The New Brunswick Company Developing Potentially Life-Saving Drone Technology
ST. STEPHEN –Drone-dropped deliveries: the alliteration is the best way to describe the tech a New Brunswick aerospace company is testing in a $1.1-million federal pilot project.
Aerial Vehicle Safety Solutions (AVSS) is almost done testing its Payload Precision Delivery System (PPDS), technology that guides air-dropped supplies from drones, helping isolated communities.
The project, which AVSS announced in February, will see the delivery and test of 100 units of its autonomous, guided parachute delivery system and its integration into four drones.
CEO Josh Ogden tells Huddle the contract is an opportunity for AVSS to get market feedback and validate the performance of its system in harsh environmental conditions.
“Ultimately, it’s a proper signal for us to say, ‘okay, this product does have market value and there are cases for its application.’ There are cases where technology gets developed and if you don’t have the market feedback you could be going down a blind hole and this ultimately gives us that customer feedback required to understand when a product is scalable,” he says.
The pilot project, which is expected to wrap up at the end of this month, tests the accuracy of the system and marks the first stage of the project.
Upon completion, a potential second stage entails the federal government purchasing the drone system directly from AVSS for $8-million, for up to three years.
Testing is being carried out by Transport Canada, Indigenous Services Canada, and Ontario drone operator 3 Points in Space Media. It will happen in a remote Indigenous community in Northern Ontario that lacks infrastructure for more conventional deliveries.
Tech Specs
“We’re kind of like an airbag seatbelt company in that if a drone were to fail, we don’t want it coming crashing down over a highway or over a group of people,” explains Ogden.
“Part of the chain we saw in the drone-failure life cycle is that once the parachute deploys, it can drift. It can cause unintended consequences if a drone drifts into a lane of traffic, so the tech we developed is a core part of the project–the guidance.”
To meet regulatory requirements for drones to operate, AVSS developed a complex series of algorithms and sensors to prevent drones from drifting once their parachutes deploy.
The GPS-guided system determines a safe zone for landing using autonomous systems that operate in the background.
Ogden said the technology autonomously analyzes drone flights in real time, figures out what’s wrong and how the drone has deviated from normal flight behaviour–whether it’s propeller issues or the drone turns upside down–and does what is necessary to correct that.
“It takes a lot of intelligence and that’s why it takes a couple of years to build algorithms and controls,” Ogden says. He notes the system is similar to those that kick in, in a modern car, when it spins out on black ice.
He says the technology could prove useful closer to home, perhaps helping to deliver essential goods to places like flood-prone Darling’s Island in the Kennebecasis Valley, or remote, difficult-to-access places like Grand Manan Island.
“The purpose of this tech is more life-saving, because of costs. It’s not something to deliver Amazon packages–more so cold chain blood samples and time-critical deliveries when you can’t get a drone to land,” he says.
Company
AVSS, founded in Rothesay, started in 2017 developing emergency parachutes for drones. The company, which employs 15–along with a roster of between 10 and 20 contractors and part-timers–extended its mandate to developing parachutes for deliveries. The federal pilot project takes it to the next step, with technology controlling the descent of those deliveries.
AVSS parachute systems for drones are sold in 45 countries, including Canada, Germany, and New Zealand.
Ogden says the company is seeing significant revenue growth and is in the midst of a move from Fredericton to St. Stephen, where it’s setting up its head office and manufacturing facility.
“One of our VPs is from St. Stephen and we wanted to give back to the community and will be doing all our production out of there,” says Ogden.
“We hope to employ a considerable amount of people in the area, providing solid paying jobs,” he adds, noting that the starting wage for an AVSS employee is $50,000 per year.
Sam Macdonald is a Huddle reporter in Moncton. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].