CALGARY, Alberta, January 27, 2021 – Canadian UAVs has secured funding through TECTERRA’s BUILD Program for research, development, and commercialization of “Tasker”, a UAV tasking software product which builds on the success of SkySensus – a project to develop advancements and innovation of unmanned systems operations, airworthiness standards and training. Tasker is intended to build a comprehensive UAV tasking platform streamlining the management and execution of BVLOS operations for Oil and Gas clients engaged in geospatial data acquisition.
SkySensus is a R&D project funded and led by Peraton Canada for the research and development, and commercialization of Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) technology in unmanned systems. A collaboration between Canadian UAVs, Foremost UAS Range, and Aerium Analytics, all leaders in advancing the technology and use of unmanned aerial systems. The project addresses many of the significant technical challenges that will advance safe BVLOS for Canada and Canadian companies.
“We are extremely excited to work with our partners in delivering future-focused and fundamental capabilities for Canada’s unmanned aircraft industry. The depth of subject matter expertise and secured long-term funding in this project is a powerful combination that will deliver substantiated value by institutionally increasing safety and technical capability”, says Sean Greenwood, President and Founder of Canadian UAVs.
“The main challenges that continue to impede large scale adoption of UAV operations across many industries are the significant logistical management costs and regulatory hurdles involved. We are now well positioned to develop a unique platform that integrates critical logistical and regulatory considerations in a geospatial setting that goes beyond data visualization to facilitate intelligent actioning and management of UAV operations”, says Mahmoud Abdelrahman, Program Manager of the Tasker project at Canadian UAVs.
Project SkySensus combines UAS technology with innovation in emerging applications that will enable new levels of UAS automation”, said Blair Boyd, SkySensus Program Manager at Peraton Canada. As the execution of BVLOS operations improves the ability to perform increasingly complex tasks, SkySensus aims to facilitate best practices in airworthiness standards and safe operations to support commercialization.” Canadian UAVs has been making waves in the unmanned aircraft industry since its inception and has a rich history of UAV operations rooted in the defense, oil and gas, and agriculture sectors. Sean Greenwood was a winner at the 2019 TECTERRA Awards. Recently, Canadian UAVs executed the first-ever commercial contract in Canada to perform UAV BVLOS operations in unrestricted airspace. This followed the significant milestone of obtaining licensing from Transport Canada to operate unmanned vehicles BVLOS up to 10 kilometers. The feat advances the entire unmanned aircraft industry and facilitates UAVs maximizing their potential of flying farther, collecting more data, and providing increased value to their clients.
The success of Canadian UAVs and its partners have a significant opportunity to make Alberta, and Canada, a leader in the UAV industry. The Tasker project, along with project SkySensus, will stimulate jobs, innovation, and develop an ecosystem that draws additional business solutions, academic, and research institutions with aligned interests and skills.
