Provision of Two Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) drone platforms.

The Department’s Supervising Scientist Branch is tasked with protecting the Alligator Rivers Region (ARR) of Northern Australia from the effects of uranium mining. At present, Ranger uranium mine is the only operational mine in the ARR and must cease operations in 2021. The mine must finish decommissioning and revegetation of the site by 2026. The Supervising Scientist Branch 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.
The Department requires Two Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) drones. The drones should have all necessary technical requirements to achieve Beyond Visual Line of Site operations as outlined by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority of Australia. The drones must be capable of flying in an autonomous mode that allows for surveying flights of a minimum duration of 60 minutes. The drones should have a modular payload capacity that can accommodate 3 different sensor modules. Each of these modules are to be integrated into the drones. A LiDAR sensor module is required to be delivered with the drones. A hyperspectral and multispectral sensor will be supplied by the Department for integration into the drones.
The drones, with integrated sensors must demonstrate the capacity to acquire data from a savanna ecosystem in Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory, Australia. The data that is acquired must be capable of deriving metrics about trees in this ecosystem to include tree height, canopy depth, canopy diameters and tree diameter as measured at 1.37 meters above the ground (diameter at breast height).