Kraken Robotics Inc. has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Kraken Robotic Systems Inc., has delivered its ThunderFish 300 AUV to its test partner, Defense Research and Development Canada (DRDC) in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

A $1 million contract award under the Canadian government’s Build in Canada Innovation Program made this delivery to DRDC possible.

Kraken notes that final sea acceptance testing was completed on August 8th.

“We are continuing development of the ThunderFish platform to bring significant new features to the vehicle including increased size, endurance and payload capacity including the integration of our AquaPix Multi-Spectral Synthetic Aperture Sonar and SeaVision 3D laser scanner sensors,” explains Karl Kenny, Kraken’s president & CEO.

“Our next generation ThunderFish will meet the increasing demands for mapping, imaging, underwater operational awareness and payload delivery for a variety of commercial and military missions. The ThunderFish will also be a key technology component in our OceanVision project under Canada’s Ocean Supercluster initiative. We are very pleased to successfully deliver our first pre-commercial sale of ThunderFish to DRDC.”

Described as an “innovative marine robot designed for ultra high-resolution seabed imaging and mapping applications,” the ThunderFish AUV can be used for a variety of oceanographic and military tasks including underwater surveys, environmental monitoring, and searching for downed aircraft and naval mine countermeasures.

Capable of carrying a number of sensors and custom payload modules, including Kraken’s AquaPix Synthetic Aperture Sonar, the ThunderFish AUV can be configured to operate at depths up to 6,000 meters.

According to Kraken, the AUV is ideal for monitoring or surveillance tasks where cost efficiency, ease of deployment and operational simplicity matters.

The AUV's modular design also allows for rapid sensor reconfiguration and battery replacement.