Kraken Robotics Receives Canadian Government Funding for Acoustic Sensor Development

Kraken Robotics Inc., a marine technology company, has announced it received funding from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP). The financial contribution will support the development of AquaTrak, a new Correlation Velocity Log (CVL).

AquaTrak is designed to measure the speed over ground for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) and can also be used for high-resolution current profiling. Accurate underwater positioning is a significant challenge, as GPS signals do not penetrate water. Current primary technologies for underwater navigation and current profiling include Doppler Velocity Logs (DVLs).

Kraken states that the CVL technology offers advantages over DVL by using sonar echoes from the seabed to measure direct spatial displacement between successive sonar transmissions. Optimized array designs aim to significantly reduce size, weight, and power consumption while increasing accuracy. The use of a lower frequency is also expected to enhance operational range.

According to Kraken's CEO, Karl Kenny, the AquaTrak CVL is expected to provide a superior value proposition to customers, offering greater performance in speed, accuracy, and range, with reduced size, weight, power, and cost compared to conventional technologies.