Obruta is the Latin word for debris, which is the space challenge that Kevin Stadnyk (Carleton SRCL, MASc, 2020) and Kirk Hovell (Carleton SRCL, PhD, 2022) planned to tackle when they established their company on July 20, 2019—the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing. Both alumni from the lab met while working under Prof. Ulrich’s guidance in the area of space debris removal robotic technologies. Since then, the company had early success in a few space entrepreneurship competitions and was awarded a contract from the Canadian Space Agency to study the commercial feasibility of space debris removal technologies.
Obruta’s first product, the Rendezvous, Proximity Operations and Docking (RPOD) Kit includes both computer vision sensors and path planning and control algorithms.
For more details about Obruta Space Solutions, please refer to this press release and the company’s website.