Gyroscope on a Chip Offers GPS-denied Workaround

Anello Photonics claims to have market-ready technology that allows drones to navigate reliably in airspace where a reliable GPS signal is not available due to hostile blocking or spoofing. At the Farnborough International Airshow, the U.S. company is displaying its silicon photonics optical gyro (SiPhOG), built around a 2-mm-by-5-mm photonic chip and packaged in a housing about the size of a coin.

The tiny device is the basis for Anello’s X3 inertial measurement unit, now available for aviation applications. The “gyroscope on a chip” sensor package measures motion and orientation based on roll, pitch, and yaw.

According to co-founder and CEO Mario Paniccia, the U.S.-made X3 replicates the functions of current fiber-optic gyros while being far more compact. Anello now also produces an aerial inertial navigation system, which it has been delivering over the last few months.

Extensive testing of the technology demonstrated that the SiPhOG detects GPS outages and automatically initiates navigation to keep the aircraft on the correct flight path throughout its mission. The X3 has around 30 sensors that operate through a sensor fusion system based on Anello’s artificial intelligence algorithms.

Paniccia told AIN that in four- to six-hour flights with fixed-wing drones, Anello found an average error rate of just 1.5% in terms of distance traveled. The technology has been deployed for maritime applications as well as on autonomous ground vehicles.

In the aviation sector, Anello’s main focus is on Group 2 and 3 drones due to the high demand in that sector and to avoid having to seek FAA certification. Paniccia envisages possible use cases for autonomous eVTOL aircraft and said the company might be open to partnering with others to apply the technology to larger crewed aircraft in the future.