Calgary helps to bring commercial drone service a step closer in Canada
Pilot projects in the Canadian city’s living lab will begin utilising the AirMatrix software platform inside an allocated zone to begin logistics and public services drone operations testing.
The City of Calgary’s Living Labs programme is participating in a pilot project to help accelerate research and development efforts of the AirMatrix software platform to inform communications standards for commercial drone operations.
It will begin utilising the platform inside an allocated zone within city boundaries to begin logistics and public services drone operations testing. The deployment will ramp up over the course of 18 months, with the goal of building a live drone ecosystem in Calgary.
Urban skyways
AirMatrix’s platform claims to build millimetre-precise skyways in urban and suburban airspace, allowing cities around the world to scale commercial drone operations. The company is receiving advisory services and conditional research and development funding from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Programme (NRC IRAP) in support of the project.
“As a smart city that embraces fresh ideas and experimentation, the City of Calgary is excited to support innovations in the drone space and is looking forward to supporting AirMatrix’s work to enable safe and efficient drone operations in Calgary while respecting citizen privacy,” said Monique Nesset, smart cities programme manager, City of Calgary.
“As a smart city that embraces fresh ideas and experimentation, the City of Calgary is excited to support innovations in the drone space”
In collaboration with local drone operators, AirMatrix is deploying its operator platform in Waterloo and Calgary. The data gathered will be anonymised and shared with Transport Canada to support the development of the standards required for the next phase of complex drone operations, where the industry will safely scale operations in urban environments nationwide.
“We’re ecstatic to be expanding in Waterloo and now deploying in Calgary,” said Bashir Khan, CEO, AirMatrix. “This is our first municipal deployment in Western Canada, having it in this city speaks to the sincere efforts taking place to increase the amount of innovative job opportunities, Alberta’s increased focus on clean energy options, and efforts to increase lifestyle benefits to residents; this is a step in the right direction.”
He added: “Long term, we see this as a revenue generating economic engine for cities.”
AirMatrix highlighted that the challenges around regulations and technologies for flying in congested urban airspace, backyards, and over city streets have been developing quietly over the last few years.
As a software company that collaborates with regional, provincial, and federal governments in the space, AirMatrix claims to have accelerated its ability to map cities. It said this will enable it to terrestrially and aerially map 100 cities globally over the next year to build skyways that enable advanced aerial mobility, including drones and electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.
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