NB Drones Get Up Close To Fight Pests

MONCTON, NB (February 11, 2015) UNB professor Howard Li and his research team, including graduate students funded by the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation (NBIF) yesterday tested the latest version of their UAV equipment used to measure, monitor and manage Canada's forests. Performed at the Moncton Flight College in Moncton, New Brunswick, they demonstrated how the vehicles can be used to monitor pest outbreak and conduct geographical surveys spending less money and lowering the risk to the people and the environment. The project continues with the collaboration of industry partners Forest Protection Limited and the Moncton Flight College.

« This is a tremendous opportunity for the students we support, » says NBIF, « the market and use of UAVs are expanding everyday – even becoming mainstream news – with graduate students working on the development of the technology, we're confident this will lead to other student interest, and ultimately an answer for the growing demand for highly skilled UAV operators. » Moncton Flight College and Howard Li's research team are currently developing a certification program for UAV operators in Atlantic Canada.

Carl Thibault, a master's degree student in electrical engineering who worked for Li, said the biggest challenge was setting up the communication architecture between the automated vehicles.

« So you can have essentially multiple robots in different places collecting different pictures and different data, » he says. « We want to increase autonomy so that you don't have to have someone driving it from a remote station all the time, which is what current UAV technology is. »

Li says the research will also help day-to-day life easier for people sometime in the next 30 to 50 years.

« It's very tedious to drive, » he says. « All our cars will drive by themselves and they will not collide with each other either. »