InDro Robotics and T-Mobile: A 5G match

InDro Robotics and T-Mobile: A 5G match

Oct 26, 2022 | 5G, InDro News, InDro Sentinel, T-Mobile

InDro Robotics was recently invited to attend an analyst’s summit in Bellevue, Washington State, put on by T-Mobile for Business. We were demonstrating remote operations of our Sentinel inspection robot, with Command & Control taking place over the 5G network. We were at the summit; the robot was in Ottawa.

We’ll get to that in a moment. But first, it’s worth looking at how InDro became involved with T-Mobile. It began with a different invitation. This one, from the Electric Power Research Institute, or EPRI.

EPRI is a major non-profit that does research and development to improve the efficiency of power generation and delivery. As the Institute states: “EPRI’s trusted experts collaborate with more than 450 companies in 45 countries, driving innovation to ensure the public has clean, safe, reliable, affordable, and equitable access to electricity across the globe.”

EPRI does a *lot* of testing within its R&D scope, often looking to find Best Practices it can share with its members. And in 2022, EPRI decided it wanted to put some ground robots to the test. Specifically, it was interested in how remotely operated or autonomous robots might be used to inspect electrical substations. These are usually remote, unstaffed facilities where high voltage is stepped down prior to being delivered to consumers (though some substations step up voltage).

EPRI invited a few ground robot manufacturers to its testing facility in Lenox, Massachusetts to see how well robots could carry out remote inspection. That facility is an electrical substation that can be energised or de-energised. It also features a set of overhead water pipes that can be used to simulate rain.

And so, earlier this year, InDro Robotics packed up Sentinel for the test.

 

InDro Robotics Sentinel

The 5G connection

 

Sentinel, like all of our ground robots (and drones), has been modified by InDro to enable remote teleoperations. By connecting to 4G or 5G networks at both ends, InDro devices can be operated from hundreds and even thousands of kilometres away. But while 4G works for many operations, 5G is the gold standard.

That’s because 5G allows for dense data downloads, virtually in real-time. Since the Sentinel robot is equipped with multiple sensors (30x optical zoom pan-tilt-zoom camera, thermal, and sometimes LiDAR), a large data pipeline is advantageous. Not only does it enable real-time, minimal latency for the operator – it also allows for direct data uploads to the cloud.

InDro, of course, is based in Canada. And the EPRI test facility is based in the US. That meant we required a high-speed, robust cellular network in the US to carry out the test.

Because InDro is an R&D company, we did extensive research prior to selecting a US carrier. We wanted to make a single choice and stick with it, given the growing number of deployments in the US.

The choice quickly became obvious: T-Mobile. Its 5G network covers the entire country, with new towers being added each week. T‑Mobile has 5G speeds nearly twice as fast as its competitors. Typical download speeds on T‑Mobile’s 5G network are 75 – 335 Mbps with peaks over 1Gbps.

And when we were in Bellevue on T-Mobile’s network? Just check out the speed test below:

 

T Mobile

T-Mobile Summit

 

T-Mobile got wind of us selecting them as our network of choice for US operations. The company even issued a news release on that front. And Peter King, InDro’s Head of Robotic Solutions, wrote a guest blog about the Lenox experience and why a solid 5G network is so important to this kind of work.

And all of that? Well, it led to InDro being invited to the first-ever T-Mobile for Business Analysts Summit, held in Bellevue in October. We were asked to demonstrate the low-latency and data throughput that 5G enables. And what better way than to have our Sentinel robot connected to 5G in Ottawa…with us connected to 5G in Bellevue.

Those attending the summit were invited to the InDro display, where they could operate the robot using a simple Xbox controller. Video and thermal imaging were returned in real-time. But the real star of the show was near-zero latency. Seriously, the instant the controller was touched Sentinel would respond.

The hands-on demo even impressed John Saw, a McMaster engineering graduate who’s now the Executive Vice President, Advanced & Emerging Technologies at T-Mobile. Here’s John, controlling Sentinel over 5G in Ottawa from more than 4100km away:

T Mobile

It’s clear John Saw thought the experience was kind of cool – and indicative of the kind of applications 5G unlocks.

In fact, he even mentioned it to the analysts:

InDro’s take

 

5G connectivity is about a lot more than phone calls. The speed and bandwidth of 5G is what will power the growing Internet of Things. And our Sentinel robot, arguably, is an IoT device. Operating it using T-Mobile’s network in the US, connected to the private 5G network at Area X.O, was a snap.

“Building ground and aerial robots that can be operated from great distances is integral to InDro Robotics and its clients,” explains InDro CEO Philip Reece. “But this capability can only be realized with fast, reliable networks. T-Mobile was the obvious choice for our US operations – and we look forward to many more deployments over 5G in the future.”

Finally, a shout-out to T-Mobile for Business. Thanks for inviting us to Washington State; it was a privilege to be able to showcase our technology with the help of your 5G network.

Indro Robotics provides live drone video feed at Montreal Marathon in pilot medical project

Indro Robotics provides live drone video feed at Montreal Marathon in pilot medical project

Sep 27, 2022 | Case Studies, Drone News, Drones for good, InDro News, Scott Simmie

By Scott Simmie

 

The Montreal Marathon, 2022 edition, was held over the weekend. The main event, the signature 42-kilometre run, took place early Sunday. And three InDro Robotics engineers were there.

They weren’t running, but were instead providing a live feed from drones. Those live feeds were being monitored on large video monitors by dedicated research assistants. They were assessing the quality of the feeds and their usefulness in detecting runners who might be in need of medical assistance.

Below: Team InDro, wearing safety vests, with Montreal Marathon runners on the right

Montreal Marathon

Research project

 

InDro became involved with this through Dr. Valérie Homier, an Emergency Physician at McGill University Health Centre. She has long had an interest in how drones can be used in the health care sector, and has collaborated with InDro on two previous research projects.

One of those projects evaluated whether drones or ground delivery could transport simulated blood products more efficiently to a trauma facility – the Montreal General Hospital. Drones were faster.

The second project studied whether drones could help identify swimmers in distress at an IRONMAN event in Mont-Tremblant. You can find that research here.

With the Montreal Marathon coming up, Dr. Homier knew there would likely be medical events. There generally are.

“In these long-distance sporting events there are usually some significant injuries, including cardiac events and heat strokes,” she says.

These tend to be more likely in the later phases of events like marathons, after the athlete has already been under stress for an extended time. The thinking was that perhaps drones could be a useful tool.

Dr. Homier was particularly interested in whether two drones in the air, covering two critical segments toward the end of the marathon, could provide useful data. Specifically, would the live video feed be consistent enough in quality and resolution to be a useful tool?

This pilot aimed to find out.

Below: An uphill segment near the Montreal Marathon finish line. This is was the target area for one of the Indro Robotics drones 

 

Montreal Marathon

InDro’s role

 

There was a lot of planning required for the mission to ensure the drones could provide continuous coverage and be safe for flying in an area with so many people. Project Manager Irina Saczuk (who happens to also be an RN) worked closely with Dr. Homier to help figure out the nuts and bolts of the InDro side of things.

InDro assigned three employees from the Area X.O facility to the project: Software developers Ella Hayashi and Kaiwen Xu, along with mechatronics specialist Liam Dwyer. All three hold Advanced RPAS certificates and took part in planning meetings to understand the mission and their roles. They also looked into optimising the drones’ video feeds to ensure the best quality would reach those monitoring remotely on large screens.

“At big-scale events such as this marathon, lots of people could go down with injuries,” says InDro’s Ella Hayashi. “But it can be hard to get timely support because roads are blocked. So drones have the potential to really help with sharing the precise location and other information when a person may need help.”

Worth noting here: The InDro engineers/pilots were not to be actively ‘looking’ for people in medical distress. Their role was simply to pilot the drones at the assigned locations and maintain a video feed that offered those watching the large-screen monitors with good situational awareness. In the event of an emergency, the pilots were to follow instructions, including moving in closer to a runner in distress.

 

Sub-250 grams

 

The team took four DJI Mini 2 drones to Montreal. Though InDro has a fleet of much larger and sophisticated drones the company has built, these consumer drones were perfect for the job. That’s because the Mini 2 is a sub-250 gram drone that can be flown near and over people. In the exceedingly rare event of a failure, the small device is unlikely to cause any substantial injury to someone on the ground. They’re also capable of very good video quality.

The team also used a third-party app – Airdata – to carry the video streams. The app created secure links for each drone’s feed that could be shared with those who would be monitoring the feed. Three drones were to be used in rotation so that two drones were always in the air providing live video at any given time. A fourth drone was onsite for backup.

“We modified the parameters and were streaming in 720p,” explains Dwyer. “We selected a lower resolution because on the bigger screen it didn’t have to be crystal clear but it needed to be smooth.”

There was, initially, some concern over whether the local LTE network would be able to handle the feed due to the large number of people using cellphones to capture and stream from the finish line.

“The night before the mission, a medical person told us there were going to be 20,000 people around the stadium,” says Xu. “We were worried about network connectivity, it was possible that our video streaming would not work. But actually the network was pretty good that day.”

Below is a drone selfie of the InDro team: From left to right, Kaiwen Xu, Ella Hayashi, Liam Dwyer

 

Live Drone Video Feed

A useful exercise

 

Remember: This was simply a pilot project to determine if drones could provide a clean video stream that might be useful. The pilots were to focus on hovering the drones in two specific adjacent locations, with some overlap in their video to ensure they were not missing a spot of this critical part of the marathon.

“Our job was 100 per cent flying the drones,” says Dwyer. “Just straightforward, wide-angle shots with all runners in the field of view.”

We should mention here that InDro also took part in a simulated cardiac event prior to the marathon reaching this area. A medical dummy was placed in a location and one of the drone pilots was instructed to get closer for a better look. A small electric vehicle – think a large golf cart adapted for First Responder use – was dispatched. Chest compressions were performed on the dummy, which was then loaded into the vehicle. A drone followed as the vehicle drove to a nearby stadium and the victim was transported inside to the treatment area. The feed gave others on the Medi-Drone team an opportunity to see, in real-time, the progress of the patient’s arrival.

“The drone response really gave them an active timeline of when they should expect to receive this patient,” says Dwyer.

So the drones proved useful during a simulation. But how would they perform with runners during the actual marathon?

Below: The downhill segment monitored by InDro Robotics

Montreal Marathon Drone Video

From simulation to real-world

 

As the lead runners came in, the field wasn’t crowded. But, of course, it would become more congested.

When athletes are moving together en masse like this, Dr. Homier says there’s a certain flow that can be observed from the drone. Because that flow is consistent and smooth, a runner in distress literally pops up as looking out of place.

And it happened. Those watching the live feed spotted someone who appeared to be in distress. They had stopped, were hanging on to a railing on the side of the course. Then they fell over the railing, dropping to the grass. A drone pilot was asked to move in for a closer look. It was clear this runner needed help.

In fact, while the pilots were intended to simply hover their drones, Dr. Homier had anticipated such a scenario, and built it into the protocol for the pilot project. Suddenly, an InDro pilot had become part of a First Responder team, providing much-needed situational awareness.

“It was embedded in the research protocol, that eyes on the event becomes what is required,” she explains. “It was called into dispatch and pilots were able to provide eyes on the incident. That was amazing; dispatch came down after and brought us a radio.”

 

Lessons learned

 

For Dr. Homier, there’s still work ahead and a lot of data to be analyzed.

“There’s a lot to learn from this project, and there’s a way forward for multiple surveillance methods,” she says.  “And the drones are way up there. The view from above when monitoring moving crowds is just incomparable.”

Plus, says Dr. Homier, the project sparked a tremendous amount of interest from other healthcare professionals on site.

“The interest was incredible, coming from the drone pilots, the students, the medical directors, the medical staff – they all thought it was so cool,” she says.

“We’re talking about 250 people involved in the medical team. Many came to see the viewing station, so in terms of letting people know about this new use of the technology – that was also a great success.”

Below: Mission accomplished! Team InDro is joined by key members of the marathon’s medical response team for this post-race drone selfie

Montreal Marathon

InDro’s take

 

We’re proud to be involved with this project – just as we’re proud to have collaborated previously with Dr. Valérie Homier on other research projects involving drones. In fact, we find this kind of research particularly meaningful.

“For us, using drones for good is much more than a catchy hashtag,” says InDro Robotics CEO Philip Reece. “Aerial and ground robots can perform so many useful tasks. We’ve helped securely deliver prescriptions to remote locations, COVID test supplies, and more. But playing a role in helping to ensure that someone in medical distress receives timely assistance is up near the top of the list. We look forward to the next project with Dr. Homier.”

And nice job, Ella, Kaiwen and Liam.

PS: We’ve issued a news release about this project. You can read it here.

 

 

InDro’s ROLL-E 2.0 robot delivers to London Drugs customers in Surrey, BC

InDro’s ROLL-E 2.0 robot delivers to London Drugs customers in Surrey, BC

Sep 16, 2022 | InDro News, Robotics, ROLL-E, Scott Simmie

There’s a new robot in town.

That robot is InDro’s ROLL-E 2.0, and the town (well, city) is Surrey BC.

In the latest phase of an ongoing pilot project with London Drugs, the new version of InDro’s delivery robot was on the job September 9, delivering curbside orders to customers for touchless and convenient delivery. ROLL-E even delivered from the store to a customer’s home.

Let’s take a look at this robot, which features a number of innovations its predecessor, the original ROLL-E, did not have.

Delivery Robot

A leap from ROLL-E 1.0

 

You might recall that Indro Robotics carried out a longer-term pilot project at a location of London Drugs in Victoria, BC. The robot carried out regular curbside deliveries for customers who ordered online and wanted a touchless pickup experience.

The original ROLL-E worked great, but we learned some lessons that have resulted in an even more user-friendly robot. As a result, ROLL-E 2.0 features a host of new features, including:

  • A total of six cameras, including two sets of depth perception cameras at the front and rear for greater situational awareness for the operator
  • LED running lights, signal lights, brake lights
  • Large cargo bay (50kg capacity) that can be opened and closed remotely
  • Greater all-weather protection and a touchscreen interface for customers

Here’s a quick look at ROLL-E 2.0 on the job:

Tele-operated

 

ROLL-E 2.0 is a tele-operated robot, with an operator controlling it over the 4G or 5G cellular networks. That means the ‘driver’ could be in the local London Drugs outlet, or even hundreds of kilometres away. The person operating sees the view from all cameras, GPS location, ROLL-E health – and more – over a computer console. ROLL-E 2.0 is not yet a fully autonomous machine, but does have the capability to eventually be thinking on its own.

The first deployment – for curbside pickups in Victoria – was popular with customers and London Drugs staff. Pushing the envelope with home deliveries was the next logical step.

“Customers were pleased with both the convenience and experience of having goods delivered to their car by robot,” says InDro Robotics CEO Philip Reece. “This took things further, both literally and figuratively. Delivery robots will one day become commonplace, so London Drugs and the City of Surrey are really ahead of the game.”

London Drugs, meanwhile, is interested in continuing to assess the efficiency and customer acceptance of robot deliveries as part of the future of e-commerce.

“Following a successful pilot debut for ROLL-E earlier this year, we are thrilled to be further exploring its capabilities as we test home delivery in conjunction with Indro Robotics and the City of Surrey,” says Nick Curalli, London Drugs vice president of technology solutions. “This is an important step for our company as we look for innovative ways to serve our customers in the safest and most convenient way.”

By the way, that’s InDro’s Kate Klassen on the left in the photo below. She was ROLL-E’s operator for this project. 

 

Delivery Robot

The Surrey connection

 

Surrey was an ideal test bed. The city welcomes projects like this as part of its Urban Technology Test Lab, which accelerates innovative projects toward commercialisation.

“Responding to the need for technology testing areas, the Urban Technology Test Lab Pilot provides technology firms with access to safe, local test zones,” said Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum. “Without the opportunity to field test in a real-world setting, many of the products could not proceed to final development and commercialisation. I am thrilled to see ‘ROLL-E 2.0’ hit Surrey streets for testing, and I am excited to see this initiative launch. The future truly does live here in the City of Surrey.”

ROLL-E 2.0 Surrey

InDro’s take

 

As an R&D company, InDro has always taken a “Crawl, walk, run” approach when it comes to testing new technology. The initial deployment in Victoria with ROLL-E 1.0 was the crawl phase, putting the product through its paces in a real-world setting. ROLL-E 2.0’s development and testing in Surrey was the our first chance to walk; we’ll soon be ready to run.

For InDro Robotics, this is about more than a business case. The eventual widespread adoption of robots like these will end countless short trips by automobile to nearby stores for small orders.

“Because ROLL-E 2.0 is electric, these deliveries will eliminate carbon emissions that would have otherwise been created by people driving to the store and back,” says InDro CEO Philip Reece. “This project involves a single robot, but deploying these at scale in the future will have a measurable impact on C02.”

We’ll check in again when ROLL-E 2.0 starts running.

What InDro does

What InDro does

Sep 7, 2022 | InDro Commander, InDro News, InDro Pilot, InDro Sentinel, Innovation

By Scott Simmie

 

Have you ever wondered: What exactly InDro Robotics does?

The answer might surprise you.

InDro is often described as a research and development company. While accurate, that isn’t very explanatory. So we’ll give the first word to CEO Philip Reece.

“InDro Robotics does a lot of different things – ranging from product development to service provision to creating and building solutions for global clients,” he says. “But all of these tasks have some things in common:

“This is an engineering-first company – dedicating to inventing, enhancing and deploying technologies and products that make difficult work easier and more efficient. Customers purchase these technologies, and we are also a service provider using these InDro innovations.”

That’s a good starting point. But what does that actually look like? We thought a good way to explain this might be to look at some of the milestones the company has accomplished between September of 2021 and 2022.

There are, unfortunately, some that we’re prohibited from telling you about due to non-disclosure agreements with clients. But even without those, it’s been a very productive year.

InDro Commander

We’ll start with something that has allowed many clients to quickly customise and deploy ground robots. You’ll see this in the image below; it’s the module sitting directly on top of the robot chassis below. Specifically, it’s toward the front of the chassis above the InDro Robotics logo.

InDro Commander

The process

 

There’s an interesting backstory here. One of the things InDro is known for is building custom robots designed for specific tasks. But building robots – especially building multiple robots with different functionalities – is hard work.

We have a head start on this process, because we use the excellent platforms built by AgileX, China’s leading producer of quality robotic platforms and locomotion systems. But – and you can ask any robot builder – the real challenge is building robots that do things besides move.

You need to integrate sensors – everything from optical and thermal sensors to LiDAR and even arms with end effectors. You’ve got to figure out how to power these sensors and pull their data – a task that involves much more than wiring. With most robots, it means finding and integrating the proper software from the Robot Operating System libraries (ROS and ROS2). Then you generally need an onboard computer to process that data – along with coming up with a solution to moving that data from the robot to somewhere else.

Our engineering team thought there had to be a better way. In particular, lead engineer Arron Griffiths envisioned a module that might act like a kit to make this process much, much easier. InDro Robotics then developed and tested a module that could be added to most ground robotic platforms. It contains a powerful Jetson computer for onboard EDGE processing, multiple USB slots for adding peripheral sensors, two wide-angle cameras to give the operator a 360° view of the robot’s surroundings, and more.

That “more” includes the ability to operate the robot, in realtime, over a 5G or 4G cellular connection. The browser-based console provides data from all sensors in a clean and easy to navigate dashboard. And the operation? You can simply use an Xbox controller and operate your newly integrated robot from down the street – or across the country.

You can learn more about InDro Commander in this story. But the point here is that our engineers identified a problem and came up with a solution. Many of our products have a similar origin: Thinking of a new way to do things that’s easier and more efficient.

InDro now regularly manufactures and ships Commanders to clients globally, providing the ability to rapidly customise any ground robot utilising the Robot Operating System – without all the hassle. (If you’re interested in more details, feel free to reach out to Account Executive Luke Corbeth.)

Now that you’ve got the Commander basics, let’s take a brief look at our ground inspection robot Sentinel.

 

InDro Robotics Sentinel

Location, location, location

 

The phrase doesn’t just apply to real estate.

Many companies have valuable assets in remote locations. To inspect such locations generally means dispatching one or two employees to make the often-long trek and then simply walk around and ensure things are working as they should be. They’ll check for any signs of corrosion or wear, perhaps watch and listen for electrical arcing or test for thermal anomalies, even watch out for signs that wildlife has been chewing on wires or building nests in locations that might pose a risk. Inspectors are also frequently dispatched following violent weather events.

InDro started thinking about this problem, with a particular focus on electrical substations – often-remote and uncrewed facilities where the current from high-voltage transmission Iines is stepped-down for delivery to consumers. What if a robot could be placed on site that could carry out these inspections remotely? In fact, what if InDro took the InDro Commander module and customised a new ground robot for the task?

That’s how Sentinel came to be. The tracked robot features a 30x optical tilt-pan-zoom camera, a thermal sensor – along with any additional sensors clients would like incorporated. Sentinel can autonomously return to its wireless charging base and can literally be left on its own for months. An operator can remotely carry out regular inspections, read gauges, capture high-resolution photo and video, check for thermal anomalies – and generally accomplish nearly everything that could be carried out by a human inspector without the time and expense. Plus, Sentinel can be dispatched within minutes when necessary.

You can read more about Sentinel here. The robot also recently took part in exhaustive testing at the Electrical Power Research Institute’s (EPRI) substation test facility in Lenox, Massechusetts.

This is a great example of where one InDro innovation – the Commander module – helped pave the way for a second innovation: Sentinel.

It also contributed to a third: The ROLL-E delivery robot:

 

Delivery Robot

ROLL-E

 

ROLL-E is another beneficiary of the InDro Commander invention. This delivery robot is capable of remotely teleoperated urban deliveries, such as from a retail outlet to a home.

InDro has already completed trials with London Drugs at a Victoria location, delivering goods purchased online for curbside pickup.

InDro now has a second-generation ROLL-E, which the company will be unveiling shortly. ROLL-E 2.0 has been purpose-built to maximize integration into an urban environment with features like signals, brake and running lights – and a series of cameras (including depth perception cameras) to provide the operator with a 360° view of ROLL-E’s surroundings. Goods are contained in a secure cargo bay that opens only when the recipient interacts with a touch-screen.

And that’s not all.

InDro is currently building the InDro Backpack – a smaller version of Commander. Its purpose? To offer the same capabilities for teleoperation and high speed data transmission on the Unitree GO1 and its other quadrupeds.

Here’s a brief video demonstrating teleoperation of the GO1 as the backpack was under development; InDro anticipates the bolt-on 4G/5G system will be ready for clients later this fall.

 

What about drones?

 

Good question. While we were developing Commander, a similar but separate project was underway for aerial robots.

Canada Drones

InDro Capsule

 

See that guy on the right? That’s Ahmad Tamimi, an engineer at InDro’s Area X.O location in Ottawa.

When this photo was taken in the fall of 2021, he was deep into something called NERDS (Network Enhanced Realtime Drone project). It was a technology challenge in conjunction with the Ontario Centre of Innovation, Ericsson and the ENCQOR 5G network – a testbed corridor that runs through Quebec and Ontario.

You can find full details of that project here – and a link to InDro’s White Paper on NERDS here. But in a nutshell, Tamimi created a module similar to Commander, only for Enterprise drones using the Pixhawk flight controller. It enables operations over cellular, including real-time dense-data uploads directly to the cloud during flight. It also broadcasts to nearby traditional aircraft that a drone is operating – a tremendous boost to BVLOS flights.

Here’s a picture of that module on top of our Wayfinder drone:

Canada Drones

InDro Pilot

 

InDro didn’t stop there. The company created an entire software suite – InDro Pilot – for Enterprise drones (and, specifically, drones using the InDro Capsule).

That software makes it a snap to add and integrate other sensors onto drones and carry out low-latency flights over cellular networks. As with Commander, sensors can simply be plugged in to InDro Capsule, and the dashboard allows for drag-and-drop sensors modules to be added to the software suite. Want a winch? Simply add on the winch module and all operational controls and parameters are added to the InDro Pilot software. A robust and encrypted link between the InDro Ground Station and the drone ensures that any data collected remains secure. 

This project was completed in that 2021-2022 window we established earlier. InDro is currently creating a smaller and lighter InDro Capsule for commercialization of the entire InDro Pilot system. 

Here’s a screen grab of the winch software module:

Canada Drone

One more time

 

And here’s a look at the complete system…

Again, if you’d like a more thorough look at that system you’ll find far more details here.

Drones Canada

That’s not all…

 

As mentioned, it’s been a highly productive year at InDro. We’ve flown drones in the NRC Wind Tunnel in Ottawa for research on urban wind tunnels. The company has partnered with UBC, Honeywell and others on a major research project involving flights over 5G and using AI software to precisely predict energy demands and costs of any planned drone mission.

As drones begin deliveries at scale in the future, the data being obtained about the capabilities of 5G networks to handle multiple drones simultaneously – as well as costs – will be tremendously useful to the industry-at-large.

All this, while carrying out service provision for clients on a global scale, including this mission in Saudi Arabia. (That’s our photogrammetry/GIS specialist Eric Saczuk in the photo).

Drones Canada

Before we forget…

 

InDro was also in the news this year for its role in the Drone Detection Pilot Project at the Ottawa International Airport.

During the protests in the nation’s capital, data obtained by the system revealed that scores of unauthorized drone flights were taking place in restricted airspace – including above Parliament Hill, over 24 Sussex Drive, and even near embassies and other sensitive locations.

InDro takes part in this project – and supplies the drone detection equipment for free – because there’s valuable data being obtained that contributes to both safety at YOW and informed policy and procedures.

In fact, the news even made the cover of WINGS magazine:

Drone detection

Wait, there’s more!

 

Hard to believe, but there is (and congrats for sticking through this long-ish read!).

InDro reached several other milestones between the fall of 2021 and 2022. The company can’t, unfortunately, share details of these due to non-disclosure agreements. But innovative solutions have been created for global clients. In one example, a prototype robot was so successful that InDro received orders for many more.

On top of that, the company has worked closely with industry and regulatory partners during this period, including delivering InDro Pilot-enabled drones to Transport Canada and assisting RPAS parachute manufacturer AVSS with testing of its latest product. 

Drones Canada

InDro’s Take

 

With an agile and motivated team, InDro Robotics has created multiple new and innovative products in the course of a single year. Some of these were created specifically for clients, while others were organic in nature. The development of InDro Commander has paved the way for multiple robots (Sentinel, ROLL-E, ROLL-E 2.0). In addition, the company has shipped custom Commander-enabled robots to clients – including one fully customized for Solar Farm inspection. Many clients are now order Commander modules to make the customization of their own ground robotics platforms a vastly easier process.

In addition, the development of the InDro Capsule and InDro Pilot system for Enterprise drones will soon allow clients to easily customize their RPAS with additional sensors, along with secure high-data bandwidth (direct to Cloud) and remote teleoperations via console over cellular networks. Stay tuned for more on that.

CEO Philip Reece got the first word in this summary; he also gets the last:

“I’m justifiably proud of our team for the multiple milestones we’ve surpassed during the past year,” he says. “InDro has created numerous products – and participated in multiple projects – where we’ve been able to push the envelope. Every single one of these products and processes uses technological innovations to make hard jobs easier, or to significantly expand the capabilities of drones and robots. The team has really hit its stride.”

Hopefully, this gives you a much better idea of What InDro Robotics Does. And why we proudly call ourselves an R&D company.

 

Putting Sentinel through its paces at EPRI

Putting Sentinel through its paces at EPRI

Aug 25, 2022 | Case Studies, InDro News, InDro Sentinel, InDro Solutions, Scott Simmie

By Scott Simmie

 

There’s testing. And then there’s “real-world” testing.

For example, InDro Robotics builds and tests drones and ground robots. We do this constantly, pushing for continuous improvements (and even breakthroughs) with our products. In BC, we’re frequently flying missions to test cellular connectivity or our new proprietary drone software, InDro Pilot.

At Area X.O in Ottawa, we routinely deploy our ground robots on missions to test tele-operations, new sensors, and even autonomous functions. (We have a real advantage here, because Area X.O is made for robots. There are several roads – and even traffic lights – designated for testing and use by autonomous vehicles.)

And while such research always provides us with useful data, it’s just not the same as putting technology to the test in a real-world environment.

That’s why we took Sentinel – our custom-built robot for monitoring and inspection at remote facilities – to Massachusetts.

 

Autonomous Robots

The EPRI challenge

 

EPRI stands for the Electric Power Research Institute. It’s a non-profit energy research, development and deployment organisation. EPRI is constantly doing research – collaborating with more than 450 private companies across 45 countries globally. The purpose, according to its website, is to “ensure the public has clean, safe, reliable, affordable, and equitable access to electricity across the globe.” EPRI shares its research with members, which represent virtually all facets of the power generation and delivery sector.

EPRI has multiple research facilities, including one in Lenox, Massachusetts. This particular location features an electrical substation that can be energised, de-energised – and can even simulate rain for testing purposes.

Earlier this year, InDro Robotics was one of a small number of companies to participate in research to analyse the effectiveness of remotely-operated and autonomous ground robots in a variety of conditions. The purpose was to determine the ability of such devices to carry out inspection and monitoring – including whether these robots could detect problems such as arcing.

InDro Robotics Sentinel

The InDro Team

 

We dispatched InDro Account Executive Luke Corbeth and Robotics Engineer Austin Greisman (along with Sentinel, of course) to the EPRI facility in Lenox, Massachusetts.

“EPRI’s goal for this program was to evaluate technologies that are capable of 24/7 autonomous substation inspection and security monitoring,” explains Corbeth. “This put Sentinel in a real substation environment, to conduct inspections and security patrols amidst powerful electrical currents.”

In fact, there was a series of specific tests during the week-long demonstration. These included all permutations of the following:

  • With the substation energised and de-energised
  • With simulated rain and without rain
  • During daylight and at night

That makes for eight separate missions carried out in different conditions – including an energised substation with simulated rain during nighttime, and a de-energised substation on a clear day.

In addition, each of the above eight missions was carried out both via remote teleoperations – and also autonomously. Factor that in, and there were 16 separate challenges.

And that’s not all. EPRI engineers carried out their own tests on Sentinel, seeing how well it handled inclines, manoeuvres through mud, what weight it could carry at what speeds, and battery life. On these tests, Sentinel performed very well.

“Once we were on site, the value that Sentinel brings to utilities became very apparent – especially identifying thermal signatures to identify (overheating) components onsite or intruders trying to break in,” says Corbeth.

“The performance at night and during simulated rain tests was very successful. They actually have hoses that go overhead and can blast the site with water.”

FYI, the image below is a screenshot from the secure, browser-based controller for Sentinel. The operator can see all key parameters, control propulsion and camera systems, in real-time.

EPRI

Lessons learned

 

At the outset, we told you this was very much a real-world test for Sentinel. If this article were simply a piece of marketing, we’d tell you that everything went perfectly. But it didn’t, and there were lessons learned.

For one thing, we discovered that Sentinel’s track-based locomotion – though ideal in numerous demanding terrains – fell somewhat short in the heavy gravel bed of this substation. Pieces of gravel got caught in the tracks from time to time. As a result, we’re now building a rugged wheel-based variant of Sentinel specifically for this kind of surface (though the tracked version will still be available).

We also faced some challenges with autonomous missions. For one thing, at the time of testing Sentinel did not yet have an optical-based docking system for wireless re-charging (it does now). We also originally thought that a GPS-based guidance system would work in this environment. And while it did, we soon realized that SLAM (Simultaneous Localisation And Mapping) would be a better option. That feature will be integrated into Sentinels going forward.

“The opportunity to get onsite enabled us to test our autonomy package and understand what it’s good at, as well as what needs to be improved,” says Corbeth. “We believe we’re well on our way to a complete, 24/7 autonomous solution. I’d say we’re 85 per cent of the way there. This is new technology” 

InDro Engineer Austin Greisman on-site in Lenox with Sentinel

InDro Robotics Sentinel

InDro’s Take

 

Research and development, as we often say, is at the very core of InDro Robotics.  And a big part of R&D is testing outside of the confines of the lab.

And while we were very pleased with many aspects of Sentinel’s performance in the field, we also identified areas where there was room for improvement. Sentinel is now capable of fully autonomous docking to its wireless charging station, and we’re well along the path with fine-tuning SLAM on this device.

Full autonomy, as many of you know, is a difficult challenge. Whether it’s ground robots or drones, InDro has always taken a “Crawl, Walk, Run” approach. Sentinel is now hitting its stride with walking – and getting ready to run.

InDro Robotics partners with UBC, Rogers, Honeywell on 5G UAV project

InDro Robotics partners with UBC, Rogers, Honeywell on 5G UAV project

Aug 17, 2022 | InDro News, Rogers, Scott Simmie, UBC

By Scott Simmie

 

Picture a small fleet of drones, flying over an urban centre. They are connected to pilot-observers – and each other – over a 5G network.

Some are carrying critical documents, others prescription medication. The UAVs are flying autonomously, able to avoid any conflicts both with each other and with traditional crewed aviation. One of the drones is powered by a hydrogen fuel cell.

The energy requirements of each flight – factoring in payload, weather and distance were calculated prior to takeoff. The financial cost of each flight is also known, valuable data as companies weigh the business case of drones versus more traditional deliveries.

Sounds valuable to us. And that’s one of the reasons InDro Robotics is part of an ambitious research project, in conjunction with corporate and academic partners, at the University of British Columbia.

Drones Canada

Collaboration

 

If you’ve been following the work of InDro Robotics, you’ll know that collaboration is a big part of what the company is about.

InDro has partnered with such companies and organisations as NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, Ericsson, the National Research Council – and many others. (If you’re interested in seeing some of our other partnerships, check out the bottom of this page.)

We’re now pleased to announce our latest collaboration: A major project involving the University of British Columbia, Rogers, Honeywell and more.

It’s called the UBC Mini Cities Research project. And it has ambitious goals.

Below: UBC Campus. Photo by Martin Dee / UBC Brand & Marketing

 

Canada Robotics

Mini-Cities

 

Let’s start by taking a look at what the term “Mini-Cities” actually means. For that, we contacted Omar Herrera, Senior Program Manager at UBC.

“UBC is just like a small city,” he says. “It has its own population, its own services, streets, garbage disposal – so it’s like a mini-city, in a way. One of the things we’re interested in with this project is how can we really deploy UAVs in the cities.”

So you can think of the UBC Campus, which is also serviced by a Rogers 5G corridor, as kind of a test-bed to prove the safety, viability and economics of drone deliveries in a major urban centre. What weights and sizes of packages can be delivered and over what range? How many drones can be operated autonomously at a single time over the network? Does 5G connectivity vary with altitude? Can an Unmanned Traffic Management system – to minimise the potential for conflict with low-flying traditional aircraft – be successfully deployed and demonstrated in a mini-city? Can AI use data from previous flights to accurately predict energy demands for future missions? How efficient (and cost-effective) is a hydrogen fuel cell drone when compared with one powered by lithium-polymer batteries?

These are all questions – and there are more – that the project will be answering.

If that sounds like a major task, it is. In fact, InDro has relocated mechanical engineer Keegan Richter from our Vancouver bureau to a lab office at UBC – allowing Richter to work directly with the UBC team and MéridaLabs.

Richter is now InDro’s “traveling scientist,” working on the UBC campus three days a week, connecting with broader engineering departments.” That’s Richter below, on the UBC campus.

 

5G UAV

 

“I’m really excited to be working with the MéridaLabs team,” he says. “They’re truly reimagining clean technology.”

Richter is acting as the technical lead for InDro’s proprietary hardware and software (Wayfinder and InDroPilot), serving as liaison between InDro Robotics and other partners, and assisting with project management.

The InDro robotics Wayfinder drone will be flown over 5G using InDroPilot for the first phases of the project. Rogers has supplied a CradlePoint router which will measure and log 5G signal strength along the flight corridor – including at various altitudes. Heat maps created with this data will be used to optimize future flight planning.

“We want to assess the capacity of InDro’s Wayfinder to deliver packages,” explains Richter. “Demonstrating how much, how fast, and how far we can carry essential goods are questions of particular interest to the team.”

A Masters student, working within MéridaLabs, will be crunching the data for energy demands and costs. The goal is to build an AI model that can quickly determine energy needs and ranges for future planned missions. This software could prove to be of great assistance to other UAV companies hoping to conduct deliveries at scale.

Canada Drones

UBC’s Interest

 

Omar Herrera also has a technical background. He’s a chemical engineer with a PhD in mechanical engineering. He explains that a major project about energy was already underway and that this seemed a logical next step.

“The reason why this all came to be is because we (MéridaLabs) had a project with the University – a large test bed – combining different kinds of energy sources into energy storage. Moving that energy is what really drives us, and our research is related to that.

“One of the visions we have is that transportation doesn’t have to be limited to manned vehicles. And that’s how we got connected with InDro Robotics.”

The project will also capture data to help determine how many drones could potentially be operating simultaneously (and autonomously) in a 5G environment.

“We’re going to look at a few things, including the implications of antennae. Let’s say we have hundreds of drones (in flight) with hundreds of signals underneath. With drones flying autonomously, what would be the threshold for the number of drones that can fly safely (over 5G)?

It’s a good question. And while the project will at one stage involve multiple drones flying simultaneously – there won’t be a real-world test involving hundreds. But Herrera says software developed for the project will be able to predict, based on a small number of drones, what is likely to happen with many more in the air.

You’ll recall Herrera mentioned MéridaLabs is deeply involved with energy and energy storage. This video (which includes drones!) provides a good overview.

InDro’s Take

 

UBC was North America’s first 5G campus, and this isn’t InDro’s first involvement with the institution. It is, however, the most ambitious.

“This project should produce excellent data – along with further solutions – to enable safe and autonomous BVLOS drone missions and deliveries over 5G,” says InDro Robotics CEO Philip Reece. “We believe the results will be useful not only to project participants, but to the RPAS industry as a whole.

“A world where drones and ground robots carry out important tasks at scale, utilising the bandwidth and power of high-speed networks, is coming. I believe this research is an important part of the way forward.”

Stay tuned. This is a long-term project. But we’ll keep you up to date as we hit milestones along the way.