Underwater Navigation Device

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Looks like a solution may be on the horizon:

"Scientists in the UK claim to have found a way to mimic the functions of GPS without sending anything into space.

Known as a ‘quantum compass’, this revolutionary method would use the subatomic effects on Earth’s magnetic field and could one day be employed in smartphones.


But GPS is also limited with regards to submarines – when they dive underwater it no longer works.

This means that when a submarine eventually resurfaces, efforts to locate it can be out by more than half a mile (one kilometre).

A quantum compass would, apparently, reduce that inaccuracy down to just three feet (one metre)."







http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2629088/MoD-quantum-compass-GPS-without-satellites.html
 
Very cool. Literally, as I read other descriptions of the technology, it involves near absolute-zero temperatures.
MoD?s ?quantum compass? offers potential to replace GPS - FT.com

It may be awhile coming, but maybe this will get us there. The news release talks about future applicability to smartphones, so they must have something in mind wrt to the hurdle of providing the supercooling, or eliminating it. Thanks for posting.
 
I have both the sport and scout. Its nothing more than a pinger and a tuned directional reciever that displays signal level. Quite a bit different than a device outputting a lat and lon display that one can plot a position with.



I have an underwater acoustic navigation system set. It's very simple to use and quite handy. Takes regular batteries (transmitter takes AA; receiver takes 9V). The receiver lets you know by LED lights the distance you are away from the transmitter; not exactly a GPS unit per se; it will lead you to wherever you decide to place the transmitter, though. You could also have multiple transmitters in different locations, with different pinger speeds. So you can have one transmitter at one site with a slow ping and another transmitter at another location with a faster ping so you would be able to differentiate between the two, or more if you want to get "crazy."

I'm quite pleased with this unit and hasn't failed me. It's called the Divetracker Sport, and I recommend you check it out if you have any trouble finding your way back to the boat or given location. Good luck with your lone dives, though I would recommend you always dive with a buddy, I'm a big fanatic on safety: "Safety first!"
 
Looks like a solution may be on the horizon:

"Scientists in the UK claim to have found a way to mimic the functions of GPS without sending anything into space.

Known as a ‘quantum compass’, this revolutionary method would use the subatomic effects on Earth’s magnetic field and could one day be employed in smartphones.


But GPS is also limited with regards to submarines – when they dive underwater it no longer works.

This means that when a submarine eventually resurfaces, efforts to locate it can be out by more than half a mile (one kilometre).

A quantum compass would, apparently, reduce that inaccuracy down to just three feet (one metre)."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2629088/MoD-quantum-compass-GPS-without-satellites.html

A new article related to this. Still far away, but no doubt that will arrive.
Quantum positioning system steps in when GPS fails - tech - 14 May 2014 - New Scientist
 
A new Inertial navigation device seems to be soon in the market.
Project Ariadna
Though the volume of the device seems to be huge, surely future releases will make it smaller and cheaper.
The principle is very easy though hard to achieve with the required precision. Starting from a known point via GPS in the surface, the device keeps track of the movements of the diver and with this it can guide the diver back to the entry point. The same principle is used by submarines to track it's position underwater.
 
interesting project that ariadna , i think it would map your path via 3D accelerator sensors + depth sensor which is very accurate + some artificial gyroscope instead of classic hall sensor

i read about very similar project in past for mapping caves , they map caves with ultrasound ,

Karst Worlds: Underwater cave-mapping sensor
 
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Has anyone tried building an INS-like system themselves ?

Sparkfun makes nice little "9 degrees-of-freedom" kits. I've managed to get one working on a stripped-down Raspberry Pi (ODROID-W) logging at 600 Hz currently to a SQLite database on an SD card. I figure I could log from an array of three, six or nine sensor sets and use the averaged data to compute a position. My maths isn't too good though and I have yet to see what the drift factor is like.

The ODROID-W has a built in Li-Poly battery charger and is most similar to the Raspberry Pi Zero, although a little more advanced.
 
A bit of news on the Underwater GPS concept:
DARPA program seeks to give subs and undersea drones an acoustic GPS
So still in DARPA research phase, and like GPS, even if and when the military get it working and deployed, it will be some time beyond that before size and cost make it feasible for divers. But another ray of hope...

Adding noise to the ocean seems to be dangerous for the ecosystem and the whole world. I do prefer INS as it uses the magnetic field, a gyroscope and accelerometers to track the current position. In the range of a dive, the INS accurate could be well under the size of a dive boat.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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