Calgary Startup Rethinks Mission Planning for Drones with AI Technology

A company emerging out of Calgary is developing products that support large-scale drone mapping and inspection in real time.

The technology from Dronnix, founded by University of Calgary graduate Salar Ghaffarian, bears applications for natural disasters, solar arrays, and road infrastructure.

“The University of Calgary helped me a lot,” Ghaffarian recently informed Innovate Calgary.

Ghaffarian, who came to UCalgary in pursuit of a master’s degree in geography, was inspired by the entrepreneurial spirit of the academic institution, as well as his mentor, Dr. Geoffrey Hay.

“One of the main reasons I chose UCalgary was the entrepreneurial experience of my supervisor, Dr. Geoffrey Hay,” he said.

Hay is a professor at UCalgary and a cofounder of MyHEAT, a local tech innovator which Ghaffarian worked at for several years.

Founded in 2014, MyHEAT acquires thermal data for regions and reveals the energy escaping from every building.

For Dronnix, the flagship product is FlyPath, a mission-planning platform for designed to make mapping operations easier and more accessible for drone-based technologies.

Unlike marketplace style drone platforms that rely on large networks of independent pilots, Dronnix manages the full workflow of each mission, according to Ghaffarian. By combining AI-powered data processing with locally operated drone systems, Dronnix aims to reduce complexity and processing time.

The early-stage company is deeply rooted in Calgary, with the university’s Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking and Innovate Calgary’s Aerospace Innovation Hub both contributing resources over time.

“You need to test [emerging technologies] and see whether it is going to become a real product,” Ghaffarian explains. “Those resources are provided here through Innovate Calgary and the Aerospace Innovation Hub.”

Moving forward, Ghaffarian intends to explore potential approaches to allow commercially available drones to land and take off securely from a moving vehicle, hoping to advance a market-ready prototype within two years.