Airobotics has made Australia aviation history by obtaining the nation’s first and only Civil Aviation Safety Authority approval to operate automated multi-rotor drones from its remote operations centre (ROC) beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) with no aircrew needed at the client site, the startup reports.
Alternatively, remote pilots can be located within Airobotics Australia’s ROC, at a designated remote pilot station, operating more than 1,000 km away from onsite systems at the customer sites. This new “man on the loop” level of operations enables human operators to supervise flights, but without requiring “man in the loop” pilots to intervene in flight operations, according to Airobotics.
Niv Russo, Airobotics’ Vice President of Aviation and Compliance, said the approval was a major achievement for the company 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. 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.”
Joe Urli, Airobotics’ Director of Flight Operations and Chief Remote Pilot, said the ROC approval set a new benchmark for unmanned drone operations for the Asia-Pacific region. “Airobotics’ unmanned drone platform significantly benefits our clients, providing them with operations that increase efficiency whilst saving operational costs and empowering flight crews to operate in secure locations hundreds of miles away from hazardous sites.”
Airobotics says its automated solution represents the next generation of drone operations, overtaking standard piloted services which can be prohibitive, imprecise and not always available.
The company claims to be the first and only drone solution worldwide permitted to fly without a human operator, having now added Australia approval to the certifications it had already received in Israel and the US.
