Orolia, the world's leading provider of resilient positioning and navigation solutions for terrestrial military vehicles, was looking for a solution that could do more than simply generate an alert if a vehicle's navigation system goes down. The company turned to Leti, a CEA Tech institute, to help develop a continuous positioning and navigation system that would work even if the satellite signal is jammed, spoofed, or simply too weak.

An inertial measurement unit (IMU) and an odometer were added to the positioning and navigation system. Leti developed an algorithm to fuse the data from these devices with satellite (GNSS) data. The first step was to model the data from the different sources to come up with theoretical trajectories and an initial version of the algorithm. The results generated using the sensor data were compared with around a hundred known trajectories so that the algorithm could be improved.

FlexFusion software can extend trajectory estimations to compensate for GNSS data issues. The algorithms were developed for military applications. However, they can be modified for other types of vehicles terrestrial vehicles, non-terrestrial vehicles like drones (with no odometer), and autonomous terrestrial vehicles. This precision positioning and navigation technology could also be of interest to outdoor athletes (hiking, trail running, triathlons, etc.).