Drones, AI and the cloud - the new possible

Steven Micklethwaite is leading exploration for metal resources in Australia, with Anglo American. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Monash University, where he founded the Drone Discovery platform, which operates a range of drone-based instruments and compute, including high performance LiDAR and Australia’s only coaligned VNIR-SWIR hyperspectral camera. Steven trained as a structural and economic geologist, and has conducted research into ore genesis, mineral systems and novel approaches to ore processing as well as the implications of earthquake mechanics for hydrothermal fluid migration in the Earth.

This presentation focuses on research developments at Monash University where drones have been combined with high performance compute and computer vision techniques, in order to remotely sense or sample our planet. The presentation focuses on the analysis of photogrammetric point clouds for geological field or pit and underground mapping. The presentation will also touch on the mounting of geophysical sensors, application of swarm capabilities, as well as the use of neural networks to extract information from data.