The Flight Assist System (FAS) is a demonstrator project assisting Ergon Energy in development of the research outcome of a three year CRCSI project which focussed on business improvement applications for Ergon Energy. The outcomes of the CRCSI project was a proposal for an advanced airborne vegetation management system that would save 44 million over a 5 year timeframe. To commercialise the research outcomes, Ergon decided to launch the Remote Observation, Automated Modelling & Economic Simulation (ROAMES) project of which FAS is an essential component.
Ergon Energy ROAMES project
ROAMES survey aircraft
The ROAMES project involves the annual surveillance of 150,000 km of powerline in Queensland by a Seabird Seeker aircraft fitted with the ARCAA – Flight Assist System and a Trimble – LiDAR sensor. Data collected from the LiDAR sensor will be processed to gain spatial information concerning vegetation underneath the powerlines. Using the ‘Cloud-Hosted’ Google Earth Builder product, the data will become available in a user friendly interactive 3D visualisation environment.
Advanced Flight Planning Tool
Flight plan
Prior to flight, the ARCAA developed advanced flight planning tool will be used to divide a local region up into several flight plans of a user defined duration. The tool takes into account the specific flight characteristics of the aircraft and optimises for the smallest possible total duration to conduct all surveys. The benefits of the tool become clear when considering a pilot having to manually fly the network without knowing the optimal route. A human would be able to look three to four lines ahead based on the current position whereas the flight planning tool is able to optimise the order in which the lines are to be surveyed by evaluating thousands of different combinations.
Flight Assist Software
FAS user interface on the right
A flight plan generated by the tool will be loaded onto the computer on board of the aircraft using the ARCAA developed user interface. Once the plane is at the survey area, the Flight Assist Software provides automatic precision horizontal guidance and commands the autopilot to follow the flight plan. The FAS offers a significant operational advantage as it will reduce the workload of a pilot during extended missions. Imagine the benefits to a person driving a car for 400km without stopping, if a system like FAS would take over steering of the car. Without FAS the workload may even be too much for the pilot and compromise the accuracy and efficiency of the survey.
The FAS project is a very good example of ARCAA’s innovative and leading research into Aerospace Automation that forms a key contribution to Ergon’s state-of-the-art ROAMES technology development for airborne asset monitoring.
Publications and Media
- 09/10/2011 - Aerial infrastructure scanning program takes flight, Industry search
- 27/09/2011 - ROAMES aircraft unveiled in Hervey Bay, Ministerial Statement
- 21/04/2011 - Google Earth Builder to help Ergon slash millions in cost, The Australian
- 21/04/2011 - Ergon Energy and Google join forces, Ministerial Statement
- 25/02/2011 - Seabird Aviation upgrades as it seeks a higher profile, The Australian
- 02/02/2011 - Seeking Perfection, Aviation Advertiser
- 01/02/2011 - Seabird prepares to remodel Seeker patrol aircraft, Flight Global
