A_T_I_2015_04_

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APRIL 2015

AEROSPACETESTINGINTERNATIONAL.COM

z Civilian UAS – Australia

quadcopter system, and has not only
used it on geosurvey tasks but also
to inspect powerlines and conveyor
belts in the large spaces of
northwestern Australia in support
of the mining industry.

BUSHFIRE MONITORING
It is perhaps the bushfire monitoring
role for which unmanned systems are
best known in Australia. It is difficult
to monitor and fight bushfires at
night, particularly from the air when
many of the manned assets are
grounded and UASs have been used
across Australia to monitor fire
activity and identify hot spots for
ground crews to deal with.
Back in 2009, the US Air Force
RQ-4A Global Hawk had been
deployed to monitor fires in California;
Australian fire authorities were briefed
on the operation shortly after.
In January 2014, IPL conducted
a successful demonstration of its
ScanEagle to the New South Wales
Rural Fire Service, which also
employed General Dynamics
Mediaware’s D-VEX video exploitation
system to stream full-motion video
alongside accurate geo-location
information in near real time.
During the tests, fire commanders
used the imagery to assess the
movement of the fire front and

pinpoint the locations of spot fires

ahead of the fire front. This permitted

fire crews to respond more rapidly and

with greater safety, because their

position relative to the location and

movement of the fire could be actively

monitored from the headquarters of

the emergency services.

“Combining the imagery captured

by the ScanEagle with D-VEX’s next-

generation video analytics provided the

New South Wales Rural Fire Service

with enhanced situational awareness

and real-time actionable intelligence to

extend the capabilities of firefighting

services around the clock,” says

General Dynamics Mediaware chief

technology officer Kevin Moore. “We

see this demonstration as the start of a

new type of fire response that has the

potential to save agencies time, money,

and most importantly, lives.”

Most recently, Heliwest has used

its Indago system to support the

Department of Fire and Emergency

Services in Western Australia at a fire

on the outskirts of Perth in January.

“Word had spread through the

organization that Heliwest possessed a

night-capable UAS, with approvals and

crew to meet our operational needs.

Faced with a Level 3 incident (that has

the potential to threaten lives and

property) covering 4,100ha and a

situation where no manned assets

30,000

The number of drones predicted to

be in the US skies by 2020

70,000+

The number of personnel used by the

US military to process all the data and

information gathered from drones

336

The endurance record in hours

performed by the Qinetiq Zephyr

in 2010

400

Estimate in billions of dollars that

the civilian UAS market could be

worth in the near future

could assist, the Incident Management

Team requested the tasking,” Chris

Arnol assistant commissioner, Hazard

and Response, DFES – Western

Australia explains. “The Indago was

used as a situational awareness tool

directly to the Incident Management

Team. The IR camera allowed for hot-

spot monitoring, assessment of

containment lines, asset and

infrastructure monitoring. DFES

is currently working to establish

procedures for the use of UAS

intelligence and to integrate the

technology into operations.”

Heliwest chief controller Tim Hand

says the Indago system had operated

for more than 200 hours since being

acquired, in all climatic conditions,

and over the Perth fire, it was typically

flying three missions of 45 minutes

duration each night.

“This is the first time in the world

that this has been done and to get it

over the line with CASA, we had to put

quite a robust safety and operating

procedure to them,” he added. “We

have a primary pilot, who is the

controller and commander, and he flies

from the ground control station. At the

same time, we have a safety pilot/

payload operator sitting with the

laptop in a secondary station. He will

monitor from a safety point of view and

is able to take control of the system if

necessary, but he is also responsible for

providing the video feed and ensuring

that the downlinks are working as they

are supposed to.” z

Nigel Pittaway is a freelance aviation and

defense journalist based in Australia

ABOVE: Lockheed

Martin markets the

Indago UAS which

has both civil

and military

applications

RIGHT: An Insitu

Pacific Limited

ScanEagle was

operated in

Australia’s Safe

Skies program to

develop a system

to allow manned

and unmanned

aircraft to use the

same airspace