# How Latrobe City Council Built Australia's First OEM-Agnostic Drone Command Centre - Event: NestGen ’26 - Published: October 2, 2026 - Length: 31:05 - Watch: https://nestgen.org/library/watch/UhimKCh_hl0/ > The transcript of a recorded NestGen session, for reading or for use with an AI tool. It comes from the video's > captions; automatic captions can mishear names and terms. ## About this session BVLOS programs rarely stay on one drone platform for long, but most command centers are built around a single OEM’s stack, making it hard to scale operations across a growing, mixed fleet. Councils and operators need infrastructure that works regardless of who makes the aircraft. In this NestGen session, Latrobe City Council and Yarra Drones will share how they built Australia’s first OEM-agnostic drone command centre, and what BVLOS operators should think through when building infrastructure that can scale across multiple aircraft platforms. ## Transcript **[0:01]** Cool. Let's just get started then while we also wait for people to join in. But welcome back everyone. It's another session. Thank you so much for joining in. Let us know in the chat where you guys are joining in from. So here's something you don't hear every day. A local city council in regional Australia just built the country's first advanced air mobility command center. It's not a tech company. Come on. You're not a mining jite as well, but a city council in Victoria. LRO city council backed it with the state government funding and turned their regional airport into a national center for testing and operating autonomous drone systems. And the best part, it's OEM agnostic. Bring any drone, any dog, any brand the facility supports it. Joining us to tell that story is Bruce Connley from Lro City Council and Ravi Morti, founder of Yara Drones. the company appointed to design and deliver the command center. Ravi founded Yara drones **[1:02]** in 2018, build one of the Australia's fastest growing kasa approved airspace platforms and is now developing Australia's first unapproved aviation traffic management system with Air Services Australia. Quick housekeeping rules. Drop any of your questions in the Q&A tab as they come. Don't wait until the end. This session is being recorded and will be on FlytBase TV. And if something here makes you think, why isn't my region doing this? Share it on LinkedIn with Nestin. Bruce and Ravi, welcome to Nestin. Over to you. >> Thank you very much for this opportunity. Which screen? Can you see our screen? >> Uh, not yet. **[2:18]** [snorts] >> Having a bit of technical problem here. >> That's not an issue. So, how many of them are joining in from Australia over here? Like, let's have some chat around by the time they figure out their tech issues. >> Yeah, I guess now you can see the screen. >> Yes, we can. Thank you everyone. >> Thank you very much. So I'll introduce myself. My name is Bruce Connelly. I look after the investment in Latro City Council and our airport you can see on this slide is in Victoria in Australia. We're down on the eastern **[3:21]** side of Melbourne, so about an hour and a half out of Melbourne. And our council has traditionally been the center for power stations in Victoria. And those power stations are now closing. So we our population is going to be greatly affected by the closure of the power stations. And so our council appointed me and a small team of people to look at new investment opportunities. I also run the Latroe regional airport as part of my team and we started working some time ago on the potential for advanced air mobility. And the reason we looked at that was that picture there is our airport precinct and um the building on the left hand side with the shiny roof is the center of our advanced air mobilities activities at the moment. And the feedback from industry was very very positive about what we were doing because we have a lot of clean airspace around our airport and **[4:27]** we're only an hour and a half out of Melbourne. So for people wanting to develop new products and test them, it's a very good good location for them and to use the facilities of the airport. So we started the discussions probably 3 years ago now and in the last 18 months we received funding from our government to look to develop a command center to support a flight test range. So Ravi will talk about the flight test range and what he's doing with the command center, but our intention all along has been to enable people to come in and use the facilities that we've got on a cost recovery basis. Uh because there's only one or two facilities in Australia that can do a f flight test range and have a command center located close by. So it's reasonably unique uh and industry like it very much because of its location and the services that we offer. **[5:32]** So as I said we started back in um 2022 but we actually launched the precinct in 2024 and um we took on some initial test uh test clients to see if the facilities would work. And you can see in the photo there on the the right hand side, that drone is called Shade. And that was built by Swinburn University air hub. And the drone there has a uh capacity for a hydrogen fuel cell or an electric fuel cell. And they actually tested the hydrogen fuel cell in the shade and went out over Lake Naracan, which is in our our municipality. and they that went out for 3 hours non-stop which was the first flight of its kind in Australia and I believe still holds the record for a hydrogen um flight. So that's the sort of things that we thought would be very uh useful and interesting in the in the precinct. **[6:33]** So the best way to explain what the precinct is is that we've got a range of services and activities that can be done there. One of which which is the main one is the flight test range in the command center. Uh but we also have facilities there for students to come in and run classes and uh have our trade technical college people come in and do training programs as well. uh and so all those things can be done on the airport itself and uh we just do it on a cost recovery basis and charge people for an hourly rate when they use the the facilities. So Ravi will talk about the command center, but um for us as a council, we were supported by Victorian state government to get funding for this and um we put it in and as it says in the the title of this presentation. We very much went uh went in on the basis that no one owns it. Council owns it. **[7:35]** Anybody can come in and use it. So it's a very much an agnostic um facility. We did have a couple of very big international companies wanting to take over the uh facility and pay us for it but we said no we want to make it available to anybody particularly people in the startup stage of their business. So the command center is very much a focal point and central. The other thing we're doing at the moment is building a purpose-built building. So we spoke to industry and industry gave us feedback that there's a need for small workspaces that people can rent on a flexible basis. There's an area in that draft building there for collaboration so people can come in and do big projects or we can stage events in there. And then there's a mezzanine floor which will have offices, training rooms, and so people can come in and do drone projects. Uh the training colleges can come in and **[8:35]** teach people how to become drone pilots. Uh as well as companies setting up their office space there on a short-term basis. So that building's been designed. We've had it costed. We know what it's going to cost. We also know that the through economic impact assessment modeling that in the first 10 years we should be able to generate about 198 full-time jobs through there and create um regional output of about $170 million. So it's not inconsequential and we are very confident because there is no building like this in Australia at the moment. It'll be the first of its kind and we'll colllocate the command center in there as well. The other thing to mention is that we and this is for anybody on the call that's interested in doing something similar. We've done it on a basis that it's a membership base. So people pay us a small membership. It's not expensive to become a member of the precinct and that gets them discounts on using the facilities. But it **[9:38]** also creates what we call an ecosystem. So we've got an advanced air mobility ecosystem growing and you can see the logos on there and in addition to that we can add Loheed Martin's just come on as a member and a company out of Germany called Avalis. So all those companies and institutions on their members and we expect to continue to grow the base of the membership um which will also give us greater credibility in the marketplace as well as give them the opportunity to work together collaboratively. The other thing to mention, it's very important for us as a local government council is to give our young people the opportunity to see where the um new career pathways might be. So, we've run a couple of careers exhibition days and we've brought down big companies like Talas, uh Jet Aviation, **[10:40]** um and the universities. Swinburn came to them as did RMIT University as well as Gibsero which is a commercial aircraft manufacturer. So students coming in had the opportunity to see careers in a univers university sense also opportunities for employment uh at a trade level and a um a university level uh and be able to start them straight away which was very important because uh young people tend to see sometimes things that are a long way away but these were real and can be done straight away. So we're going to continue to build on that education process and that's important to us as a council. So I suppose the key things for us and I don't have a slide on it but the other thing that um is very important is having social license. So, we've been talking to our community quite a lot about what we're doing and telling them that um what advanced air mobility is as well as what drones and air taxis and the freight drones **[11:41]** are going to look like and getting their feedback. And I can say very confidently that um more than 86% of the people we've interviewed over the last few months are very supportive of what we're doing and um very keen for the trobe to become a center for it. And as mentioned in the beginning there is very much a um a uh first mover in this space and we want to keep that position and keep it moving. So, they're the key points I wanted to make today. I'm happy to talk to anybody after this call uh who would like to get more information on our precinct. Uh we do have some web website information, but I'm happy to uh team up with a meeting with anybody to talk about what we're doing. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you, Luc. Okay. So, >> so leave stage. Stop sharing. >> Yeah, stop sharing and sharing. **[12:49]** >> Leave stage. >> Yeah, can be. >> That's right. You >> Yeah, you're on. Okay. Oh, you're having an audio feedback. >> Okay. >> Uh, you're still having your audio feedback. Uh, I think Bruce, if if can you mute your mic if that's okay? Yeah. **[13:52]** >> All right. Let me know if you can hear me. All right. Okay. >> Uh, it's kind of echoing, but I think you can continue speaking. I'll I'll maybe understand. >> Okay. All right. All right. Thank you. >> No. Uh, you're still echoing. >> Okay. Just give me one second. >> Yeah. Is it better now? >> Yeah. Please go ahead. >> Okay. Shorty, can you hear me now? >> Yes, you can go ahead. >> Hello. >> Yes, Ravi. Yes. >> Okay. Okay. So, let's let's let's go ahead. All right. So, uh, good afternoon, good morning everyone. And, uh, uh, thank you Bruce for, uh, setting up the stage behind this particular. **[14:56]** >> Uh, sorry. Uh, I think you're cutting in between. Uh, we we're not able to hear you. 30 C3. >> All right. So, I think I'll I'll use Bruce's uh uh computer actually is maybe slightly better, right? >> Yes. >> Shri, can you hear us? Yes, you're good Ravi, please go. Ravi, please go. >> Okay. [snorts] Uh, all right. So, let me uh again uh thank Bruce for setting up the stage and uh what I will do since Bruce has already covered uh covered the the social economical uh aspect of the command center and and the plan and vision behind it and and things like that. So, let me uh we being one of the key partners of the trove to **[15:58]** build design and build this particular command center. So maybe I'll cover upon uh the technical aspects of it and and also like uh what exactly has gone into this particular command center and and uh you know what's benefit it's can it can bring to other drone operators and and people who would like to use it actually right so so I think I think the key thing in in this particular command center is it is it's a combination of couple of uh uh tech stack actually and particularly I wanted to mention about uh FlytBase and uh ATC 4D these are the two uh uh very important uh uh tech stack which has gone into this command center. Uh though they are very separate uh type of technologies but uh when they come together as an integrated uh manner then the the the the benefit what they bring is very different in terms of the operational uh you know uh operational uh efficiency of center. Uh so when we often talk about drones uh command centered so what comes in our mind is **[17:00]** pretty much like you know uh where the drone is flying uh what the camera of the drone is seeing and uh can we uh remotely control uh the drone from the command center but I think uh from our point of view there are much more uh than particularly you know uh command remotely controlling a drone actually right so the way we see there are there are four layers which are very important and that's exactly what we have brought into a single operational environment in this particular command center. Uh one is the flight operations which capability the FlytBase uh brings into brings into the into the equation uh like the dock aircraft telemetry which is the flight based piece of uh piece of uh a job. Uh the second thing is the airspace operations and and uh the planning the airspace coordination and things like that. So that is the ATC 4D which is one of the platform which Yara drones offers. uh situational awareness is one of the most important thing and uh we have uh things like IP radios observers ADSP in into **[18:02]** coming into the command center which is technically bringing the situational awareness and the last one is the risk and compliance which often uh a lot of us don't give much importance in the design of the command center and that is one of the important thing what we have thought through very clearly from the very early stage of our design uh so that we have uh uh the right emergency response plans. Then we have uh the the Osora is the local version of the Sora in Australia and the stakeholder engagement. I think Bruce has briefly touched upon it already that how you know before you rank them went into how we engage the local community and things like that. I think the most important thing here is that uh the single uh the value is not in the individual uh piece of text stack but when the text stack comes together that's where the actual value is drawn and that's where the operation environment is created and the design philosophy uh uh behind this particular thing uh was pretty much **[19:04]** driven by uh you know few aspects when LRO has asked us to uh you know come and build this command center so they have given us given us a very clear mandate that this particular command center has to be operated by not a single operator or by a single type of aircraft which need to run. So we have considered all these aspects for example this command center is designed and built for multiple operators different technologies different aircrafts and what one one most important parameter in this particular design uh considerations was that it is a integrated test range and uh it is operated within airport environment. This might sound a little bit complex initially but what we thought was this is the probably the best place to build a command center because this gives the environment for people a real world environment rather than you are simulating uh you know flying somewhere in isolation and then you when you face the real world environment then you have different challenges all together. Uh the second thing is also important that in terms of uh future proofing because we know because uh due to some technological constraints or **[20:09]** regulatory constraints uh uh few things what we could do probably tomorrow we cannot do today but when we designed this command center we made sure that these few things are future proofed for example multiple fleets could be operated together loss operations for example has been future proofed and so on. I like this slide the most because this kind kind of sums up uh the key text stack what we are using uh and that is FlytBase and ATC 4 4D and I think this is not new but what is more important is that from a FlytBase what you uh get to know is that where is my aircraft and what it is doing and and is the dog healthy what I'm seeing in the camera so the uh the aircraft information comes from the FlytBase but uh the airspace information is something which often uh you know not is something available in the command centers of this nature and that's that's where ATC 4D comes into into picture actually where it it brings the information like **[21:09]** where is where I'm operating what are the different uh airspace apply uh you know rules apply here and what are the different constraints I have here and so on basically so I think I think the the aircraft awareness uh when it's combined with the uh airspace awareness that's where the operational awareness comes in which is essential for operating a command center of this nature. All right. I think uh uh one of the important challenge what we have seen is that uh usually uh you know uncrrewed aviation is not simply uh plan a mission and uh just launch a mission by pressing a uh pressing a command or a click somewhere basically right it's much beyond that actually right it involves a lot more steps and and these steps which are often uh underplayed or ignored uh so you know but when we have designed and uh you know we are operating this command center. So we have made sure that these all steps are considered uh with the equal uh equal emphasis **[22:10]** u you know and and as you can see these seven steps and uh are very important steps and every step has been uh we have made sure that every step is uh is is uh is is covered by one or other piece of tech or a piece of process or piece of procedures. Uh and the last one is of of course the most important one record keeping which often we ignore it actually and then you know we end up the day we realize that we haven't got enough flight uh logs right records and things like that and that's also part of the command center here. This is uh something what we have learned out of this entire project. I think I have uh we have lot of learnings of course but uh to sum it up uh these are the five bullet points what I have put in actually and and one of the most important thing is that uh start with the operational architecture not with the drone and this is the mistake a lot of us we do that we actually start with an aircraft and then build everything around but we have uh learned it that it has to be started with an operational architecture rather than aircraft. **[23:12]** Uh second thing what we have learned is that uh the uh separation of air aircraft control and airspace management is uh important. uh because uh uh airspace management is more regulatory driven and more local whereas the uh you know aircraft control is a different uh different aspect of the operations right they have to be integrated but we have to also look them as a separate uh separate piece of tech uh interfaces uh when everything works very seamlessly interfaces don't matter but once things fall apart then you realize that interfaces are very important so what we have done is that from early design stage we have built uh uh built u like uh interface control documents which we have clearly defined how the systems are going to talk to each other and and things like that. Um the last one I love the most actually because that's where uh you know uh the command center have to be ultimately used by people and and all the design aspects have to be ensured that **[24:12]** like the human factor aspects of the command center are in place actually right so that's most important thing so I think I'll sum this slide by saying that you know the the infrastructure has to be outliving uh today's uh you know today's like uh you know choice of aircraft technically speaking otherwise you know what happens is that we built something which is for today, it is not meant for tomorrow. In that case, uh I think Bruce has briefly touched upon it, but there are two ways you can use the command center. Uh one is that you can bring your own um hardware, your operational procedures, your use cases and and use the rock uh you know uh you know that's that's one way you can do this. The second way you can also use it as a managed services where you can actually bring a problem actually right and we will work with you to come up with the solution and and and so that we can implement that particular solution in your respective areas. Come and talk to us. So we are open for uh service and uh that's what probably I **[25:12]** will close my presentation with. >> Thank you Ravi. Thank you so much. Uh thanks Bruce. Uh though I'm not able to see Bruce but uh thank you so much for this. Um I mean uh ROC has become a very important part of autonomous uh drone operations and it becomes even more important uh with providers like you especially in Australia creating something. Oh, I think we having a lot of >> Okay. computer. Yeah, I think we'll do that after that. >> Yeah, go ahead. **[26:15]** Uh yeah. Uh can you guys hear me? Okay now. I cannot hear you Ravi. >> Yeah, go ahead please. Now can hear us. >> Yeah, I mean it's perfectly fine. What is an online event without a a glitch? But that's great. Thank you so much for the presentation, Ravi and Rose. Uh we do have a few questions, but any other questions anybody needs to ask, please add it on the Q&A tab. Um so the question goes as to how many people does it take **[27:15]** to run the command center daytoday and do you hire new staff or do you retrain existing council employees? >> Okay. Uh shall I answer? >> Yeah. >> All right. So if you can hear me okay then probably I'll uh try to answer this. So how many people uh we need to run a command center right? Okay. So look I think uh uh that again depends on the size of operations you are conducting as such right. Uh essentially if you are conducting a very say plain simple operations I would say it is around two to three people operation. But if you are conducting a baby loss operation with a very wide area covered then probably you need to have a bit more staff actually and you might uh depending on your um the waiver what you have got uh and what the waiver talks about that how you know you want to really conduct the operation actually so it's very subjective question but I would say somewhere between three to three four people to it might take around five six people or maybe **[28:16]** even more uh depending on the size of operations >> right We also have a question on any guide for us to establish a good command center. >> Any guide for us to >> Oh, uh, you're echoing again. Yeah, I can't hear the both of you. >> Oh, come in. >> Oh, yeah. >> Hello, Bruce. Yes, I can see you now. Um I think for us having our government support has been very very important **[29:22]** um for two reasons. One is that they help fund the command center but they are also referring companies to us because they come to the Victorian government to get support and um then the Victorian government refers them to us. So government support's very very important and for me having a very supportive council is important because if the council didn't support what we're doing then we couldn't do it. So I think that's very very important. So they're probably the two main ones from my side of things and uh and having people that around us that know what they're talking about is very important. That's great. I think that's almost what he was trying to ask for. But um I think an ROC is also about like how Ravi and Bruce mentioned it's all about the integrations. It's all about how to make it all OEM agnostic and how how to bring the most out of **[30:25]** um you know centralizing your entire autonomous drone operation. So yes, I think that is fine. Uh there is just one person who is asking how to reach out to Ravi. I'll be sending over Ravi and Bruce's um LinkedIn at the end. So you guys will be able to reach out to them. But since we are on time check, thank you so much for joining in everybody. Thanks Ravi and Bruce. Um I'm hoping to host another session with you guys later. Thank you and have a great day. Bye everybody. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. We will be sending the presentations as well soon. Thank you. Bye-bye.