[LINK] Eyes in the sky: how unmanned aircraft could patrol our beaches (and more)

David Boxall david.boxall at hunterlink.net.au
Mon Mar 12 16:23:34 AEDT 2012


The video accompanying the article is either funny or spooky.

From: 
<http://theconversation.edu.au/eyes-in-the-sky-how-unmanned-aircraft-could-patrol-our-beaches-and-more-5617>.

... why is this technology becoming attractive to the commercial sector now?

Well, in the past six to seven years, we’ve seen a range of 
technological advances in:

-    computer hardware
-    computer software
-    lightweight materials, such as carbon fibre
-    global navigation systems
-    wireless communications, and
-    component miniaturisation of sensors and electronics.

Miniaturisation, in particular, is a real game-changer that will 
stimulate the civil and commercial market for unmanned aircraft.
...
Unmanned aircraft on both the miniature (a wingspan of roughly 1m) and 
micro (a wingspan of roughly 15cm) scales provide significant 
competitive advantages over larger, unmanned aircraft systems.

For instance, military UAVs, which resemble small, manned aircraft or 
missiles, are expensive and cumbersome. Smaller UAVs, on the other hand, 
look more like model airplanes or toy helicopters. But they are far more 
than just toys – they contain very sophisticated avionics and sensors 
and can virtually fly themselves most of the time.
...
In late February, Surf Life Saving Australia unveiled a new monitoring 
project called Eyes in the Sky. The plan is to use unmanned aircraft to 
help prevent drownings at unpatrolled beaches and to monitor 
environmental issues along coastal zones. The lifesavers plan to have 
the aircraft flying over Australian beaches by next summer.

The Eye in the Sky aircraft, designed and built by Australian UAV 
manufacturer and operator V-TOL Aerospace, weighs just 1kg.

The aircraft’s batteries last for 90 minutes and it can fly as far as 
6km from the pilot, to a height of roughly 120 metres.

Take-off and recovery of the aircraft are fully automatic, as is 
waypoint navigation using onboard GPS. Recovery of fixed-wing aircraft 
is usually performed using a net, but quadrotor UAVs (see image above) 
can simply land vertically on a small docking station about 1m in diameter.

The UAV’s pilot has the ability to “hot swap” different cameras 
depending on the mission requirements. Payload options include a colour 
camera, thermal sensor for night operations, and a multi-spectral sensor 
for environmental remote sensing.

Advanced image analysis techniques even give the UAV the capacity to 
automatically detect activities of interest, including persons at risk 
of drowning, large marine predators (such as sharks), or the presence of 
fishing boats in marine parks.
...

-- 
David Boxall                    |  Drink no longer water,
                                |  but use a little wine
http://david.boxall.id.au       |  for thy stomach's sake ...
                                |            King James Bible
                                |              1 Timothy 5:23



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