News

TSS launches advanced new inertial navigation system.

The new high performance Orion INS (Inertial Navigation System) from TSS (International) Ltd will be shown for the first time on the company's stand at the Ocean Business Conference in Southampton (Stand No. 47, 27-29 March). The Orion supersedes the company's successful Marinus AHRS and incorporates many years of technical expertise in motion sensor technology achieved by the Watford, UK, company.

The Orion is aimed at meeting the needs of users in the offshore subsea construction and survey industries who need a dependable and competitively priced reference system. It can provide precise attitude, heading and heave data and is suitable for a wide range of applications such as supporting multibeam sonar surveys or the construction of major seabed installations. The subsea version is available rated to 6000 metres while the surface model can be used in the most extreme sea conditions to provide users with the valuable benefit of minimal downtime.

The Orion is the first INS to be designed entirely by TSS and will be assembled at the Company's HQ in Watford, UK. It will enable users to benefit from the company's long-established reputation for quality and service support.

Dependability has been built-in by TSS with the painstaking selection of components and software developed to meet the demands and expectations of its users. TSS engineers have dedicated the past two years to the creation of a software algorithm that will exceed industry expectations for performance and reliability. It is a development of an existing marine algorithm that has been refined by TSS over 20 years of successful use in the most demanding applications offshore.

The algorithm will process the data generated by three separate ring laser gyros (RLG) that have been chosen for their dependability and accuracy. They can be used at operating temperatures ranging from -10°C to +55°C and require a settling time of less than 15 minutes. Manufactured in the USA, the RLGs are widely used in the aviation industry. and consequently offer users the reassurance that comes from working with proven advanced technology. The accelerometers employed within the Orion are equally highly regarded and are built into the new Orion at TSS International's advanced UK workshops where quality control is maintained to the highest standards possible. The new Orion system consequently offers a MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) of 30,000 hours while its key individual components are rated at 300,000 hours MTBF.

The performance of the Orion's components and software means that users will benefit from heading accurate to 0.1° sec lat and roll and pitch measurements to within 0.025° through a range of ± 90°. Heave measurements are accurate to 5 cm or 5 per cent over ranges to ± 99 m and free inertial positioning remains accurate to 5 NM/hour.

The new Orion INS is backed by TSS' global support network provided by offices in Aberdeen and Houston.

Correct at 27/03/07