DRONE company Australian UAV expects to open an office in Newcastle later in the year as the coronavirus shines a spotlight on the sector's capabilities.
Director Andrew Chapman said the company, based in Sydney and Melbourne, was already doing a lot of work in the Hunter.
"It's well suited to drones with the industry and large areas of coastline ... drones are suited to anywhere where you have a lot of assets or resources that need looking after," he said, adding that capital cities like Sydney can be restraining for operations due to the urban density and regulations.
Australian UAV was founded in 2013 by Victorian James Rennie, whose work in engineering consulting led him to see the need to access data at a more efficient and cost-effective manner. Two years later, Mr Chapman brought his software development nous to the table to help expand the company beyond Melbourne.
With regional managers across the country, the company works largely in the engineering and infrastructure projects alongside environmental and coastal management, ports, heavy industry, power and water utilities.
Mr Chapman said the impact of coronavirus on the business had not been severe, however it could not access work in the Top End due to border closures.
"The timeliness of how this related to Covid-19 is that many of our clients are working from home and have travel restrictions and we can get out there to the job, get the data they need and allow them to continue to be productive from home and allow them to be more effective in isolation and avoid face-to-face work," he said.
Mr Chapman said the critical infrastructure work the company does involving the monitoring of power and water utilities has increased as some commercial work has been slower as the pause button was applied.
Describing drones as "faster, better and cheaper" than traditional means of surveillance, he said it was also far safer, reducing the number of people to be on site.
"Suddenly drones are seen as a way around a problem, but they are also a better way of doing things," he said.
