News Release
April 25, 2023
Sumitomo Precision Products Co., Ltd.

Announcement of Northfinder™ delivery aiming for Underwater Machine Guidance
Sumitomo Precision Products Co., Ltd. has delivered the Northfinder™ GCAH-12C to a research institute aiming forunderwater machine guidance※1.
1. Background
During marine constructions, divers operate the underwater backhoe. A research has proceeded from the point ofefficiency, safety and securing divers. The research is aiming for remote operation to capture the accurate locationand movement of backhoe under the water. The concept is to link the azimuth and attitude output from Northfinder
with a positioning system. It is expected for practical use followed by demonstrational test.
2. Reason for selection of our Northfinder™
Our Northfinder™ has the core technology of seeking north functionality which can sense the earth rotation by highprecision MEMS gyroscope and combination of our original algorithm.

As no magnetometer is used, theNorthfinder™ can output the high precision azimuth data without GPS not affected by terrestrial magnetism ormagnetic effect of backhoe itself. These advantages are highly rated and thus our Northfinder™ has been selected.
Our Northfinder™ can acquire the azimuth and attitude data and be widely used for unmanned or automated machine
guidance not only underwater but also underground, indoor and mountainous regions where the GPS signal is notavailable or unstable.
Toward the promising future, we will continue to contribute to solving social issues such as promoting a post-5G digitalsociety and realizing a carbon-free society by providing products and services that utilize the strengths of our technology.

※1Machine Guidance: Machine guidance is a system to provide differential data between design data of construction locationand current ground data by measuring the location of construction equipment using positioning equipment.
※2Backhow：A backhoe is a type of hydraulic shovels, construction equipment for excavating earth and sands with shovels

attached to hydraulic actuated arm.
Sumitomo Precision Products Co., Ltd.
General Administration Department / MEMS Solutions Department
1-10, Fuso-cho, Amagasaki, Hyogo 660-0891, Japan
Tel 81-(0)6-6489-5829 / 81-(0)6-6489-5917
Fax 81-(0)6-6489-5801 / 81-(0)6-6489-5910https://www.spp.co.jp/

1

<Contacts on this product>
Sumitomo Precision Products Co., Ltd.,MEMS Sensors and Systems Department, Business Development Group, Taku Aoki
TEL: +81-6-6489-5917

FAX: +81-6-6489-5910

E-mail: mems-sales@spp.co.jp<Description of Northfinder™ GCAH-12C >3 models are available depending on static azimuth accuracy.
High precision model: 0.8 °rms×(cosλ・cosθ)-1 λ：Latitude, θ：Pitch angle<Common Specification>
Measurement

StaticAzimuth＜±180°rangeangle

Attitude

Pitch: ＜ ±90°<0.1rms
Roll: ＜±180°<0.1°rms×(cosθ)-1

Dynamic

Range

Roll, Yaw: <±180°

angle

Miscellaneous

Pitch: <±90°
Angular velocity±400°/s

Acceleration±10 g

Performance range-10～50℃

Power consumption

＜1.5W

Size

36×43×266(mm)Weight<700 gCommunication protocol

RS422

In addition above, we have a rage of Northfinder™ used for various application.
MEMS | Sumitomo Precision Products CO.,LTD. (spp.co.jp)≪Related News Release≫
Announcement of development on an extensible “attitude angle detector gyro unit” and “attitude angle & true northdetector gyro unit 『Northfinder™』” using MEMS type
Sumitomo Precision Products Co., Ltd.
General Administration Department / MEMS Solutions Department
1-10, Fuso-cho, Amagasaki, Hyogo 660-0891, Japan
Tel 81-(0)6-6489-5829 / 81-(0)6-6489-5917
Fax 81-(0)6-6489-5801 / 81-(0)6-6489-5910
https://www.spp.co.jp/2