Drones reveal detail for business, military

From a 60-gram ‘nano’ variety to heavy lifters, drones are saving lives and buckets of time and money for defence, mining and farming.

An Australian soldier prepares to launch a Wasp ‘unmanned aerial system’ during training in Queensland. Picture: ADF

From a 60-gram “nano’’ variety to heavy lifters, drones are saving lives and buckets of time and money for a growing list of private and public organisations.

Defence, mining and farming are three of the biggest takers-up of the evolving technology, the spread of which has resulted in ­reported intrusions in regular aviation space.

Aerospace Maritime and Defence and Security Foundation of Australia executive manager, product development, Rodd Craig, says construction and surveying is the biggest growth sector.

“Drones are used for monitoring power lines, bridges, pipeline infrastructure,’’ Craig says. “They can get up and survey these assets efficiently and quickly and can get quite accurate data.

“They are able to do spatial mapping with lidar [light detection and ranging] technology, sending out rapid laser pulses at 1 million distance points per second to get a finer look at the assets and also the topography around it as well as trees, fences, waterways. You get the total view of the area.’’

Craig says mining is an “enthusiastic taker-up of the new technology, as drones can do geological mapping and they can also be used for assessing storage mounds of coal, say, before that commodity is loaded for transport’’.

“The Rio Tintos, BHPs and Fortescues are saying they give great efficiencies time-wise,’’ he says.

Search and rescue is another emerging and expanding use. Drones can scan the water for sharks and can drop rescue gear to people in trouble. They can map waterways and reefs to increase safety in these areas. Small craft can be sent in advance of land search parties where the terrain is too difficult even for the hardiest 4WD.

Craig says: “They can locate the person and send communications back to the ground search team.’’

Australian rules dictate that a drone must always stay in the operator’s line of sight but exemptions are applicable in firefighting and search and rescue.

Australian Association of Unmanned Systems executive director Greg Tyrrell says the Australian Defence Force is the biggest operator of drones in Australia. Nanocopters, weighing just 60g to 80g, are able to be used in urban warfare, where they are flown into buildings to search for enemy personnel, reporting data including video to the remote operator. Larger, intelligence-gathering drones can fly for up to 10 hours.

Government and business are also using drones in humanitarian aid and relief work, surveying damage and dropping aid packages into inaccessible earthquake of hurricane ones. Australian company Swoop Aero is carrying out vaccine delivery to remote parts of Vanuatu.

Tyrrell says the civil drone ­industry is also soaring. “The number of organisations licensed to use drones has been increasing at an exponential rate over the past few years,’’ he says.

“There are about 1500 organisations in Australia with operating certificates. Many companies are set up as operators looking to contract out their services.’’

One such company, Lording ­Estate, is doing just that for farmers, who are taking up drones for many uses, among them checking soil moisture.

At the Avalon airshow conference, farmer and pilot Will Lording will display a heavy-lift that can heave gear, such as hay bales, up to 40 kilograms.

His company offers flight training; training in aerial assessment of crops, fences, weeds and stock; training in crop dusting and spraying weeds; and instruction on the laws pertaining to drones.

Craig says of farmers: “Instead of going out on a quad bike or a horse or in a ute, the farmer can stay on the porch and do all these inspections.’’

Also at the conference, Geelong City Council tree management co-ordinator Stephen Williams will speak of the efficiencies drones bring.

“A tree inspection done the old way could take up to an hour,” he says. “With a drone it can literally take two minutes.”

Craig says the next five years could bring drones as commuting pods, which aerospace companies Boeing, Bell and Airbus are trialling.

Tyrrell predicts more use of drones in built-up airspace, via “unmanned air traffic management systems’’.

“NASA and the packaged delivery companies such as Amazon and Google are pushing quite hard,’’ he says.

“It is in its infancy. What shape it will take is really yet to be seen. Whether we’ll see it delivering pizza and a case of beer, I’m not so sure.’’

One of the big defence drones, a Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton, which Australia is buying.