AUG Signals and the Ontario Clean Water Agency (OCWA) have signed a partnership agreement for Canadian sales and distribution of continuous water quality monitoring systems using conventional sensors and UV/Visible/Near InfraRed (NIR) spectroscopy.
OCWA is involved in the operation of water treatment and waste water management facilities across Ontario. As a trusted source of authoritative information on systems, standards and processes for water treatment, waste water management, and related business process and technology innovation, OCWA is also involved in ongoing collaborations with public and private sector agencies and organizations, including governments, educational institutions and academic research facilities in Ontario and other Canadian provinces. OCWA also plays a key role in fostering collaboration among Canadian based organizations and those of other jurisdictions, such as MEKOROT, Israel’s national water company.
AUG Signals has signed a cooperation agreement with the University of Toronto Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering (UofT) and Peking University’s College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering to commercialize new air quality monitoring products. The agreement also includes Wuhan Tianhong Instruments Co. Ltd, a developer and manufacturer of environmental monitoring equipment in China.
The initial focus of the partnership will be to develop and commercialize a portable air monitoring sensor network, incorporating a novel bioaerosol sensor and a low-cost multi-parameter array to generate valuable air quality data from Toronto and Beijing, supporting the growth of Ontario’s clean tech industry in domestic and international markets.
For further information about this partnership, please contact Ms. Xia Liu.
The Canadian Space Agency’s Class Grant & Contribution Program to support research, awareness and learning in space science and technology has awarded a contract to AUG Signals for the development of a novel technology to assess crop growth stages by enhancing and integrating RADARSAT-2 (RS2) and TerraSAR-X (TSX) fully polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PolSAR) data with RapidEye multispectral electro-optical data.
This technology will enable growers to proactively prevent disease, increase yields, and enhance long-term planning. Current agricultural practices rely heavily on time-consuming site visits, which can delay responses to potential threats and limit the extent of data that can be acquired for large tracts of land. There is high potential to maximize the use of satellite data to acquire comprehensive crop information quickly, automatically, and with high accuracy, to better manage large areas. Moreover, as many crops are susceptible to diseases and infestations during the narrow windows of specific growth stages, the estimation of crop growth stages, phenology and location is vital in order to identify which fields are at risk and when.
The goal of this project is to increase utilization of RS2 data by developing the capability to combine RADARSAT with multiple satellite data for crop growth stage estimation. This technology proof-of-concept will support the development of a commercial product that will enable end users in the agriculture industry to monitor crop stages more quickly and effectively than currently possible, reducing the need for site visits. This will help farmers to:
Improve crop rotation planning by using multi-year EO data, resulting in better decomposition of past infected areas, healthier crops and more profitable yields
Enhance product management and risk assessment for field surveys, agricultural industries operating in any environment, at any scale, and crop farming for export
AUG Signals specializes in signal, image and data processing, multi sensor data fusion/ integration, with extensive expertise in data processing for InfraRed, electro-optical and SAR. AUG Signals’ data processing, multi sensor data integration and remote sensing expertise includes work sponsored by government agencies and departments, in particular the Department of National Defence, Natural Resources Canada and the Canadian Space Agency. The company offers an extensive suite of image processing services and products for military and non-military customers across the globe.
For more information, please contact the Project Manager, Dr. Ting Liu
Ottawa, June 2012: Dr. Lampropoulos, President & CEO of AUG Signals, has been inducted as a fellow to the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE) in a ceremony at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum earlier today.
CAE was established in 1987 as an independent and non-profit organization dedicated to serve the nation in engineering-related matters. CAE fellow members include many of the country’s most accomplished engineers, who have showecased their commitment and dedication to the delivery of advanced scientific solution to Canada and its enterprises.
For more information about the CAE, please visit their website: www.acad-eng-gen.ca.
Ottawa, May 2012: Dr. George Lampropoulos, CEO of AUG Signals, was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in recognition of his dedicated service to his peers, community and Canada. This is following Dr. Lampropoulos’s nomination by the Conference of Defence Associations (CDA).
February 2012: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper witnesses Beijing signing ceremony as part of official visit, sponsored by the 5th Canada-China Business Forum.
*Above: Dr. George Lampropoulos of AUG Signals (third from left) and Mr. Changshou Lin of Long Yu Tian Da Mining Investment Co. Ltd. (second from left) at the signing ceremony.
Toronto, November 2011: The Canadian Space Agency has awarded AUG Signals with a contract to assess vision systems and lidar/ laser-based technologies for the requirement of “2011 Technology Assessment of Key Technologies for Space Exploration” program.
The objective of this work is to perform a comprehensive review of vision systems and lidar/laser-based technologies for space exploration in order to assess Canada’s competitive position in current and future space markets. This will be achieved by performing:
1. An overview of technology state-of-the-art and high-level capabilities
2. Determination of technology trends
3. Determination of required vision product improvements necessary to become a major provider of future space exploration technologies.
For all three cases, Canada’s competitive position in the market and prospects will be reviewed.
The output of this study will provide the CSA and its partners with a comprehensive understanding of current state-of-the-art products, trends, markets and technological challenges for the vision systems and lidar/laser-based technologies for space exploration and suggest investment priorities.
For more information, please contact Dr. Abhijit Sinha, Project Manager
Toronto, October 2011: The Ministry of Transportation Ontario has awarded AUG Signals a contract to undertake the design, supply and installation of a new Large Animal Warning and Detection System (LAWDS) on Hwy 416, North of Leeds Grenville Rd 43. This pilot project is scheduled to begin operation in late March of 2012 and will be installed in partnership with Dundas Power Line Inc.
Collisions with wildlife are a major hazard to motorists on rural highways, resulting in tragic losses of life and thousands of dollars in damage. The LAWDS pilot project aims to provide enhanced protection to motorists, as well as wildlife, by providing a robust system that will run entirely on solar power, require minimal disturbance to the pre-existing environment, and operate efficiently under harsh weather conditions, such as extreme cold (-30 Celsius), freezing rain, snow, and hail. Incorporating state-of-the-art detection technology, the LAWDS will employ a microwave break-the-beam system with extremely low false alarms rates and that is completely harmless to wildlife. LED flashing beacons will alert drivers to potential hazards 24 hours a day.
For more information, please contact the Project Manager, Tatyana Litvak.
Toronto, February 2011: Today AUG Signals celebrates its 25th Anniversary!
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our clients, partners and collaborators for your continued support, and look forward to the next 25!
Toronto, December 2010: The Canadian Space Agency has awarded AUG Signals with a contract to increase the utilization of RADARSAT-2 data amongst government end users by way of developing a change detection tool specifically designed for military and agricultural applications based on the RADARSAT-2 fully polarimetric data.
In collaboration with two government end users: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and the Department of National Defence (DND), algorithms will be developed for automatic Covariance Equalization (CE) change detection capability using fully polarimetric RADARSAT2 data, enhanced and optimized polarimetric InSAR coherence for Coherent Change Detection (CCD), more comprehensive and enhanced change detection utilizing combined/fused CE and CCD, capability to identify military targets and boundaries/acreage changes over time, and rapid and robust change detection processing.
This technology will greatly benefit the end users by providing the ability to accurately detect the desired changes even with registration errors and low coherence associated with vegetation covers. It will also provide a more comprehensive picture of the detected changes on both subpixel level and subtle level. In terms of agricultural applications, the resulting capabilities could be applied to not only the boundaries/acreages, but also differences in crop type, crop growth stage and crop indicators like crop height, biomass and leaf area index. In military applications, the technology will enhance the ability to monitor enemy resources or activities during reconnaissance, detecting suspicious activity during surveillance, providing scouting ability for a moving convoy, and supporting situational awareness when protecting garrisons or high-value targets.
For more information, please contact Dr. Ting Liu, the Project Manager.
