Mohawk College, Transport Canada sign agreement for research involving remotely piloted aircraft
Mohawk College and Transport Canada’s Innovation Centre have signed a memorandum of understanding, agreeing to work together on research projects related to remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS, commonly known as drones).
As an established research centre in Mohawk College’s IDEAWORKS applied research division, the Unmanned and Remote Sensing Innovation Centre (URSIC) is a national leader in RPAS applied research, with dozens of industry research partnerships across Canada. Transport Canada’s Innovation Centre (TC-IC) conducts advanced research across all modes of transportation, with an eye to informing regulatory approaches, improving departmental practices and contributing to the efficiency, safety and competitiveness of the sector.
“Our ongoing partnership with Mohawk College is about supporting the development and testing of new ideas in the drone sector to make our transportation safer,” said the Minister of Transport, the Honourable Omar Alghabra. “We’re excited to work with start-ups and scale ups, like Skyguage Robotics, through the Innovative Solutions Canada program to see their innovations work in real-world situations. The agreement signed today will help to make our testing process easier and strengthen our partnership with Mohawk College’s Unmanned and Remote Sensing Innovation Centre.”
“We look forward to working with Transport Canada on research projects in the rapidly growing RPAS sector,” said Dr. Cebert Adamson, VP, Academic at Mohawk College. “Our research at URSIC is often guided and governed by Transport Canada’s regulations, so this agreement is a natural extension of our research efforts.”
Through this three-year agreement, URSIC and TC-IC will work collaboratively in the RPAS testing ecosystem, capitalizing on areas of common interest. URSIC currently undertakes the research and testing of industrial-grade robotics and drones with a number of organizations associated with transportation infrastructure, including the Hamilton-Oshawa Port Authority, the City of Hamilton and local railways.