Abstract: We will discuss the physics, design, operation and performance of sensors for inertial navigation based on atomic spectroscopy, with a focus on atom interferometers and gyroscopes based on nuclear magnetic resonance. These instruments have been under development for some time, as just now being released into the commercial marketplace, and are poised to bring new capabilities to the inertial sensors arena, such as exceptional bias and scale factor stability. We will review the atomic physics that underlies each of these instruments, present several example instrument designs, discuss the performance of each instrument in the context of the broader inertial sensors technology area, and present the prospects for commercialization, miniaturization and ultimate use in a variety of application spaces.

Bio: Dr. John Kitching received his PhD. in Applied Physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1995. Since 2003, he has been a physicist in the Time and Frequency Division at NIST and currently is the Leader of the Atomic Devices and Instrumentation Group in NIST’s Physical Measurements Laboratory. His research interests include miniaturized atomic clocks and sensors and applications of semiconductor lasers and micromachining technology to problems in atomic physics and frequency control. Most recently, he and his group pioneered the development of microfabricated “chip-scale” atomic devices for use as frequency references, magnetometers and other sensors. He is a Fellow of NIST and has received a number of awards for his work including the Department of Commerce Silver and Gold Medals, the 2015 IEEE Sensors Council Technical Achievement Award, the 2016 IEEE-UFFC Rabi Award and the prestigious 2013 Rank Prize. He has published over 80 papers in refereed journals, has given numerous invited and plenary talks and has been awarded six patents.

Abstract: Most inertial navigation systems are integrated with other sensors in order to remove long-term drift.  While GPS is an ideal aiding sensor for inertial systems, there is increasing interest in non-GPS aiding sources to be used in situations where GPS is not available.  This tutorial will provide a survey of several different non-GNSS navigation techniques.  A variety of non-GNSS alternatives will be covered at the phenomenology level, describing the overall characteristics of each of the possible phenomenologies that can be used to navigate, including the limits of performance that result from use of these phenomenologies (where they can be used, when they can be used, expected accuracies, etc.).  Then, for some of the more common approaches, we will describe some of the practical implementation issues that are faced when implementing a real-world system.  Examples of phenomenologies useful for navigation to be covered include vision, signals of opportunity, lidar, pseudolites/beacons, magnetic field variations, and star trackers.

Bio: Dr. John F. Raquet is the Director of the Autonomy and Navigation Technology (ANT) Center at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), where he is also a Professor of Electrical Engineering.  The ANT Center consists of 25 faculty members, 14 staff members, and 30-40 students working to solve a wide variety of problems related to autonomy and navigation.  Dr. Raquet directly supervises the research of 6-10 MS and PhD students, and his research focus is non-GPS navigation.  He has a PhD in geomatics engineering from the University of Calgary, an MS in aero/astro engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a BS in astronautical engineering from the U.S. Air Force Academy.  He has published over 160 navigation-related conference and journal papers and taught 60 navigation-related short courses to over 3000 students in many different organizations.  He is the Executive Vice President of the Institute of Navigation, and he is an ION Fellow.

Abstract: This short course will review the basic principles of the fiber optic gyroscope (FOG), starting from the fundamental Sagnac effect and the Sagnac interferometer and building up to the closed-loop gyroscope developed for commercial applications. This will include biasing techniques, sources of noise and drift, and the means that have been developed over the years to overcome them. It will then discuss the more recent research developments in laser-driven FOGs, which now exhibit for the first time the low noise and low drift required to navigate an aircraft. The course will conclude with a discussion of future prospects for further improving the performance and reducing the cost of the FOG, including the use of optical resonators and a discussion of the impact of slow light on sensitivity.

Bio: Michel Digonnet is a Professor in the Applied Physics Department at Stanford University, California. He received an M.S and Ph.D. from the Applied Physics Department at Stanford University. His current research interests include a broad range of fiber sensors, including fiber optic gyroscopes, fiber acoustic sensors based on MEMS, and fiber strain sensors utilizing fiber Bragg gratings. He is also interested in the generation of slow light in fibers, and in numerical modeling of photonic-bandgap fibers. He has made several significant contributions to the general area of photonics, including the development of the first fiber-optic amplifiers and efficient broadband superfluorescent fiber light sources, novel designs in acoustic fiber sensor arrays, and the world’s most sensitive fiber acoustic sensors. He has published 350 articles, issued 140 US patents, of which 17 have been licensed, and edited several books, including two editions of a classic volume titled Rare-Earth-Doped Fiber Lasers and Amplifiers. He has also chaired numerous conferences on optical fiber devices and fiber sensors.