The New Scientist praises the solar compass developed by ENEA
22/10/2015
The prestigious scientific magazine New Scientist has recently published an article on the made-in-Italy, highly-accurate, electro-optical, solar compass, drawing the news from the study ENEA researchers have published on “Optics Letters”. The New Scientist’s article, by the reporter Jacob Aron stresses the advantages offered by this compass compared to GPS and the traditional magnetic compass. A very high degree of accuracy (the true direction of the North can be determined with an accuracy to a hundredth of a degree), rapid measurement (the result is provided in less than one minute) and idiot-proof use are its distinctive features besides its very low cost of the order of a few tens of euro.
The ENEA solar compass can find diverse fields of application: from land surveys to geological stability control, from determining the borders of farming fields to the installation of radars in airports and even the calibration of magnetic or electronic compasses. The solar compass is currently used for thermodynamic and photovoltaic concentrating solar plants, since it can periodically detect the orientation of the rotation axes of the mirrors concentrating the sun beams and simultaneously drive the engines making the mirrors be oriented with the best accuracy.
Undoubtedly, this instrument needs the sun to work but it has proved to have high performance even during the solar eclipse last 20th March. A Technical Report will be soon available describing the performance of the ENEA compass in the case of partially covered sunlight. The experimental measurements made on that occasion show that when half sun disk is darkened, the compass is accurate to eight hudredth of a degree, yet its accuracy is still higher than any other orientation system (except for multiple GPS).
For further information, please contact:
Paolo Di Lazzaro, Frascati Research Centre, paolo.dilazzaro@enea.it
More details available at:
https://www.osapublishing.org/ol/abstract.cfm?uri=ol-40-15-3619
References:
S. Bollanti, D. Demeis, P. Di Lazzaro, F. Flora, G. Gallerano, L. Mezi, D. Murra, A. Torre, D. Vicca: “Electro-optical sun compass with a very high degree of accuracy” Optics Letters vol. 40, 3619-3622 (2015) DOI: 10.1364/OL.40.003619.
https://www.osapublishing.org/ol/abstract.cfm?uri=ol-40-15-3619
F. Flora, S. Bollanti, D. De Meis, P. Di Lazzaro, A. Fastelli, G:P. Gallerano, L. Mezi, D. Murra, A. Torre, D. Vicca: “High precision electronic solar compass” International application number PCT/IT2013/000365; PCT patent WO 2014102841 A1 (July 3, 2014).
F. Flora, S. Bollanti, D. De Meis, P. Di Lazzaro, A. Fastelli, G:P. Gallerano, L. Mezi, D. Murra, A. Torre, D. Vicca: “Bussola solare elettronica ad alta precisione” (Ufficio Italiano Brevetti e Marchi, RM2012A000664)