Quantum sensing for precision navigation

Hongyu Pei, Wenfeng Fan, Lihong Duan +11 more

Perrine Berger, Daniel Dolfi

Michael J. Wright, Luke Anastassiou, Chinmaya Mishra +4 more

Quantum sensors based on atom interferometers can provide measurements of inertial quantities with unprecedented accuracy and precision. It has been suggested that this sea change in sensing could provide an inertial navigation capability that is comparable with current satellite based navigation systems. However, the accuracy of sensor measurements is not the only factor that limits the accuracy of inertial navigation systems. In this paper, we explore the fundamental limits to inertial navigation, and explain how quantum inertial sensors could be used to alleviate some of the problems encountered in current classical inertial navigation systems, but not to solve the fundamental instability inherent in inertial navigation methods.

Chander K. Velu, Keith Norman, Yuzhen Zhu +2 more

Abstract This chapter provides an overview of quantum sensing, imaging, and position, navigation and timing (PNT) technologies. It explains their significance in enhancing measurement precision and resilience. The chapter discusses initial deployment of quantum technologies in these areas with applications in climate change, healthcare diagnostics, defence systems, space exploration, and transportation. It highlights the opportunities as well as challenges in integrating these quantum applications with existing technology architectures, including interoperability, scalability, and cost considerations. Case examples illustrate how quantum systems can operate in environments where classical technologies face limitations. The chapter also discusses the possible business and economic implications of quantum sensing, imaging, and PNT and identifies research questions for further exploration.

Sanjay Kumar

Recent advances in quantum sensing-including atom interferometry, optical atomic clocks, and quantum magnetometry-have enabled navigation systems capable of operating without satellite-based positioning. While these technologies dramatically improve measurement precision, they do not address a critical and largely overlooked limitation: the computational nondeterminism of modern navigation pipelines. Navigation is fundamentally a computational process, requiring the digitization, fusion, integration, and transformation of sensor data into guidance decisions. If this computation is not reproducible and replayable, navigation outputs cannot support replay-equivalent audit, certification, or post-incident forensic validation, regardless of sensor accuracy. In this paper, we show that quantum navigation systems cannot satisfy replay-equivalence certification requirements or be safely deployed at scale unless their computational semantics satisfy deterministic guarantees. We formalize this requirement using the Deterministic Computation Law (DCL), which establishes necessary and sufficient conditions for reproducible computation through canonicalization of inputs, representation-invariant state transitions, and replayable reasoning. Applying DCL to inertial, magnetic, and field-based navigation, we derive deterministic bounds on drift accumulation, establish deterministic replay reconstruction of navigation states, and show how sensor fusion becomes a replayable algebraic process under canonical ordering. We further demonstrate that deterministic navigation enables cryptographic trajectory commitments, zero-transmission verification, and complete post-incident forensic reconstruction-capabilities that are unattainable in nondeterministic navigation pipelines. Finally, we establish an impossibility result showing that nondeterministic navigation architectures cannot satisfy replay-equivalence certification requirements, independent of sensor quality or quantum precision. Together, these results show that determinism is not an optimization layer atop quantum navigation, but a prerequisite for its auditable, certifiable, and operational deployment. When paired with quantum sensing, deterministic computation enables a class of navigation systems that are simultaneously GPS-independent, replayable, and legally defensible.

Marcílio Manuel dos Santos