N.B’s Kognitiv Spark Testing New System With Royal Canadian Navy
FREDERICTON– A New Brunswick tech startup will be providing its new system to the Royal Canadian Navy.
Fredericton-based Kognitiv Spark announced Tuesday that the Royal Canadian Navy its new Mixed Reality Remote Assistant Support (MIRRAS) system, as part of a project that aims to improve maintenance and repairs aboard active naval vessels.
The project aims to validate technology adopted from Kognitiv Spark, whose software is designed for use with the Microsoft HoloLens. The software leverages Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality, and the integration of Artificial Intelligence to improve efficiencies with ship operations including repairs, maintenance and knowledge transfer.
The new MIRRAS system created at the request of the Royal Canadian Navy, with whom Kognitiv Spark has worked with previously,” said Duncan McSporran, Kognitiv Spark co-founder and vice-president of Aerospace and Defence.
“What they asked us to do is create a new type of capability for the Royal Canadian Navy that hasn’t been used before,” he said in an interview.
The MIRRAS can be used by marine technicians and weapons engineering technicians to ensure that ships remain at a high-level of readiness for routine training and operational deployment by allowing technicians to work on vessels remotely.
A subject-matter expert using the system can see what the HoloLens wearer sees from anywhere in the world. The expert can provide guidance using real-time voice and video, interactive 3D holograms and content, and live IoT data.
Alternatively, the technician can use locally stored data to assist with routine tasks when a remote expert is not available. The holographic support is designed to improve decision making by facilitating decisive action and reducing errors by providing clarity and certainty of comprehension.
“It’s what we call a completely containerized solution. It doesn’t connect to any of the public cloud capabilities. It creates its own cloud, in essence, but it does that in a very secure way,” said McSporran. “What also makes the difference between what we do and what everyone does is that we’re able to do that with very narrow bandwidth, so we’re able to operate in the kind of environments where all of our other competitors just aren’t able to achieve.”
The new platform will help make the Canadian navy more efficient when it comes to working on ships. Maintenance can be done on-site, instead of flying in a technician from elsewhere.
“Innovation and technological advancement are critical to the future of the Royal Canadian Navy. We are continually seeking new ways to leverage emerging technologies in order to enhance our performance alongside and at sea,” said rear-admiral Casper Donovan, director general future ship capability for the Royal Canadian Navy, in a release.
“The Mixed Reality Remote Assistant Support system is an exciting tool, because it may provide our sailors with the opportunity to explore a new, and potentially much more efficient way of conducting onboard maintenance.”
Once testing is done by the Canadian navy is complete, Kognitive Spark plans to offer the system to other military and defence industry clients.
“We’re already in discussion with a number of companies and making real headway into other defence markets as well, so hopefully those other navies will see what the Royal Canadian Navy is doing and say ‘we’ll have some of that please.'”