Ontario highways will soon be monitored by drones

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The Sky Guys, Canada’s leader in drone technology, have just been awarded a $750,000 contract to develop a new drone solution to monitor Ontario highways, particularly HOV lanes.

To complete the solution, The Sky Guys have teamed up with NVIDIA, IBM and University of Toronto, as part of the Small Business Innovation Challenge (SBIC).

Together, the team will work with the Ministry of Transportation to develop an artificial intelligence-enabled drone solution that will monitor the provinces 400-series highways.

According to a press release, the solution was selected and funding will be administered by Ontario Centres of Excellence on behalf of the Ontario government over the next two years while The Sky Guys, NVIDIA, IBM, and U of T work with Ministry of Transportation on the project.

“This is very exciting for us,” said Adam Sax, President and CEO of The Sky Guys. “Ontario is the hub of innovation in Canada, so we are very honoured to be selected for this amazing project.”

The GTA company will work with the ministry to test AI-equipped drones for highway enforcement and management, beginning with High-Occupancy Vehicle/High-Occupancy Toll (HOV/HOT) lanes.

“The Sky Guys are leveraging the latest advances in aircraft controls, AI, and cloud security to offer a safe, privacy-protected, and reliable package for billing and enforcing HOV/HOT lanes. We’re extremely excited to work with The Sky Guys on sharing our latest research to support the project,” said Angela Schoellig, a professor at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies.

But this is only the beginning.

The team is planning to evolve the drone monitoring system to be able to track road defects to correlating highway contractor choice to the quality of roads they maintain says Jeremy Wang, CTO of The Sky Guys.

“We have understood the disruptive capabilities of drones and unmanned aerial vehicles since launching The Sky Guys, and have helped countless clients reap the benefits,” said Sax.

“To see government expressing interest in how our technology can help build smarter cities in Ontario is thrilling, and we are beyond excited to develop the best methods to assist in the monitoring of highway traffic laws in the province.”

It’s definitely an exciting time for the Sky Guys, as they continue to be pioneers in the drone industry where they continually innovate, disrupt and grow.

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