AOSense

AOSense is a Sunnyvale, California quantum sensor company founded in 2004 as a spin-out from Mark Kasevich's Stanford University atom interferometry group. The company develops cold-atom inertial sensors — accelerometers and gyroscopes — that use laser-cooled rubidium or cesium atoms as quantum test masses, achieving measurement precision orders of magnitude beyond classical MEMS-based inertial units.

Unlike classical accelerometers that use mechanical proof masses subject to drift, AOSense instruments exploit the wave nature of matter: atoms in free fall form matter-wave interferometers whose phase shift encodes acceleration with extraordinary absolute accuracy and long-term stability without calibration drift. Their Quantum Inertial Navigation System (QuINS) achieved a landmark first in-flight quantum navigation demonstration aboard a Boeing aircraft, proving that atom interferometry can survive vibration, temperature swings, and attitude changes in real aerospace environments.

For space applications, cold-atom inertial sensors promise to enable GPS-denied precision navigation for deep-space probes, lunar landers, and submarines, as well as geodesy missions measuring Earth's gravity field with sub-mGal precision (complementing and potentially successor to GRACE-FO). AOSense has received funding from DARPA, ONR, and AFRL through programs including DARPA PINS (Precision Inertial Navigation Systems) and the IARPA GOLF program.

The company's technology roadmap targets 6U CubeSat-scale quantum gravimeters for commercial resource surveying and autonomous vehicle navigation in GPS-denied environments including lunar surface operations.