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The industry

The Canadian remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) industry is a rapidly growing sector of the economy. Focused on the collection of images, video, and other data in fields as varied as entertainment, infrastructure inspections, surveying, construction, wildlife conservation, and accident scene reconstruction, RPAS are becoming a very useful tool in many applications.

There are currently more than 4,000 Transport Canada RPAS-certified (Advanced) pilots in Canada, and that number is steadily growing. Projections for generating revenue with drones are also on the rise, from $250 million in 2013 to $3.5 billion in 2020, globally.

The RPAS Hub

The Hub is a central location for RPAS knowledge and resources, including drones, cameras and sensors, software, training equipment and manuals, image/video data sets, and discipline-specific expertise.

All BCIT schools and departments have access to these resources for instructional, demonstration, and research purposes, both on and off campus.

To obtain RPAS Hub resources

Contact Eric Saczuk for a complete inventory of all available RPAS equipment, manuals, Transport Canada regulations, and BCIT RPAS policy, as well as project and research support and sample data sets.

Hexacopter with camera mounted against blue sky
Learning and Teaching Centre media producers pilot a hexacopter drone with a camera mounted for aerial videography