Hydrus - ROBOTS: Your Guide to the World of Robotics

Hydrus is a small autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) designed for undersea research, inspection, and survey missions. Operational straight out of the box, it can swim fully autonomously, making underwater data collection simple and accessible.
Hydrus has discovered a 64-meter shipwreck off the coast of Western Australia. That’s more than twice the length of a blue whale.
Hydrus was created by Advanced Navigation, an Australian technology company founded in 2012 by engineers Xavier Orr and Chris Shaw and headquartered in Sydney. The company develops navigation and autonomous technologies spanning inertial navigation, robotics, underwater acoustics, artificial intelligence, and other sensing systems.
Advanced Navigation introduced Hydrus in 2022 as an extension of its navigation and autonomy work into subsea robotics, with the goal of bringing the ease of use and accessibility of aerial drones to underwater surveying and exploration. Its intended applications include coral-reef and habitat monitoring, seabed mapping, underwater archaeology, inspection of cables and pipelines, aquaculture and construction surveys, environmental monitoring, search and rescue, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.
Hydrus is a compact, fully autonomous micro autonomous underwater vehicle, or AUV, designed to hover and maneuver precisely, making underwater data collection simpler and less expensive. Unlike conventional subsea systems that can require large vessels, specialist crews, divers, or tethered remotely operated vehicles, Hydrus can be hand-deployed by a single operator and programmed through a point-and-click 3D mission interface.
It packs an extensive suite of imaging, sensing, navigation, and communications devices, including a 4K/60-fps camera, 5,000-lumen lighting system, sonar, and a Doppler velocity log (DVL), which uses acoustic signals reflected from the seabed to measure the vehicle’s velocity.
A combination of inertial navigation, acoustic and optical communications, obstacle detection, and collision avoidance allow the vehicle to operate autonomously to depths of 300 meters, with a range of 1.5 kilometers and endurance of 2-3 hours.
Its onboard AI supports navigation and image-quality control, while its imaging and sensor systems can produce georeferenced footage, perform machine-vision and classification tasks, and generate 3D RGB point clouds for photogrammetry.
Powered by hubless thrusters, Hydrus can maneuver nimbly through reefs, confined spaces, and around underwater structures while reducing the risk of entanglement. Its modular construction is designed to reduce maintenance, while its open architecture allows users to run custom software directly onboard with access to the vehicle’s cameras, sensors, navigation systems, and modems.
Able to conduct fully autonomous underwater missions with advanced navigation systems. Produces 4K georeferenced imagery and 3D RGB point clouds. Compact design that enables maneuvering in complex structures and environments. Can be carried, lifted, and deployed by a single person.
advancednavigation.com/robotics/micro-auv/hydrus
Advanced sensors include a 4K 60 FPS camera, Doppler Velocity Log (DVL), acoustic positioning system, Inertial Navigation System (INS), depth sensor, and acoustic modem. The camera features AI-powered image processing for dynamic balancing of settings and lighting.
7 hubless thrusters for propulsion, optimized for efficient transit and precise attitude during survey.
Fully encapsulated polymer construction, field replaceable thrusters, modular design with overall low maintenance.
Quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 MPCore CPU at 1.2 GHz with Hailo-8 M.2 Module for onboard AI-powered image processing capabilities such as machine vision.
Intuitive point-and-click 3D map interface for mission planning to collect georeferenced video and still image data. For more advanced missions, such as machine vision and AI, an open architecture platform allows users to integrate custom software, offering versatility for various underwater tasks. The software is based on ROS (Robot Operating System). Full access to the camera, sensors, navigation, modem, and control systems.
99 Wh lithium-ion battery, with endurance of up to 3 hours.