Australia

A couple of years ago, we shared the news that a forestry company in Victoria, Australia, was using drones equipped with thermal cameras to detect koalas before trees were cut down or controlled burns ignited. In recent times, the wildfires devastating the same area of Australia have been anything but …

File photo An Australian prisoner found out not all Christmas presents dropped from the skies are from Santa’s Good List. Officials at Capricornia Correctional Centre in central Queensland reported two drones flew over the prison on Christmas Day, each dropping a package within the walls. An unidentified prisoner caught the …

Courtesy Surf Life Saving NSW Doctors told Bevan Lyons he’d be dead by Christmas 2018. They were wrong. The 67-year-old Australian is still here, and he’s crossed an item off his Bucket List – to become a licensed drone pilot. Despite being diagnosed with a rare respiratory disease, Lyons thumbed …

Photo courtesy of DroneShield Australian counter-drone firm DroneShield has released a wearable UAV detection product that weighs just over 2 pounds. RfPatrol is designed for use by military, law enforcement, security and VIP customers. Since it doesn’t emit jamming signals, it’s legal in more jurisdictions than many other counter-UAS products. Rogue …

From the distance comes a high-pitched whining. It sounds horrible, like a giant mosquito. Or maybe a herd of angry mice screaming in a wind tunnel. It is in fact a flying burrito. And it’s flying courtesy of Wing’s ambitious drone delivery program. That’s right: Google/Alphabet’ Project Wing has been …

Australian transport infrastructure company Transurban has released a video outlining how their drone fleet is supporting construction, maintenance and inspection operations. Transurban operates infrastructure in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, as well as roads in North America, in Montreal and Greater Washington. The company’s maintenance teams have been using drones to …

Israeli drone provider Airobotics this week secured the first-ever approval by Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority to operate drones beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) from a remote operations center. In addition, the unique waiver allows the company to operate without the need of an air crew on site, making it the …

Not that long ago military bodies were racing to distance themselves from drone industry leader DJI. The US Army grounded its use of DJI products in a move that was probably justified at the time. The Australian Defence Force quickly followed suit. It looked as though DJI’s days as an equipment …

A forestry company in Victoria, Australia, is using drones and thermal cameras to spot koalas before trees are cut down or controlled burns take place. Hazelwood Forestry, in Latrobe Valley is regularly tasked with cutting down Hancock Victoria Plantations’ eucalyptus and pine trees. One complication is that carelessly harvesting – which …

An Australian company has developed a powerful solution to provide drones with a better view from above. Sentient Vision Systems has launched a miniaturized drone-sensor system known as Kestrel that optimizes autonomous object-detection especially designed for security and military use. According to a company press release, the scalable system integrates …