U of T ENGINEERING

University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies

Program

What is CARRE?

  • An initiative to expand and unify research and teaching activities related to the burgeoning field of aerial robotic.
  • To promote collaborative research within the Faculty in aerial robotics, to enhance our Faculty's national and international reputation as a centre of excellence in aerial robotics
  • A Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) sponsored program over six years: Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) in UAVs

The Centre for Aerial Robotics Research and Education (CARRE) is a unique collaborative effort, which brings together an interdisciplinary team of professors from U of T (from structures to machine learning), faculty members from York and Waterloo, industrial partners and international collaborators.

Aerial robots hold great promise for applications as diverse as natural resource monitoring, infrastructure inspection, agriculture, mineral exploration, journalism, and search & rescue operations. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) form the most vibrant sector of the aerospace industry, growing more quickly than any other segment. It is forecast that the UAV sector will continue to experience strong growth for the next decade, and that, globally, almost US$90 billion will be spent on new vehicles and support systems over that period.

CARRE was established in May 2015 to meet the demand for engineers and scientists with the highly interdisciplinary training needed to contribute to the burgeoning field of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and aerial robotics. The objective of CARRE is to become an internationally-recognized centre for aerial robotics and the nucleus of aerial robotics research and teaching at the University of Toronto.

The development of commercial UAVs requires a broad array of technical skills, across multiple disciplines - CARRE brings together aerodynamicists, structural designers, materials engineers, propulsion experts, control specialists, and roboticists, to design and develop state-of-the-art aerial robotic platforms. CARRE is able to leverage the range of expertise available at UTIAS, partner institutions, and industrial collaborators.

"Developing new technologies, teaching students, and disseminating research results to Canadian aerial robotic companies."

The CARRE program has 5 innovative components:

  1. An annual aerial robotics workshop involving internationally-renowned invited speakers
  2. An annual aerial robotics challenge event, in which interdepartmental student teams compete
  3. Graduate-level courses dedicated to aerial robotics
  4. Faculty-wide M.Eng. projects and 4th-year undergraduate theses on aerial robotics
  5. A collaborative graduate research program

CARRE incorporates an additional, comprehensive NSERC-funded program for the training of the next generation of engineers with experience in UAV design. The NSERC CREATE Program in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, managed under CARRE, was established in April 2015 with $1.65 million in funding from NSERC. The program provides outstanding opportunities for interdisciplinary technical instruction and for collaboration with Canadian industrial partners.

As part of the CREATE program, students are able to participate in:

  • A unique UAV Field Camp focussed on field mission applications, experimental testing, and flight demonstration
  • A vital internship component, supported by a number of leading Canadian UAV companies, which allows trainees to spend 20% of their time on industry projects, gain experience in industry and establish contacts to future employers and clients
  • An original outreach program called TEDxUAV, organized by trainees as a TEDx event with the goal to increase public awareness of UAVs’ societal impact and social responsibility
  • A student-led research forum, developed as an international symposium on future UAVs and applications, intended to foster connections to academia, industry, and governmental and non-governmental organizations

We acknowledge the support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

Centre for Aerial Robotics Research and Education, University of Toronto | 4925 Dufferin Street | Toronto, ON M3H 5T6 | 416-667-7796
© 2023 Centre for Aerial Robotics Research and Education

© 2024 Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering