Kraken Robotics has been awarded a financial contribution of $1 million from the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador under the Innovation and Business Development Funding (IBDF) program and will be used for the initial phase of the OceanVision project that Kraken plans to pursue as part of the Ocean Supercluster initiative.
OceanVision is a proposed three-year project to develop a new business model that supports Robotics as a Service (RaaS). This RaaS business model will provide an end-to-end integrated solution that offers advanced sensors, robots and data analytics as a turnkey service.
The IBDF award will help fund the production of a KATFISH system, and Kraken’s autonomous launch and recovery system, including Kraken’s new Tentacle winch.
The award also funds the first of three at-sea demonstration campaigns that will be completed throughout the proposed OceanVision project.Kraken’s project focuses on two primary areas of innovation, including: development of the analytics related to processing, merging and analyzing real-time data; and, development of a new data workflow, providing real-time, high-resolution intelligence of the seafloor and subsea assets.
It will strengthen capabilities in emerging technologies, including digitalization, subsea tiebacks and other technologies to lower costs and improve operating performance in the offshore oil and gas industry, the company explained.
Karl Kenny, Kraken ‘s president & CEO, said, “We are very grateful for this financial contribution from the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador which supports the initial phase of our proposed OceanVision project. Robotics as a Service is a unique business model, which is a combination of sensors, underwater robots, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. With RaaS, clients do not need to purchase an integrated solution; they can, instead, lease the robotic devices to acquire and process the ultra-high resolution subsea data that they need. The data captured by robots across different locations can be stored in a cloud-based system and accessed by humans. This will ensure seamless data access without disrupting the existing workflow. Customers can leverage robots to engage their resources into more human-intensive processes such as decision-making and analytical thinking. While maritime RaaS is still in a nascent stage of development, it is already driving exciting domestic and international opportunities. With a growing focus on productivity challenges and a deep understanding of the operational environment, RaaS will accelerate innovation and disrupt antiquated business models in many industries across the ocean technology community.”