A team of Southern Cross University researchers has been awarded $50,000 to research and develop technology with drones and AI that enables building an advanced early warning system for the NSW power grid.
Dr Vinh Bui, Professor Brendan Kelaher and Dr Ali Reza Alaei are spearheading the project, funded under the Power Resilience Project by the (CIN), an initiative of the NSW Telco Authority, which is jointly hosted by the University of Technology Sydney and the University of Sydney.
The Power Resilience Project was established to bolster the resilience of critical telecommunications used by state emergency services, especially during emergencies and natural disasters.
The Southern Cross team will develop a platform to collect and analyse real-time and historic data using drones and machine learning.
Project lead Dr Vinh Bui said power network assets in Lismore would provide an initial baseline for the project, where the network had been affected by floods and bushfires.
“The team will deploy drones with advanced sensors such as LiDAR and thermal imaging, capturing high resolution imagery that we can use to generate 3D photogrammetry maps.”
The number of data points collected by the drones is enormous and requires significant processing.
“We will use machine learning to make that very complex data meaningful and useful, enabling quicker assessments by decision-makers, particularly in remote or inaccessible areas.
“An ability to predict imminent threats helps facilitate a rapid response from management and technical teams during natural disasters like floods, bushfires, and landslides,” he said.
Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Mary Spongberg commended the project team.
“We witnessed the impact of natural disasters on our critical infrastructure during the 2022 floods in the Northern Rivers of NSW.
“It’s heartening to see the insights gained from that experience, together with the University’s expertise in drone technology and Big Data analysis, put to such great use, for the benefit of all regional and remote communities in NSW,” she said.
About the Power Resilience Project
The is set to further bolster the resilience of the New South Wales Telecommunications Authority’s (NSWTA) Public Safety Network (PSN). The PSN is a critical radio network used by frontline emergency services, government agencies, and essential services to communicate via handsets. Next to Australia’s triple zero emergency hotline, the PSN is the most important critical communications network in New South Wales and one of the largest of its type in the world.
