Advanced Navigation, a global leader in navigation technology and autonomous systems, has announced the expansion of its Boreas range with the new 50 Series -a high-performance fibre-optic gyroscope (FOG) inertial navigation system (INS) delivering rapid North-seeking in challenging GNSS-denied mining environments.
The 50 Series includes two high-performing variants: the A50, an attitude and heading reference system (AHRS); and the D50, a strategic-grade INS. Each is equipped with a North-seeking gyrocompass capable of rapidly determining true North.
Featuring all-band GNSS receivers, the D50 offers enhancements in signal availability, heading accuracy and greater resilience in challenging environments, the company says. Powered by Advanced Navigation’s advanced sensor fusion, the series delivers intelligent, reliable navigation within a compact, SWaP-optimised form factor.
Maximilian Doemling, Head of Product at Advanced Navigation, said: “Accurately determining position and heading remains a persistent challenge in mining operations. This limitation not only slows down automated systems but also makes precision tasks more difficult than they need to be.
“That’s where the Boreas 50 Series comes in. It plugs straight into new and existing platforms and starts delivering fast, reliable positioning and North-seeking where traditional systems aren’t able to. Even in the toughest environments, it ensures continuous performance to keep operations moving with less downtime. It’s a robust solution built for the long-term, with high availability and a clear return on investment.”
Compact North-seeking in tough environments
- Real-time North-seeking: The Boreas 50 Series contains precise North-seeking gyrocompassing, capable of detecting Earth’s rotation to determine true North in real time, completely independent of GNSS signals or magnetic interference. This is housed in a compact form factor weighing 910 g, enabling easy integration into space- and weight-constrained platforms;
- Advanced sensor fusion: Advanced Navigation’s proprietary sensor fusion draws on sophisticated algorithms to interpret and filter sensor data. The software is designed to dynamically weigh the input from each sensor, adjusting in real time based on reliability scores, environmental conditions and operational context. This ensures continuous, high-confidence state estimation even when GNSS signals are lost or degraded; and
- All-band GNSS capabilities: The D50 incorporates dual-antenna, all-band GNSS receivers, supporting access to the newer L6 band. This broad-spectrum support enables significantly faster convergence times to cm-level positioning accuracy. It also enhances performance in challenging environments by reducing errors caused by multi-path interference and signal obstructions.
The Boreas 50 Series integrates effortlessly into both new and legacy platforms, streamlining upgrades, reducing installation time and lowering overall costs. Its flexibility enables rapid deployment across a wide range of mining applications:
- Underground haulage fleet management: In GNSS-denied zones, the lack of real-time visibility reduces productivity and increases safety risks. The 50 Series provides accurate and high-integrity position, heading and orientation data to feed underground fleet management systems (FMS). This helps to overcome operational blind spots, and optimise routes and resource utilisation;
- Downhole sensing and measurement: Poor stope accuracy and ore dilution can result in reactive decision making and financial losses. The 50 Series enables precise steer drilling to maximise ore recovery, reduce dilution and transform decision making from reactive to proactive; and
- Rail asset monitoring: Signal blackouts and fragmented data create safety and planning challenges. The 50 Series helps build a complete digital picture of underground rail networks, improving operational safety and reducing maintenance costs.
Boreas 50 series specifications:
- Heading accuracy: Gyrocompassing 0.5 degrees secant latitude;
- Roll and pitch accuracy: 0.03 degrees; and
- Positional accuracy: 0.01 m CEP50.
All-band GNSS upgrade across inertial navigation range
In addition to the Boreas 50 series, Advanced Navigation is rolling out a major upgrade to bring all-band GNSS support across its flagship INS solutions. This enhancement is now available across multiple products, including:
- Boreas D Series – Including the D70 and D90 FOG-based INS; and
- Certus Evo – an ultra-high accuracy MEMS GNSS/INS system housed in a compact, low-SWaP-C form factor.
This is a step-up from existing multi-band receivers, delivering significant performance and reliability gains. Unlike legacy systems, the new all-band platform is engineered to harness the latest correction services on the L6/E6 frequency, offering global coverage, faster convergence times and enhanced signal resilience in the most challenging mining environments. With integrated correction services, this upgrade reduces system complexity while boosting operational uptime and accuracy, the company says.
