Research Projects

The SmartSat Vic Node is embedded within RMIT University’s Space Industry Hub. With investment from the Victorian Government and SmartSat, with support provided by Amazon Web Services and industry backing from FrontierSi, the Node is providing opportunities for joint projects to leverage national and international space collaborative initiatives

The Vic Node has established a number of flagship research projects aimed at connecting local capability with booming space industry markets within Australia and abroad, in particular in the United States and Europe. 

ADVANCED COOPERATIVE TASKING AND INTELLIGENT VISUALISATION ENVIRONMENT FOR SPACE DOMAIN AWARENESS (ACTIVE-SDA)

Space Domain Awareness (SDA) involves both tracking and predicting the motion of satellites and space debris in Earth orbit. The tracking of these objects is performed with a relatively small number of sensors spread out around the world. The underlying challenge in SDA is the ability to maximise object identifications and minimise uncertainty with the limited resources available. This is particularly complex in SDA systems due to the disparity in sensory types and locations of the sensors that make up the network. To add to this complexity, space-based sensors are now being explored to add to sensor networks and maximise the robustness of observations. Such sensor networks will be required to be intelligent enough to not only automatically detect satellites, but to assess the regions of sky in which follow-up observations or targeted sensing are necessary and represent this efficiently to an analyst. Analysts working on such a network will have a large amount of information to parse on short timeframes, and they must be assisted to make critical tasking or reconfiguration decisions pertinent to both the operation of the sensor network, as well as to the control of satellites and formations.

Initially, the project was to investigate how artificial intelligence and advanced data visualisation techniques could be combined to simplify and enhance the workflow of an analyst while tasking a network of sensors for SDA activities. However, through the project it became clear that the most worthwhile exploration of AI was not to build this as part of the ACTIVE-SDA system, but rather to focus more on the CONOPS and system concepts of the human factors.

The project has successfully achieved the stated aim of providing an end-to-end space domain awareness (SDA) platform for testing and evaluating concepts towards enhancing Australia’s SDA capability.

P5.01

Project Leader:
Dr Sholto Forbes-Spyratos, CGI Australia

Participants:

REAL-TIME NUTRIENT ANALYZER WITH ADAPTIVE SAMPLING AND PREDICTIVE MODELLING

Existing methods for high accuracy ground based nutrient measurement require laboratory analysis of remotely collected grab samples. This ensures the data is NATA accredited, but of course this approach is impractical where real-time high-resolution data is required. The alternate approach typically used is to install a remote sensor probe, which would normally be based on ion selective electrodes or optical absorption, however these do not provide the same level of data accuracy. In addition, measuring for multiple analytes often requires multiple sensor probes, each tuned to specific target analytes. As a result, the use of these devices for verified monitoring of nutrient concentrations is more limited.

This project aims to demonstrate the application of remote real-time measurement systems for providing in-situ data on nutrient concentrations, along with integration of that data with existing hydrological and meteorological models. A system of satellite-linked in-situ real time nutrient analysers provides a powerful toolset for the active management of pollutants entering waterways due to agricultural activities. By applying this toolset to on-farm management in far north Queensland, there are potentially significant commercial outcomes to be achieved as well as benefits through the Reef Credit Scheme implemented by the Queensland government. An outcome of the project then, would be a demonstration of the Eco Detection device as a verified monitoring method for nutrient concentrations in surface water flowing to the reef. Establishment of this as a verified monitoring method then allows for more advanced data integration to be built on top of this baseline measurement. A further outcome of the project is the demonstration of the satellite-linked system of online nutrient analysers, which is critical for enabling remote measurement capability outside the existing cellular network range.

P5.02

Project Leader:
Dr Phillip Fox, Eco Detection Pty Ltd

Participants:

HYMS HYPERSPECTRAL MICROWAVE SOUNDER

This goal of the project was to develop an advanced, multi-channel, ground-based microwave Sounder for 3D profiling of the atmosphere. The need for such a Sounder has been recognized around the world as vital for improving global weather forecasts.

This ground-based system is used to develop advanced RF hardware and software for a new generation Sounder. The overall goal is to develop a constellation of satellite Sounders, providing high-resolution radiance observations and atmospheric temperature and water profiles which will provide real-time input to advanced NWP models, significantly improving weather forecasts.

Whilst an operational Sounder has not yet been delivered, a range of key milestones have been completed including:

• Initial overall hardware & software design;
• Prototype construction; and
• Operational refinement of design based on prototype testing (partial completion)

P5.03

Project Leader:
Gary Quinn, ESS Earth Sciences

Participants:

INVESTIGATION INTO SPACE-BASED DATA STREAMS FOR UPDATING AND ENRICHING VICTORIA’S FOUNDATION SPATIAL DATA (DYNAMIC VICMAP)

New space-based data streams are creating new opportunities for lower-latency, lower-cost, higher-quality, more automated updates to spatial data at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Currently space-based data is not used in Victoria, nor by many data custodians nationally, to create or maintain foundation spatial data.

While these new data streams create new opportunities, established methods used to create and maintain Foundation Spatial Data are not well-adapted to take advantage, relying on well understood, but low frequency, highly manual, and high-cost update processes. These processes, while fit for purpose in the past, have been identified to require modernisation in Victoria and around Australia.

The project addressed this gap by exploring the role of space-based data streams, combined with new ML and data fusion techniques, to aid in creating a step-change in the cost, quality, and timeliness of updates to this important digital infrastructure.

The PoC showcased the opportunity for space-based data streams to update and enrich Victoria’s Foundation Spatial Data and provides a framework for government to move from traditional data maintenance to a future of linked, multi-temporal, self-improving data with multiple representations and feature-based metadata that is analysis ready. The results demonstrate the potential for the approach to assist in easier integration of multiple data sets and layers, associated provenance and metadata, and smarter, simpler queries for dynamic foundational spatial data, in Victoria and internationally.

P5.04

Project Leader:
Kate Williams, FrontierSI

Participants: