Unreliable GPS spawns alternative tech for drones

Drones and traditional aircraft rely heavily on GPS to navigate, and jammed, spoofed or spotty GPS causes trouble. Some tech providers are adding resilience to navigation through alternative technologies. Jamming occurs when the satellite signal is blocked and spoofing happens when a satellite signal is replaced by an undesired signal that transmits false information. On GPSJam.org, an open-source website that tracks reported GPS interference, clusters of red dots in and around maps of Israel and the Black Sea currently show the prevalence of GPS interference in those war-affected regions. [caption id="attachment_57289117" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] GPSJam.org shows where GPS signal is disrupted.[/caption] “If global conflict continues to expand, we can expect these vulnerabilities to increase, and these failures are having tangible, real-world consequences,” Joe Vandecar, senior product manager at Sydney-based Advanced Navigation, said in a presentation at AUVSI Xponential 2025 last week in Houston. Advanced Navigation develops software-enhanced hardware to enable vehicles to operate where GPS is unreliable . Even regions not at war can see GPS interference and have zones where GPS does not function. Nearly the entire map of the United States is swathed in green on GPSJam.org, showing low-level GPS interference. “The question isn't if GPS will fail, but when. The time to build resilience is now.” — Joe Vandecar, senior product manager at Advanced Navigation Unreliable GPS Drone operators should not rely solely on GPS , as it has many vulnerabilities beyond deliberate attacks, Vandecar said. “Environmental conditions like terrain, urban density and atmospheric interference can degrade GPS at any time during operations,” Vandecar said. “Also, infrastructure issues like the [July] 2019 failure of the Galileo system, which went down for a week, making those systems relying on it inoperable. “Finally, natural disruptions, which are usually the most unexpected, such as the geometric storm in May of 2024 that disrupted the U.S. planting season by up to a week because tractors were just not able to operate without their GPS,” he said. Also, autonomous vehicles are increasingly being used underwater, in mines and in other environments where GPS is inoperable, he said. “As we look to space and the commercialization of places like the moon, systems need to be able to operate without ground-based sensors,” Vandecar said. “The bottom line is, GPS has gotten us this far, but it's no longer enough on its own. And for future autonomy, national security and industrial resilience, we need a navigation system that can perform without it.” — Joe Vandecar, senior product manager at Advanced Navigation Lasers as solution “Resilient navigation does not mean replacing GPS,” Vandecar said. “It means designing systems that adapt and perform when GPS cannot be trusted.” [caption id="attachment_57289099" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Joe Vandecar, senior product manager at Advanced Navigation, speaks at AUVSI Xponential 2025. (Photo/Cargo Facts)[/caption] Advanced Navigation has developed a laser velocity sensor (LVS) that helps autonomous vehicles pinpoint their own locations. The LVS was developed in conjunction with Houston-based astronautics publicly traded company Intuitive Machines. The LVS uses infrared lasers and the Doppler effect to measure a vehicle’s ground-relative velocity. The Doppler effect is the change in wave frequency when there is relative motion between a wave source and an observer. In areas where GPS is inoperable, high-end inertial navigation systems can drift hundreds of meters over time, Vandecar said. However, his company’s LVS can reduce drift error to just 0.5%. With this technology, a vehicle that must travel 100 kilometers without GPS assistance will remain within 50 meters of its target. Advanced gyroscopes Meanwhile, Santa Clara, Calif.-based Anello Photonics has developed another alternative solution to GPS: precision gyroscopes. [caption id="attachment_57289101" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Anello Photonics CEO Mario Paniccia speaks at AUVSI Xponential 2025. (Photo/Cargo Facts)[/caption] Siphog is a silicon photonics optical gyroscope that is smaller, lighter and more power-efficient than today's fiber gyroscopes, Anello Chief Executive Mario Paniccia said at AUVSI Xponential 2025. The Siphog for aerial vehicles has three axes and twenty-one sensor channels to monitor factors such as wind and temperature. “It's the first new gyroscope in twenty years,” Paniccia said. Hover or crash Without an alternative to GPS, drones have just two options when the GPS signal is lost: hover in place or crash. “The drone doesn't know what to do,” Paniccia said. “It can't go back home because it doesn't know where home is. It sits there. It hovers. This is why, in Ukraine and in Israel, they're losing 20,000 drones a month. They're not getting shot down. They're being jammed.”

Unreliable GPS spawns alternative tech for drones

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