Silicon Chip – May 2019

siliconchip.com.au Australia’s electronics magazine May 2019 21

company that is involved in develop-
ing the sport of drone racing and ad-
vancing it to a higher level. They have
developed racing drones that are of a
“giant” size, making them suitable for
commercial sponsors, due to the avail-
ability of easily-seen advertising space
on the drone bodies.
The large size also makes them much
more visible to viewers. Anyone who
has watched a conventional drone race
will realise that they can be tough to see
due to their small size and high speed.
Freespace have developed a racing
“experience” geared to Millenials and
Generation Z and have also entered into
an agreement with FAI, the World Air
Sports Federation, the international
governing body for air sports and also
Greyhound Clubs Australia to utilise
their tracks for racing (Fig.22).
The Freespace-developed FS500-
class drone is 500mm long, weighs un-
der 2kg, has a top speed of 120km/h and
a 0-100km/h time under one second.
They are also developing the FS1
which is 1300mm long, weighs over
25kg, has a top speed of 220km/h and
a 0-160km/h time under four seconds.
Giant drone racing is somewhat remi-

niscent of the pod races from the movie

“Star Wars: The Phantom Menace”. See

the video titled “Giant Drone Exhibi-

tion Race - FS500 - FAI 2018 BDWC

F3U” via siliconchip.com.au/link/aap2

Westpac Little Ripper

Lifesaver

The Westpac Little Ripper Lifesaver

(https://thelittleripper.com.au) is the

name given to not one unmanned aer-

ial vehicle (UAV) or drone but a suite

of them, used for search, rescue and

lifesaving operations.

SharkSpotter was developed with

the University of Technology, Sydney

(UTS) and uses artificial intelligence

to detect sharks. A UAV flies around

the protected area and if sharks are

detected, it can hover over the loca-

tion and emit an audible warning for

swimmers to vacate the water. Sharks

can be identified with an accuracy of

90% (see Fig.23).

The system can be fitted to a helicop-

ter or hexacopter UAV (Fig.24) or any

other type of UAV. See the videos titled

“Little Ripper Lifesaver Drones Spot

Sharks Electronically” via siliconchip.

com.au/link/aap3 and “‘Little Ripper’

drone to spot sharks and save lives

in Australia” via siliconchip.com.au/

link/aap4

Little Ripper Lifesavers can also be

used to drop rescue packages, called

“pods”, to distressed persons.

Pods are specialised for marine, land

or snow rescues and can contain items

like an automatic external defibrillator,

water activated personal floatation de-

vice, electromagnetic shark repellent

or personal survival kits containing an

EPIRB, water, thermal blanket, radio,

first aid etc.

The world’s first rescue with a UAV

was at Lennox Head (NSW) in January

2018. See the video titled “Westpac Lit-
      tle Ripper - Lennox Heads rescue” via
      siliconchip.com.au/link/aap5
      Two more videos on the Little Rip-
      per can be seen via siliconchip.com.
      au/link/aap6 and siliconchip.com.au/
      link/aap7
      There are opportunities to become a
      Little Ripper Lifesaver pilot. See their
      website (link above) for details.

Monash UAS

Monash UAS is a student-run organ-

isation at Monash University that de-

signs, builds and competes with UAVs.

Fig.24: the Little Ripper is a hexacopter which can carry a

rescue pod, slung beneath it towards the rear.

Fig.23: a video screen grab showing the automatic
identification of sharks and a surfer. The system can
distinguish between sharks, whales and dolphins, even
though the shapes may be quite indistinct.

Fig.27: Opticor lightweight transparent

armour from PPG Industries.

Fig.28: Farbod Torabi (L) and Lachlan

Cunningham (R) from the Monash

UAS team, with their highest-ranking

UAV from the 2018 UAV Medical

Express competition. The wings

provide lift for forward flight while the

four rotors allow for vertical takeoff

and landing.