# BVLOS Breakthrough: RocketDNA’s Journey

- Event: Xpress ’24
- Published: May 31, 2024
- Length: 10:19
- Watch: https://nestgen.org/library/watch/or0yi7vcQGI/

> 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

This interview features Christopher Clark, the CEO & Founder of RocketDNA, a leading drone automation & AI company. Hitting a significant milestone last year, RocketDNA became the first drone operator in Australia & South Africa to receive BVLOS approval for the DJI Dock.

Further, the interview delves deep into understanding which use cases and industries are actively adopting drone-in-a-box systems in South Africa & Australia.
Wondering whether more automation & AI is coming along soon? Watch this episode to know more!

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## Transcript

**[0:10]** hello Hello I'm vishali reporting live from the AI exponential in San Diego it's day two and we are back with another session of nesen Express season 3 today I'm joined by Christopher Clark founder and CEO of Rocket DNA a leading drone Automation and AI company to talk about everything that they've been brewing up in Australia and South Africa so how it's going Chris and thanks B thanks for very much for having me yeah going very well so why don't we start off with a quick introduction of you and Rocket DNA for all the folks that are tuning in yeah thanks bashali well rocket DNA is a global leader and an ASX listed drone Services business uh we're really uh are focused on doing drone integration uh and really primarily on droning the Box solutions for for for customers within the mining and uh industrial Industries all right so rocket DNA did hit a very significant Milestone last year by being one of

**[1:13]** the first drone operators in both Australia Australia and uh South Africa to receive VV loss approval with the DJI dog so what does that mean for the industry what kind of operations are permitted yeah thanks Bali yeah it's a very interesting uh one for us and an achievement we're very proud of um you know rocket DNA is an Eclectic mix of aviators mining Engineers surveyors Tech geek software Engineers um and really kind of bringing all these skills together to achieve these U these regulator or BB loss approvals um has really been something um pretty amazing um it it began with a 2-year process which was really about identifying the the right kind of equipment the um you know the right um operating software like FlytBase uh and being able to prove to the regulator that these things can be operated very safely and not only just on a one toone basis but its scale so so taking the the units from from just a single remote operator flying only a single drone out of a box to a multi- uh drone environment from a single operator that that sounds great so it it was a 2-year long

**[2:18]** process so how how long does usually a typical approval take say for example by fora yeah I think um BB loss is always going to be one of those those sort of unknowns um it is while while sort of traditional uh drone approvals are are pretty much sort of copy and paste because sort of drones have been in play for you know over about 15 years now um BB loss still seems to be that area which is very specific to the end user and the kind of the the applications um and the approvals that you're seeking so I think a lot of people think that you can just sort of as as before go get a a BB loss waiver by just sort of doing a copy paste of the next person's um operations and and that's really not the case so I think probably my advice really would be to anyone who's looking to get into the space is you you've got to be 100% U engaged and really intentful for what you're looking to achieve within your specific um applications because taking someone else's approval or waivers and and and trying to

**[3:18]** really duplicate that in your environment it may even be overkill for for what you need so um at Rocket DNA we're all we're really about being fit for purpose you know we we wanted to design a solution and an offering that could that could scale um and that we would uh be able to offer um remote Outsource services and uh and really allow the customer to focus on what they do best which in the case of mining is it's really about taking rocks out of the ground right I I think the air risk ground risk they're all going to be very different uh based on the operating environment or the geography so yes you're right like it it you cannot just simply copy paste uh so in both South Africa and uh Australia respect itively so what are the different applications or use cases that you're seeing adoption for drone in box systems yeah I think this is the most exciting part in where where everyone gets very inspired so so traditionally what you're seeing out in Australia is the idea of really automate automating these very mundane dirty or even dangerous tasks so so typically for our

**[4:20]** mining customers is about removing people from these very active pits um you know removing them from harm and danger um and that's a very similar sort of case what we're seeing in in South Africa as well where where we're where we're automating the the effectively the security patrolman that instead of you know putting people out doing this night work uh patrolling perimeters you're not automating that using a drone so you're you're really focusing or using the Drone in box to to uh tackle and Target very specific workflows or use cases and automating that from from end to end and a lot of the times that's not just physically replacing a person with a drone I think a lot of people you know conceptually understand that very well um but really what's important is about how you integrate the software layer into that so um so so a lot of obviously what FlytBase does is is really incorporating the safety Elements which you're seeing at a remote operations level but then on the customer end how do you identify detect reports and even uh create Trend analysis uh from that so it's all about empowering people to make better decisions um while while

**[5:24]** keeping people safe right I think one great thing that droner box system does is replace all the D dull dirty and dangerous work that humans are having to do today uh you mentioned security so one of your key offerings are the E is the export for security and surveillance so what kind of security operations are you seeing today like is it more of on demand alarm based response or more of scheduled patrols yeah it's a it's a very interesting one so so I think a lot of people s and if you sort of take the DJI dock as an example I think a lot of people sort of under under the impression that you can just sort of take take the DJI dock off the shelf and uh and sort of plug and play and go uh which is definitely not the case um as per like s of the typical DJI drones so our XO solution was all about integrating this into a single ready to deploy um solution with the Mind skid and and all the communications uh um video weather station styling connectivity really was in sort of one single uh

**[6:26]** sort of bundle that that could be easily deployed to site and and uh and typically what we're seeing is once you you get these units that are a sort of being able to be deployed to site customers are predominantly using this but I would say about 80% of the time for for very scheduled predictable kind of applications and the other 20% is for more the on demand the triggering environment so um you're already finding that the the current use business case is built around what the current the customer knows but where we see the exciting part is is there unkknown right so so what is with the extra spare capacity that the Drone and the dock um or the Drone and the Box uh concept really brings to to these industrial customers is while you you you while you can reduce the number of people on site or from homful areas you can go a lot further and as a typical example one of the things we're doing in the mining environment um as is they say every day is our unit will be we be sort of deploying typically doing survey stock piles body metrics during the day so a lot of

**[7:28]** survey work and then um and then it's sort of at spare time is doing inspection work but not just producing and flying videos we we even been able to build an AI computer vision model that's able to to detect water leaks along a pipeline so this is really removes people from being able to drive 1520 km um along these pipelines or even conveyors um looking for for water leaks or or sort of burning idlers so um really the it's really only limited by your imagination What can be achieved I think that's another interesting bit of droner box systems the multiple use cases you just deploy one and then you use it for different kind of use cases we security inspections mapping all at once without really having to send Pilots every time on the on the field uh so we close up this session with one question uh Chris that is where do you see uh the industry heading as one of the leading drone solution providers uh how do you do you anticipate more automate and AI coming along in the

**[8:31]** new future near future or do you think it's going to be a few years until that kicks off yeah that's a very interesting one bash we um I see there's a place for both the the Legacy sort of drone operations as well as the the automated drone box Solutions I think they're going to both coexist in that you you're typically going to find very Niche or project related work still being done by the typical drone operations but once you've sort of done that task over and over and over again I think the the need to automate that that and then rather redeploy those people to to do more complex sort of tasks is is where the future is going to go um and beyond that um sort of speaking into that and even looking at the size of which these docs are getting right we we sort of joke you know looking at the DJ doc as an example it was it looked like a a photocopy of printer and it was and now it looks like a little laser desktop printer um and so and like in any other kind of working environments it's um you you have hundreds of these things you know within within your office and um and we're seeing that's exactly where the Market's going to go is as customers

**[9:33]** get sort of very comfortable with only having one unit they're going to go two three 5 10 20 and uh and I think the acceptance of these systems is is going to be very quick and very easy and I think really it's all going to be down to the systems that what what flly base is building is how how are we're going to start handling hundreds of these units up in the air all operating autonomously um because you know you can't have you know one operator um doing one drone anymore yes one too many that's where your waer comes in that's it yes uh I think that's great Chris it was great chatting with you today uh thank you all for tuning in for our interesting episode of nesan Express season 3 we'll see you for the next one