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SPRINT

Subsea inertial navigation system (INS)

Engineered for

AUV ROV Vessel
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Overview

Revolutionising your subsea navigation

SPRINT is the acoustically aided subsea inertial navigation system (INS) for all your ROV, towed platforms and AUV operations. Giving you flexibility, cost-effectiveness and ease of use, it embodies our commitment to bringing you innovation in subsea navigation.

Get the SPRINT advantage

SPRINT gives you:

  • Robust performance in challenging subsea conditions
  • High-precision outputs for enhanced vehicle control
  • Instantaneous start-up without lengthy alignment periods
  • Seamless integration with your existing equipment

SPRINT optimises acoustic aiding data from USBL, LBL, Doppler Velocity Log (DVL) and pressure sensors, improving position accuracy, precision, reliability, and integrity. It extends the operating limits of your vessel’s USBL and enhances LBL efficiency by enabling sparse seabed transponder arrays. All while reducing operational time and vessel costs.

Choose your SPRINT

  • SPRINT 300: Perfect for dual ROV and survey use, standalone ROV guidance, and mid-water station keeping. It’s the most cost-effective subsea INS available, with less than 0.1° Sec Lat Heading accuracy.
  • SPRINT 500: Ideal for your demanding multibeam survey operations. Supports tightly integrated sparse LBL range aiding from Sonardyne 6G transponders, with automatic pressure and swell compensation.
  • SPRINT 700: Our highest-performance INS system, designed for your most challenging subsea survey tasks. Supports mobile laser mapping and acoustic inertial metrology with tight integration to Sonardyne acoustics.

The technology

Inertial navigation is inherently self-contained and robust with very good short term accuracy, but it can drift over time. Therefore, the SPRINT INS is supported by complementary acoustic positioning to provide long term accuracy and robustness. This significantly reduces operational delays during periods of challenging subsea acoustic conditions such as aeration and noise. The precision and update rate of the output allows greater subsea vehicle control and makes SPRINT suitable for ROV station keeping.

SPRINT shares a hardware platform with our Lodestar AHRS and runs both AHRS and INS algorithms concurrently. This allows instant INS start or restart upon receiving a position update, eliminating the lengthy ‘alignment’ period common in other systems. The system monitors AHRS and INS orientation separately to assess its health. All calculations are performed internally, protecting against communication issues. The system maintains a 15-day backup of navigation and raw data on an onboard SD card, while topside software concurrently logs all data, ensuring data integrity.

DVL and AHRS/INS

Our Syrinx DVL provides tight beam-level aiding to SPRINT, giving superior positioning performance even with partial beam availability. Standalone 3rd generation SPRINT and Syrinx DVL can be joined together for pre-calibrated, interchangeable use, or combined into the compact SPRINT-Nav unit. This integrated solution, optionally including an internal pressure sensor, is suitable for various ROV and survey tasks. The combined unit features depth-rated water blocks for each transducer to protect the internal components and when supplied together typically doesn’t require re-export licensing, simplifying your shipping logistics.

Performance

• Heading accuracy 0.02° (secant latitude)
• 0.01° Pitch/Roll accuracy
• 0.03% Typical survey accuracy
• USBL/LBL aided: 4.5 x precision improvement
• USBL/LBL and DVL aided: 6 to 13 x precision improvement
• INS Aiding supported: USBL, depth, DVL, zero velocity, manual position, LBL (position), GNSS

Design

• Titanium housing construction
• Provides concurrent AHRS and INS capability for dual use
• In field remote performance upgrades: Yes
• Onboard data storage and battery backup to ride through brown outs
• Navigation outputs: position, depth, attitude, velocity, accelerations, rotations

Ownership

• Warranty: 1 year return to Sonardyne service centre
• ITAR Controlled: No
• UK Export Licence: Yes
• What’s in the box: SPRINT, mounting plate, test lead and cable tail, Fusion 2 software

Typical applications

• ROV and towfish positioning
• Hydrographic and multibeam survey
• ROV DP including mid-water station keeping
• Offshore construction; trenching, as-laid, OOS, touchdown monitoring, structure placement

Specifications

Performance SPRINT 300 SPRINT 500 SPRINT 700
Heading 0.05° secant latitude 0.04° secant latitude 0.02° secant latitude
INS Initialisation Instantaneous Instantaneous Instantaneous
Roll and Pitch 0.01° 0.01° 0.01°
INS Aiding Supported USBL, Depth, DVL, Zero Velocity, Manual Position, LBL, GNSS USBL, Depth, DVL, Zero Velocity, Manual Position, LBL, GNSS USBL, Depth, DVL, Zero Velocity, Manual Position, LBL, GNSS
USBL/LBL Aided 3x precision improvement 3.5x precision improvement 4.5x precision improvement
USBL/LBL and DVL Aided 3 to 7 x precision improvement 4 to 10 x precision improvement 6 to 13 x precision improvement
LBL/DVL Aided Typical Survey 0.05% 0.03% 0.02%
Distance from Origin 0.15% 0.10% 0.08%
DVL Aiding Loss/Drift 1.2 m over 1 minute,
5 m over 2 minutes
0.8 m over 1 minute,
3.2 m over 2 minutes
<0.5 m over 1 minute,
2 m over 2 minutes
Station Keeping <1 m over 24 hours (Syrinx DVL) <1 m over 24 hours (Syrinx DVL) <1 m over 24 hours (Syrinx DVL)
Power
Power Requirement 20–50 V dc, 15 W nominal (35 W maximum) 20–50 V dc, 15 W nominal (35 W maximum) 20–50 V dc, 15 W nominal (35 W maximum)
Power Pass Through 3x for external aiding sensors (up to 3 A per sensor) 3x for external aiding sensors (up to 3 A per sensor) 3x for external aiding sensors (up to 3 A per sensor)
Back Up Battery Type/Life Li-ion/5 minutes Li-ion/5 minutes Li-ion/5 minutes
Data/Comms
Data Storage 8 GB internal memory 8 GB internal memory 8 GB internal memory
Serial Ports/Protocol 4x RS232 or RS485 4x RS232 or RS485 4x RS232 or RS485
Other Ports Ethernet, 4x Triggers Ethernet, 4x Triggers Ethernet, 4x Triggers
Output Rate Up to 100 Hz Up to 100 Hz Up to 100 Hz
Mechanical
Connector Options 4x Seacon/Seanet
1x Seacon/Seanet
4x Seacon/Seanet
1x Seacon/Seanet
4x Seacon/Seanet
1x Seacon/Seanet
Mechanical Construction Titanium Titanium Titanium
Dimensions
(Diameter x Height)
4,000 m (Seacon) 205 x 260 mm 205 x 260 mm 205 x 260 mm
6,000 m (Seacon) 205 x 280 mm 205 x 280 mm 205 x 280 mm
4,000 m (Seanet) 205 x 250 mm 205 x 250 mm 205 x 250 mm
Weight in Air/Water 4,000 m 18.5/11.5 kg 18.5/11.5 kg 18.5/11.5 kg
6,000 m 22/14 kg 22/14 kg 22/14 kg
Environmental
Depth Rating 4,000/6,000 m 4,000/6,000 m 4,000/6,000 m
Operating Temperature -20 to +55°C -20 to +55°C -20 to +55°C
Storage Temperature -20 to +60°C -20 to +60°C -20 to +60°C
Shock Rating 22 g, 11 ms half sine 22 g, 11 ms half sine 22 g, 11 ms half sine