Canada’s drone technology and unmanned solutions provider The Sky Guys has partnered with NVIDIA, IBM and the University of Toronto (U of T) to develop an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled drone to monitor highways in the country.

For this new initiative, the group has received C$750,000 ($588,975) from Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE), as part of the Small Business Innovation Challenge (SBIC).

OCE president and CEO Tom Corr said: “OCE is proud to deliver the Small Business Innovation Challenge on behalf of the Ontario Government.

“The programme will support Ontario-based, technology-driven SMEs in their mission to develop and test innovative technology solutions for public sector challenges.

“OCE is proud to deliver the Small Business Innovation Challenge on behalf of the Ontario Government.”

“In Ontario, small businesses are at the heart of emerging trends and cutting-edge research, and act as a key part of the supply chain bringing innovation from ideation to market across industries.”

The group, which includes The Sky Guys, NVIDIA, IBM, and U of T will work with the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) over the next two years to complete the application called ‘Long-Range AI-Enabled Unmanned Aerial System for Highway Traffic Enforcement with Future Road Applications’.

The drone application will be designed and developed to monitor Ontario’s 400-series highways in response to the Vehicle Occupancy Detection Problem Statement.

As part of the project, The Sky Guys 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.