City firm in hunt to probe ocean floor
A small Windsor tech company is swimming with the big fish in a multimillion-dollar global race to develop new and better ways of exploring the ocean’s floor.
Envirodrone Ltd. is so new its team of scientists, researchers and innovators use lab space at the University of Windsor to keep costs down.
Ryan Cant, the company’s CEO and founder, could easily pass as a student at just 26 years old.
Yet here they are, recently named one of 21 promising teams from around the world looking to win millions of dollars in prize money offered by the Shell Ocean Discovery XPrize competition.
They are the only Canadian entry up against industry leaders from Germany, the U.S., Japan and Switzerland among others.
“The whole idea is basically to try and tackle a problem where the technology is not quite there yet,” said Cant, a LaSalle native and graduate of Sandwich Secondary School.
The goal is to develop an autonomous underwater vehicle capable of reaching a depth of 4,000 metres to collect data from the ocean floor.
The mapping area Shell is eager to conquer is larger than Detroit and Windsor combined.
“It’s quite difficult and complicated because of where the technology currently exists,” Cant said.
A total of 38 teams embarked on the project but only proposals from 21 teams were accepted to continue in the process. In this next round, each team must develop, deploy and operate an AUV to a depth of 2,000 metres.
Envirodrone is one of only two teams looking to launch an AUV from the air rather than the shore.
That means they’re working on an unmanned aerial vehicle to transport their underwater vehicle to the job site.
“Using a drone to get it out there is more efficient and cost effective,” Cant said.
“I’m confident in how we’re approaching this competition.”
After graduating in 2013 from Trent University in Peterborough in environmental science and physical geography, Cant headed to Western Canada. That’s where he saw the opportunities and potential of drone technology in mapping and data collection.
Two years ago, he came home and started Envirodrone, concentrating on using drones to map and collect data for agricultural and environmental purposes.
Now, instead of aerial applications, researchers are diving underwater.
“Only five per cent of our oceans have been mapped,” Cant said. “This is the push and the movement to understand deepsea environments. We’ve got a really good chance to do something remarkable. These are sort of the new frontiers in drone technology.”
Cant and his team now have until September to develop and refine their model. After that, the field chasing a first-place prize of $4 million will be cut to 10 finalists. There is a total pool of $7 million available.
Each of the top 10 teams will receive at least $100,000 for research and development. Cant has started a GoFundMe page with a link available at www.envdrone.com. to help offset costs related to the massive project.
Using a drone to get it out there is more efficient and cost effective. I’m confident in how we’re approaching this competition.