Defence grant to develop more capable drone surveillance

Melbourne drone technology company AVT Technologies has been awarded $5.2 million to develop a system to improve the quality of images taken by drones.

The grant from the Defence Innovation Hub follows an earlier $2 million grant to develop a micro gimbal weighing less than 250g that features 50x zoom and thermal imaging.

AVT is the Asia Pacific hub of US-based Ascent Vision Technologies, and engineers and manufactures locally free gyro-stabilised imaging systems.

The Melbourne operation has capabilities in mechanical systems, electronics, embedded software, user interface software, control systems, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

The new grant announced by defence industry minister Melissa Price will see AVT reduce the size of its technology to enable integration of multiple sensors and autonomous tracking capabilities.

Price said: “Defence is Australia’s largest and most experienced UAS (unmanned aerial system) operator and it is important to remain at the cutting edge of a capability that offers superior surveillance, intelligence and force protection.”

Pictures: Defence

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