Sonardyne’s SPRINT-Nav Family now one navigation approach for every class of vehicle

Sonardyne, a Kraken Robotics company, has expanded its industry-leading SPRINT-Nav technology into a complete, scalable family of underwater navigation systems for marine robots, built around a single shared architecture.

For more than a decade, SPRINT-Nav has combined the key sensors needed for high-performance underwater navigation in a single pre-calibrated instrument. This has helped subsea vehicle teams around the world to save space, reduce build complexity and lower integration risk.

Now the SPRINT-Nav family has expanded, providing higher performance to the smallest vehicles and extending how far the largest underwater platforms can travel unaided.

This means that whether you’re operating compact inspection vehicles and towfish or work-class ROVs though to long-endurance XLUUVs, there’s a SPRINT-Nav to meet you mission needs.

Because every new SPRINT-Nav form factor now works across a unified embedded software suite, including the same web UI and API, manufacturers and operators can easily “swap out and swap in” their navigation solution, as mission needs grow.

In addition to faster initialisation, all of our latest SPRINT-Navs can now also support survey operations with our Fusion 2 software, unlocking LBL range aiding and SLAM calibration.

All variants retain the same tightly integrated INS and DVL, factory pre-calibration, true north seeking heading, free-inertial capability and sensor fusion, but now with even easier setup, quicker deployment and less offshore configuration.

From UK-based small form factor AUV developer ecoSUB Robotics to survey company Sulmara, our smallest navigator SPRINT-Nav U has already been expanding the quality and amount of data their platforms can deliver. Our latest, highest performance free-inertial SPRINT-Navs are also delivering navigation to those larger platforms where long-endurance surveillance means operating unaided.

One family, scalable navigation

“Marine robotics teams are being asked to do more with their vehicles: inspect assets in tighter spaces, gather cleaner survey data, support construction campaigns, operate towfish more efficiently and enable longer autonomous missions,” says Aidan Thorn, Business Development Manager, Robotics, at Sonardyne.

“Each application brings different constraints, but all depend on reliable subsea navigation.

“The expanded SPRINT-Nav Family now means users can select the right balance of performance, size and depth rating for the task, without changing the way they integrate, operate or support the navigation system.

“Once one type of SPRINT-Nav has been integrated, the rest of the family follows the same familiar approach. That gives vehicle teams more freedom to adapt, upgrade or develop new platforms without starting again.”

For manufacturers, this can shorten the path from prototype to production by allowing navigation choices to scale with the platform. For operators, it supports more consistent training, spares, workflows and performance expectations across mixed fleets.

Built on Sonardyne's navigation heritage

SPRINT-Nav builds on Sonardyne’s experience in subsea positioning, inertial navigation, Doppler technology and acoustic aiding, developed through real-world use across offshore energy, defence, science and marine robotics applications.

“As marine operations become more autonomous and data-led, navigation remains one of the foundations of mission success,” said John Houlder, Senior Product Manager, Navigation, at Sonardyne.

“It is what gives users confidence in where the vehicle is, where data was collected and whether the same level of performance can be repeated on the next task. By bringing the expanded SPRINT-Nav family onto a common architecture, we are making that confidence easier to build into more vehicle types and carry across more applications.”