Underwater Navigation & Robotics

Advanced Navigation has enjoyed great success in the underwater navigation sector and continues to invest in research and development to provide better solutions for successful operations in this incredibly challenging environment. Underwater applications require equipment that can withstand the most strenuous conditions as well as deliver improvements in efficiency, safety and reduced carbon emissions – we understand that. We also understand the need for designing and building tools for subsea users that will provide not only commercial benefits, but will assist in improving our interaction with underwater environments. Our clients cover a vast array of below-water applications, ranging from hydrography, undersea survey, remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) control and navigation, reef and habitat monitoring, research, and inspection of critical infrastructure.

Advanced Navigation seeks to not only assist you in navigating exactly where you want your vessels or assets to be below the waves, but to leverage our expertise in precision robotics, navigation and artificial intelligence to create new horizons that will mutually benefit human effort and sustainable interaction with marine habitats and lifeforms.

Advanced Navigation has long understood the benefits of artificial intelligence and machine learning using artificial neural networks, not only in its areas of expertise, but the widespread adoption of this technology to create better, more responsive, responsible, and sustainable products.

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Technologies

Advanced Navigation has a range of inertial navigation systems (INS) that are based on both MEMS and fibre-optic gyroscope technologies. These cover a range of performance grades that makes them suitable for an array of subsea applications, including autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV)/remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and submarine vessel navigation and hydrographic survey.

Boreas DFOG products feature gyrocompassing capability that enable them to rapidly establish heading even in conditions of high dynamic motion, without requiring GNSS or magnetometers. The reliability of data from the Boreas system provides very high levels of confidence in determining a relative or absolute position of a vehicle or vessel. Additionally, Boreas is much less affected by sources of magnetic interference, which are common to sub-marine vessels, ROVs and AUVs.

Advanced Navigation INS supports integration with a wide range of subsea aiding sensors such as DVL and USBL to enable higher accuracy positioning over extended distances. Our products are designed to be extremely compact and light for easier integration and, for high sensitivity systems and smaller vehicles, the reduced mass minimizes effects on ROV/AUV control or movement.

As with all Advanced Navigation products that support GNSS aided navigation, the systems are multi-frequency and multi-constellation straight out of the box with support for RTK to meet the most demanding requirements.

For subsea applications, such as remotely operated vehicles (ROV), autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV), and asset and diver tracking, the Subsonus system provides an incredibly flexible and scalable acoustic navigation solution. Subsonus and Subsonus Tag units feature an inertial navigation system and high refresh rate processing for very high-quality data. The Subsonus transducer and Subsonus Tag transponder can be used in any of the following configurations:

1. USBL2 (“USBL-squared”) – A unique architecture that utilizes Subsonus USBL transducers on both vessels and tracked assets instead of Subsonus Tag transponders. By processing and resolving relative USBL bearings and orientation at each transducer, this multi-point USBL system delivers noticeably improved accuracy and precision, error correction, uncertainty, latency, and speed of sound measurement. The additional navigation data allows the sophisticated fusion algorithm to analyze the system and utilize full data from each transducer.

Attach a GNSS Compass to the surface vessel for reliable absolute position data that is acoustically transferring between the Subsonus units. Obtaining absolute heading data in this way is extremely cost-effective when compared to FOG, and because the heading is via GNSS, the system is immune to magnetic interference and is markedly more accurate than magnetic heading.

Note that this architecture is not the same as “iUSBL“, which is essentially a reversal of normal USBL-transponder roles, where the USBL is on the roving vehicle.

2. USBL to Transponder – USBL architecture for reliable asset tracking data. This configuration is also excellent for remote sensing applications. In this scenario, Subsonus Tags are placed on assets, such as buoy moorings, in such a way as to enable remote detection of changes in the position or orientation of the asset. This significantly reduces routine inspection costs. Note that a fully charged Subsonus Tag can remain active for up to 18 months.

Hydrus represents a new era in underwater robotics for data capture and survey. Hydrus is a fully autonomous underwater drone that is not only equipped with the most advanced navigation, communication and propulsion systems of any subsea vehicle, but it hugely simplifies subsea survey, inspection and data capture. Hydrus takes the revolution that occurred with aerial drones into underwater space, including:

  • No specific skills or training are required for the operation
  • Incredibly simple mission and task-oriented deployment
  • Unrestricted transportation
  • One-person hand-held launch and retrieval
  • DVL, USBL, INS, optical/acoustic modem
  • Flight safe and can be carried in luggage
  • Fully wireless data transfer and charging
  • Fully georeferenced high-resolution still image and video, 3D acoustic point cloud survey and water data collection.

The traditional massive logistics, costs and carbon emissions of hitherto undersea survey applications are conquered by Hydrus. From knee-deep to 3000 m depth, Hydrus is capable of servicing an almost endless array of applications from survey, research and habitat monitoring to hull and infrastructure inspection to object classification and detection. The Hydrus system means that exploration and research of underwater realms are no longer limited to marine specialists.

Acoustic positioning transponder

Position Accuracy

0.25 m


Range

1,000 m


Depth Rating

2,000 m


Battery Life

18 months

Next-generation USBL/Modem

Position Accuracy

0.1 m


Roll & Pitch

0.1 °


Acoustic Heading

0.3 °


Range & Depth

1,000 m

Revolutionary underwater vehicle

Depth Rating

300 m


Video Resolution

4K @ 60 FPS


Range

2 km


Endurance

3 hrs

World-first digital FOG technology

D70

D90


Roll & Pitch

0.01 °

0.005 °


Heading (Gyrocompass)

0.1 ° seclat

0.01 ° seclat


Bias Instability

0.01 °/hr

0.001 °/hr


Position Accuracy

10 mm

10 mm

Accurate Positioning in the Most Demanding Conditions

Our systems deliver the highest performance and richest feature set on the market. Our high-performance navigational systems are designed to industry standards, ensuring reliability and efficiency across diverse applications.

All our systems are designed and tested to safety standards with fault tolerance built in to provide you with the highest reliability possible. Our reliability is trusted by many of the world’s largest companies.

Our systems are built to the highest quality standards in Australia to endure the test of time in the most difficult conditions. You can rely on our products.

The Latest News in Subsea Navigation

Balancing Cost & Performance For Blackwater ROV Navigation

Tamboritha seamlessly integrated Boreas A70 fiber-optic gyroscope (FOG) inertial navigation system (INS) into their Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV).

13 December 2024

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Advanced Navigation's micro-AUV, Hydrus in the water

How Hydrus Micro Hovering AUV Leads the Way in Modern Naval Defense

At the forefront of this new age are AI-driven underwater drones like Advanced Navigation’s Hydrus. Designed as dual use for both defense and civilian applications, Hydrus excels in gathering underwater intelligence. These range from change monitoring, vessel maintenance and mine detection.

23 August 2024

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Underwater view of HYDRUS autonomous drone
The logo for IEEE Spectrum, a publication focused on technology and engineering

IEEE Spectrum: Video Friday

Hydrus has been featured in IEEE Spectrum’s Video Friday robot round-up.

19 July 2024

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View of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle using Inertial Navigation
VOA News Logo

LogOn: Underwater Drone Helps Study Coral Reefs

Hydrus featured on Voice of America, highlighting its capability to use artificial intelligence to survey coral reefs.

25 June 2024

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Subsonus Acoustic Compass for Underwater Exploration

Subsonus Acoustic Compass for Underwater Exploration

Maritime intelligence is required for a variety of reasons, including underwater infrastructure inspections and environmental monitoring, and its significance is only increasing.

19 June 2024

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Promotional graphic for 9 News Perth made drone revolutionises underwater exploration
9 News Logo

Perth-Made Drone Revolutionizes Underwater Exploration

Advanced Navigation’s micro AUV Hydrus has been featured on 9News Australia.

28 May 2024

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Common Questions about Subsea Navigation & Robotics Applications

What are the current challenges facing commercial subsea operators?

Mounting pressure from multiple sectors in response to climate change and the need for increased conservation is dramatically altering the way that we interact with the oceans. There is a major push towards reducing vessel size and crew numbers at sea and to accelerate operations so that off-shore time is minimized. This is being driven by not only third-party clients of subsea services, but operators themselves to reduce costs and carbon emissions.

Emerging technologies for autonomous water-based vehicles are driving a new approach to off-shore surveys, inspection and data collection. Small-scale electrically powered AUV and UAV are delivering massive reductions in vessel costs and traditional diesel engine emissions through super-fast deployment, superior mobility and speed. The adoption of complex AI and high-performance navigation systems and other sensing technologies in conjunction with these vehicles is providing greater scope for subsea operations without the previous massive capital expenditure, required skill sets and logistics.

What are some of the benefits of adopting autonomous underwater navigation systems?

The benefits of autonomous and uncrewed water vehicles are huge. These vehicles require no equipment for human operators, which allows them to be incredibly small and very much bespoke to the intended tasks. Smaller, lighter and less complex equipment is easier to manufacture, uses fewer resources and is more affordable to operate and maintain.

Autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles are not only reducing capital expenditure in subsea services, but revolutionizing it. The future includes, for example, robotic vehicles in the offshore field that can autonomously make informed AI based decisions. The effects are noticeable drops in carbon emissions, significant improvements in efficiency, and reduced time-to-mission. These heavily reduce costs for crew, vessels and ancillaries, and provide the ability to more frequently carry out survey and data acquisition missions.

How is artificial intelligence used in marine and underwater navigation applications?

Advanced Navigation has long advocated the use of artificial intelligence and deep learning artificial neural networks. This technology is a feature that enables navigation systems, for example, to use previous data to identify and compensate for sensor drift, causing accuracy to improve, over time. Continued refinement and adoption of AI bring benefits to automated systems and robotics. Using AI to interconnect sensor suites and vehicle subsystems enables superior control and the ability for the vehicle to react to its surroundings without human intervention. For example, collision avoidance and performing actions based on recognition of an object of type.

AI is well suited to fusing asynchronous data from different sensors and using this data to make cohesive estimates of position and motion. That is, integrating and fusing data that arrive at different times from sensors that update at different speeds; for example, 1000 Hz, 1 Hz, or in the case of USBL, varying speed depending on acoustic travel time.

Hydrus is an example of AI that deeply fuses multiple subsystems. As a scenario, Hydrus can be on a mission to capture images of coral, for example, and during the capture of an image, a sudden shift in current may cause the vehicle to change position. Through AI, the image is analyzed and a decision made as to whether the quality is acceptable. If not, the robot returns to the original capture position, checks conditions such as lighting, turbidity and focal length, retakes the image then continues the mission.

How can underwater navigation be improved? What are the advantages of USBL2 (“USBL-squared”) in marine and underwater navigation?

USBL2 uses a transducer on both the subsea asset (ROV, AUV) and the surface vessel. This enables using a shared algorithm and performing USBL calculations at both ends, which produces significant gains in accuracy and reduces measurement uncertainty. Each Subsonus transducer has an INS, which enables full orientation and heading to be calculated and resolved between both the vehicle and surface vessel. USBL2 provides improved accuracy and levels of performance with absolute heading and position being transferred acoustically between the transducers.

USBL2 is a highly effective and complication-free solution for applications that require very high acoustic navigation performance. USBL2 provides reliable absolute position and heading for assets via acoustically transferred GNSS data between the Subsonus units. Obtaining absolute subsea heading data in this way is extremely cost-effective when compared to more complex and expensive alternatives, such as fibre-optic gyroscope (FOG), and is also immune to magnetic interference.

How can I improve the efficiency of regular off-shore underwater inspections?

An ideal solution is to adopt autonomous underwater robotic drones that can remain resident to the inspection area and can repeat missions without intervention. Hydrus is such a system. It can be programmed as a mission that it repeats at predefined intervals; for example, inspecting a port seabed for shipping lane obstructions or for dredging. On mission completion, the captured data is uploaded automatically while the Hydrus docks and recharges.

Perhaps more critically, Hydrus can carry payload software that can leverage the robot AI and enable it to capture very specific information. For example, to identify corrosion in equipment moorings, cracking or movement of concrete footings, dam wall inspections, detect objects of type (shape and size), and monitoring changes in marine habitat, such as water composition and coral growth or decline.

Using such a system can very significantly reduce costs for not only capital expenditure but in crewing, divers, insurance, consumables (vessels and crew) and time to mission.

What does an autonomous underwater vehicle use as a subsea navigation system?

There will typically be several navigation systems and technologies used in an AUV navigation system. For example, a means of establishing position may be required. For absolute position, this often means a USBL with GNSS input that can transmit bearing data to the AUV. An INS may be used in continued navigation, in a dead-reckoning sense, to estimate position based on its inertial sensor inputs, with reference to the last known absolute position or previous estimated position. Acoustics systems, such as sonar and DVL (Doppler velocity log), can be used to improve positioning accuracy by providing additional motion data based on the Doppler shift in sound signals bounced off the seabed. This data is another input to the INS signal processing that introduces additional velocity information, the speed and direction of currents, and vehicle orientation and heading.

Depth in open water is often determined by pressure sensors. Input data from the sensors are fed into an algorithm that applies filtering of the data and introduces additional variables, such as water temperature and salinity, and INS data to provide greater accuracy. For altitude from the seabed, acoustic DVL may be used. This system emits acoustic signals that bounce off objects. The returned signals are processed and, using time over distance and velocity of sound in water, can determine distance from the seabed.

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