New long-range drones trialled in effort to help surf lifesavers

They can fly for hours, cowl tons of of kilometres and attain excessive speeds.

“We want to understand how we can implement these innovations into our current capabilities,” mentioned James Bassam, from the Australian UAV Service, at Surf Life Saving NSW.

“Run them through scenarios in search and rescue, shark detection and emergency response, fire spotting, flood response.”

Surf Life Saving NSW’s fleet of greater than 200 drones is already the most important within the southern hemisphere.

They had been used to help the SES with search and rescues throughout the 2022 floods in western NSW.

The new drones may also be examined in pure catastrophe eventualities.

“We can remotely control these further afield so we don’t necessarily have to be at the firefront or in the flood situation,” Brent Manieri from Surf Life Saving NSW mentioned.

“We don’t have to send people right into the face of danger, we can fly above it and have a look and also direct the resources to exactly where they need to be,” NSW Emergency Services Minister Jihad Dib mentioned.

One of 4 taking part drone suppliers is Wollongong start-up Fliight Technologies.

Its drone can attain speeds of greater than 100 kilometres per hour and be piloted from wherever on the earth.

“It’s opened up from being a drone which you can take to the beach and take a couple of photos, to now being something which can be deployed from anywhere in the world, comparable to a military system,” CEO Kihan Garcia mentioned.

“We’re operating with what’s called beyond visual line of sight, so we’re flying like an aircraft would, off our instruments, coordinating with other air traffic.”

The different drone suppliers embody Elbit Systems, which has been utilized in defence all over the world and is launched by a slingshot.

Freespace Operation’s drone is a multirotor, helicopter-type platform.

“Those ones are handy at being able to lift a lot of weight and can get down in the valleys and hover around,” Bassam mentioned.

And Swoop Aero’s Kite drone takes off like a helicopter however flies like a airplane.

All have superior digital camera functionalities, sensors and thermal imagery which assist with searches.

“We can automatically detect people in the water, we can automatically detect boats and all the information is relayed directly back to the command centre,” Garcia mentioned.

The state authorities has dedicated as much as $1 million for the one-off, week-long trial.

“If this is a successful trial, and I imagine it will be, then we will certainly be looking at making a bigger investment into this,” Dib mentioned.