Oceans are key to survival on planet Earth. Advocates for global change are desperately trying to garner engagement for understanding what happens beneath the waves in order to help fix what happens in our realm, above them.
It has long been an ambition of Advanced Navigation to extend its technical expertise into designing and building standalone robotic systems that can help shape a sustainable future.
Hydrus, a revolutionary autonomous underwater drone, is the first such product. This innovation has undergone a meticulous evolution in its development to deeply embed artificial intelligence in fusing its INS, DVL, USBL, and propulsion systems. This is coupled to an intelligent high-specification image capture and acoustic mapping system for underwater tasks that benefit from professional grade and accurately georeferenced imagery. All subsystems are encapsulated in an extremely compact hull to form a versatile subsea robot that can navigate and move like no other underwater vehicle.
ELIMINATING COSTS, CO2 & COMPLEX LOGISTICS
The design of Hydrus will be instrumental in opening up access to ocean data gathering and research.
Hydrus eliminates much of the cost, carbon emissions and complex logistics of traditional ocean surveys that have made this activity highly prohibitive. It is hoped that with Hydrus in the hands of researchers, scientists and environmental advocates that we can help attain a sustainable future and a stable climate.
“Our first live demonstration of Hydrus was at Oceanology International in London. The response from attendees was exceedingly positive. Hydrus attracted global attention from marine conservationists, research groups as well as significant commercial interest. After years of development, it was an exciting moment for the team to witness such a collective interest in our robotics innovation,” said Xavier Orr, CEO and co-founder of Advanced Navigation.
ACCELERATING A SUSTAINABLE BLUE ECONOMY
The potential for Hydrus as a tool in the fight to save our oceans was seen early in the project and gained particular support from Andrew Forrest’s philanthropic organization, the Minderoo Foundation, Flourishing Oceans initiative. Also, in collaboration with marine researchers at the University of Western Australia, momentum and practical insight into how Hydrus could be used for the projects became apparent.
This story was originally featured in ON&T’s May 2022 issue. Click here to read more.
