Chinese gyroscope could make navigation more stable for aircraft, ships and oil rigs
Chinese researchers say they have developed a 'groundbreaking' fibre-optic gyroscope that is stable across a large temperature range and can be used for navigation.
According to the team from the Tianjin Navigation Instruments Research Institute and Jinan University, the gyroscope could offer a more stable way to measure navigation for aircraft, ships and oil rigs.
Gyroscopes are devices that can sense orientation and the rate at which a moving object is turning, so they play an important role in inertial navigation systems.
Those navigation systems allow for the measurement of vehicles without the need for external signals like satellites. That makes them immune to interference, which is vital for military and security applications.
Traditional gyroscopes rely on moving mechanical components, but
fibre-optic gyroscopes use the changing movement of light in optical fibres to operate.
Due to their simple structure and high resolution, a common type – known as an interferometric fibre-optic gyroscope, or IFOG – has been used in both military and civilian settings ranging from aerospace to weapons systems, oil platforms and autonomous vehicles.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
7 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Trailblazing mathematician Yitang Zhang leaves US for job at Chinese university
Chinese-American mathematician Yitang Zhang has left the United States to join Sun Yat-sen University in southern China as a full-time professor. The 70-year-old number theorist has been appointed to the university's newly established Institute of Advanced Study Hong Kong and will live and work in the Greater Bay Area , the university announced at a ceremony on Friday afternoon. While the university did not give further details about his appointment, it noted that Zhang had relocated to China with his family. Zhang spent a decade as a mathematics professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Zhang is best known for his groundbreaking work on prime numbers. In a 2013 paper published in the Annals of Mathematics, he proved for the first time that infinitely many pairs of prime numbers are separated by a bounded gap. The result marked a major step towards solving the twin prime conjecture – a fundamental unsolved problem in mathematics – and reignited global interest in number theory. Born in Shanghai in 1955, Zhang showed a strong talent for maths from an early age. He was unable to attend high school during the Cultural Revolution but taught himself and was admitted to Peking University in 1978. In 1985, he went to Purdue University in the US for his PhD. After graduating in 1991, he struggled to find an academic position. To make ends meet, Zhang worked various jobs, including as an accountant, restaurant manager, and Chinese food delivery driver, and at one point lived in his car.
South China Morning Post
11 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
From Cambridge to Suzhou: a Chinese AI start-up's journey to unicorn status
In 2007, a Chinese PhD student at the University of Cambridge launched a start-up with a former classmate focused on using speech recognition technology to help foreigners learn Chinese. A year later, Yu Kai and his team returned to China, aiming to draw on the country's vast market and deep talent pool to propel their nascent company's development. Swapping Cambridge for Suzhou – a city in eastern China then more famous for its picturesque gardens and canals than its tech sector – may have seemed like an unconventional choice at the time, but it proved to be an inspired move. Yu's company, AI Speech, is now riding China's artificial intelligence boom as a leader in conversational AI. It has raised hundreds of millions of dollars over several funding rounds, with the Hurun Research Institute recognising the firm as an AI unicorn. Its technology powers voice activation software used by carmakers Mercedes-Benz and BYD, as well as smart home brands Midea and Haier. It also develops AI chips and smart office devices like microphones and speakers. Though the company's funding mostly comes from private investors and its own revenue, China's industrial policies have also played an important role in supporting AI Speech, according to Yu.
South China Morning Post
11 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Alibaba unveils new AI model for image creation, as open-source approach gains recognition
Alibaba Group Holding has launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) model, Qwen VLo, said to be capable of generating and editing images with a finesse akin to that of a human artist, intensifying the competition in multimodal models as the tech giant seeks to redefine itself as an AI leader. Released on Friday, Qwen VLo was a 'comprehensive upgrade' from previous models like QwenVL and Qwen2.5 VL, the company said. It could better understand input and create more precise images, accommodate open-ended instructions, and support multiple languages, including Chinese and English. A preview is now available on Qwen Chat. Qwen VLo also supports diverse input and output formats, offering increased flexibility for users and making it ideal for creating posters, illustrations, web banners, and social media covers. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. The new model adds to the intense competition in China's AI landscape, as rivals such as ByteDance and SenseTime strive to introduce their own multimodal models designed to interpret various types of input data, including text, video, and audio. In contrast, traditional AI models only handle one type of input. 10:41 How Hangzhou's 'Six Little Dragons' built a new Chinese tech hub How Hangzhou's 'Six Little Dragons' built a new Chinese tech hub Alibaba has been doubling down on AI and cloud computing, as it moves to streamline its sprawling operations. In February, the company pledged to invest more than 380 billion yuan (US$52 billion) in AI infrastructure over the next three years.
