Stemming from the first ages of human knowledge, astral navigation has not evolved for centuries.
Over time, tools have incrementally improved accuracy (Astrolabe).
The sextant is a little more recent since its invention dates back to 1730.
Based on the reading of the height of a star, the use of the traditional sextant requires a good mastery of the instrument, a position of use as stable as possible, a visible horizon, a starting hypothesis on its position and a certain ease in the use of astronomical tables before reaching a sure point.
STARNAV relied on the know-how acquired in the field of autonomous astral navigation to initiate in 2010 the development of G-STELL (stellar georeferencing): a system which makes it possible to determine the user’s position from the observation of stars: Sun, Moon, Planets, Stars.
Composed of a camera and an inertial platform, the system allows, by targeting a star (Sun, Moon, Planet, star), without knowledge of the target star (star recognition algorithm), without any hypothesis on the position, without visibility on the horizon, without astronomical knowledge, to determine its position.
The performance of the system, strongly linked to the stability of the user, forced the company to modify its concept. STARNAV then developed a system to access its position without the need for pointing. This is the MAGELLAN system (Innovative Astral Attitude Measurement and GEoLocaLisation), currently under testing.
We will inform you on this site of the first operational results in the coming weeks.
The revolutionary successor of former sextant arrived. A real alternative to GPS now exists, independent and robust to jamming.