The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) of Australia has granted operational approval to drone-in-a-box solutions provider Percepto to fly beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) in the country.
Percepto, whose software platform AIM has been named as one of 100 Best Inventions of 2021 by Time magazine, is an Israel-based provider of autonomous inspection and monitoring solutions. And while the waiver it has received in Australia is new, the company already holds approvals to operate its drones without direct human supervision at industrial sites in the US, Italy, Spain, Norway, Portugal, and, of course, its home nation.
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The Australian waiver will facilitate fully remote inspection of an industrial site in a market where many facilities are located in rural and sparsely populated areas. And with many companies increasingly introducing remote operations to manage, monitor, and secure their sites, Percepto hopes that the CASA approval will lay the groundwork for more similar waivers for its customers nationally.
A waiver to fly drones BVLOS remotely will also allow high-risk sites, such as mines and refineries, to better manage safety and environmental risks, while increasing productivity and reducing downtime, the company says in a statement.
Applauding CASA for their efforts to safely integrate autonomous drone technology into commercial operations, Dor Abuhasira, CEO and cofounder of Percepto, quips:
We are confident that our customers will be able to receive similar approvals in just a few months, putting remote operations centers well into reach for any company building their autonomous drone program.
Jackie Dujmovic, CEO of Hover UAV and a board member of Safeskies Australia and the Australian Association of Uncrewed Systems, is also positive that Percepto’s regulatory approval will open up huge possibilities for autonomous drones in the country’s remote industrial operations. She sums up:
Percepto gaining this regulatory approval is a game-changer for how managers at critical infrastructure can inspect assets and monitor sites while gaining real-time insights based on collected data faster than ever before. The development is as significant as drones lifting off in Australia for the first time.
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