NSERC Alliance Missions grant supports development and design of a solar-powered aircraft to survey wildlife undisturbed at TMU
The Clean Renewable Energy Aerial Test Vehicle in flight. Professor Goetz Bramesfeld has received a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada to support the development of a solar-powered aircraft without a crew for wildlife surveying. Photo courtesy of the Applied Aerodynamics Laboratory of Flight.
To monitor Canada’s wildlife and map their habitats, a Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) aerospace engineering professor and his collaborators are developing a solar-powered aircraft without a crew that can fly quietly at low altitudes, leaving the animals undisturbed. This ongoing project recently received a boost from the highly competitive Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s (NSERC) Alliance Missions program.
Aerospace engineering professor Goetz Bramesfeld from the Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science is working with Environment and Climate Change Canada and Superwake Ltd., a company founded by some of his former students and TMU alumni, to improve, build, test and evaluate a solar-powered, uncrewed airborne system to monitor wildlife.
The NSERC program will provide funding of $709,700 over two years and will be leveraged to further the design of the small autonomous airborne system, the Clean Renewable Energy Aerial Test Vehicle (CREATeV). The electric uncrewed aircraft is easily deployable; with a wingspan of just over six metres, it weighs about 12.5 kilograms. CREATeV has visual and infrared camera systems as well as solar cells and batteries on the wings, charging during the day so that flight can continue through the night.
A small, lightweight, unmanned aircraft with solar panels on its wings flies in large circles over farm fields and homes.
The advantages of using uncrewed aircraft to monitor wildlife include the long flight times, the ability to fly at low altitudes without endangering crew, and the low levels of noise produced by the craft. “Because it’s electric, it’s very non-intrusive,” said professor Bramesfeld. During three weeks of test flights in Manitoba, “none of the moose or other animals noticed anything. There was one coyote that looked up some.” Using solar cells helps extend the battery life that would normally be negatively impacted by cold temperatures, he notes
In July 2022, professor Bramesfeld and his lab, the Applied Aerodynamics Laboratory of Flight, working with Superwake, conducted a test flight that saw the aircraft fly non-stop for 32 hours and more than 1,000 kilometres.
Using the data gathered to date, a new version of the aircraft is being designed for the grant-funded project. Professor Bramesfeld and his team are working on a new airfoil and wing platform, along with testing in the wind tunnel in Kerr Hall. His lab is also improving analysis tools, with a particular focus on flight path planning to maximize flight time and battery life, as well as assessing how much power is needed at different travel speeds.
“Congratulations to professor Bramesfeld and his industry, government and academic collaborators, on being awarded TMU’s first NSERC Alliance Missions Grant,” said Steven N. Liss, TMU’s vice-president, research and innovation. “This funding will support a project that project brings together design and technological innovation with a real-world application, the gathering of important and informative data about wildlife and their habitats.”
Additional collaborators include TMU computer science professors Nariman Farsad and Guanghui Wang, who are co-investigators on this project.
Alliance Missions grants support projects that address critical science and technology challenges that can have a pivotal role in Canada’s economy. Learn more about the NSERC Alliance Missions grant program (external link) .
Learn more about the Applied Aerodynamics Laboratory of Flight.