NEWS
NAVIGATING THE UKNOWN
From the Earth’s deepest mines to far-off lunar missions, industries are expanding into places satellites can’t reach. An Australian company is reengineering NASA technology to keep machines on track when GPS drops out.
Written by Nicole Imeson
Advanced Navigation’s Laser Velocity Sensor (LVS). Photo: Advanced Navigation
NO SATELLITES. NO MAP. Deep underground in Finland’s Pyhäsalmi Mine, a test vehicle confronted the same navigation challenge faced by lunar landings: how to operate where GPS doesn’t reach.
Advanced Navigation, an Australian-founded company with global footprints, has repurposed NASA technology into a hybrid navigation structure that fuses an inertial navigation system (INS) with a laser velocity sensor (LVS), enabling vehicles to dead-reckon without satellite signals or prior maps underground.
“The core concept involved integrating multiple sensors, fusing their data, and applying filtering algorithms to determine accurate positioning, even in the event of a sensor failure,” explained Matt Suntup, Senior Application Engineer at Advanced Navigation.
The INS uses gyroscopes to track a vehicle’s direction of travel across three axes. The LVS, meanwhile, projects lasers to measure ground-relative 3D velocity—and can also track travel angle to calculate depth, even on unmapped corkscrew descents.
A 3D digital twin model of the Pyhäsalmi Mine in Pyhäjärvi, Finland. Photo: Advanced Navigation
Mines traditionally rely on odometers that measure wheel rotations to estimate distance. But tracked vehicles lack wheels entirely, and even wheeled vehicles often slip on loose surfaces, rendering odometer readings impossible or unreliable compared with the hybrid system’s more accurate sensor data.
In operation, the hybrid navigation system mounts to existing mine vehicles and delivers data to the operator through the vehicle’s internal system using various electrical connections and protocols. In autonomous vehicles, the system informs the vehicle of its location. In fleet management environments, where a central control room tracks each vehicle’s position, the vehicle transmits location data through existing mine infrastructure such as a 5G network.
Engineers tested the hybrid navigation system at Europe’s deepest mine in Finland, which reaches 1,444 meters (4,738 feet) underground. “The mine had an existing 5G network that allowed us to live stream the data back to our offices in Sydney to watch the vehicle move up the mine,” Suntup said.
Aerial view of Pyhäsalmi Mine in Pyhäjärvi, Finland. Photo: Advanced Navigation
Current underground mine navigation techniques
GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) depends on satellite signals, which earth, rock, and mine walls often block. “If GNSS dropped out for a moment because the vehicle was near a wall in an open pit mine, it would either slow to a crawl or stop and wait until it regained a signal. In a mine site, any downtime caused massive monetary loss,” Suntup explained.
Existing systems like ultra-wideband (UWB) use a network of fixed anchors (receivers) and mobile tags (transmitters) to time radio pulses between a tag and multiple anchors. Although UWB systems achieve high accuracy in ideal conditions, obstacles block radio pulses, metal from the ground interferes, and poor anchor placement reduces effectiveness.
Other methods register tags at specific checkpoints, like race systems that log runners at mile markers along the course. This approach requires less infrastructure than UWB but only notifies operators when a vehicle enters or exits a specific area.
The hybrid navigation system integrates with existing technology and supplements navigation data to deliver continuous positioning. It provides a seamless layer of redundancy, fusing its own sensor data with whatever signals remain available so operators maintain reliable tracking even when individual technologies fail.
“If GNSS dropped out for a moment because the vehicle was near a wall in an open pit mine, it would either slow to a crawl or stop and wait until it regained a signal.”
— Matt Suntup, Senior Application Engineer at Advanced Navigation
Moving toward zero entry
Deep mines heat up quickly—rising at a rate of 25–30 °C (77-86 °F) with every kilometer. At depth, rock temperatures can exceed 60 °C (140 °F), creating conditions that are lethal without proper protection. Add the heat from equipment, body temperature, and the auto-compression of ventilation air, and the environment becomes even more extreme. Travel times also increase the farther down workers go, making short shifts under extreme heat operationally challenging.
Mine operators are adopting zero-entry techniques to remove workers from dangerous environments using autonomous and remote-controlled machinery. This approach allows workers to handle tasks from safe, often distant control rooms, eliminating exposure to rock falls, heavy equipment, and poor air quality.
Rather than eliminating jobs, this shift is transforming them. The industry is moving away from traditional, physically demanding roles and creating new opportunities in highly skilled fields, such as remote operations, data analysis, and robotics maintenance, which demand a new mix of technical and digital expertise.
Since engineers designed the hybrid navigation system to mount to various vehicles with multiple wiring harness options, it adapts easily to autonomous and remote-controlled machinery and delivers accurate vehicle locations to operators. The system was tested up to 75 °C (167 °F) to ensure it could function in deep underground mines where conditions no longer allowed safe human work.
Hybrid Navigation System’s underground accuracy compared to GNSS’s above ground accuracy. Photo: Advanced Navigation
Beyond the mine
On an upcoming lunar mission, engineers will mount a Laser Unit for Navigation Aid (LUNA) on an Intuitive Machines lander to enable autonomous landings.
LUNA, the space-rated version of the LVS, delivers real-time 3D velocity and altitude data relative to the lunar surface, guiding landers to precise touchdown sites despite dust, shadows, and missing visual references. “As the lander approaches the lunar surface, we’ll use lasers to get a precise 3D velocity and altitude reading during the final descent,” Suntup shared.
The same hybrid navigation approach extends to low-flying aircraft, where the system provides reliable positioning during low-altitude flights and supports the development of autonomous air-mobility vehicles like flying taxis.
In agriculture, the technology is being adopted for precision farming and autonomous machinery. By blending GPS/GNSS data with an INS and other sensors, the hybrid system achieves centimeter-level accuracy for planting, spraying, and harvesting, minimizing waste and enabling targeted chemical application.
As industries push into more remote, hazardous, or GPS-denied environments, reliable navigation is shifting from luxury to necessity. Advanced Navigation’s hybrid system scales from underground mining to aircraft, agriculture, and space, offering flexible, resilient, and autonomous operation wherever needed.
Nicole Imeson is an engineer and writer in Calgary, Alta.
The team makes its way down into the Pyhäsalmi Mine. Photo: Advanced Navigation
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