Improving the sensitivity of cold-atom inertial sensors using robust control

Cold-atom sensors have demonstrated state-of-the-art inertial measurements in laboratory environments. Future generations of atomic inertial sensors aim to achieve this performance in compact and rugged form factors, enabling new capabilities in navigation, hydrology, and space-based gravimetry. However, there are significant challenges to achieving laboratory performance in real-world environments. In particular, deploying a cold-atom sensor onboard a moving platform (e.g. a ship or plane) degrades measurement sensitivity by many orders of magnitude, or even prevents sensor operation altogether. Here we show that error-robust quantum control can suppress dominant noise sources due to platform motion, reducing the performance gap between laboratory operation and real-world field deployment. We use a custom-built flexible optimization package, which exploits automated analytic differentiation and stochastic optimization, to efficiently create broadband robust beamsplitter and mirror pulses. Through simulated operation under realistic vehicle motion, we verify that these robust control solutions suppress the effect of transverse accelerations by considerably in a single-axis sensor.