Queensland is fast becoming a leading aviation and aerospace hub in the Asia-Pacific region. In April 2006 the Defence Science Technology Organisation (DSTO) established its Applied Hypersonics Branch at QCAT. The two research organisations in this cluster are:
CSIRO
The ICT Centre's Autonomous Systems Lab is pioneering research on vision-based flying robots. These will be used by experts without piloting skills for inspecting infrastructure such as bridges, cooling towers, powerlines and pipelines.
CSIRO and Queensland University of Technology (QUT) have signed a Joint Venture Agreement creating the Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation (ARCAA).
The aim of ARCAA is to develop flight safety systems and technologies that will enable the widespread use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for civilian applications. Queensland State Government support for the venture will enable the construction of a specialised research facility at Brisbane Airport including an environmental chamber, UAV assembly workshop, avionics development laboratory and a mobile operations centre to support flight testing activities in remote locations.
Already CSIRO and QUT are collaborating with local and international researchers from Boeing Australia and Boeing Phantom Works to develop and trial vision-based sense and avoid capabilities for rotary and fixed-wing UAVs as well as predictive flight management modules and airspace separation systems suitable for both UAVs and piloted aircraft. This collaboration has been highly influential in the decision by Boeing to establish a branch of its Phantom Works advanced research unit in Australia.
 CSIRO ICT Centre's Autonomous Systems Lab website
ARCAA website
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