Australia and Civil Use UAVs

Airobotics has announced that it recently obtained the first and only Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) approval in Australia to operate automated UAS from its Remote Operations Center (ROC) beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) with no aircrew needed at the client site.

Remote pilots are located at a designated Remote Pilot Station (RPS) within Airobotics Australia’s ROC. They are operating more than 1,000 kilometers away from onsite systems at the customer sites.

According to Airobotics, this new “man on the loop” level of operations allows human operators to supervise flights without the need for “man in the loop” pilots to intervene in flight operations.

“This landmark approval is a major achievement for Airobotics and its future growth across Australia. Removing aircrews from potentially dangerous environments, like mines, enables customers to extract maximum value and reduce risk from their business operations by leveraging technology and automation,” explains Niv Russo, Airobotics’ vice president of aviation and compliance.

“This progression marks the next step for Airobotics as we continue to break new ground in unmanned drone technology to deliver safer and more accurate, data-driven solutions.”

Airobotics recently received another landmark waiver just last month, when it became the first company in the United States to receive a Certificate of Waiver (CoW) from the FAA that combines three elements: flying BVLOS for automated UAS operations, over human beings, with a visual observer that is not required to keep a visual line of sight on the UAS.

The waiver, which allows Airobotics to operate from its Remote Operations Center in Scottsdale, Arizona, will primarily be used within the mining sector, but it will also be used for other industrial facilities in the U.S. as well.

This article was first published by our partner AUVSI on January 22, 2019.