Underground navigation using muons

alanw

Well-known member

SUMMARY
Navigation in indoor and underground environments have been extensively studied to
realize automation of home, hospital, office, factory and mining services, and various
techniques have been proposed for its implementation. By utilizing the relativistic and
penetrative nature of cosmic-ray muons, a completely new wireless navigation technique
called wireless muometric navigation system (MuWNS) was developed. This paper
shows the results of the world first physical demonstration of MuWNS used on the
basement floor inside a building to navigate (a person) in an area where GNSS/GPS
signals cannot reach. The resultant navigation accuracy was comparable or better than the
positioning accuracy attainable with single point GNSS/GPS positioning in urban areas.
With further improvements in stability of local clocks used for timing, it is anticipated
that MuWNS can be adapted to improve autonomous mobile robot navigation and
positioning as well as other underground and underwater practical applications.
 
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