Daniel Young, Michael Holder and Harry Wu, left to right, show off parts of tech for their Canary drone project. The three are part of a team of McMaster University undergrad students who are members of the McMaster Deep-space Analogue Research Expedition . A team of McMaster University students in Hamilton will soon head to Iceland, where they'll camp out by a series of underground lava tubes they plan to map with a drone.
"Being the first people to actually create a digital map of these specific caves, that's gonna be really exciting," said Daniel Young, one of the students taking the trip. The team's solution, called Canary, would be able to fly in and send back data on the spaces in question, through the use of sensors. WIth LiDAR , which measures distances, Canary can also map areas.
Older versions of McMaster DARE's circuit boards for Canary, with the latest version on the right. , which refer to experiments in environments similar to those in outer space. Wu, DARE's electrical lead, showed previous versions of the circuit board the system will use, each smaller and more streamlined than the last.Daniel Young shows how his team's drone will map tunnelsMcMaster Deep-space Analogue Research Expedition team vice president Daniel Young shows how their Canary drone will use LiDAR to map spaces.
In addition to testing Canary, the expedition will include at least one side project involving testing soil samples.