Navigation technology is an essential ability for the survival and development of animal and human. Navigation
sensor plays a key role in exploration, emergency, precision-guided weapons, ship and aircraft
navigation and satellites positioning system. The desert ant Cataglyphis is able to explore its desert habitat
for hundreds of meters while foraging and return back to its nest precisely and on a straight line. For
deriving direction information, this animal uses the pattern of polarized light in the sky that arises due
to scattering of sunlight in the atmosphere. The polarization sensitivity mechanisms of the ant’s compound
eye are analyzed. The work principle of the sensor is discussed. A novel bionic navigation sensor
is constructed. And the optic electric structure and the circuits are given. A performance test platform is
designed and set up. The character of the dark field and uniform light field are investigated, the static performance
about sensitivity, precision are tested in detail. And the non-linearity error is less than 0.0853%
FSO (full-scale output), and the repeatability error with 0.0233% FSO is achieved. The outdoor experiment
is performed under different skylight condition. And the worst angle output error within ± 0.2◦ is
achieved. The results indicate the novel navigation sensor is with high precision and robustness