The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate’s (S&T) Silicon Valley Innovation Program (SVIP) has awarded $157,801 in Phase One funding to Kenautics Inc. of Encinitas, California, to provide a more reliable system for marking objects in water, under SVIP’s Maritime Object Tracking Technology (MOTT) solicitation.

The MOTT solicitation supports United States Coast Guard (USCG) missions by seeking more reliable tracking systems for accurately marking and monitoring objects in the water for recovery. The solution is intended to be used during operational missions to bolster waterway security, drug interdiction, search and rescue, and disaster response.

Kenautics proposes to adapt their handheld Diver Navigation and Imaging System―meant for waypoint navigation; subsea imaging; situational awareness; and information, surveillance and reconnaissance―by repackaging the system into a ruggedized buoy deployable from land, air and sea under adverse conditions. The Kenautics GPS-AIS Navigation and Tracking Buoy will be usable in both overt and covert operations and will be designed to provide tracking and position data, georeferenced forensic data sets, localization capabilities, and interactive functions.

The MOTT solicitation is open through 12:00 p.m. PST on February 20, 2021. Applications will be accepted on a continuous, rolling basis, and SVIP will evaluate applications three times on a quarterly basis. The next application deadlines are October 20, 2020, and February 20, 2021.