GPS is widely used today for land, sea and air navigation. However, it has several disadvantages: it requires a very heavy infrastructure (constellation of 24 satellites in orbit), it does not work in an “indoor” or underwater environment and above all it can be jammed. This is why “magnetic” navigation, i.e. exploiting the earth’s magnetic field, is interesting because it is completely passive and works in all environments, including underwater. Many quite different strategies exist for navigating using this geomagnetism; one way is to take inspiration from the way certain animals (such as robin, bar-tailed godwit, albatross, monarch, sea turtle, salmon, etc.) exploit the magnetic field to travel very large distances (several thousand of km).
The thesis will seek to answer the following research question: Is a bio-inspired approach relevant to implementing magnetic navigation ?

The PhD will be at CEA Grenoble (http://www.leti-cea.fr/cea-tech/leti/Pages/recherche-applie/plateformes/plateforme-systemes-cyber-physiques.aspx) within a team of multidisciplinary researchers: physics, electronics, signal processing (http://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=u8w0UPkAAAAJ) whose work is recognized in instrumentation for geophysics and space.

Engineer/Master 2 profile in signal processing, electromagnetism, physics: apply to andrea.vassilev@cea.fr