Drones – UCVision

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.

Industry Event for the Drones with Tools project 14…

Last week on 14 June, an Industry event was held for Professor Richard Green’s $10mil drones with tools project which is funded by MBIE. The project has a key research team from CSSE and Mechanical Engineering, University of Canterbury, let by Prof. Dan Zhou, as well as a team led by Assoc. Prof Karl Stol from the University of Auckland. Industry partners were invited to see progress on this interesting project which started last October.

The event was located at the UC Club where research presentations were given by the key researchers as well as lab tours of the Mechanical Engineering wind tunnels and the Drone lab located in Computer Science and Software Engineering department. We were lucky to have warm sunny winter weather and there were many interesting discussions had about the research.

This project will span five years and aims to enable drones to use tools with high precision in mid-air in difficult changeable settings. The goal is to create technology that can be used in forestry, testing power lines or in the construction industry

Richard Green, Dan Zhao, Sam Schofield and Karl Stol (UoA) speaking about their research at Ilam Homestead

Wind tunnel demonstration in Mechanical Engineering

Testing Mathematical Modelling

Today Sam Schofield and two researchers from Victoria University, Professor Peter Smith and Ikram Singh were collecting data to test the use of stochastic differential equations to model the motion of a drone during flight.

The drone was configured to fly autonomously along a specified flight path, while a motion capture system was used to measure its precise position and orientation.

This testing is part of the Drones Project funded by MBIE.

Drone project wins MBIE bid

UC Vision Researcher and Professor in Computer Science Richard Green as well as Professor Dan Zhao in Mechanical Engineering are collaborating on a project using drones which will change the way drones are used in different industries, over and above current uses such as surveying.

The research is focusing on UAVs using precision tools in changing dynamic environments, such as outdoors with hazards such as wind. The project is investigating drones which can be used around hazardous structures such as power pylons or in the construction and forestry industries.

The biggest challenge will be coordinating different research fields into one project. They will be looking at turbulent flow rotor-to-rotor interactions prediction, precise control of a hovering UAV, force trajectory control, and robust estimate of a UAV’s position and orientation in a wide range of dynamic environments

Others involved in the project include Senior Research Engineer and UAV expert Kelvin Barnsdale as well as a team of NZ experts in UAV, data and aerodynamics research. They will also be collaborating with international researchers and UAV manufacturers and users.

The research will benefit different industries where there are jobs that are inaccessible and hazardous for humans. This includes arboriculture, silviculture, electricity infrastructure industry, civil construction etc. The research team are also working with Maori stakeholders and government and regulation bodies.

The benefits will be making hazardous tasks safer, easier and more cost-effective and efficient.

They recently won a $10 million grant from MBIE to undertake this research over five years.

For more information on this research visit the University of Canterbury website or the page on UC Computer Vision Website