Oceans of
Opportunity

Leading the world in maritime artificial intelligence

The Atlantic Canadian company tracking all ships, all the time

As the CEO of Nova Scotia-based Global Spatial Technology Solutions (GSTS), Richard Kolacz has dedicated his career to a monumental feat — uncovering the intelligence to track every ship in the world.

This genesis of this life’s work began at a space company in Ontario. The U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards were seeking solutions to monitor all oceangoing vessels around the world, all the time. In a short 9 months, Kolacz and his team designed, built, and launched a prototype spacecraft that proved this level of global tracking capability was possible. Today, that Canadian innovation is a global success story and Kolacz and the GSTS team continue to provide and innovate traffic control for ships around the world using powerful artificial intelligence.

With a recent federal contract under their belts, GSTS is launching further capabilities with the OCIANA™ system, rapidly processing satellite data with other data sets harvested from ocean, weather, and port activity sources, providing critical safety and decision-making information.

“Unlike an aircraft, where you know exactly when it's due to arrive because it's being tracked all the way, ports and terminals, cargo and shipping people aren't sure when their vessel is going to arrive, and if the berth is available. So, what we do is provide that predictability. We provide enhanced time-of-arrival information, which is important for everybody in the logistics chain,” says Kolacz.

Predicting the unpredictable

Maritime industry is unpredictable by nature. What GSTS does is provide that predictability, helping companies reduce environmental impact and costs, while improving safety. For example, GSTS technology can recommend an optimum speed for ships, which reduces emissions.

“We can actually save up to 100 million tons in CO2 emissions a year and several billion dollars in fuel costs.”
— Richard Kolacz, CEO, GSTS

“The models and simulations we do help provide better control of ships to maintain the right speed and arrive at the port at the right time,” Kolacz explains. “It works like Google Maps when you're driving your car. It tells you there's work ahead, so take an alternate route or slow down. We can actually save up to 100 million tons in CO2 emissions a year and several billion dollars in fuel costs.”

Expansion on a global scale

When GSTS opened a Halifax location in 2017, the plan was to cement the building blocks of their future business growth. A recent key contract win will put those building blocks to the test.

Kolacz explains, “We won a contract most recently from Innovation, Science, and Economic Development (ISED) Canada, which is now allowing all of the different government agencies — the Department of National Defence, Transport Canada, Coast Guard, Public Health Canada — to test our risk management tool, including the COVID risk management capability.”

“So that's the first demonstration of some of the building blocks we have been putting together, and the Government of Canada will now be able to use that and demonstrate it from coast to coast to coast. We're leveraging that to offer the same capability to international organizations, maritime organizations, all around the world.”

OCIANA™: A new era in maritime intelligence

GSTS says their new platform — OCIANA™ — is set to change the maritime sector. This sea traffic management system will allow the location of every vessel to be known, as well as providing guidance on how it should move.

“What people don't see behind the scenes is OCIANA™ can ingest all kinds of data,” Kolacz explains. “We're looking at information on whales, on shipping, on pollution, on logistics, and the ability to develop applications from that is almost unlimited. It's the same as having a smartphone with no apps on it, and we're developing the apps, from all the data sources that are available.”

“ . . . we are recruiting people that have advanced degrees — PhD's, MSc's — from across Canada and around the world.”
— Richard Kolacz, CEO, GSTS

Where better to launch the next era in maritime intelligence than Atlantic Canada?

For GSTS, Atlantic Canada offers the ideal combination of an educated workforce with the right skill sets.

“We're recruiting people coming out of the Maritime academic institutions with good data processing skill sets,” Kolacz says. “We're also attracting talent from around the world, so we are recruiting people that have advanced degrees — PhD's, MSc's — from across Canada and around the world. It goes to the significance of, in our view, creating the world's first and most capable and dedicated artificial intelligence maritime-focused capability in the world. That's a really significant step, and it's being done in Nova Scotia.”

From ocean vision to reality

How Canada’s Ocean Supercluster is supercharging ocean technology development in Atlantic Canada

Headquartered in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland and Labrador, Kraken Robotics is a marine technology company focused on the design and development of underwater sensors and vehicles.

Kraken rose to prominence in the mid-2010s with its AquaPix® Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS) system, which uses unique beam-forming software that is designed to provide extremely high resolution up to very long ranges. With other innovations including real-time, on-board processing; faster code, reducing time to see images; and removable data storage, it was little surprise when the Kraken team was invited to take its technology on a successful Arctic mission to locate the HMS Erebus, one of the long-lost vessels of the ill-fated 1845 expedition led by Captain Sir John Franklin. Major applications, however, lie in the defence, and offshore oil and gas sectors.

Developing tomorrow’s ocean technologies

Since their famous discovery in the Arctic, Kraken has gone on to develop multiple of its own technology platforms, including a 3D laser scanner, an untethered Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) system, and a high-resolution camera. Going from strength to strength, today Kraken is a successful Robots as a Service (RaaS) and data analytics provider with offices throughout Atlantic Canada.

“The role of Kraken is to develop innovations that are not here today,” says Kraken’s Senior Program Manager, Bill Donovan. “If we can develop products that are bigger and better than what’s out in the market today, we will be able to compete.”

“The role of Kraken is to develop innovations that are not here today.”
— Bill Donovan — Senior Program Manager, Kraken Robotics

Turning vision into reality

This philosophy was certainly on display when Kraken set about developing its latest innovation. Ocean Vision was nothing more than a vision just a few short years ago, but with the help of Canada’s Ocean Supercluster — an industry-led, national ocean cluster established to grow the ocean economy in a digital, sustainable, and inclusive way — Kraken was able to turn this technology into reality, in record time.

“Ocean Vision — which turned out to be the very first project approved by the Oceans Supercluster — we designed, developed, and tested a new autonomous launch and recovery system,” Donovan explains. “Our involvement was very much key to the growth of the company, and it allowed us to take a project we had, probably on our 5-to-6-year development roadmap, through the Oceans Supercluster we were able to take that and condense it into a 36-month timeline.”

Supercharged growth

Not only did the assistance of the Supercluster help Kraken to essentially half its development timeline for Ocean Vision, but it also provided them with a foundation for rapid growth.

“Since that time, we have grown our company in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia by 42 employees,” Donovan says. “We have partners from multiple industries and sectors that we probably also wouldn’t have been able to avail of without the initiative of the Oceans Supercluster.”

These partnerships, according to Donovan, have given Kraken the platform to ramp up development and land significant commercial contracts with both the Danish Navy and the Polish Navy.

“Through that project we are going to deliver full mine-hunting systems, so that was a process that we started over 2 years ago,” says Donovan. “We got down to a final 4. The other 3 companies that we were competing with are large defence contractors in the U.S. and in Europe — a lot bigger than us, have more cash, more employees, but we beat them, and we beat them with our technology.”

“The other 3 companies that we were competing with are . . . a lot bigger than us, have more cash, more employees, but we beat them, and we beat them with our technology.”
— Bill Donovan — Senior Program Manager, Kraken Robotics

Putting the pedal to the metal in Atlantic Canada

“We need to continue to invest in Oceans,” says Donovan. “We need to stay focused on that. But I think it’s really key for governments to look at that complete chain, right from concept to development and testing, to commercialization. It’s really important that we don’t sit back and wait, but that we put the pedal to the metal and try to drive as much as we can. I think the opportunities are there. We just need to chase after them.”