A V-TOL Flight Services Team operating a company ROTA-FIX® Hornet drone has just completed its first five (5) jobs across Victoria working for Powercor & AusNet. These jobs included a river crossing and waterway in northern Victoria to protect a Pelican habitat and deflect low-flying agricultural aircraft from infrastructure, and mountainous locations in central & southern Victoria to mark conductors spanning wide mountainous valleys.

“We recently used V-TOL Aerospace to install Rota Marka’s on our network, I was really impressed with the professionalism of the whole team, the fitment was delivered to meet our requirements,” says Gavan Doherty, Ariel Operations Coordinator Manager, at AusNet.

“With Powercor and AusNet coming onboard to mark their electrical transmission infrastructure assets using ROTA-FIX®, V-TOL has now been engaged by eight (8) utilities in two countries using it’s technologies,” says Mark Xavier CEO of V-TOL. He continued, “It is our aim to supply a family of robotic & AI assisted products & services supported by our IoT platform to the global utilities market commencing with our ROTA-FIX® solution leading the way in Australia.”  

The V-TOL ROTA-FIX® is a unique fit-for-purpose robotic solution (patent pending) developed specifically for attaching the Balmoral Engineering ROTAMARKA®, (globally distributed by SICAME Group), to energised & de-energised elevated electrical infrastructure to protect birds, aircraft & people. Both ROTA-FIX® & ROTAMARKA® are made in Australia and industry tested by Energy QLD Limited. As a joint sovereign capability, this service & product are approved for use on critical infrastructure within sensitive Defence locations. 

A V-TOL Flight Services Team operating a company Hornet variant ROTA-FIX™ drone has just successfully completed its first job with TransGrid within the Holsworthy Military Area, NSW.

“Working closely with TransGrid, Balmoral Engineering & SICAME Australia, has demonstrated how our integrated supply chain approach safely & effectively sets the global benchmark in the supply & installation of the best in-class ROTAMARKA™ bird & aircraft hazard deflector on elevated electrical transmission infrastructure,” says Mark Xavier CEO of V-TOL.

The V-TOL ROTA-FIX™ is a unique fit-for-purpose robotic solution developed specifically for attaching the Balmoral Engineering ROTAMARKA™, that is globally distributed by SICAME, to energised & de-energised elevated electrical infrastructure. Both the Hornet aircraft & its payload (patent pending) are made in Australia by V-TOL Aerospace with industry testing by Energy QLD Ltd during its development. V-TOL ROTA-FIX™ offers a tested sovereign capability to the Australian Energy Infrastructure Industry which is particularly important when operating within Defence & other sensitive locations.

The group looks forward to delivering this outcome wherever in the world electrical infrastructure requires hazardous marking for the protection of aircraft, birds and people.

V-TOL committed to joining Endeavour Energy on its industry Safety Day at its Technical Training Centre at Preston, NSW, on 13 February 2024 after two very compelling presentations.

The first was by “Cookie” Glen Cook of Energy Queensland on the lessons learnt from his “Look Up & Live” campaign. The second was a most confronting story of Theo Venter, a true survivor of a terrifying event, (coming into direct contact with a 22,000 volt & 1200 amp conductor).

V-TOL will demonstrate how Rotamarka is installed using smart drone technology along with Balmoral Engineering, the manufacturer of the award winning Rotamarka product, and with Gavin Bryant from SICAME Australia, part of the Rotamarka global distribution agency. See this flyer below for more information:

We all look forward to a great day of demonstrations and learning. Also, if you ever have the opportunity to see Theo speak about his story, do it. It might just save your life.

The Logan SES (QLD) Unit successfully conducted its 2023-24 Serviceability Inspection for water night safety on the Logan River. Key to this was identification of the Rotamarkas installed by V-TOL Rota-Fix™ Drone in 2022.

The Logan SES Unit deployed its Boat Teams after dark on 27 September 2023 as a function of their flood season preparations on the Logan River. They inspected the installations conducted with Balmoral Engineering, SICAME Australia and EQL personnel on the 6-7 September 2022. Attached to power lines crossing the river, these Rotamarkas were installed to prevent ground strike by SES Boat Crews and to assist with safe navigation of the river during flood events at night.

In some areas of the river we have seen the conductors appear at head height due to rising water making navigation extremely dangerous for my crews. During the March 2022 flood, a night rescue had to be called off due to the uncertainty of where the potentially live conductors were located and due to the river breaking its banks making safe navigation very difficult. If the Rotamarkas are installed at the center of the river on the conductors, not only can we see them and the power lines, but we can also ensure we are moving over the safest part of the river during these events.

Craig Guy SES Logan Deputy Local Controller

Of the Rotamarkas; “from water they are very effective and easy to spot with our handheld lights,” said Craig.  Of the installations; “all 4 Locations that have them are still in the same place as when installed,” he continued.

On behalf of V-TOL and the organizations that took part in this activity, we thank Craig and his Unit for supplying their independent Rotamarka Status Report & Findings that validate the work conducted last year using the V-TOL Rota-Fix™ Drone installation approach. The next serviceability asset inspection date will be released in October 2024 at digitaltwin.energy.

V-TOL Aerospace’s innovative approach to developing the Rota-Fix™ drone for attaching Balmoral Rotamarka™ safety devices to electrical infrastructure has now been certified as a new and distinctive design by IP Australia. This acknowledgement is great news and of significant value for V-TOL Aerospace as we take this technology global, says Mark Xavier, CEO & MD of V-TOL.

As V-TOL Aerospace’s launch product in its strategy to deliver Robot AI Human Teaming solutions for the maintenance & management of critical energy infrastructure under digitaltwin.energy, Rota-Fix™ will provide an appropriate example of how advanced robotics & AI can be safely & effectively utilized.  We look forward to additional announcements by IP Australia and with our growing group of collaborating Australian & NZ industry partners that will demonstrate that V-TOL Aerospace is a global leader in its chosen field.