Inertial Measurement Unit News

When will the first fully digitized, autonomous and environmentally friendly ship be ready to sail? The answer is uncertain but the Danish Maritime Authority’s ShippingLab project aims to have most of the technical and managerial challenges solved in as little as two years from now. Tom Mulligan reports.Denmark’s ShippingLab project is a three-year initiative that commenced its work in March 2019 with the aim of developing the first fully commercially operational, fully digital, autonomous and environmentally friendly ship.

New capabilities allow “roboats” to change configurations to form pop-up bridges, stages, and other structures.MIT’s fleet of robotic boats has been updated with new capabilities to “shapeshift,” by autonomously disconnecting and reassembling into a variety of configurations, to form floating structures in Amsterdam’s many canals.The autonomous boats — rectangular hulls equipped with sensors, thrusters, microcontrollers, GPS modules, cameras, and other hardware — are being developed…

Yanmar has undertaken development of underlying technologies for robotic boats and auto-docking, technologies that are expected to see service in operations in dangerous waters, maritime surveys, or smart fisheries.While development of autonomous vehicles for the road and the farm continues apace, maritime robotics technologies have yet to become established. With long established track record of R&D in various fields of robotics and IT, Yanmar has been working to meld the hardware…

KVH Industries entered into a strategic partnership with Geodetics Inc., a leader in the development of real-time, high-precision position and navigation solutions. The goal is to provide high performance positioning and navigation products for commercial applications requiring high levels of precision, from unmanned platforms to terrestrial navigation. Geodetics is integrating the KVH 1750 inertial measurement unit (IMU) into two solutions: Geo-INAV Advanced, a GPS-aided inertial navigation system; and Geo-ReINAV, a high-accuracy relative navigation, positioning, and orientation system. The KVH 1750 IMU provides highly accurate 6-degrees-of-freedom angular rate and acceleration data…

Kongsberg Maritime has delivered its 50th HAIN (Hydro Acoustic aided Inertial Navigation) Reference System, to long-time HAIN user, Ocean Rig. HAIN significantly improves reference data accuracy and update rate sent to Dynamic Positioning (DP) systems to support safer, more reliable and efficient offshore drilling operation. It is also suitable for applications including offshore loading and specialist operations such as offshore construction. Ocean Rig is an international offshore drilling contractor providing oilfield services for offshore oil and gas exploration…

KVH Industries, Inc., (NASDAQ:KVHI) reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2010. Revenue for the first quarter of 2010 was $28.0 million, up 53% from the quarter ended March 31, 2009. Net income for the period was $2.1 million, or $0.14 per diluted share. During the same period last year the company reported a net loss of $2.6 million or $0.18 per diluted share, on revenues of $18.3 million. "I am very pleased with our performance during the first quarter as we set new records for quarterly revenue and net income. These results were driven by strong contributions from our strategic initiatives in fiber optic gyros (FOGs) and global satellite communications," said Martin Kits van Heyningen, KVH's chief executive officer.

KVH Industries, Inc., (NASDAQ:KVHI) reported financial results for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2009. Revenue for the fourth quarter of 2009 was $26.3 million, up 24% from the quarter ended December 31, 2008. Net income for the period was $1.8 million, or $0.13 per diluted share. During the same period last year the company reported net income of $0.3 million or $0.02 per diluted share. For the year ended December 31, 2009, revenue was $89.1 million, up 8% compared to $82.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2008. KVH reported a net loss of $0.1 million or $0.01 per share for 2009. During the same period last year, the company reported net income of $3.1 million or $0.21 per diluted share.

Kongsberg has now developed a new DP reference product, the HAIN Positioning Reference system, based on Integration of Acoustic Positioning and Inertial Navigation principles. Acoustic and Inertial positioning principles in combination are ideal, since their qualities complement each other. Acoustic positioning is characterised by relatively high and evenly distributed noise and no drift in the position, while Inertial positioning has very low short-term noise and relatively large drift in the position over time. The HAIN Positioning Reference system is very easy to install; a standard Kongsberg computer onboard the vessel interfaces the small Inertial Measurement Unit and the Acoustic Positioning system (HiPAP or HPR).

Northrop Grumman Corporation's LN-200 inertial measurement devices will be used to increase the capabilities of the U.K. Ministry of Defence's Sting Ray torpedo. Under a 10-year contract awarded recently by BAE SYSTEMS' Underwater Systems Division, Northrop Grumman's Navigation Systems Division will provide LN-200s for the torpedo, which is being modified to defeat the dual threats of both fast, deep diving, double-hulled submarines operating in the ocean and quiet conventional submarines in coastal waters. "The LN-200 provides a compact, low-power and low-radiated noise inertial measurement unit that fulfils the unique environmental and low maintenance needs of the Sting Ray torpedo," said Ross Carr, LN-200 program manager at Northrop Grumman.