Richard Musgrove
Drones are everywhere — from pizza delivery to terrorism, civilian medicine to warfare — particularly over the last three years with the Ukraine conflict.
Now project funding is enabling the development of heavy-fuel cargo drones for deployment to potential Northern Australian battlefields to carry medical supplies which its designers say will: “…revolutionise healthcare in modern warfare.”
“There’s a huge tactical advantage in understanding how to manage drones to resupply troops such a vast area”, says project lead, Professor Hamish Campbell, of Charles Darwin University’s Northern Australia’s Centre for Autonomous Systems (NACAS) .
Northern Australia, more than 60,000 km2, with a population of 7400 people is a likely invasion route, if that were to happen, he says, which means there is a “huge tactical advantage in working out how to resupply troops in such a vast area.”
Over the last five years, NACAS have had plenty of experience with drones in the North, flying medical supplies to remote communities, says Campbell.
So, what are the technical challenges?
Think remote environments — things change, Campbell says. There’s going to be trees in the way. Uneven ground, perhaps at a different altitude to that from which the drone took off. Air pressure changes.
And northern Australian conditions are very different from those in the less humid south. Campbell says who says: “…drones perform very differently up here than they do down south because we’ve got very low-density altitude, because of the high humidity, so although the drones are operating at 500 feet here, it’s like they are at 3000 feet.”
The warmer the air, the lower its density and the higher its density altitude.
Tropical conditions bring other challenges. “Drones overheat — servos, motors, batteries, sensors. We’ve had things blowing.
For long-range drones communications are an issue — more than 30km out the communications drop out as the drone comes into land, because of the curvature of the earth.
So, you need bespoke solutions for landing. NACAS drones land on a QR code, says Campbell. Troops would carry such a QR code in a backpack or vehicle, they’d put it out in an open area, approaching drones would read it and land.
“That’s what we are imagining for medical supplies, and that’s important, because you can’t spoof a QR code either.”
Campbell told Cosmos that some drones in Ukraine lasted about 30 minutes because they were spoofed — sent misleading GPS information by the enemy. A drone at 300m altitude would be told it was at 1500m and would plough into the ground because it didn’t understand the terrain, he said.
NACAS will work with Queensland uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) manufacturer SAIDYNAMICS to adapt their hybrid 2-stroke engine drone for long-range, cold-chain cargo operations.
Drones are one cog in the wheel, says Campbell. There’s much more to it than taking off, landing, safely, refuelling and sending the drone back. There’s custody, supply chain, communications, conflict with other aircraft. So, you need to develop an entire workflow, and carry it out consistently, a couple of times a week at least, he says.
The development project will run for 18 months, by which time NACAS plans to have a prototype flying on exercises with First Health Battalion, ADF. Visual line-of-sight trials are set to begin over the coming months in the Northern Territory, with longer beyond-visual line-of-sight trials (BLVOS) to start with regulatory approval.
By next year they hope to be delivering over significant distances with a much larger aircraft, he says.
The project is lead by NACAS with support from Queensland Defence Science Alliance (QDSA) and Griffith University’s Centre for Enterprise Architecture Research and Management.
Drones might be the future of navies but they have devilishly difficult needs
