April 25, 2019 – Ottawa, ON Four new Canadian companies and innovative research projects will be funded by LOOKNorth and Unmanned Systems Canada – Systèmes Télécommandés Canada (USC-STC) as part a national ‘testbed project’ in the Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems ‘RPAS’ (also known as UAV’s or drones) industry. The Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) projects include work in the mining, infrastructure monitoring, marine and environmental research sectors and will test various types of drone flight management software programs, Remotely Piloted Traffic Management (RTM) systems, aircraft/airframes and data management systems.
The four Canadian companies include AirMarket Inc., Helios, Sky Pilot Unmanned Aerial Solutions, and Stratodynamics Aviation Inc.
More details about each of these innovative projects are included in the attached press release:
- AirMarket Inc. will evaluate the use of its fleet planning and flight management software to conduct BVLOS fight operations in Arctic conditions
- AirMarket’s FlySafe software will be used to validate RPAS Traffic Management (RTM) capabilities in Arctic conditions in Nunavut with the support of the Canadian Coast Guard Search and Rescue group and Nunavut emergency management officials.
- Helios UAV will conduct missions to conduct Geomagnetic Surveys under BVLOS Conditions
- Helios UAV provides drone-based data acquisition services for mining, and will test the technical requirements to ensure safe and successful BVLOS operations in the context of magnetometric geophysical surveying, including unmanned traffic management and detect-and-avoid systems.
- Sky Pilot Unmanned Aerial Solutions will use drones to conduct highway monitoring
- Sky Pilot will validate BVLOS operations and automated data analytics for monitoring highway infrastructure, slope stability, search and rescue, wildlife monitoring and biodiversity mapping.
- Stratodynamics Aviation Inc. will test its ballon-launched unmanned glider and ‘HiDRON UAS platform’ to measure greenhouse gases (GHG).
- Stratodynamics provides high-altitude Earth observation platforms and services. They will equip their HiDRON UAS platform (a unique balloon-launched unmanned glider that collects in-situ stratospheric data) with a greenhouse gas (GHG) measurement system to improve data collection methods for vertical GHG profiles and to help to study the impacts of GHG emissions.
These four projects will work to accelerate commercialization of Remotely Piloted Aerial Systems for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations by providing data to Transport Canada and project managers at LookNorth and USC-STC. Key findings will be presented to the industry and will help to shape and advance the regulatory environment to enable long-range flights and BVLOS missions.
Background Information
The call for proposals for this latest round of funding was announced during the USC-STC 16th National Annual “Unmanned Canada 2018” Conference and Trade Show in Vancouver, BC in November 2018 and promoted by USC-STC.
