US agency DARPA is looking for a replacement for GPS

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When you watch your geolocation marker on Google Maps moving back and forth around the same place, the reason is usually not a clear GPS signal. The US Defense Research Agency DARPA has concluded that it is not worth relying on such inaccuracy in the future. The agency has already begun to create a “radically new technology” that will help ensure tracking of geo-position data in real time and will function regardless of an intermittent signal or the presence of “blind” zones. Agency specialists believe that it will be able to give a huge advantage to everyone, but first and foremost of course, to the military.

According to them, the new technology will be much more flexible than GPS. But, like GPS, which was originally reserved exclusively for the needs of the military, this system is likely to eventually be able to find its way into the civilian market. As the employees of the DARPA agency say in a published article: “The need to operate effectively in those areas in which GPS is unreliable, inaccessible, or drowned out by the enemy, has created the emergence of a demand for an alternative system of accurate navigation and positioning.” It is reported that the new system will work on self-calibrating gyroscopes, accelerometers and clocks, which allow you to accurately track the location of the object without any wireless signals or external sources. In other words, if the new smart gadget has information from which point you left, and then passed 350 meters in any direction, it will be able to accurately determine your current location without re-checking with the satellite or the Internet.

In addition, American researchers are working to create sensors that can capture "random auxiliary signals" that can help in geolocation. These signals include waves of television and radio broadcasting, or even lightning. This system received the designation All Source Positioning and Navigation - ASPN. It will be especially useful in a fairly dense jungle (no matter tropical or concrete), in which the GPS signal is often not very accurate. In addition, this method will be able to radically reduce the power consumption of navigation devices, which is also one of the most important goals that DARPA specialists are working on.

US agency DARPA is looking for a replacement for GPS


At one time, it was DARPA that was involved in the creation of the GPS system. Today, GPS is an excellent tool that is used every day by millions of people around the world, but the cost of maintaining the performance of this system is constantly increasing. Currently, the cost of a single GPS satellite system reaches 223 million dollars, which is one of the reasons for the reduction in their purchases by the US Air Force.

In this program, the replacement of GPS, American researchers have announced before. For example, two DARPA projects could qualify for this role: Quantum Assisted Sensing — QuASAR (auxiliary quantum measurement) and the C-SCAN combinatorial atomic navigation chip. If scientists can figure out how the direction and acceleration of the Earth’s magnetic field affects individual atoms (stored at extremely low temperatures), then very precise navigation can be organized without the use of satellites. Humanity would have the opportunity to develop a geolocation system, which would become 1000 times more accurate than all existing at a given time.

The British Armed Forces are also funding work in this direction. British researchers say that within 5 years they will be able to create the first prototype. The potential for quantum navigation for the military is pretty obvious. Such technologies will allow them to strike with cruise missiles much more accurately and control troops more accurately. Probably, dronesequipped with quantum compasses will not even need navigation satellites, which will make them significantly less vulnerable on the modern battlefield.



For ordinary people, these technologies will also be useful. For example, future gadgets will know their exact location relative to other devices without resorting to expensive satellite navigation. Devices with geolocation function will be cheaper and more compact, a large number of gadgets and systems will be simplified and improved radically, ranging from search services to drones for delivering pizza and unmanned vehicles. But a much more important advantage of quantum GPS for civilians will be to ensure a high level of privacy. Your smartphone will no longer need to receive a signal from space to determine its location on the ground. And this, in turn, will complicate the process of its, and therefore your detection.

If you go back to the gyroscopes, then in 2011, the Northrop Grumman microdetectors started work on the project of the defense research agency DARPA to develop a miniature gyroscope, which they plan to equip smart ammunition, cars, airplanes, ships, and soldiers' uniforms . The significance of this development is difficult to overestimate. As is known, today most of the precision weapons systems and navigation systems are based on the use of GPS. But there is always the risk that this satellite system will fail (as a result of jamming, attacks on satellites, etc.), which can disrupt the operation of troop control systems and high-precision weapons. That is why the American specialists began work on the creation of an autonomous inertial guidance and navigation system on the basis of a microscopic gyroscope, which would eliminate the dependence on the global positioning satellite system or the need for other external navigation signals.

DARPA has signed a contract with Northrop Grumman for 3 of the year worth 4,8 million dollars for the development of the MRIG, a microscale integrating gyroscope. Under the terms of the contract, the company had to create a vibrating microgyroscope, which could measure the parameters of rotation in a very large range of dynamic conditions. Honeywell Aerospace has also joined the project, which also received research money from the Pentagon (5,9 million dollars).



Vibration gyroscope is a device that is based on the phenomenon of the preservation of vibration in a certain plane when the device rotates. Vibration gyroscope is able to provide the same accuracy as the classic rotor gyroscope - “top”, but at the same time it is cheaper and easier to manufacture. In addition, such a gyroscope does not contain parts that are prone to wear, like bearings and is able to withstand severe overload.

DARPA agency experts expect to use the new miniature vibratory gyroscope as the main part of advanced inertial navigation systems. The vibrating gyroscope created should be compact enough to allow it to be installed in ammunition, various hand-held devices, as well as in addition to portable navigation and guidance systems and various controls. It is expected that employees of Honeywell and Northrop Grumman will be able to create microgyros, which will not be afraid of temperature changes, vibration, mechanical shocks, high angular velocity of rotation and acceleration. In this case, the power consumption of such gyros should be no more than a few tens of milliwatts.

The main goal of the MRIG program is to create a miniature vibratory gyroscope that can directly measure the angle of rotation, which should eliminate the need to integrate this data with information about the angular velocity and the accumulation of errors. According to American engineers, the resonator of this gyroscope should have two degrees of freedom and the shape of a wine glass.

Information sources:
http://gearmix.ru/archives/19198
http://bashny.net/admin/2014/07/27/chetyre-proekta-darpa-kotorye-mogut-prevzoyti-internet.html
http://zoom.cnews.ru/rnd/news/line/darpa_zamenit_gps_mikrogiroskopom
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14 comments
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  1. +7
    April 7 2015 06: 55
    We already have vibration gyroscopes.
    In 2001, the Novosibirsk company Innalabs created an original joystick that transmits its movements in three-dimensional space to a computer. The development aroused interest not in the gaming giant Sony, but in the US Department of Defense. With a contract with the U.S. Army, Innalabs was able to fund new research, the result of which was a vibration gyroscope. This device is used in autonomous navigation systems, and Innalabs employees managed to achieve both high accuracy and low cost of the device at the same time. Now the Russian vibration gyroscope is beyond competition in the world market.
    I'm afraid that all this is just another money laundering in the USA, ours have already done something worthy, and the Americans will now also begin to "invent" by stealing our idea.
    1. +2
      April 7 2015 08: 25
      The Agency has already begun to create a “radically new technology” that will help ensure real-time tracking of geolocation data and will function regardless of the interrupted signal or the presence of blind spots.

      Reaction to the next viewing of "Gentlemen of Fortune":
      "Buy a card, village!"

      ... AND COMPASS !!! If you are going to walk around Russia!
    2. +2
      April 7 2015 11: 45
      Quote: Login_Off
      Americans will now also begin to "invent" by stealing our idea.

      So this is one of the aspects of DARPA's activity - to collect around the world the best minds and the best, at first glance, even crazy ideas.
    3. +1
      April 8 2015 18: 28
      Quote: Login_Off
      I'm afraid that all this is another laundering of the US dough, ours have already done something worthy.

      Eeeee
      1.Well, what do you need before washing the AMERICAN dub, by the Americans? Let them "wash".
      We should follow our "sitrki"
      2.I will disappoint you
      Quote: Login_Off
      , and the Americans will now also start to "invent" by stealing our idea.


      Vibration Gyroscope [US Patent No. 3520195]
      -Solid wave gyroscopes (TWG) developed from 80's. GE Marconi, GE Ferranti (WB), Watson Industires Inc. (USA), Inertial Engineering Inc. (USA) Innalab
      -Segway (presented in 2001, developed by 10let)


      -in general, TVG is "old"

      ================================================== ========
  2. 0
    April 7 2015 07: 16
    Yeah, if something grows out of Amers’s idea, what will happen to the GLONASS project?
    1. +2
      April 7 2015 10: 01
      Quote: saag
      Yeah, if something grows out of Amers’s idea, what will happen to the GLONASS project?

      Something tells me that this is another prodigy for a lot of money. In the summer of 15 we will find out that something like they built and launched, but it will break here and there ... and eventually after investing a couple of hundred lard, the project will be closed .
      By the way, the amers sometimes have no carriers, without our engines, and in the near future is not expected. To impose sanctions on the supply of engines for American missiles and covered with a copper basin all this prodigy hi
  3. +3
    April 7 2015 07: 55
    Something is not clear, what result do the cameras want? Google just uses the masses
    "all in a row" signals. From gps satellites to cellular and Wi-Fi signals ...
    And the accuracy is so-so! Gyroscopes will help of course ... But only in terms of spatial position.
    But more precisely the inertial system and satellite triangulation, it is unlikely that they will compose ...
    1. +1
      April 8 2015 18: 46
      Quote: AlNikolaich
      Something is not clear, what result do the cameras want?

      -accuracy
      The NUCLEAR GYROSCOPE is a quantum gyroscope, the achieved accuracy of Ya. G is 10 to the power of -2 deg / h. Theoretical. accuracy Ya.G. - DW <= 10 to the power of -4 deg / h - limited by fluctuations of the nuclear magnetization of the medium, the degree of orientation of the nuclei and noise
      GPS accuracy = 2 "(1/60) / hour (if I'm not mistaken)
      - do not depend on an external signal source (do not muffle, do not introduce interference, do not send a false signal, do not destroy the satellite constellation)
      -Do not destroy the GPS / Glonas ground correction centers (passive base stations that are used for annual tracking of the movement of tectonic plates)



      Quote: AlNikolaich
      But more precisely the inertial system and satellite triangulation, it is unlikely that they will compose ...

      GPS is more accurate than ANN and Astrocorrection, ESPECIALLY in an atmosphere where astrocorrection does not "plow"

      Satellite triangulation and IS GPS (Glonas) = ​​satellite navigation system, but WITHOUT measuring the distance to satellites using a laser satellite rangefindersimultaneously produced with positional observations,not requiring simultaneous (synchronous) observation of space objects
  4. 0
    April 7 2015 08: 12
    By definition, a gyroscope must rotate, that is, it is essentially a top. At the same time, it can vibrate (swing, vibrate, which are the same thing). In educational institutions related to this topic, first of all, they "hammer into the head" the formula of a swinging gyroscope. If the body does not rotate, be it even the shape of a glass, even a glass, or any other, then it cannot be called a gyroscope.
    There are a lot of things you "explore". PR (in this case) brings fat. They have mastered the loot on stealth planes and on an impenetrable missile defense system and hundreds of similar projects.
    I would like to know from the author of the article how, in my GPS RECEIVER, it is possible to detect me ??? I repeat, not a phone / tablet with cellular communications, Wi-Fi and other types of signal transmission, but a simple navigator?
    1. +3
      April 7 2015 10: 46
      .... A gyroscope, by definition, must rotate, ...

      .... I'm afraid that you are behind the times .... Vibration gyroscopes have long been used in control systems for various devices and in everyday life too ... For example, autopilots and flight stabilizers of models and flying toys (helicopters, airplanes) .. ..Simply simple in design and cheap, with quite acceptable characteristics .... hi
  5. +1
    April 7 2015 08: 56
    Interestingly, can the nonlinear effect of solar radiation on a magnetic field interfere with their atomic navigation? However, for sure, and certainly taken into account. Science does not stand still.
  6. +4
    April 7 2015 19: 35
    Ha, what a disappointment! They made a hunchbacked excuse that the satellites became very expensive, and the vaunted GPS is not very accurate!

    It seems that they are seriously thinking about the problem of overcoming our electronic warfare equipment ...
    1. +1
      April 8 2015 18: 53
      On the cunning ... you have yourself understand what. EW can use many different principles, so let them come up with. We’ll come up with their own ideas.
  7. +1
    April 8 2015 09: 18
    Your smartphone will no longer need to receive a signal from space to determine a location on the ground. And this, in turn, will complicate the process of it, and hence your discovery.

    Bullshit!
    1. +2
      April 8 2015 18: 55
      Quote: spech
      Bullshit!

      ?
      GSM positioning systems (accuracy 50- 500m)
      - Positioning on the base station.
      - Positioning by signal strength.
      Time Positioning (EOTD)
      Wi-Fi positioning systems
      - based on SS mapping (RADAR)
      -Based on Bayesian logic (HORUS)
      Gyroscopes
      -Northrop Grumman has developed a new micro-gyroscope based on the effect of nuclear magnetic resonance (micro-NMRG)

      - MEMS gyroscopes
      [Img][/ Img]

      Unsuitable for phone due to overall dimensions or atmosphere
      Ins
      Astrocorrection
      ===============================
      The phone does not always "need2 a GPS signal (Wrong speed, wrong location, wrong altitude)
  8. +1
    April 10 2015 04: 39
    All the same, this system must be periodically "tied" to the terrain because of the growing error. And how will this system become "tied" in the face of opposition? To the signals that the enemy has already "corrected"? Remains the old proven methods of visual landmarks using a direction finder or by the stars or the Sun and Moon. But be healthy there when determining the error. It turns out another inertial navigation system with the possibility of correction ...
  9. +1
    April 11 2015 05: 11
    Конечно.
    Yes, even with a lever length correction in the atomic radius.
    No, the idea is certainly a good one, although it is half a million years old, but for some reason it does not fit.
    Someone Newton still noticed that the first time derivative of a path is speed. The second is acceleration, and what’s funny is even accurate, even to the point. He showed that the first integral of easily measured acceleration is speed, the second is the path. The circle is closed - inertial navigation was invented, and for complete happiness it remains to make it also work.
    What is asked in the article. Maybe someone pierced in kamenty :)
    But I know, but I won’t tell them.
    But what they dig the wrong way is pleasing.
    1. +1
      4 May 2015 17: 42
      I know 2 punctures in the scheme, but I won’t say for sure. Let them do it.

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