ARI SHARP
UNMANNED aircraft may be detecting the weather, monitoring crops and patrolling Australia’s borders in the next decade.
[theage.com.au] The
government communications authority has begun considering ways to
allocate the spectrum space needed to communicate with the equipment to
avoid interference with defence force communications.
The
issue of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) emerged in a five-year outlook
on the country’s spectrum issues that was released by the Australian
Communications and Media Authority last week.
Although the US defence force has been using the vehicles for a
considerable time, it was only last September that it was announced the
Australian air force would use them, acquiring an unspecified number of
Heron UAVs.
The defence force is the only
Australian user of unmanned aircraft, relying on the spectrum bands
within 230-400 MHz, 2.9-3.4 GHz and 4.4-5 GHz.
“Defence
states that these are mission-critical communications that must not
suffer harmful interference,“ the authority’s report states.
Spectrum
demand for UAVs was expected to increase significantly over the next
decade, with UAV use in civilian applications seen as a developing
market. Applications such as weather research, crop monitoring and
coastal patrols “may be introduced in Australia in the future“.
The
vehicles can be controlled remotely or fly autonomously based on
programmed flight plans or automation systems that respond to the
environment.
Unmanned vehicles have already been
tested in a UAV Challenge event in Queensland each September that is
intended to spur the development of civilian applications of the
technology.
While the Australian authority has
raised the issue, it will be relying on action taken at the World
Radiocommunication Conference in 2012 to ensure global consistency in
the spectrum allocated for the technology. The issue has been placed on
the conference agenda.
Source: http://www.theage.com.au/national/unmanned-aircraft-could-soon-patrol-borders-20100405-rn4l.html
