Grant: Alliance Grants

The number of applications of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in commercial and civilian settings has exploded in recent years thanks to the rapid improvement of UAV's manufacturing technology and cost reduction. From aerial inspection to photography, precision agriculture, traffic control, search and rescue, package delivery, and telecommunications, UAVs are becoming an industry expected to grow up to 80 billion dollars in the next 10 years. However, automated operation beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) and through ground-level obstacles in urban settings remains a barrier to the development of the market. One of the main challenges is the lack of reliable technology and regulations to ensure safe air traffic management for UAVs and their integration within general aviation standards. BVLOS missions require a reliable communication network, with maximum coverage, low latency, scalable and robust in case of interference and obstacles, areas where 5G is the strongest option. Our partner InDro Robotics (IR) is a Canadian company at the forefront of the deployment of UAVs to monitor and collect data and to provide a wide range of services to industries including fire and rescue. IR is one of only four companies in Canada with BVLOS certification. Canada Post, a crown corporation that functions as the primary postal operator in Canada will provide access to delivery zones, package profiles, and travel requirements. Our partner Rogers Communications Canada Inc., a Canadian communications and media company. It has the largest 5G network in Canada, which extends to the University of British Columbia (UBC), the first campus in Canada to be fully outfitted with 5G wireless technology. Our partner Honeywell Aerospace (HA), a division of Honeywell International, is a manufacturer of aircraft engines and avionics, as well as a producer of auxiliary power units and other aviation products. Currently, they own the only fuel-cell-powered UAV business in North America. UBC is a growing city with more than 473 buildings, a population of 73,000 between students, faculty, and staff, and owns and operates its natural gas, electricity, and water facilities, which make it a perfect self-contained setting for piloting new technology deployments. The proposed research aims to develop a technology platform to test and benchmark best practices, policy recommendations, and regulations for the safe and reliable operation of automated UAVs during ground-based BVLOS missions, using 5G networks. This proposal has five specific objectives: i) Deploy an airspace awareness system and communications infrastructure for UAV operation BVLOS over a 5G network on a mini-city (UBC Vancouver Campus), ii) Remotely pilot BVLOS missions over 5G networks considering battery and fuel cell-powered UAVs, iii) Investigate state-of-the-art use cases based on current challenges for cooperative and non-cooperative UAV operation, iv) Investigate last-mile zero-emissions truck-UAV hybrid for parcel delivery considering battery and fuel cell-powered UAVs, and v) Perform research on key disruptive areas related to each one of the partners, activities, additionally contributing to the central objective of this proposal. Topics include an experimental comparison of current cellular embedded technologies for drones, a feasibility analysis on the state of the art technologies in cooperative and non-cooperative drone detection, a feasibility analysis on multimodal transportation systems for parcel delivery, and technology readiness and feasibility analysis on automated charging (for battery-powered drones) and refuelling stations (for fuel-cell-powered drones).