HYDRUS

E-ink screen

Hubless thrusters

USBL positioning & Acoustic modem

Forward facing sonar

Smart lighting system

AI Powered navigation system

Wireless charging

4K 60 FPS Camera

Truly Autonomous

Hydrus takes the drone revolution underwater, with the most advanced navigation and communication systems of any subsea vehicle. It contains a DVL, USBL, INS, acoustic and optical modem, all tightly integrated. This enables highly reliable, fully autonomous underwater missions at your fingertips. It also provides obstacle detection and collision avoidance.

Stunning Imagery

Hydrus produces stunning imagery, even in challenging low light and turbid conditions. Through its innovative combination of a 4K camera, dynamic lighting and AI image processing, Hydrus delivers high quality georeferenced footage. The high 60 frames per second allows fast movements to be captured and enhances machine vision capability, allowing for AI classification and analysis to be performed onboard. Hydrus can create 3D RGB point clouds by combining imagery with its sonar and navigation data.

One solution. Endless applications.

Reef & Habitat Monitoring

With obstacle detection, collision avoidance and hubless thrusters, Hydrus has 6 degrees of freedom of movement, making it easy to navigate around reefs and tight spaces without impacting the environment.

It also includes a 4K camera capable of capturing video and imagery simultaneously with millimeter precision, enabling 3D photogrammetry modeling.

Hydrus can be hand deployed by a single user, eliminating the need for specialist crews and reducing costs. This allows for more frequent surveys and faster collection of complex datasets.

Applications include:

  • Tracking long-term reef health
  • Assessing baby coral growth
  • Monitoring seagrass meadows
  • Subtidal monitoring

Seabed Verification & Mapping

The tight integration of the imaging and navigation systems allows Hydrus to capture high-resolution seabed images that are natively georeferenced.

These can be easily integrated with industry-standard GIS, mosaicing, and photogrammetry software.

Using the mission planning software, Hydrus missions can be saved and repeated as often as needed, enabling repeat data collection images at scheduled time intervals. View Whitepaper.

Applications:

  • Site investigation
  • Ground truthing
  • Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR)
  • Environmental change observation
  • Underwater archaeology & heritage

Underwater Asset Inspection

Hydrus can be operated untethered, autonomously without the need for large vessels or expert crews.
Compared with conventional underwater dives using divers or ROVs, Hydrus can reduce operational costs by up to 75%.

Applications:

  • Inspection of subsea cables
  • Survey of oil and gas pipelines
  • Marine pre/post construction assessment

Object Localization and Classification

Hydrus features an open platform architecture, allowing users to run custom software directly onboard with direct access to the imaging and sensor data.
This supports AI capabilities such as machine vision, allowing for tasks such as object localization and classification to be performed rapidly.*

Applications:

  • Subtidal monitoring & research
  • Search and rescue missions

*Note, this technology is included in all Hydrus models, but requires extensive underwater datasets and model training.

Max. Transit Speed
1.5 knots
Max. Survey Speed
1.5 knots
Depth Rating
300 m
Size
520 x 264 x 235 mm
Weight
7.1 kg
Video Resolution
4K @ 60 FPS
Lighting
5,000 Lumen

Downloads

Datasheet

Version 1.5

22 November 2024

Reference Manual

Online Version

Version 1.7

15 Dec 2024

Hydrus Firmware

Version 1.5.1

24 Oct 2024

The latest firmware for all Hydrus hardware versions. This can be loaded onto Hydrus using the web browser interface. If using Hydrus with a Subsonus unit, Subsonus must be running v3.70 or later.

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