A Spy Camera That Can Fly Into a Cave

Ontario's University of Waterloo is a world-famous incubator for technology start-ups, the best-known being Research in Motion, creator of the Blackberry.

But if you're a new graduate from the Waterloo robotics program, that's an intimidating act to follow. Where are you going to find a fresh idea when the city is full of talented graduates like yourself?

The Aeryon Scout can be disassembled, stowed in a backpack and reassembled in less than one minute.

For Dave Kroetsch, who graduated nine years ago, and his friends Mike Peasgood and Steffen Lindner, the answer was hiding in plain view. Every time the police department needed an aerial view of something, it had to use a $2.5-million (all figures in Canadian dollars) helicopter that costs thousands of dollars an hour to operate. The alternative was unmanned remote control aircraft that were useless if they flew out of the operator's line of sight, had cranky joystick controls, and tended to crash. The worldwide military market had the same poor choices.

"We saw there was a niche that needed easy-to-operate technology," says Kroetsch, now the 31-year-old CEO of Aeryon Inc.

The Scout was born. At first glance it looks like the kind of toy aircraft that makes little - and not so little - boys' eyes light up. Just over 30 inches in length and width, less than eight inches thick, it weighs only 2.5 lbs. It will fly up to three kilometres in snow, wind, or rain to any place you point-and-click on a GPS map. Kroetsch calls it a "flying point-and-shoot camera."

Recent advances enabled the technology. "Computer processors and batteries weren't powerful enough until recently," he explains.

The Aeryon team kept the cost low, at under $100,000 per unit, so that a market "like law enforcement that doesn't have much money to spend" can afford it, says Kroetsch. American competitors were hampered by a federal ban on flying robots in U.S. air space.

The Scout during cold weather testing in Canada. It operates from -20C to +55C in all conditions.

The Scout analyzes wind conditions and corrects course automatically, leaving the controller free to concentrate on intelligence gathering. It flies at night, and in strong winds. It can "perch and stare" and gather intelligence from a rooftop. The camera has large pixels to minimize motion blur, and the payload is "hot swappable" for infrared, thermal or digital imaging.

Scout's only moving parts are four, easily-replaced rotors. If radio contact is broken it comes home by itself. An operator can control more than one at the same time.

Aeryon's startup capital came from friends and family investors. It did its own marketing research, learning from a police chief that a competing remote-control helicopter was so awkward to fly that only the chief's son had mastered the skill. "And he couldn't keep coming out at 3 a.m. on a school night," laughs Kroetsch. Another potential client observed that "we're not that bright, we've got fat fingers, and we break things." The Scout is the brilliant reflection of the young founders' practical approach to market research.

The Scout has been demonstrated in major first world markets like the United Kingdom and Germany, as well as large emerging economies like India, Indonesia, Thailand and South Africa. There has been strong interest from South America (Brazil in particular), as well as the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Republics) and smaller African and Middle Eastern governments.

A number of countries have confirmed military orders, but confidentiality agreements prevent Aeryon from disclosing which ones.

Dave Kroetsch, CEO of Aeryon Inc.

Civilian markets are also opening, especially companies which track the size of coal mine stockpiles and petroleum reserves. BP, the focus of last year's oil spill, has already purchased two Scouts to guide skimmer boats in the event of future spills. Kroetsch has seen applications of the Scout in police work, where a robot studies a crime scene while not contaminating it; and farming, to monitor crop growth and disease and even to locate illegal marijuana grow ops.

These markets "are certainly on the way," says Kroetsch. And his forward-looking team is ready for them.

Aerospace in Ontario

Ontario's aerospace industry includes more than 350 companies. Sales top $6.5 billion annually with more than nearly 80% of it generated by exports. Niche market capabilities include:

• commercial, business and special-purpose aircraft
• unmanned aerial vehicles
• structural components
• satellites sub-systems
• flight simulators
• optical/visual systems
• electronic systems
• landing gear
• avionics.