Advanced Navigation Opens Robotics Manufacturing Facility in Australia

Robotics and automation company Advanced Navigation has announced the opening of a high-tech robotics manufacturing facility, based at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Tech Lab in Botany, Australia.

The facility will be used to expand and develop the company’s automated navigation systems for “GPS-denied” environments such as for driverless vehicles, flying taxis, long endurance space missions and marine vessels, as well as other defense and aerospace purposes.

Among the tech to be developed at the new facility is Advanced Navigation’s digital fiber-optic gyroscope (DFOG) technology, Boreas. The DFOG tech is designed to make inertial navigation affordable and accessible for several applications, including subsea, surveying, marine, robotics, aerospace and space.

In addition to the manufacturing capabilities, the new site is set to house ongoing research collaborations between Advanced Navigation and UTS to push emerging technologies into commercialization. 

These include the Light Detection, Altimetry and Velocimetry (LiDAV) system which provides velocity and altitude information on the lunar surface, enabling “complex autonomous landing procedures and confident exploration on the moon,” and remote drone swarm control and monitoring platform, Cloud Ground Control. 

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The LiDAV technology is set for use as part of NASA’s ongoing Commercial Lunar Payload Services program.

The facility is also hoped to expand Australia’s domestic manufacturing capabilities for technologies like robotics, automation and precision engineering, bolstering its market standing for these burgeoning sectors.

“There is a critical need to improve Australia’s economic complexity and sovereign capabilities,” said Xavier Orr, Advanced Navigation’s CEO. “A key step is to build our industrial capacity in high-tech, as well as drive knowledge exchange and propel collaborative initiatives between government agencies, academic institutions and industry leaders.”

“Our new facility will help drive rapid growth in Australia’s STEM industry,” Chris Shaw, Advanced Navigation CEO. “Determined to be the catalyst of the autonomy revolution, we are commercializing technologies that are key to addressing some of humanity’s biggest challenges.”