Hybrid inertial measurement system and method using a light pulse cold atom interferometer

A hybrid inertial measurement system comprising:

• a cold atom interferometric inertial sensor (50) comprising a laser source (20) adapted to generate a sequence of laser pulses (21, 22, 23, 29) towards a cold atom burst (10) and a system for detecting an atomic interferometry inertial measurement signal relating to an inertial reference frame, and
• a conventional inertial sensor (4, 100) attached to the inertial reference frame of the cold atom interferometric inertial sensor (50), the conventional inertial sensor (4, 100) being adapted to provide a conventional inertial measurement signal (14, 148) of the inertial reference frame,
• wherein:
• the conventional inertial sensor (4, 100) is adapted to provide the conventional inertial measurement signal (14, 148) recorded as a function of time during said laser pulse sequence,
• and wherein the hybrid system includes a feedback loop electronic system comprising:
• a signal processing system (40, 41, 42) adapted to receive the inertial measurement signal (14, 141, 148) from the conventional inertial sensor (4, 100), the signal processing system (40, 41, 42) being adapted to generate in real time a non-linear frequency modulation signal (140, 420) as a function of the conventional inertial measurement signal (14, 141, 148) recorded as a function of time during said laser pulse sequence,
• each laser pulse of the laser pulse sequence (21, 22, 23, 29) having a predetermined optical frequency detuning with respect to a central optical frequency (2) of the laser source (20), the feedback loop electronic system being configured to modulate in real time the central optical frequency of the laser (20) as a function of the modulation signal (140, 420), so as to modulate in real time said laser pulse sequence (21, 22, 23, 29) and so that the cold atom interferometric inertial sensor (50) generates a first hybrid atomic interferometry inertial measurement signal (151) corrected for the relative movements of the inertial reference frame with respect to the cold atom burst (10) during a measurement cycle.