From May 17 to 19, 2025, the Annual Conference on Geodesy and Navigation 2025 was grandly held in Qingdao, Shandong, themed “Spatiotemporal Intelligent Geodesy—Exploration and Integration.” On the morning of May 18, 2025, the "Forum on Emerging PNT Technologies and Applications in Unmanned Systems," organized under the national key R&D program “Earth Observation and Navigation” and its major project “Key Technologies and Application Demonstration of Component-Based and Resilient Integrated Navigation and Control,” was successfully held.

    The forum was chaired by Prof. Geng Jianghui from Wuhan University. Prof. Geng provided a brief overview of the project’s background and emphasized that developing a new PNT architecture—characterized by autonomy, full-domain continuity, and high reliability—as well as its associated theories and technologies, holds significant strategic importance, addressing both the forefront of global science and critical national needs.

    Prof. Xiangwei Zhu from Sun Yat-sen University delivered a report titled “Spatial Intelligence and Brain-inspired Navigation.” The report provided a clear and accessible introduction to the concepts and development of spatial intelligence and brain-inspired navigation, further exploring their relationship and distinctions. It offered a preliminary investigation into new mechanisms for navigation and positioning technologies in the era of artificial intelligence.

    Prof. Danping Zou from Shanghai Jiao Tong University delivered a report titled “Simulation-to-Real Transfer Learning Methods for Visual Navigation.” The report focused on the application of visual navigation methods in robotics, provided a comparative analysis of common robotic learning frameworks, proposed an efficient transfer learning strategy, and presented compelling experimental results.

    Prof. Hui Cheng from Sun Yat-sen University delivered a report titled “Trends and Reflections on the Development of Embodied Intelligence Technologies.” The report reviewed the development history of embodied intelligence, proposed its definition and key characteristics, and, drawing on the research conducted by her group, explored potential future directions for the advancement of embodied intelligence technologies.

    Assoc. Prof. Quan Zhang from Wuhan University delivered a report titled “Integrity Monitoring Method for GNSS/IMU Integrated Navigation Based on RANSAC.” The report systematically reviewed the advances of the RANSAC algorithm in GNSS outlier detection and noted its relatively limited application in GNSS/IMU integrated navigation. Building on this, the report proposed an improved RANSAC strategy tailored for complex urban environments and developed a corresponding tightly coupled integrity monitoring theoretical framework. Experimental validation across multiple typical complex scenarios demonstrated the method’s potential advantages in enhancing navigation system robustness.

    Assoc. Prof. Feng Zhu from Wuhan University delivered a presentation titled “Continuous State Estimation Methods in Multi-Sensor Integrated Navigation.” The report showcased the latest research progress achieved by his team under the National Key R&D Program project. He conducted an in-depth analysis of the limitations of traditional discrete-state estimation methods in multi-sensor integrated navigation and proposed a novel continuous-state estimation theory with broader applicability. Extensive experiments conducted in complex environments clearly demonstrated the significant advantages of the proposed method.

    Dr. Feng Wang from Wuhan University delivered a report titled “Componentized PNT Framework, Principles, and Methods for Flexible Adaptation in Complex Scenarios.” The report introduced the latest research progress of the national key R&D program “Key Technologies and Application Demonstration of Component-Based and Resilient Integrated Navigation and Control” project in multi-source sensor fusion frameworks. It elaborated on the fundamental concepts, core design principles, and key technologies of the componentized PNT framework, and demonstrated its features of plug-and-play, seamless reconfiguration, and open extensibility based on field experiments.

    The forum brought together numerous experts and scholars in the field of positioning and navigation to engage in in-depth discussions on componentized resilient intelligent navigation technologies. It systematically showcased cutting-edge research achievements, thoroughly analyzed industry evolution trends, focused on key scientific issues and technical challenges in the PNT domain, and actively explored future development directions and strategic opportunities.