For more than twenty years, GPS has established itself as the central assisted navigation tool, whether automobile, air or logistical management. But in tunnels, buildings, urban canyons or areas subject to scrambles, the system loses in reliability, or even becomes unusable. This dependence on a vulnerable satellite signal arouses growing concern among industrialists as among military authorities.
The alternatives emerge, fragmented and competing. Europe has invested in Galileo, designed to guarantee strategic autonomy vis-à-vis the American GPS and the Chinese Beidou. But even this satellite system remains subject to the same physical and political constraints. Other players bet on land signals, such as Eloran technology, or on hybrid infrastructure combining 5G and low speed networks.
In this context, inertial navigation regains importance. The traditional systems, designed for aeronautics and the military, offer robustness and precision, but remain too bulky and expensive for a wide deployment. Conversely, the MEMS, miniaturized and economic sensors are found in billions of everyday devices. Their limit remains, however, a too rapid drift, which makes their use impossible in applications requiring reliability and safety.
It is on this crest line that Promects, from fifteen years of joint research between CEA-LETI and the Politecnico di Milano, comes from a new generation of Multi-Axes MEMS. According to his data, these sensors maintain an accuracy of the order of 50 centimeters after several minutes without GPS signal, where existing solutions derive several meters in a few seconds.
The need is carried by three strategic sectors: Defense, where the scrambling of satellite signals has become a running weapon, from Ukraine to the Baltic Sea, the automobile, where progression to higher levels of autonomy requires absolute reliability of positioning and finally, industrial robotics and drones, which often operate in closed or complex environments.
Market prospects are already amounting to billions of euros by 2030 and stiffen the interest of manufacturers and investors, but also states that seek to secure their critical infrastructure.
Founded in Grenoble, Profe announces today a fundraising of 6 million euros in its first round. The operation is carried out by Supernova Invest and 360 capital, with the participation of BNP Paribas Development, Crédit Agricole Alpes Development and CEA Investment. The company plans to industrialize its technology with a Mems founder, strengthen its team and provide its first samples for strategic customers. The founders of Profession come from CEA-LETI and Politecnico di Milano, at the origin of the thirty patents that protect technology.
