I’ve asked this question multiple times on this forum, but I never got an extended answer on how we can make this work. We’ve been testing different DVL systems. These work great for their position-hold functionalities, but as far as the actual map positioning goes, the ROV will always use the DVL’s velocity (speed) over time to make a distance estimate. The specific direction (angle) is determined by the EKF. The onboard magnetometers and IMUs are often far too sensitive to power-related external influences and will drift quite quickly over time.
Due to this drift, the position estimates on the map are not reliable at all. So the use of durable DVL systems will always be somewhat limited by the EKF (onboard magnetometers, IMUs, etc.).
I’d love to find a way to at least hardwire the NMEA heading we get from our external sensor into the Cockpit Compass and make sure the map position estimates are driven by the DVL’s velocity in combination with the external NMEA heading, and not the EKF heading. Are there any ways to change the actual variable inputs to the Cockpit Compass Widget and the Map Position Estimate? (@EliotBR@tony-white@williangalvani)
These were some topics I was active in, but it never lead to a proper solution (I was even left on read for most of them):