Maestrano Group (LON:MNO), the Artificial Intelligence platform for transport corridor analytics, has announced a new contract with the Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy, won by its recently acquired subsidiary, Airsight.
A new customer for Airsight, the Department of the Environment and Energy is tasked with protecting certain regions in Northern Australia from the effects of uranium mining. The last operational mine in the region must cease operations in 2021 and decommissioning and revegetation of the site must finish by 2026. The Department is developing methods to monitor revegetation of the site and is operationalising the use of drone-based technologies to ensure that the revegetated site remains on a sustainable trajectory to become similar to the surrounding environment.
Airsight will equip a number of Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) drones with Airsight NextCoretm LiDAR (Light Direction and Ranging) scanning units. The drones have the necessary technical requirements to achieve Beyond Visual Line of Site (BVLOS) operations as outlined by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority of Australia. The drone payload will include hyperspectral and multispectral sensors, integrated with the LiDAR capability.
The drones will acquire data from the savanna ecosystem in Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory, Australia. The data that is acquired will be capable of deriving metrics about trees in this ecosystem to include tree height, canopy depth, canopy diameters and tree diameter.
Nick Smith, co-founder of Airsight and now Vice President Sales for Maestrano, said,
“We are proud and delighted to announce this contract, which features our industry-leading NextCoretm LiDAR systems and our ability to integrate complex sensors for specialised aerial surveying over large areas.”
Andrew Pearson, CEO of Maestrano, commented:
“This is a fantastic achievement by Nick and his team, proving the competitive advantage of our world-leading technology. NextCoretm units are designed and manufactured by Airsight and used by customers throughout Australia and Japan. NextCoretm is also a core component of our Corridor.ai system, the world’s leading automated defect detection and management platform.”
