top of page

Current Projects

Collaborative Drone

AUTONOMOUS DRONE HANDOFF SYSTEM

The proposed innovation employs a second drone to receive an item, say a package or battery, in mid-air from a first drone while both are in flight.  The sequence of actions would consist of the flying first drone holding in some manner the item to be transferred and a flying second drone rendezvousing with it by flying within physical transfer range of each other, then the second drone grasping the item to be transferred in some manner and flying away with the item.

EWK_9819_edited.jpg

Drone Delivery Services

DRONE LANDING

Drone sensing system can enable a fast response, searching and monitoring individuals using remote sensing capabilities, and providing valuable information for advanced emergency management. Our solution is to propose a novel remote vital sign detection drone system using mmWave radar technology.

EWK_0089_edited.jpg

Drone Sensing

SEARCH AND RESCUE

Researching key innovations in Sensor Fusion, Machine Learning & AI, Formal Methods, and Computer Vision to deliver a fully autonomous system capable of landing safely in uncontrolled environments without the supervision of a pilot or trained personnel.

323.jpg

Laser Technology

Drone Vision Disruption

The proposed study is to develop a counter-drone system that detects the drone, identifies the camera on it, and disrupts it. This research is divided into three areas, i.e., drone and camera detection, real-time tracking system, and vision disruption based on laser dazzling. 

EWK_9685.jpg

Lidar-based 

3D Detection and Tracking of UAVs

We investigate the effective detection ranges of different UAVs based on their construction materials and the effective range & 3D detection performance of a specific UAV at different atmospheric visibility conditions

a_edited_edited.png

Communication

Airborne Base Station Communication Systems

This project is fundamentally characterising and optimizing information gathering, dissemination, and communication capacities of airborne base stations to enable low latency communications in rural and remote areas.

Drones2.png

Drone Swarms

ADAPTIVE BALANCED LIFT

The proposed innovation employs a swarm of independently flying drones to automatically coordinate together to lift and transfer an object.  Motivations to employ swarm lift compared to a single drone for lifting may include that the object is too heavy for any one of the drones to individually lift or that multi-drone transport provides improved reliability and safety of transport. 

Fig1b.jpg

GPS-Denied Environment

RADAR AIDED AGILE NAVIGATION

Navigating in GPS-denied environments is a critical challenge for drone systems, particularly in urban areas with tall buildings, indoor spaces with complex layouts, and remote locations with weak GPS signals.  Our solution is to propose a novel Millimeter Wave (mmWave) radar aided drone navigation system.

1.jpg

Drone Delivery Services

VERTICAL GRID SCREENING

Delivery drones typically perform delivery by suspending the parcel vertically or landing the drone to drop off the package. This research proposes a novel drone delivery system for multi-story apartment buildings with balconies that employ two methods to detect unique markers to identify the precise balcony that needs to receive the product. 

EWK_9413.jpg

Monitoring of marine wildlife on the Great Barrier Reef

Drone to Monitor Marine Behaviour and Habitat 

The way an animal behaves in its habitat provides insight into its ecological role. Faced with the shortcomings and physical limitations of traditional ground-based data collection techniques, particularly in marine studies, drones offer a low-cost and efficient approach for collecting data in a range of coastal environments.

Untitled34t5.jpg

Communication

Mm-Wave Communication Networks in Urban Environments

This project is developing new architectures for next-generation mobile network deployments. A critical aspect is the use of the mm-wave spectrum which offers 10-100 times the bandwidth used by current mobile networks, but comes with many challenges. 

mmwave2.png

Research Gallery

All Videos

All Videos

All Videos
Search video...
Drone Projects

Drone Projects

03:35
Play Video
Drone Showcase

Drone Showcase

04:15
Play Video
MQ drone lab logo

About Us

The Macquarie Drone Lab is an interdisciplinary research group with leading-edge autonomous drone systems and applications. Currently based at Macquarie University Sydney, our team consists of diverse researchers and students with the determination to advance the capabilities of novel drone applications and flight control systems.

DRONE 

G33, 50 Waterloo Road, Macquarie Park,

NSW 2113, Sydney - Australia

@2022 Macquarie University

bottom of page