Clearpath Heron USV

Clearpath Robotics (Canada) Heron USV (1)

Was quote-only

Discontinued · unavailableVia SSH / web / bridgeROSCatamaran10 kg payloadDiscontinued

UnavailableShipping: Discontinued.

Remote control: Join the boat's network and drive it over ROS: publish velocity/thrust commands and subscribe to GPS/IMU topics from a laptop running ROS. A Gazebo simulator (heron_simulator) is available.

LEARN MORE (Archived product page) ↗

Overview

Clearpath's research surface vessel, the water-borne sibling of Husky and Jackal. It followed the company's earlier Kingfisher USV (on its website by 2011) and shipped with Linux, ROS and open-source drivers, which made it a common platform in university multi-robot and environmental-monitoring work. The old Heron product URL now redirects to Clearpath's robots page, which lists Husky, Jackal, Dingo, Ridgeback, Warthog and TurtleBot but no Heron, so it is treated as discontinued.

Type: Swimming robot · Surface & autonomous boats
Maker: Clearpath Robotics (Canada)
Released: 2016
Price: Was quote-only
Status: Discontinued · unavailable
Best for: Professionals & labs
Programming: Open source (hardware + software)

Price and shipping

Sold on a get-a-quote basis in Basic and Exploration packages. Price not published.

Shipping: Discontinued. No longer listed by Clearpath. Occasional used units change hands between university labs.

Specifications

Category	Swimming robots · Surface & autonomous boats
Released	2016
Country	Canada
Availability	Discontinued · unavailable
Programmability	Open source (hardware + software)
Built-in autonomy	Navigates · Goes to places on its own, such as mapped rooms, waypoints or its charging dock
LLM support	Possible via SDK · No built-in LLM. Its SDK lets software on a computer control it.
MuJoCo simulation	None found · Nothing found.
NVIDIA Isaac simulation	None found · Nothing found.
Gazebo simulation	Sim-to-real kit · Clearpath's heron_simulator runs Heron's ROS software stack in Gazebo. heron/heron_simulator ↗
Best for	Professionals & labs
Vision sensors	No vision sensors
Actuators	Unknown
Audio	No audio
Compute type	x86 PC (Intel / AMD)
Remote control	Via SSH / web / bridge
Size	1.35 × 0.98 × 0.32 m deployed (0.56 m wide folded), 28 kg
Propulsion	Catamaran with two anti-fouling electric thrusters
Depth rating	Surface only (120 mm draught)
Tether / comms	None, Wi-Fi, with an optional long-range wireless network station, plus a 4-channel RC transmitter
Camera	Optional Axis PTZ dome camera
Sensors	5 Hz L1 GPS, 6-DOF IMU, options include SICK LMS111 lidar, SMART7-L GPS, echosounder
Runtime	Not published (two swappable 29 Ah batteries)
Speed	3.3 kn (1.7 m/s)
Compute	Embedded Intel Atom computer running Linux + ROS
SDK	ROS (open-source drivers on GitHub), MOOS-IvP, C++