Gravity Platform

The opportunity that this project addresses is the use of quantum based gravity sensors to detect buried assets or structures. It combines three streams of challenges currently faced for the development of such sensor: Gathering of real field data, development of a sensor platform for data gathering in realistic terrain conditions and the quantum technologies knowledge transfer from academia to industry. Larger market opportunities have been identified which require the sensor to be mounted on a more specialist platform to give accurate tilt alignment and vibration damping. This platform will realise faster measurement times in the civil engineering market and operation in difficult terrain such as agricultural fields for soil compaction measurements. Reveal identified the civil engineering market as the first viable market for QT gravity sensors. Though the capabilities of a QT gravity instrument will bring a great improvement in the detectability of assets and structures in the ground, this market is very price sensitive. Currently the costs of a survey are dominated by personnel time rather than the instrument cost and this is driven by the total time of each survey. This project will reduce set-up time at each measurement location by the development of a specialist platform. Additionally further markets, such as mine shaft detection, Canal & Reservoir embankments, precision agriculture and defence applications, have been identified to expand the market. All these sectors have varying terrain requirements and a QT gravity sensor will only have the ability to fully penetrate these markets with a tailored platform.

An additional need this project addresses is the crucial feedback of information gathered from on-site trials of QT gravity sensors under realistic conditions. The current programs at University of Birmingham and Teledyne e2v are currently constrained by the limited number of operational instruments. These sensors are desperately required for on-site trials and external demonstrations by partners, such as RSK, a civil engineering company, but at the same time are required by the development teams to continue improvements towards increasing the measurement sensitivity. The sensor and platform developed in this project will incorporate the current development status of the sensor, but will be aimed at increasing instrument availability for site trials, demonstrations and showcases to drive dissemination and market pull.
As the QT sensor development is a very new activity for industry, experts in this field are rare. This project will co-locate up to two Teledyne e2v employees at the University of Birmingham Technology Transfer Centre. During and after this project it will bring the much required domain knowledge to Teledyne e2v.

The project will create benefits for a number of users:

Benefits to Industry:
Quantum technology has the potential to demonstrate performance gains for a wide range of applications, such as defence (navigation, tunnel detection, battlefield imaging), geophysics (oil prospecting, void / feature detection, utility mapping), civil engineering (infrastructure mapping) etc. Many of these are enhanced through reduced measurement time or increasing operational capability through the ability to operate on numerous platforms (for example airborne for oil prospecting, and ground based for oil field monitoring or effective extraction). In the long term such systems will deliver highly disruptive solutions that: i) lead to the creation of new markets; ii) satisfy currently un-met user needs; or iii) achieve performance gains far beyond existing solutions. A particular focus of the project will be reducing survey time through addressing barriers to mobile platform operation. The consortium will engage with potential national, European and international end-users to: i) inform them about the features of gravity sensors and techniques for increasing their readiness; ii) to explore potential end-use applications; and iii) to define a roadmap for take up and use. Early applications are anticipated for ground based survey where an automated move-stop-measure capability would drastically reduce survey cost, enhance existing market potential and open new opportunities.

Benefits to Society:
Quantum technology is a disruptive technology with the potential to create new markets and business growth, leading to UK employment, economic growth and wealth creation. The project represents an important step towards the development of a key component / platform technology that will enable the realisation of these benefits / impacts. The target final application for the project results are within the domain of gravity sensors based on cold atoms. Such sensors demonstrate a wide range of benefits for society including: more accurate interventions in civil engineering resulting in reduced road congestion and reduced project cost; increased productivity in national infrastructure projects such as HS2 through better detection of mines and natural underground or ground related hazards; better and more widespread monitoring of national infrastructure such as roads and rail lines through remote sensing of developing hazards, allowing intervention prior to serious distruption (cf Forest Hill sinkhole, London 2016); better use of underground space in urban environments; reduced dependence on GPS through gravity mapping for navigation. Such benefits / impacts align with numerous National policy priorities, such as security, smart cities and transport etc.