FORMER PARATROOPER FINDS NEW WAY TO GET INTO ACTION
Pegasus founder creates high-tech drones designed to assist with fires, rural crime
Help is on the way to isolated Alberta farmers worried about thieves.
“In the not-too-distant future, we believe a call will have a longrange drone arrive in minutes to capture the alleged crime on video and then follow the thief to their home,” says Cole Rosentreter, CEO of Edmonton-based Pegasus Imagery.
The company designs, manufactures and deploys remotely piloted aircraft (normally called drones) to deliver live daylight and infrared video to first responders.
Based out of the Edmonton International Airport, Pegasus is rapidly gaining attention and traction.
“We know that business as usual isn’t sustainable,” Rosentreter says. “Whether that’s the current approach to wildfire management or making our communities safer, we’re asking those on the front lines to do more and we’re working to give them the best tools available to do so.”
Rosentreter says rural crime is something his company’s technology can help police and communities tackle directly.
“Ideally, we can see helping criminals recalculate their choices before committing a crime,” the entrepreneur says.
The province is at a “crisis point,” in rural crime, Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer said last week, arguing that statistics showing a crime decline are inaccurate because people have given up reporting theft, assuming police will never come.
Designed to operate in the dangerous airspace above wildfires, Pegasus drones can fly for up to 16 hours at a time. They carry infrared sensors that can see through smoke and at night, and can deliver live video directly to police and firefighters on the ground.
“We specifically designed it to solve the technology barrier for drones to fly beyond visual line of sight, the key hurdle to widespread drone adoption,” Rosentreter says.
Examples of where these drones might help significantly include the early detection and spread of forest fires, flood monitoring, pipeline checks, search and rescue operations and finding park poachers.
Rosentreter noted Alberta’s considerable costs each year for wildfire management, from firefighters to air tankers to lookout towers dotted across the province.
“But none of these are solving the real problem, shortening the periods between a fire starting and detection, and from detection to initial attack,” he says.
“With an operating radius up to 800 kilometres, (the drones) can not only provide monitoring, but can stay overhead from start to finish.”
Helicopters are used extensively in fighting wildfires, but they are expensive to operate and generally not equipped with sensors for intelligence collection.
“They are also not able to operate at night or in low visibility, conditions found near major wildfires, in order to keep their pilots safe,” Rosentreter says.
When the sun goes down, incident managers are forced to wait until dawn to try and define how the fire changed overnight, delaying operations.
“Operated remotely, our drones are able to operate beyond visual line of sight in areas too dangerous for manned aviation,” the CEO says. “Another benefit is that helicopters can be freed up to do what they do best, moving firefighters and cargo and bucketing water onto a fire.”
After a 15-year career with Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) as a paratrooper — and numerous deployments, including three in Afghanistan — Rosentreter retired from the military following a parachuting accident and turned to private enterprise.
“I launched Pegasus last year with the aim of developing the technology and people necessary to confront the biggest challenges here at home,” he says.
With his Canadian military affinity, it’s not surprising some of Pegasus’s key personnel have military backgrounds.
Chief operating officer and Medal of Military Merit recipient John Hryniw is a 30-year infantry veteran with extensive combat experience as a senior enlisted leader and held strategic planning positions.
Commercial helicopter pilot Joshua Richard served 14 years with the PPCLI.
Company pilot and sensor operator Adam Busse is a licensed commercial helicopter pilot who served seven years in the Loyal Edmonton Regiment army reserves.
In August 2018, Rosentreter was selected to attend the Prince’s Trust Bootcamp, a national program helping Canadian military veterans explore future careers. His peers voted him class valedictorian.
He is also a graduate of Draper University, where a leading Silicon Valley program teaches entrepreneurial skills. Pegasus was ranked first among 80 international companies and voted “most investable” in the program last fall.
“We believe intelligence will lead to opportunities for us to solve problems previously thought impossible or too complex,” he says.
“We are building the capability for leaders to see massive challenges, such as wildfires, in detail they had never thought possible. Doing so in real time will improve the speed and quality of decisions those in harm’s way need to make.”
We know that business as usual isn’t sustainable.