The UK Quantum Technology Hub Sensors and Timing, led by the University of Birmingham, has awarded funding for research to improve the precision of maritime navigation.

The project, funded by £600,000 from the Hub’s Partnership Resource Fund (PRF), is being led by Professor Tom Pike at Imperial College London and Dr Simon Calcutt at the University of Oxford.

It aims to develop the missing component to transform an existing gravity gradiometer developed by Hub scientists into a hybrid instrument that will extend the Hub’s map-matching navigation technology to applications in maritime environments.

This will allow navigation that will not only rely on satellite signals, but will measure the localised gravity field produced by underground conditions which can be matched to gravity maps to establish a vessel’s precise location.

Receiving stable and accurate location data whilst at sea is vital, and this has not yet to date been achieved due to satellite vulnerabilities. This crucial need has been underlined in the Maritime 2050 report, compiled by the UK Government’s Department of Transport in 2019, which states: “A key problem which must be addressed in navigation safety terms is the overwhelming reliance on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) with its inherent vulnerabilities to man-made interference and space weather. There are numerous examples of accidents and incidents associated with navigation error.”

The team will exploit gravity gradiometer technology developed by Quantum Technology Hub academics, to ensure its effectiveness on a moving platform. Hub academics are already working closely with industry partners, such as Network Rail and the Lighthouse Authority, to implement map matching navigation, and this project aims to add electronics that are able to compensate for the dynamics of the deployment platform to offer higher frequency capabilities required for resilient maritime navigation.

The sensor instrument is based on the MEMS seismometers previously developed by Professor Pike for the NASA InSight mission, which is currently operating on the surface of Mars, and has a world-leading 0.3 ng/rtHz performance. These seismometers are helping to study the interior of the planet by listening to ‘marsquakes’. 

Creating an instrument which can detect a gravity signal from a mobile deployment is an incredible challenge. Gravity sensors require extreme sensitivity to be able to detect signals, and a typical maritime, or airborne deployment experiences acceleration of 0.1g or more. The instrument aims to uniquely detect signals at the nano-g level.

Professor Tom Pike said: “This grant will help us transfer the technology we developed for Mars back to Earth, or more specifically onto our oceans. We know we have the robustness to survive a trip to another planet. Now we want to show we have the sensitivity to detect gravitational changes while rocking on a ship. It’s more of a challenge than detecting marsquakes!”  

Professor Kai Bongs, Principal Investigator at the UK Quantum Technology Hub Sensors and Timing, said: “We are delighted with this opportunity to extend our cold atom quantum technology in map-matching navigation to maritime environments, using MEMS enhanced technology developed by leading electronics expert Dr Simon Calcutt in a project led by Professor Tom Pike. At the UK Quantum Technology Hub Sensors and Timing, we are working closely with industry to build quantum technology for map matching navigation in both the maritime and railway sectors.”

• For media enquiries please contact Beck Lockwood, Press Office, University of Birmingham, tel: +44 (0)781 3343348
• The UK Quantum Technology Hub Sensors and Timing’s PRF is a £2million fund intended to foster new science and technology concepts across the entire national quantum sensors and timing landscape, in line with the Hub’s mission to translate state-of-the-art technology into deployable practical devices. The next PRF call will be published on the University of Birmingham website later on this year, and will include further details on eligibility and application. For any queries regarding the PRF, please contact Dr Jo Smart, Programme Manager.
  
  The UK Quantum Technology Hub Sensors and Timing (led by the University of Birmingham) is one of four Hubs within the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme, alongside the UK Quantum Technology Hub in Quantum Enhanced Imaging (University of Glasgow); Quantum Computing & Simulation Hub (University of Oxford) and Quantum Communications Hub (University of York).
  
  The Hub brings together experts from Physics and Engineering from the Universities of Birmingham, Glasgow, Imperial, Nottingham, Southampton, Strathclyde and Sussex, NPL, the British Geological Survey and over 70 industry partners. The Hub has over 100 projects, valued at approximately £100 million, and has 17 patent applications.
• The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world’s top 100 institutions. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, teachers and more than 6,500 international students from over 150 countries.