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Advanced Navigation, the Australian developer of AI-based inertial navigation and robotic systems, opened its new Sydney facility on Tuesday at the UTS Tech Lab.
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Located in Botany, the opening of the new high-tech robotics facility was attended by Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic.
It is expected to enable the company to scale up its production of AI navigation systems for GPS-denied environments.
The company is one of just four companies in the world that can manufacture strategic fibre-optic gyroscopes that can provide navigation in GPS-denied environments, a company spokesperson announced during the event.
Among the company’s offerings is its digital fibre-optic gyroscope technology Boreas, which the company bills as an “affordable and suitable” inertial navigation system.
The gyroscopes enable navigation for current and emerging vehicle classes across land, sea, air, and space in both defence and commercial applications.
The facility houses machine learning-enabled equipment for automated manufacturing of the navigation systems.
With the facility located alongside University of Technology Sydney (UTS), the company hopes that the ongoing partnership will expedite the commercialisation of their systems.
The systems include their light detection, altimetry and velocimetry (LiDAV) system that supports autonomous landing procedures and exploration of the moon, as well as their Cloud Ground Control system that allows pilots to control swarms of uncrewed vehicles regardless of the domain.
Advanced Navigation has also developed indoor positioning technology to guide visually impaired passengers around train stations.
Advanced Navigation chief executive officer and co-founder Xavier Orr explained that the opening was an important step to developing a sovereign AI industry.
“There is a critical need to improve Australia’s economic complexity and sovereign capabilities. 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,” Orr said.
UTS’s vice-chancellor and president, Professor Andrew Parfitt, welcomed the opportunity to collaborate with Advanced Navigation to develop groundbreaking technologies.
“UTS is pleased to be working with Advanced Navigation to tap into critical growth areas, including AI, robotics, and space technologies,” Professor Parfitt said.
“The collaboration between UTS’s global research leaders in autonomous systems technology and Advanced Navigation’s exceptional team of scientists and engineers, utilising UTS Tech Lab’s cutting-edge facilities, highlights our commitment to developing sovereign capabilities for defence and space.
“We look forward to deepening and expanding our collective capabilities with Advanced Navigation to accelerate the production of high-impact innovations.”
The opening was attended by Minister Husic, with the development of Australia’s future science, technology, engineering and mathematics industry central to the federal government’s future workforce plans.
The facility will support future multidisciplinary research to achieve these objectives, Chris Shaw, Advanced Navigation CEO and co-founder, added.
“Our new facility will help drive rapid growth in Australia’s STEM industry. Determined to be the catalyst of the autonomy revolution, we are commercialising technologies that are key to addressing some of humanity’s biggest challenges.
“We are honoured to partner with UTS, who has a reputation for supporting multidisciplinary research and opening access to next-generation technologies.”
