We are thrilled to expand the Boreas series with the D70. It’s a system that will provide additional flexibility in the Boreas family, making ultra-high accuracy inertial navigation far more affordable than with previous FOG INS systems,” said Xavier Orr, CEO and co-founder of Advanced Navigation. “This patented technology opens the possibility for adopting FOG INS systems across a much broader range of vehicular applications, particularly autonomous vehicles and aircraft where weight and size are at a premium.”

Boreas D70 combines closed-loop DFOG and accelerometer technologies with a dual-antenna real-time kinematic (RTK) GNSS receiver. These are coupled with Advanced Navigation’s artificial-intelligence-based fusion algorithm to deliver accurate and precise navigation.

The system features ultra-fast gyrocompassing, acquiring and maintaining an accurate heading under demanding conditions. While the D70 does contain a GNSS receiver, it is not required for gyrocompass operation.

Based on the company’s DFOG technology, the D70 delivers a 40% reduction in size, weight, power and cost (SWaP-C) when compared to systems of similar performance.
- 0.01° roll and pitch
- 0.1° secant latitude heading (gyrocompass)
- 0.01°/hour bias instability
- 10 mm position accuracy
The Boreas Series

The Boreas DFOG series features ultra-fast gyrocompassing and can acquire heading, either stationary or dynamically, in less than two minutes. The gyrocompassing allows the system to determine a highly accurate heading without any reliance on magnetic heading or GNSS.

The technology stems from Advanced Navigation’s artificial intelligence sensor-fusion algorithm allowing the system to extract significantly more information from the data. It is designed for control applications, with a high level of health monitoring and instability prevention to ensure stable and reliable data.

Advanced Navigation designed Boreas from the ground up for reliability and availability. The hardware and software are designed and tested to international safety standards and have been environmentally tested to MIL-STD-810. The system achieves a mean time between failure (MTBF) of more than 70,000 hours.

Additional features of the Boreas D70 include Ethernet, CAN and NMEA protocols, as well as disciplined timing via a PTP server and 1 PPS. An embedded web interface provides full access to all of the device’s internal functions and data. Internal storage allows for up to 1 year of data logging.

About DFOG Technology

DFOG is patented technology, which has been 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 a 40% reduction 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 a smaller FOG with less 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 fiber 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 very high level of protection for the optical components from shock and vibration.
November 3, 2022
Advanced Navigation launches Boreas digital FOG

Photo: Advanced Navigation

Advanced Navigation has launched a new fiber-optic gyroscope inertial navigation system (INS), named Boreas. It is an ultra-high accuracy, strategic-grade INS, offering a reduction in size, weight, power and cost. Boreas is the first product to be released based on Advanced Navigation’s new DFOG (digital fiber-optic gyroscope) technology, which is the culmination of 25 years of development involving two research institutions.

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

“Boreas is the first product on the market to offer our patent-pending DFOG technology,” said Advanced Navigation CEO Xavier Orr. “DFOG represents a step-change for fiber-optic gyroscopes. With Boreas’ ultra-high-accuracy and strategic-grade performance combined with the reduction of size, weight, power and cost by 40%, we will be able to enable new industries and applications that were never possible before.”

The Boreas delivers strategic-grade bias stability of 0.001 deg/hr. This allows it to achieve ultra-high roll/pitch accuracy of 0.005 degrees and heading accuracy of 0.006 degrees. Boreas allows for full independence from GPS with dead-reckoning accuracy of 0.01% distance traveled with an odometer or Doppler velocity log.

The Boreas features ultra-fast gyro compassing, taking only 2 minutes to acquire heading in both stationary environments or on the move. Gyro compassing allows the system to determine a highly accurate heading of 0.01 degrees secant latitude without relying on magnetic heading or GPS.

The Boreas contains Advanced Navigation’s sensor-fusion algorithm, which is more intelligent than the typical extended Kalman filter. The algorithm 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 designed Boreas from the ground up for reliability and availability. Both the hardware and software are designed and tested to safety standards, and it has been environmentally tested to mil standards.

The system is designed for a mean time between failures of 500,000 hours. Additional features include Ethernet, CAN and NMEA protocols, as well as a disciplined timing server providing PTP. An embedded web interface provides full access to all of the device’s internal functions and data. Internal storage allows for up to one year of data logging.

March 4, 2022
iXBlue launches range of FOG-based INS for mobile mapping

The compact Atlans A3 INS. (Photo: iXBlue)

iXBlue has launched a new range of FOG-based inertial navigation system (INS) dedicated to land and air mobile mapping applications, the Atlans Series. iXBlue is high-tech company specializing in the design and manufacturing of advanced navigation and georeferencing solutions.

Based on iXBlue’s fiber-optic gyroscope (FOG) technology, the Atlans Series is a scalable range of north-seeking and north-keeping inertial navigation systems. They provide FOG performance to the full spectrum of land and air mobile-mapping applications and offer highly accurate positioning (up to 0.01 meter) in all conditions, including within GNSS-denied environments such as urban canyons, mountainous or forests areas.

“Our existing high-grade Atlans A7 INS had already been adopted as the preferred georeferencing solution by leading U.S. companies operating in the pavement condition survey industry,” explained Marine Slingue, vice president, iXBlue. “Having identified the high potential of our technology for other land and mobile mapping applications, we decided to develop a complete range of scalable INS that each meet the specific requirements of every applications. With our new Atlans Series INS, we are now bringing the unrivaled georeferencing accuracy performance offered by the FOG technology to all land and air mapping applications, enabling robust and uninterrupted data-acquisition operations.”

Quick and simple to install on all platforms, the new Atlans Series INS offers efficient “set-and-forget” operations for a wide range of land and air applications including asset inventory, pavement condition survey, vehicle automation, HD mapping, automotive testing, ground-truth, airborne surveys (UAVs, planes, helicopters), as well as precision pointing.

March 24, 2020
Expert Opinions: UAV PNT commercial requirements

Q: What different requirements for UAV PNT performance will be seen as the market shifts from a military focus to commercial uses and users?

Neil Gerein, Portfolio Manager, NovAtel

A: PNT accuracy, availability and assurance will increase in importance. UAV payloads for military applications routinely require precise PNT information to geolocate sensor data for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions. High-end commercial applications for survey and mapping will require similarly high levels of accuracy and availability. As commercial UAV operations enter the national airspace, PNT assurance levels will increase with the need for GNSS receivers designed for safety critical applications.

Jay Napoli, Vice President, KVH Industries

A: Whether for military or commercial use, the accuracy requirements of a UAV’s positioning, navigation and timing system depend on the UAV’s size/weight, the mission duration and complexity, and the information being gathered. Commercial UAV applications such as mobile survey, mapping, surveillance and virtual imagery real-time overlays require higher levels of accuracy, particularly for UAVs in urban or heavily populated areas with tight restrictions. Many higher-end UAV accuracy requirements dictate the use of FOG-based inertial systems.

Christian Ramsey, UAS Program Manager, Harris Critical Networks

A: As the growth of small UAS operations increase in the National Airspace System, it will be interesting to track how PNT standards and certifications evolve in order to adapt to a more versatile UAV aircraft certification system. Likely a tiered system will be required to map PNT requirements for lower risk, lower accuracy and lower cost applications to higher risk systems or those which require higher precision due to their mission profiles.

June 13, 2016
PNT Roundup: Self-driving cars need FOG, inertial

New products come to market poised for take-off

KVH high-precision fiber-optic gyro
The red illumination in the photo represents light moving through the FOG’s optical circuit of coiled fiber. This circuit is the FOG’s sensing unit, mounted with power and processing electronics within a driverless car to provide precise data for the car’s navigation systems.

Fiber-optic gyros (FOGs) and FOG-based inertial measurement units (IMUs) form key parts of the integrated sensor systems essential for highly accurate autonomous car performance. For example, FOGs provide precise azimuth measurements that an autonomous car’s logic processing unit and control systems need to determine motion through a curve.

An IMU — which can include FOGs and accelerometers in one compact package — also provides highly accurate six-degrees-of-freedom angular rate and acceleration data to precisely track the position and orientation of the car even when GPS is unavailable, helping the car stay on course.

KVH Industries is developing a FOG-based, low-cost inertial sensor for self-driving cars. The company has also released a Developer’s Kit to assist design engineers with integrating FOG technology into driverless car control systems.

“Extremely precise heading based on fiber-optic gyro technology is absolutely essential for autonomous vehicle performance,” said Martin Kits van Heyningen, KVH’s chief executive officer. “This is something we learned from having been involved with more than a dozen driverless car development programs over the years.”

“What we are seeing now is that each driverless vehicle concept in development around the world is being designed in a unique way,” van Heyningen continued. “With so many different possibilities, developers can accelerate their progress by working with a proven technology such as KVH’s FOGs and FOG-based IMUs and leveraging our experience to ensure their success.”

Developer’s Kit

The new Developer’s Kit includes the user interface software and all components needed to connect a KVH FOG or FOG-based IMU to a computer to configure, analyze and test a unit. “The kit is designed to help engineers get up and running in minutes, making it easier to run diagnostics and accelerate their system development,” said Roger Ward, KVH’s director of FOG product development.

“We have successfully produced more than 90,000 fiber-optic gyros for an extensive range of unmanned applications, in part because of our ability to tailor size, performance and cost to meet different design needs,” said Jeff Brunner, KVH’s vice president for FOG operations. “Controlling the entire FOG design and manufacturing process gives us that advantage, and makes it possible to produce a low-cost sensor when driverless cars enter full-scale production.”

KVH’s FOGs and FOG-based IMUs are in use in prototype programs not only for autonomous cars, but also for production programs for underwater unmanned vehicle navigation and rail/track geometry measurement systems, to name just a few. In addition, KVH’s inertial products have been widely adopted for commercial applications such as land-based street-mapping platforms, unmanned aerial systems, camera-stabilization systems and remotely operated subsea systems.

KVH’s 1750 IMU was an integral part of 11 of the 23 humanoid robot finalists in last year’s DARPA Robotics finals, a competition designed to showcase robots capable of intervening for and even replacing humans in high-risk situations such as fires, earthquakes and other natural disasters.

May 18, 2016
KVH highlights line of IMUs for unmanned systems at AUVSI’s Xponential 2016

Sean McCormack, director of FOG/OEM sales for KVH Industries, talks with GPS World Contributing Editor Tony Murfin about the company’s line of inertial measurement units (IMUs) during the Association for Unmanned Systems International‘s Xponential show, held May 3-5 in New Orleans.

May 13, 2016
KVH looks to self-driving cars with inertial sensor plans

KVH Industries is developing a fiber optic gyro (FOG)-based, low-cost inertial sensor for self-driving cars.

The company also released a Developer’s Kit to assist design engineers with integrating FOG technology into driverless car control systems.

KVH’s high-precision FOG is key to a driverless car’s performance. In this photo, the red illumination represents light moving through the FOG’s optical circuit of coiled fiber; this circuit is the FOG’s sensing unit — it is mounted with power and processing electronics within a driverless car to provide precise data for the car’s navigation systems.

FOGs and FOG-based inertial measurement units (IMUs) are key parts of the sensor mechanisms that are essential for highly accurate autonomous car performance, KVH said. For example, FOGs provide precise azimuth measurements that an autonomous car’s logic processing unit and control systems need to determine motion through a curve.

An IMU — which includes FOGs and accelerometers in one compact package — also provides highly accurate 6-degrees-of-freedom angular rate and acceleration data to precisely track the position and orientation of the car even when GPS is unavailable, helping the car stay on course.

As a manufacturer of high-performance sensors and integrated inertial systems for defense and commercial guidance and stabilization applications, KVH Industries has experience in autonomous vehicle prototype programs and unmanned applications.

“Extremely precise heading based on fiber-optic gyro technology is absolutely essential for autonomous vehicle performance,” said Martin Kits van Heyningen, KVH’s chief executive officer. “This is something we learned from having been involved with more than a dozen driverless car development programs over the years.”

“What we are seeing now is that each driverless vehicle concept in development around the world is being designed in a unique way,” said Kits van Heyningen. “With so many different possibilities, developers can accelerate their progress by working with a proven technology such as KVH’s FOGs and FOG-based IMUs and leveraging our experience to ensure their success.”

Developer’s Kit. The new Developer’s Kit includes the user interface software and all components needed to connect a KVH FOG or FOG-based IMU to a computer to configure, analyze and test a unit. “The kit is designed to help engineers get up and running in minutes, making it easier to run diagnostics and accelerate their system development,” said Roger Ward, KVH’s director of FOG product development.

Driverless cars represent one of the fastest areas of autonomous-systems development. Transportation experts, automotive manufacturers and engineers alike predict that driverless cars will be commonplace soon.

An updated policy concerning automated vehicles will soon be published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation. “The rapid development of emerging automation technologies means that partially and fully automated vehicles are nearing the point at which widespread deployment is feasible,” NHTSA said.

“We have successfully produced more than 90,000 fiber-optic gyros for an extensive range of unmanned applications, in part because of our ability to tailor size, performance, and cost to meet different design needs,” said Jeff Brunner, KVH’s vice president for FOG operations. “Controlling the entire FOG design and manufacturing process gives us that advantage, and makes it possible to produce a low-cost sensor when driverless cars enter full-scale production.”

KVH’s FOGs and FOG-based IMUs are in use in prototype programs not only for autonomous cars, but also for production programs for underwater unmanned vehicle navigation and rail/track geometry measurement systems, to name just a few.

The KVH 1750 IMU.

In addition, KVH’s inertial products have been widely adopted for commercial applications such as land-based street mapping platforms, unmanned aerial systems, camera stabilization systems and remotely operated subsea systems.

As more and more programs and platforms use KVH’s inertial products, they are becoming the reference standards of the unmanned world. For example, KVH’s 1750 IMU was an integral part of 11 of the 23 humanoid robot finalists in last year’s DARPA Robotics finals, a competition designed to showcase robots capable of intervening for and even replacing humans in high-risk situations such as fires, earthquakes, and other natural disasters.

“Our IMUs and inertial sensors have already been used in a wide range of products and applications, and we know that it’s just the beginning,” said Kits van Heyningen. “We are thrilled to play a role in these exciting developments and emerging applications that are literally changing everyday life.”

April 6, 2016
iXBlue Launches Marins M Series Inertial Nav System

The Marins M series INS by iXBlue. Photo: iXBlue

iXBlue unveiled its Marins M series inertial navigation system (INS) at EURONAVAL 2014, held October 27-31 in Paris, France. The series includes the Marins M3, M5 and M7 systems and is designed to address the needs of the world’s most advanced navies for surface-vessel and submarine operations close to shore and in open-sea environments.

Accurate and reliable navigation, including missile alignment, is critical to the success of submarine and surface-vessel missions. The Marins M series raises the bar in performance and scalability by addressing the needs of surface ship navigation under a GPS-denied environment. For submarines, Marins M7 enables three times longer autonomous stealth navigation compared with any available system by offering drifts of less than 1 Nm/72 h.

The Marins M series represents the state of the art in strap-down, fiber-optic gyroscope (FOG) technology, and is combat-ready against GNSS denial, iXBlue said. The military-specification units output position, heading, roll, pitch, depth and velocities, and are perfectly silent. The systems are compatible with a wide range of aiding sensors and can be up and running within minutes.

The extended iXBlue product range, including Quadrans, Octans, Phins and Marins M series systems, now represents even higher scalability of solutions, from attack craft to aircraft carriers and submarines.

More than 30 navies worldwide have selected the iXBlue product range, including previous generations of Marins systems. For example, the UK Royal Navy has adopted advanced iXBlue solutions for its Astute Class submarines.

October 27, 2014
ION GNSS+ 2014: KVH Industries, Inc.

Jay Napoli, vice president of FOG/OEM sales for KVH Industries, Inc., chats with GPS World about fiber-optic gyros (FOGs) while at the ION GNSS+ Conference September 9-12 at the Tampa Bay Convention Center in Tampa, Florida.

September 18, 2014