Affordable UAV for aerial environmental monitoring Victoria

Drones offer affordable, quality environmental monitoring

Drones are fast becoming an essential tool for environmental monitoring including flora and fauna monitoring, back burns, inspection of fire and flood defences, and support for our emergency services like CFA, SES, MFB and Victoria Police. They offer quick, economical and safe deployment, a high level of precision and detail and real-time information transmission.  With their agility and quality imaging abilities they are invaluable as a tool for a wide range of environmental monitoring tasks.

Key advantages

• Low cost
• Accurate – enabling more and better data to be gathered
• Quick – rapid deployment, real-time data, fast post processing
• Repeatable – enabling accurate historical records and monitoring of change over time
• Safe!

Quality sensors

Our drones carry a diverse range of environmental monitoring sensors including

• High definition, large sensor visual cameras for video, still photography, orthomosaics and all other visible image requirements
• Micro-weather and climate monitoring
• Thermal imaging (infra-red) ideal for fauna surveys, leak detection, blu-green algae bloom monitoring
• Multi-spectral imaging – ideal for vegetation surveys.

Drones are ideal for jobs that are dirty, dark, dangerous or too inaccessible for human or other forms of monitoring. They are not a panacea for all requirements, but offer an alternative to risking life or injury – or to paying for manned aircraft for traditional data collection.

 

Quality data

Environmental monitoring can require constantly updated imagery often covering the same ground. Our drones have the ability to follow the exact flight path over-and-over and capture precisely the same photograph.   Combined with our analytics services, this provides some of the most accurate data available today.

Emergency services support

Uaviation maintains a rapid response Ground Control Station(GCS) on 24 hour standby.

This GCS is manned by two controllers and one safety officer. It can be deployed on demand throughout Victoria and can operate in a remote location for 21 consecutive hours.

The Ground Control Station vehicle is equipped with:

• 3 x Fixed-wing UAVs 200 min duration
• 3 x Multicopter UAVs 12 min duration
• Rapid data and image processing capability (including 3D modeling and scenario assessment)
• Live video feed to the Ground Control Station for client use (can be integrated with media / emergency services feeds)
• 2 x mission contol stations (capable of executing two parallel missions or one contiguous mission with three aircraft)
• Vertical imagery (downward facing cameras) or video collection
• 2 x onboard generators (21 hour capacity)
• 3G and 4G link to cloud-based data processing services
• 45amp rapid power cell recharge station
• Ground-based UHF commuications
• Air-band and Marine-band VHF communications
• Risk and safety management systems including first-aid, fire and hard-landing systems
• Accommodation for emergency services workstations

Applications for the rapid response Ground Control Station include:

• Investigation Insurance, assessment and record taking. Aerial photos and video of scene, we can access areas and provide multiple angles that other means cannot.
• Bush fire imagery and back-burn monitoring – Continuous aerial vision, streamed to emergency services and fire management. Assist in assessment deployment of resources.
• Hazardous environment investigation – Operation in dirty, dangerous and dark environments that may present a hazard to your personnel and the public generally.
• Accident / Crime scene Investigation – We can provide aerial imaging services to police, insurance and other emergency services to assist with assessment.
• Search and Rescue – Shore-line water search, snow, desert and bush search. High definition video or thermal imaging (heat source detection).

Drones are proving an excellent resource for surveying back-burn areas. They can be used for remote sensing tasks such as periodic inspections of fuel loads, active monitoring of back-burns, monitoring and support of fire crews. They can also be used for making flood damage assessments and identifying changes to river banks, cliffs and beaches.