Advanced Navigation expands US manufacturing capacity to Alabama

Advanced Navigation America, a subsidiary of the global robotics firm Advanced Navigation, announced on Monday the expansion of its manufacturing operations in Huntsville, Alabama. The new facility is aimed at developing and producing high-precision mining navigation technology. The expansion is backed by a $110 million Series C funding round.

The new Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Center of Excellence will focus on researching, developing, and manufacturing advanced technologies such as fiber optics, MEMS, laser sensing, photonics, vision-based systems, AI, and quantum sensing. These technologies will enable autonomous systems in the mining and heavy industries to maintain accurate vehicle positioning even in deep, dark, and unmapped areas where GPS signals are unavailable.

The company also plans to accelerate U.S. mergers and acquisitions, aiming to provide mining operators with more advanced technologies. This will allow equipment to navigate more precisely, function in GPS-denied environments, and minimize human intervention in hazardous areas. Mike Cohen, president of Advanced Navigation America, emphasized the importance of resilient navigation and positioning in the autonomy revolution shaping the future of mining and other heavy industries.

He highlighted the challenge of ensuring the industrial base can produce these essential technologies quickly and reliably, and how the Huntsville facility will address this gap. The new facility marks a significant step in establishing a major U.S. manufacturing node, alongside Advanced Navigation's existing operations in Australia and the United Kingdom.

This will create a trilateral production footprint, enhancing supply chain resilience, increasing global production capacity, and allowing the company to respond more swiftly to local U.S. mining requirements.