Drone with Chainsaw
The UC Vision team successfully cut a 30mm dowel with a chainsaw attached to a drone. For more information on this research project: https://ucvision.org.nz/drones/
Testing our Prototype I drone
Our UC Vision team plus the University of Auckland who visited UC, recently tested the planetary hex drone Prototype I as part of our drones with tools project. The drone was designed by the University of Auckland and built by SPS Automation. The idea was to make a drone that is very stable in extreme environments. There will be another future prototype once this one has been put through lots of tests.
UC Vision at the Smart Christchurch Innovation Expo 2024
Our UC Vision Team had a big presence at the Smart Christchurch Innovation Expo which was held at Te Pae, the Christchurch Convention Centre from 27 to 28 September. We had several of our team manning the UC stand which included a drone display, both underwater drones and flying drones.
Rory Clifford, who is on our team, did a talk about how he is constantly seeking and applying the latest technologies to real world applications. He talked about virtual, extended and augmented reality, digital story telling and digital twins, to unmanned aerial vehicles and underwater robotics. He has adapted these systems to a variety of applications such as fire and emergency training, helping hapū and iwi to digitally retell stories and mātauranga for current and future generations, to providing insight into underwater farming of mussels and scanning the seabed. His driving force is enabling our people to upskill and apply new technologies for our sustainable future.
UAV Expo Las Vegas 2024
From 3-5 September 2024 the [Commercial UAV Expo](https://www.expouav.com) was held in Las Vegas, and had 4000+ attendees and exhibitors from over 75 countries.
As part of the [KiwiNet Emerging Innovator program](https://kiwinet.org.nz/EmergingInnovatorProgramme), UC Vision researchers Dr Sam Schofield and Bradley Scott attended the expo to see the latest innovations in UAV development and commercial use.
Among the many exhibitors were a variety of AI-related products ranging from [AI-powered infrastructure inspection software](https://buzzsolutions.co), to products for [enabling fully autonomous UAV navigation](https://www.vivum.ai).
Drone Industry Day 2024
On the 12th of June we held an industry day at Ilam Homestead to keep industry up to date with our research. We had several industry people attend with short talks by our researchers from the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Canterbury and also The University of Auckland.
We were very excited to be able to showcase our new drone design which has been built by SPS Automation based in Christchurch. Scott Spooner attended from SPS Automation and revealed the new planetary hex drone which had been initially designed by the University of Auckland with input from SPS who are now building it. The design includes central propellers with planetary propellers around the outside of this circular design.
Sam Schofield did a wonderful demonstration outside in the gardens of Ilam Homestead of our pruning tool on a drone which runs autonomously once a branch is manually selected by a user.
The Press came to feature our pruning drone and ran an article the next day which is available online to view.
All in all, the day was a great success and everyone was very interested to see the progress we have made since the project started.
The Press article can be viewed here.
Drone meeting in Auckland September 2023
The University of Canterbury research team from the $10mil MBIE funded Drones with tools project, flew to Auckland on 4 September to have an in-person meeting with the University of Auckland team. These meetings are crucial for integration of all the different parts of the drone project.
The day started with talks given by key researchers from the drone project plus some presentations by project students from the University of Auckland. There was then discussion over the drone design which is a planetary hex drone design by Associate Professor Karl Stol’s team.
The day concluded with two drone presentations including one peg in hole demo.
We are in an exciting phase of the project with the final drone design for prototype one being ready by 1 October.
Drone project – cutting tool
In June InFact completed a cutting tool to be attached to our drone. We already had a tool which had been designed by final project students but was a more lightweight tool. This tool can easily cut larger branches. It was interesting watching the tool being attached to our Matrice drone and the first flights using the tool look promising.
Drone Project Industry Day 2023
On 22 May 2023 the Drone Project held an industry day at Ilam Homestead. The day started with presentations from our key researchers with updates on how the project is progressing. There was a display of drones from both the University of Auckland and the University of Canterbury. We had a good turnout of industry representatives both on Zoom and in person.
In the afternoon Sam Schofield (Postdoc/PhD) did a demonstration of the Matrice drone in Ilam Gardens with the pruning tool attached. Pruning was not possible during the demo due to the trees being historic. There was also a tour of the Mechanical Engineering wind tunnel.
Several industry connections were developed during this event with ongoing benefits to the project and this will be held yearly to increase industry engagement.
Drone Research Meeting – November 2022
In late November the UC Drone project team travelled to the University of Auckland to test the DJI Matrice drone in their very impressive wind tunnel.
The DJI Matrice drone was transported from the University of Canterbury to the University of Auckland, minus the batteries. We then borrowed some Auckland based batteries and flew the drone against a wind in the tunnel. The drone has impressive stability against the wind.
Presentations were given by both the UC and UoA teams and there were lab tours showing some of the amazing drones at the University of Auckland. It was wonderful to see what Professor Karl Stol and his research team are developing.
It was agreed that this was a very useful meeting and that we needed to have more in person meetings in the future as this is where a lot of research integration would happen.
Drone fieldtrip to Amberley – August
The drone team had a trip on 23 August to Proseed in Amberley who kindly allowed us to test our drone onsite. Our final year project team with some industry support had made a cutting tool which comes out in front of the drone to cut pine catkins.
