First experimental results of the cosmic time synchronizer for a wireless, precise, and perpetual time synchronization system

Since the development of many future technologies are becoming more and more dependent on indoor navigation, various alternative navigation techniques have been proposed with radio waves, acoustic, and laser beam signals. In 2020, muometric positioning system (muPS) was proposed as a new indoor navigation technique; in 2022, the first prototype of wireless muPS was demonstrated in underground environments. However, in this first physical demonstration, its navigation accuracy was limited to 2–14 m which is far from the level required for the practical indoor navigation applications. This positioning error was an intrinsic problem associated with the clock that was used for determining the time of flight (ToF) of the muons, and it was practically impossible to attain cm-level accuracy with this initial approach. This paper introduces the completely new positioning concept for muPS, Vector muPS, which works by determining direction vectors of incoming muons instead of utilizing ToF. It is relatively easier to attain a 10-mrad level angular resolution with muon trackers that have been used for muographic imagery. Therefore, Vector muPS retains the unique capacity to operate wirelessly in indoor environments and also has the capacity to achieve a cm-level accuracy. By utilizing an essentially different concept from what is used in other navigation techniques, (measuring the distance between the reference and the receiver), Vector muPS enables more flexible, and longer-term stable positioning. Anticipated applications and the future outlook of Vector muPS is also discussed.

Muometric positioning system (muPS) utilizing direction vectors of cosmic-ray muons for wireless indoor navigation at a centimeter-level accuracy

Tanaka

2023

Demonstration of enhanced long-range cosmic time synchronization for wireless and secure dissemination of standard time

Tanaka

2024

Accurate traceability of time is prerequisite to the proper functioning of many necessary aspects of our modern life including making financial transactions, managing automated technology and navigating the transport of goods and human beings. One of the most reliable international time references is the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) that can be distributed wirelessly in principle. However, this wireless option is currently limited to GPS and other global navigation satellite systems. GPS signals are weak and easily affected by environmental conditions. Moreover, since GPS signals are unencrypted, the possibility of a signal spoofing attack remains a continuous threat. Prior works showed the potential of the alternative wireless time synchronization technique called Cosmic Time Synchronization (CTS), in which, clocks are located 50 m apart were wirelessly synchronized with a sub-microsecond level accuracy, and its operation time was limited to 20 min. However, for the actual implementation of CTS to real-life situations, these distance and stability values are not sufficient. In this study, we constructed a dedicated CTS facility and conducted a long-haul (180 m) CTS demonstration. As a result, it was verified that this long-range CTS is capable of maintaining stable sub-microsecond time synchronization for 3 days with a granularity of 148.8 ns (SD) and an offset of 22.97 ns. Since the current version of CTS can now operate over an area that has been enlarged by more than one order of magnitude, it is possible to utilize for more diverse applications, and the application to a banking synchronization system is proposed. As a case study, it is shown that CTS now has the capability to offer wireless time synchronization service to large clusters of financial firms in large cities. With its accurate time dissemination (the metrological traceability to UTC), its reasonable cost, and its hack-proof, stable design, this latest CTS model has the capacity to improve the accuracy of timing for a wide variety of sectors.

Developments of a centimeter-level precise muometric wireless navigation system (MuWNS-V) and its first demonstration using directional information from tracking detectors

Varga,

Tanaka

2024

Various positioning techniques such as Wi-Fi positioning system have been proposed to use in situations where satellite navigation is unavailable. One such system, the muometric positioning system (muPS), was invented for navigation which operates in locations where even radio waves cannot reach such as underwater or underground. muPS takes advantage of a key feature of its probe, cosmic-ray muons, which travel straightforwardly at almost a speed of light in vacuum regardless of the matter they traverse. Similar to other positioning techniques, muPS is a technique to determine the position of a client’s muPS receiver within the coordinate defined by reference detectors. This can be achieved either by using time-of-flight (ToF) or angle of arrival (AoA) measurements. The latter configuration (AoA), called the Vector-muPS has recently been invented and the present paper describes the developments of the first prototype of a vector muometric wireless navigation system (MuWNS-V) with this new vector-muPS concept and its demonstration. With MuWNS-V, the reference tracker and the receiver ran wirelessly with fully independent readout systems, and a positioning accuracy of 3.9 cm (RMS) has been achieved. We also evaluated the outcome of measuring continuous indoor localization of a moving receiver with this prototype. Our results indicated that further improvements in positioning accuracy will be attainable by acquiring higher angular resolution of the reference trackers. It is anticipated that “sub-cm level” navigation will be possible for muPS which could be applied to many situations such as future autonomous mobile robot operations.