Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

ROMOR Ocean Solutions supplies ocean instrumentation and custom oceanographic solutions to government, industry, and academia across Canada. ROMOR has identified a gap in the marketplace for a portable and inexpensive data collector buoy with vertical profiling and remote data transmit capability. ROMOR is partnering with the Nova Scotia Community College's (NSCC) Applied Geomatics Research Group (AGRG) to develop a water quality buoy that can be manufactured and sold locally to customers interested in water quality between the surface and the seabed. AGRG will assist ROMOR with the development of a buoy prototype by designing, building, and testing it in a lab and in the ocean. AGRG has experience with data collection buoys, oceanographic data collection, and remote sensing data collection requirements. AGRG will access additional expertise from across NSCC by working with the Engineered Technologies Applied Research Lab for customized printing of metal fittings, and by working with a student from the School of Business on a marketing study. ROMOR's long term goal is to manufacture and sell the buoy themselves, and to eventually add multiple oceanographic sensors to the payload. The buoy will have many applications including water quality monitoring for remote sensing data collection, aquaculture operations, and environmental applications.