NUCLEUS1000 by Nortek – A New DVL Enhances Your Underwater Navigation FunctionalitIies

Nortek’s latest combined DVL package delivers a suite of integrated underwater navigation sensors at a size, weight and price that will unleash the full potential of smaller subsea vehicles

New technology is enabling electronics in the subsea navigation space to become both smaller and more capable. This trend enables better sensor integration and provides more versatile and compact solutions for underwater vehicles. Nortek’s Nucleus1000 is Nortek's latest offering utilizing these new abilities. “It’s not just a DVL,” says Rory Findlay, Business Development Manager for Nortek’s DVL group. “It’s an AHRS (Attitude and Heading Reference System) that tells you where you’re pointing, how you’re moving. It’s a pressure sensor that tells you how deep you are. It’s an altimeter that tells you how far above the seabed you are. We have not only developed a small DVL, but we have also provided all the things you need to control your vehicle, in one compact package.”

Full suite of high-specification sensors in one navigation package

The Nucleus1000 brings together a full suite of high-specification sensors in one combined navigation package. It reduces development and engineering time because everything required for navigation control is already pre-integrated. The Nucleus1000 offers a DVL measuring speed over ground and through water using both bottom and water tracking modes, an altimeter, a pressure sensor, a temperature sensor and an AHRS (encompassing a magnetometer/accelerometer and a gyroscope). By combining all these sensors, Nortek has reduced the need for multiple power supplies, communication streams and mechanical integration efforts, simplifying your vehicle’s navigation and control system.

Enabling navigation for small underwater vehicles and unmanned surface vehicles

Such a combination of sensors enables precise control and navigation for much smaller underwater vehicles than was previously possible, opening the door for small remotely operated underwater vehicles, micro autonomous underwater vehicles and coastal unmanned surface vehicles to expand their capabilities. The Nucleus1000 provides the opportunity for these vehicles to punch above their weight and increase their value to the end user. “It’s about creating things that have not come into the market yet, things that are actually new, instead of just making another version or a smaller version of something,” Findlay adds. “For instance, no other small DVL solution can offer current profiling and water tracking, or a speed through water measurement.”

The Nucleus1000 is a small DVL that expands the capabilities for small remotely operated underwater vehicles, micro autonomous underwater vehicles and coastal unmanned surface vehicles. The Nucleus1000 is just 90 mm in diameter and 42 mm in height, and weighs only 535 g in air, with a depth rating of 300 m. It runs on 10–32 V with an average power consumption of 4W and offers both serial and Ethernet communications.