Numerous press reports say Fortem Technologies, Inc. has announced its participation in Transport Canada’s Proof-of-Concept Trials into Beyond-Visual-Line-of-Sight (BVLOS) Operations. ING Robotic Aviation, named a participant in the trials, selected Fortem Technologies’ TrueView(™) Radar as its key detect-and-avoid technology to enable safe BVLOS operations. The missions will be undertaken within a safe flight regime approved and monitored by Transport Canada.
According to a press release: “Following our selection for Transport Canada’s BVLOS Pilot Project, we are extremely pleased with this opportunity to partner with Fortem Technologies in the execution of RPAS missions to support Canada’s oil and gas sector,” said Ian Glenn, CEO/CTO of ING Robotic Aviation. “Fortem’s TrueView radar is essential to the safety and success of the unmanned missions we conduct.”
The programme was created to help Canada advance gathering data, providing industry experience and validating technologies for future routine BVLOS operations. These trials build upon an earlier trial for first responders to evaluate UAS in short-range BVLOS (formerly known as extended visual line-of-sight operations), as well as ongoing BVLOS testing at Canada’s two test ranges in Foremost, Alberta, and Alma, Quebec.
ING Robotic Aviation will employ helicopter and fixed-wing BVLOS systems. Each can carry a wide range of sensors and can be configured to conduct various operations including: leak detection of methane/Greenhouse Gases (GHG), inspections of tailings ponds, inspection of the power grid, environmental monitoring, volumetric measurement of mining activity, examination of flare stacks and plant infrastructure in visible and thermal, safety and security – including search and rescue and myriad communications.
“Transport Canada’s BVLOS trials will help validate the technologies needed to facilitate the safe use of UAVs for everything from monitoring critical infrastructure for potential threats to search and rescue and so many other valuable services,” said Fortem Technologies CEO Timothy Bean. “We are thrilled to participate in this program as a provider of advanced radar solutions for ING Robotic Aviation.”
Fortem Technologies has developed a compact, high-performance radar system for detecting airborne objects, a revolutionary safety capability for unmanned and manned aircraft. The Fortem TrueView radar system is small enough to be deployed on unmanned aerial vehicles that can operate autonomously beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS). TrueView radar can simultaneously track thousands of objects—each smaller than a soda can, traveling at high velocity, across a 360-degree field of view.
