Navigation

Engineers at the University of South Australia have taken a page from the days of wooden sailing ships and developed a way for drones to navigate by the stars at night using simple, lightweight equipment for areas where GPS signals aren't available.

Tiny aerial drones have many potential uses, but their ability to navigate is severely limited by their minuscule amount of onboard processing power. Scientists have now set about addressing that limitation, taking a cue from foraging insects such as ants.

The ratio of guide dogs to blind people in China is roughly one service pooch for every 40,000 people. Researchers are currently developing a six-legged, AI-enhanced robodog to close the gap and safely guide users to their destinations.

Instead of equipping its sharp-looking GR-1 general purpose humanoid with a full next-gen sensor suite including such things as radar and LiDAR, Fourier Intelligence's engineers have gone vision-only.

While most compasses have a needle that points north, the Truest North Compass is different. Its main needle always points to a location of your choice, while its secondary needle shows the distance to that place.

The Beeline Moto is likely the simplest, most user-friendly electronic motorcycle navigation device you can buy. Its new successor, the Moto II, keeps things simple but adds some handy new features like a mini map view.

When it comes to locating landing pads or other landmarks, drones rely largely on visual cues. So, what happens if it's dark or foggy, and there's no ground-based power for lights? Well, that's where the Millisign system is intended to come in.

In recent years, we've heard about navigational systems which guide pedestrians via vibrating actuators in their shoes. The FeetThrough system takes a different and reportedly better approach, by actually shocking the soles of the feet.

Augmented reality eyewear is great for providing turn-by-turn navigational cues, but a lot of the goggles and visors have a kind of tech-nerdy vibe. Blucap Moto sunglasses are different, in that they won't make you look like a Sheldon Cooper wannabe.

Using very small atoms to guide very large submarines, Q-CTRL has been awarded a contract by the Australian Department of Defence to develop quantum mechanics systems for the AUKUS treaty partners to navigate subs on long underwater missions.

GPS doesn’t work as well inside buildings, underground or underwater. Now engineers in Japan have developed and tested an alternative technology that uses cosmic rays to track movement beneath a building with precision of a few meters.

Garmin has added solar charging to its latest Edge bike computer, which boasts up to 100 hours of per-charge battery life, improved GPS accuracy, more ride analytics, easy setup out of the box and a refreshed user interface.