Boldly Going Where No Man Has Gone Before

Photos by Bryce Krynski

Based in Medicine Hat, the Canadian Centre for Unmanned Vehicle Systems (CCUVS) was established in 2007 thanks to funding from the Rural Alberta Development Fund and Western Economic Diversification Canada. The centre has a number of functions under its purview, including the development of standards for the flight of unmanned aircraft, research and development, testing and evaluating products and services, training people in UVS technology, and helping emerging companies.

“We have a state of the art unmanned aircraft launcher that’s available for hire, to encourage people to experiment,” says CCUVS president and CEO Dewar Donnithorne-Tait. All in all, the centre is a “change agent,” to help UVS establish this emerging sub-sector in the province. “There’s nothing exactly similar to us in the world – that’s why I’m here. The closest we’ve got is probably the Australian Centre for Autonomous Systems in Sydney, but they don’t do any unmanned aircraft work … we do ground and air,” he says.

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