About the project
Could gravity help autonomous vehicles navigate when GNSS is unavailable? This project will develop diamagnetically levitated gravimeters and test gravity-map matching on underwater vehicles, while exploring space navigation applications. You will investigate extracting gravity signals amid platform motion and noise, combining sensor experiments, gravity modelling and navigation algorithms.
When GNSS is unavailable, inertial navigation systems accumulate errors, limiting the autonomy of underwater and space vehicles. This project will investigate whether measurements of Earth’s gravity can provide an independent reference: a gravimeter records local variations in gravity, which can be matched to a map to estimate position.
You'll develop and characterise gravimeters based on diamagnetic levitation, building on the group’s demonstration of Earth-tide gravimetry and its OpToSpace payload flown in 2025. You'll study how to obtain reliable gravity or gravity-gradient measurements on moving platforms, where vehicle motion, vibration, hydrodynamic loading and changing orientation can mask the signal. Methods may include sensor stabilisation, inertial-sensor fusion, signal processing and gravity-field modelling.
The work will investigate gravity-map matching for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), including integration requirements and testing under representative maritime conditions. It connects with planned MOD-supported shipborne gravimetry and gradiometry trials aboard the Royal Navy experimental vessel XV *Patrick Blackett*. You'll also assess space-navigation applications using orbital gravity models and navigation simulations.
Expected outcomes include a characterisation of sensor performance on moving platforms, a gravity-aided navigation and map-matching pipeline, and an assessment of its potential and limitations in GNSS-denied environments. The research combines experimental physics, autonomous systems, geophysics and navigation, with relevance to defence, subsea infrastructure and surveying. You'll benefit from the interdisciplinary training and defence-sector connections of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Ministry of Defence(EPSRC/MOD) Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Complex Integrated Systems for Defence and Security.
