Tech of tomorrow on display today at Ottawa expo

Self-driving cars, autonomous robots, and unmanned aerial delivery drones aren’t just the future, they’re all part of the technology on display in the present, at a showcase in Ottawa.

Some of the offerings included a driverless sidewalk plow, ready to take on winter, and a self-driving Lexus outfitted with various cameras, sensors, and computers, able to detect and stop for a pedestrian.

Area X.O., Transport Canada, and Innovation Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada hosted TCXpo, a national smart mobility tech demo day on Tuesday.

“This is being attended by businesses from across Canada, so some of the exhibits that you see have actually brought their technology here to Ottawa because of the really interesting and unique infrastructure that we have in place so that we can showcase it,” said Michael Tremblay, president and CEO of Invest Ottawa. “We have government, we have academia, and we have industry big and small here today.”

More than 50 companies from Ottawa and across Canada demonstrated their “smart mobility technology” on Tuesday.

“It really is an exposition. We get to show off some of the next generation mobility scenarios that I think are going to advance Canada’s economy,” said Tremblay. “Some of these companies are going to help tackle the world’s wicked problems.”

Companies like Sky Canoe, which displayed an unmanned aerial vehicle that director John Rowinski said is designed to carry cargo to remote areas,

“Remote communities, remote needs; look at the cost of groceries, for example, in northern communities in Canada. If you can cut those costs down, and transportation is a huge part of those costs, then you’re serving a need for those communities and businesses surrounding those communities.”

Also on display was an unmanned off-road vehicle from a company which started in a Barrhaven garage. Their technology is now deployed in m,ilitary vehicles, according to Luc Brunet of Provectus Robotics Solutions.

“You can do more with less people. It’s not to remove people; it’s to enhance what you already have, so you’ll see a lot of militaries using it as a ‘force multiplier,’ as what they call it,” Brunet explained.

There was also technology to make farming more efficient.

“We can grow more with less and be better environmentalists, and really help reduce our overall impact on the environment,” said Jordan Wallace of GPS Ontario.

For those who attended, “This is a pretty outstanding event. We’re actually seeing really cutting edge stuff that we would have no other opportunity see anywhere else,” said an educator from Mohawk College.

“It’s definitely very innovative and I can see so many applications in just like improving our lives in the future,” said another attendee.