Our Goals

Project Andromeda was created in the hope of developing an advanced autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (AUAV) and accompanying ground support systems to serve in civilian applications within Australia and beyond.

Our current focus is on reliability, safety and compliance. We wish to develop a system that allows a safe operation udner the Australian Civil Aviation Authority (CASA) CASR Part 101 . We have also focused on integrating redundancy and safety measures both on the vehicle and support ground based equipment. We are aware of the risks involved when operating unmanned aerial vehicles in aerspace shared by other manned aircraft. We are also aware of the risks involved for people and property on the ground and have invested significant time and technology in developing ways to reduce the operating risks and comply with the respective regulations.

We are targeting our development towards the following areas:

Geosurvey, Land mapping and measurement

An unmanned system presents an ideal tool for tasks requiring the monitoring and mapping of land. The precise position and pointing of our onboard camera allows accurate capture and analysis of land and geographical features.

We currently envisage this feature to be of interest to farmers and land owners wishing to map and monitor their land. These missions can include but are not limited to:

• Crop health monitoring, Livestock counting and population monitoring
• Exploration and mapping for resource mining
• Boundary mapping
• Geological mapping and GIS

Asset monitoring (powerlines, roads, property)

The Andromeda system would also provide an ideal platform for commercial and government asset monitoring. The capturing and recording of real-time digital video as well as precise localisation enables the undertaking of a wide array of asset monitoing missions including:

• Power line monitoring
• Monitoring of mining infrastructure
• Government asset monitoring (roads, highways, rail)

Civil law enforcement and border monitoring

Unmanned systems provide a natural alternative to the current manned aircraft systems in use for border monitoring. The reduction in flight and maintenance costs allow more aircraft to missions thereby increasing the reach and frequency of surveillance. The main applications that we are developing towards are:

• Border monitoring and mapping
• Law enforcement, an alternative solution to dangerous car chases

Our Team

The Project Andromeda team consists of the following members:

Nima Kayvan (Team Leader, Electronics, Software)	Matthew Kimball (CAD, Electrical Design, Construction)	Damien Wenck (CNC Design, Mechanical Design, Construction)

We are a dedicated team of individuals with a wide range of skills and competencies across the field. We are very passionate about what we do and see a bright future for the use of the Andromeda UAV in civilian commercial applications.