Ottawa-based Precarn Incorporated has announced $2.1 million in funding to move first-of-their-kind Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) toward commercialization. The funding is aimed at strengthening Canada’s competitiveness in the digital economy and will be directed toward 14 projects.

The Precarn Partnering Model involves the partnership between a technology company, a customer and an academic research partner. The model has been proven to accelerate technology commercialization, reduce risk and share the cost of R&D.

Following are short descriptions of four of the project winners that have an interesting geospatial, location-based or sensor web component:

Underwater Laser Scanner: This project will build on technology used in existing underwater laser scanners in order to develop a new version that can easily be integrated with smaller underwater inspection vehicles. There is a critical need for robotic tools to inspect and maintain aging underground water and waste water infrastructures in order to ensure public safety. Current techniques are limited and cannot detect fine defects such as the size of cracks or displaced joints. The new scanner will be capable of measuring fine details and will be used with companion software that enables end-users to obtain dimensions of the scanned environments, ultimately producing precise three-dimensional models. Led by 2G Robotics Inc. of Waterloo, ON, the project partners include ASI Group (St. Catharines, ON) and University of Waterloo (Waterloo, ON).

Intelligent Controller for Energy Efficient Building Automation: This project aims to transform the building automation industry – the use of a computerized intelligent network of electronic devices to monitor and control the mechanical and lighting systems of a building – by reducing the costs normally associated with the installation and integration of building controllers. Specifically, the project will add intelligent capabilities to the existing CAN2GO building controller, making it possible to program individual room controllers through a universally accessible web interface as well as to interpret and act on automation programs both globally (by the remote system integrator) or locally (by the user or building manager). The product enhancements will reduce the need for specialized labour, and will provide system integrators with unlimited wireless access to building controllers through the Zigbee and EnOcean wireless protocols. The overall goal is to promote and enable intelligent, sustainable “green” buildings by creating a broad range of interoperable, self-powered wireless control systems. Led by SCL Elements of Montreal, QC, the project partners include Regulvar Inc. (Montreal, QC) and McGill University (Montreal, QC).

Remote Asset Monitoring with Intelligent Agents: This project will develop intelligent remote asset and environmental monitoring agents that enhance the accuracy of information collected at remote sites, providing better diagnostic output, and increasing the efficiency and control of remote client assets or equipment, such as remote sensors used in the oil fields. The goal is to develop a web-accessible, generic platform that is portable and recyclable, using UML and object-oriented programming techniques. The intelligent platform can be used for specialized autonomous control at remote sites, as well as for trending analysis, data mining or rule-based analysis of information gathered from multiple locations. Advances in cellular internet communication have opened large geographic areas to wireless networking, creating the potential to gather vast amounts of information from the field that can be difficult to manage. Placing generic intelligent agents at remotes sites and on corresponding application servers will provide an affordable means to capture and summarize specific knowledge that can then be used to issue pre-emptive warnings or suggest corrective actions for the remote assets based on historical and real-time system data. Led by Xtel International Ltd. of Acheson, AB, the project partners include HSE Integrated Ltd. (Sylvan Lake, AB), Ocean Controls Ltd. (St. Albert, AB) and University of Alberta (Edmonton, AB).

Miniature Satellite Star Tracker: The goal of this project is to develop an extremely small star tracker for use by small satellites. Existing miniature star trackers are available only from the U.S. and their export is restricted. By providing a Canadian source, the project will support upcoming Canadian satellite missions and will also be able to market worldwide under less restrictive Canadian export regulations. Miniature star trackers provide precise orientation information to small satellites which would otherwise need to rely on less accurate sun sensors and magnetometers. The product design will incorporate handheld mobile electronics – including image sensors, processors and memory – that could be found in a digital camera or cell phone. Led by Sinclair Interplanetary of Toronto, ON, the project partners include the Space Avionics and Instrumentation Lab at Ryerson University (Toronto, ON) and the Space Flight Laboratory at University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (Toronto, ON).

Details about all the Precarn prize winners and the collaborative R&D process can be found here.

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