Aerospace company Honeywell is introducing a new inertial navigation system, designed for harsh environments like the sea, which aims to take technology from the aviation sector to the broader autonomous vehicle market.
The HGuide n380 communicates the position, orientation and velocity of an object even when global navigation satellite signals are unavailable, and could be used for positioning resiliency on autonomous vessels.
“We recognised a need for a small, high-performance inertial navigation system in areas like 3D mapping, surveying and other applications where space is at a premium and performance cannot be compromised,” said Chris Lund, offering management senior director, Navigation and Sensors, Honeywell Aerospace.
“We responded by developing the HGuide n380 inertial navigation system, which provides our customers with proven, cost effective inertial sensor technology, created for aerospace applications, but that can be integrated into almost any architecture.”
This system includes Honeywell’s HGuide i300 inertial measurement unit (IMU), a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver and the company’s own sensor fusion software, which is based on the algorithms used for navigation on aircraft.
Inputs from these components are fused together to determine position, orientation and velocity to deliver navigation information in areas where a satellite signal is degraded or altogether unavailable.