Drone Delivery Canada (DDC) has signed a sponsored research and collaboration agreement with Canada’s University of Toronto and Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) to jointly develop a vision-based navigation solution for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) or drones.

To be developed under the collaborative research and development granting programme of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the solution will offer safe navigation while reducing dependency on GPS technology.

Once developed, the auto-pilot beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) technology will be integrated into DDC’s FLYTE auto-pilot system.

“We are working on this next-generation BVLOS drone technology with some of Canada’s smartest minds."

Both DRDC and DDC will jointly fund the project, which will be co-led by University of Toronto’s Institute of Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) professor Angela Schoellig and professor Tim Barfoot.

DDC CTO Paul Benedetto said: “We are working on this next-generation BVLOS drone technology with some of Canada’s smartest minds.

“This collaboration will greatly accelerate our development of vision-based navigation technology for our FLYTE software management and auto-pilot systems required for commercialisation.”

Last December, the company entered into a commercial agreement with UAP to test a drone delivery platform.

As part of the test, which aims to expand the logistic capabilities of UAP’s NAPA auto parts delivery activities across Canada, DDC and NAPA will jointly design, prototype and test the drone delivery solution.