CIG Ottawa Branch

A Brief History of UAVs

 The current and changing regulatory environment in Canada is set to make drone technology a growth industry. Until now drones have been employed in a fairly casual and niche sector. However, the use of drones for commercial use, and the research into the design and engineering of next generation drones in the near future is projected to far outpace the work done in the sector so far. This presentation focuses on UAV development history, Canadian highlights, what UAVs can be used for in general, highlights of recent regulatory changes and describing the differences between Canada and the USA. Privacy issues will be touched on along with sensor and navigation issues. Experience with the design and development of Carleton’s UAV will be discussed.

 

Jeremy Laliberté Ph.D., P.Eng.

Assistant Professor

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Carleton University

 

His research focuses on novel aircraft structures, composite materials and hybrids and next generation air vehicle concepts (e.g. UAVs and MAVs).

 

Most recently he has worked on a project on fibre metal laminate (FML) processing, micro aerial vehicle (MAV) structures and the qualification of primary composite airframe structures. From 2001 to 2008 he was a Research Officer with the Structures Group and then the Composites and Novel Airframe Materials (CANAM) Group of the National Research Council Institute for Aerospace Research (NRC-IAR). For the last few months of his time at NRC he had the opportunity to lead the Composites Team within the CANAM Group. During this time he also led or co-led several large projects on next generation composite primary structures for aircraft with a number of Canadian OEMs including the Bonded Wing Survivability Demonstration with Bell Helicopter Textron, DRDC-Valcartier, Concordia, Ecole Polytechnique, IAR-AMTC, TPC, CRIAQ and Pratt and Whitney Canada.

 

In 2005-2007 he served on the organizing committee for the inaugural UVS Canada Student UAV Competition. He was Local Organizing Committee Co-Chair with Ms. Laura Petrescue for the 4th Canadian-International Composites Conference (CANCOM 2003) held in Ottawa in August 2003. He was also a conference volunteer for CANCOM 2001 in Montreal. Over the years he has served as a session developer for a number of other CANCOM and CASI conferences. From 2006 to 2008 he was the Canadian Air Force representative on The Technical Cooperation Program (TTCP) Polymer Composites Panel (MAT-TP-7). From 2006 to 2008 he was an Adjunct Research Professor at Carleton University.