高级导航获取VAI Photonics
Advanced Navigation has acquired Vai Photonics, a spin-out from the Australian National University (ANU) developing patented photonic sensors for precision navigation. Advanced Navigation is one of the world’s most ambitious innovators in artificial intelligence (AI) robotics and navigation technology.
VAI Photonics和Advanced Navigation具有类似的愿景，可以提供技术来推动自治革命。他们将共同将研究商业化，以遍及整个土地，空中，海洋和空间的令人兴奋的自主和机器人应用。
Autonomy Revolution
“The technologyVai Photonicsis developing will be of huge importance to the emerging autonomy revolution. The synergies, shared vision and collaborative potential we see between Vai Photonics and Advanced Navigation will enable us to be at the absolute forefront of robotic and autonomy-driven technologies,” said Xavier Orr, CEO and co-founder ofAdvanced Navigation。“光子技术对于这些新系统的整体成功，安全性和可靠性至关重要。我们期待与全球社区分享下一代的自动导航和机器人解决方案。”
移动车辆的高精度定位
VAI Photonics的首席技术官兼联合创始人James Spollard详细介绍了新兴技术的好处。他说：“当GPS不可用或不可靠时，精确导航是自治系统开发的主要挑战。”“我们的新兴光子传感技术将使定位和导航能够比这些环境中现有解决方案更稳定和精确。”
“通过将激光干涉仪和电启动与高级信号处理算法和实时软件相结合，我们可以测量车辆在三个维度上移动的速度。结果，我们可以准确地测量车辆在环境中的移动，并从该车辆以高精度位置的位置推断。” Spollard继续说道。
Flying Taxis
这项技术已经开发了15年以上ANU，将解决整个航空航天，汽车，天气和太空探索以及铁路和物流的复杂自治挑战。例如，具有垂直起飞和降落系统（例如飞行出租车）的飞机将从这项技术中受益匪浅。起飞和着陆通常被认为是飞行路线中最危险和最昂贵的部分。VAI Photonics传感器将在各种条件下提供安全可靠的自主起飞和降落。同时，太空旅行和探索充满了风险，巨大的复杂性和巨大的成本。这项技术将为太空任务带来巨大的好处，有助于巩固高级导航作为空间探索的空间标准导航系统的黄金标准。
Pushing the Boundaries to Power Lives
澳大利亚国立大学（ANU）副校长Brian Schmidt教授说：“ Vai Photonics是您如何进行基础研究的另一个伟大的ANU例子 - 这种思维的类型，这些思维推动了我们所知道的界限 - 并将其转变为为我们的生活提供动力的产品和技术。支持VAI Photonics先进的自主导航系统的工作源于寻找难以捉摸的引力波 - 这是由于黑洞碰撞（如黑洞）造成的大规模宇宙事件引起的时空和时间涟漪。”
“The team have built on a decade of research and development across advanced and ultra-precise laser measurements, digital signals and quantum optics to build their innovative navigation technology. We are proud to have backed Vai Photonics through our Centre for Gravitational Astrophysics and business and commercialization office. It’s really exciting to see the team take another major step in their incredible journey,” he added.
Navigating the Future
VAI Photonics的首席执行官兼联合创始人Lyle Roberts博士期待着一个自主的未来：“这对VAI Photonics团队来说是巨大的胜利。与Advanced Navigation一起，我们能够将我们的产品推向市场的销售速度要比最初计划的要快得多。现在，我们可以使用领先的研发设施以及强大的分销渠道。我们无法要求取得更好的结果，并期待通过先进的导航来导航未来。”
This acquisition fits into Advanced Navigation’s larger growth strategy to expand its product and solutions portfolio across deep technology fields that look to solve the world’s greatest challenges facing the autonomy revolution. The acquisition was finalized in April 2022, subject to typical closing conditions. The Vai Photonics team has been integrated into Advanced Navigation’s research and development team, based out of the new Canberra research facility.
Previous to this, Spollard and Roberts received seed funding from the Research School of Physics Technology Development Fund, the ANU Connect Ventures Discovery Translation Fund, OzGrav, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery and EQUS, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems towards fundamental Lidar research that came to be Vai Photonics.
