Collaborations & Partnering Opportunities

DRDC Atlantic collaborates with other government departments, Canadian industry, universities and international partners to leverage knowledge, facilities and costs.

To discuss opportunities for collaboration, please contact our .

Some of our Recent Collaborations

Marine Mammal Monitoring

As part of the Joint Oil and Gas Industry Programme on Sound and Marine Life, DRDC Atlantic, in partnership with Akoostix Inc., Canadian Seabed Research Ltd. and Balaena Dynamics Ltd. are undertaking a mitigation and monitoring review of current active acoustic methods and technologies. This work will define the current and potential capability to detect, classify, locate and track marine mammals for either real-time or long term monitoring, independent of visibility and animal vocalization. The capability, or lack thereof, to monitor marine mammals will provide valuable insights into the development and justification of risk management and environmental mitigation plans for any given activity which might affect the conduct of offshore oil and gas exploration and production activities.

Hearing and Security

DRDC Atlantic is working with Dr. Manohar Bance of the Capital District Health Authority. Dr. Bance was successful in obtaining $2.6 million in funding from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency’s Atlantic Innovation Fund program to develop new bone conduction hearing technologies. Dr. Chris Purcell and Richard Fleming of DRDC’s Underwater Sensing Section are providing finite modeling of sound conduction, guidance on device design of the bone conduction transducer and are also responsible for building transducer prototypes.

In addition to hearing aid technology, bone conduction and new transducer designs have potential application in security and defence communication. The program began in April 2007 and will conclude in late 2011.

DRDC Atlantic Arctic Presence

Each year DRDC Atlantic personnel support Canadian government, academia and industry in the Canadian Arctic. The DRDC Atlantic team provides logistic support through the provision of food, fuel, accommodation and transportation. In addition DRDC offers expedition planning assistance and can liaise with the Canadian Forces and other government departments. This support greatly assists organizations with interests in the Arctic environment and allows them to concentrate their efforts on research. Although most research activity occurs during March, April and May, DRDC is available to support groups working in the Arctic at any time of the year.

DRDC Atlantic has a long standing presence in the Canadian Arctic, a presence which will increase in size and importance in support of Canada’s efforts to chart Arctic waters in support of the country’s UNCLOS claims

Rapidly Deployable Systems Array Technology

DRDC Atlantic recently transferred our Rapidly Deployable Systems Array Technology (RDSAT) to Omnitech Electronics Inc. of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The RDSA Technology was conceived and developed by DRDC personnel led by Dr. Garry Heard and assisted by Omnitech. The technology provides an array of digital sensors that can be powered by batteries for long periods of time and allows for a mix of transducer types, simultaneous transducer sampling with analog-to-digital conversion at the sensor, simple wiring between sensors requiring only two or three cable pairs, wide bandwidth as well as environmental and engineering data. Low power operation and simple cabling requirements for RDSAT makes possible systems of minimal weight and size allowing deployment from most vessels of opportunity.

The technology has a large number of commercial applications. It is ideal for creating low-cost solutions for research arrays, military surveillance, security applications and marine mammal monitoring systems. It can also be used to create terrestrial based arrays for acoustic, electromagnetic and optical sensing.

To date six arrays have been provided to the Australian Defence Science & Technology Organization through a joint contract with DRDC Atlantic, Omnitech Electronics and Wescan Systems Ltd. As a result of the success of this contract Omnitech Electronics were subsequently approached by L3 Communications (Nautronix) of Australia to provide two RDSAT arrays. In addition two RDSAT arrays have been supplied by Omnitech for DRDC’s Northern Watch technology demonstration program.