Page 62 - Tropic Magazine Issue 21

TROPIC • BUSINESS

Eye in the sky

AERIAL INTELLIGENCE
National Drones now has a
North Queensland base.
Words: Renee Cluff
High-tech drones and software 1
are being used to capture aerial
intelligence for a range of industries maintenance program. “We fly up
in the tropical north, following the and down, all different angles around
opening of a National Drones office these towers and normally produce
in Cairns. between 400 and 600 images,” he
The company’s services go way said. “These are all put together into
beyond delivering pretty pictures. our proprietary software and from
Regional Manager for FNQ, Peter that the client can look at it without
Campbell, told Tropic his job involves ever putting a man on the towers.
everything from mapping and With machine learning – AI – we’ll
surveying to asset inspection. soon be able to pick up defects like
The pictures are a small aspect of it, corrosion without the engineers
I’m collecting aerial data” he said. having to ever look over
“I can zoom into anything of interest those images.”
and have the data on your laptop As well as being a safer option,
within a day. it’s faster and more cost-effective.
However, Mr Campbell’s capabilities 2
extend even further than high
resolution images and one- Partner Industries
dimensional landscape shots. Telecommunications
It’s all about meaningful His drone has dual gimbals, enabling Solar
and actionable data and him to acquire high definition images Wind
and thermal imaging. “It means I
how to translate that into a can put a thermal camera next to a Water
business analytics solution high resolution RGB camera at the Mining
same time, so I can acquire shots in
for big businesses thermal imaging and high resolution Power
RGB as well,” he said. “That’s great Building and Construction
Peter Campbell for solar farms and with renewable Commercial Real Estate
FNQ Regional
Manager energy a growing market in the Insurance
region, it’s something I specialise in.” Emergency Services
National Drones is also one of the
Among his clients is a broadcasting only companies in Australia with the Agriculture
network provider, which has capability to complete large area, Asset Inspections
telecommunications towers Beyond Visual Line Of Sight survey
nationwide. Mr Campbell uses flights to take images traditionally 1. Digital terrain model, National Drones
drone technology to inspect the obtained by satellites or aircraft 2. Aerial survey, National Drones
towers as part of the organisation’s over long distances.
MORE: nationaldrones.com.au

62 • Tropic • Issue 21