COM DEV To Test Marine AIS Breakthrough

COM DEV International Ltd. [TSX: CDV] has secured a space flight opportunity to demonstrate an advanced AIS data detection capability from space. AIS, or Automatic Identification System, is a VHF broadcast system required aboard major marine vessels to locate and identify ships at sea. COM DEV has developed satellite payload technology to solve the traditional challenges associated with space-based collection of AIS data, and is committed to commercializing it following a series of planned tests which will start with an aircraft trial in November 2007. The next stage will involve a prototype test in orbit aboard a nanosatellite currently under construction at the University of Toronto‘s Institute for Aerospace Studies Space Flight Laboratory (UTIAS/SFL). The nanosat is targeted for launch in the second quarter of calendar 2008. The final test will use a dedicated microsat capable of demonstrating the full commercial viability of the technology.




The AIS data transmitted by over 68,000 ships worldwide is now collected, primarily, from other ships and land-based receivers with a limited range of approximately 50 nautical miles. A reliable satellite-based collection system would eliminate the 50-mile limitation as well as the need to build large numbers of ground stations along the world’s coastlines. Existing AIS transmissions can be received from space, but the primary technical barrier to a space-based system has been "de-colliding" the cacophony of signals received simultaneously from hundreds or even thousands of vessels in a satellite field of view.




COM DEV has developed an advanced, proprietary de-collision process (patent pending) capable of separating the multitude of AIS signals into meaningful information. The satellite payloads, which would fly in low-earth orbit, would make immediate use of over US $300 million of AIS equipment already installed by the global shipping industry since mandated in 2004 by the International Maritime Organization. The payloads would include an onboard encryption system to maintain data security.




The Canadian Department of National Defence (DND), Project Polar Epsilon, has signed a small contract with COM DEV to obtain data which it will use to evaluate the results of the trials to assess the suitability of the advanced AIS system for operational requirements. COM DEV anticipates there is a market among various satellite service providers for more than 40 AIS payloads that could be in orbit by 2015. The processed AIS data from these service providers would be of interest to national governments, port authorities, coast guards, search and rescue organizations, shipping companies, and insurance companies, among others—Cambridge, Ontario