Dronestar™ A.I. Detection, Tracking and Mitigation Systems

Sharks are a fundamental part of healthy oceans. The more we see out there, the better idea we have of the health of our oceans. In recent years, shark sightings appear to have increased dramatically, which leads the general public to assume that, based on continual news reporting, that we have an ever increasing shark problem that needs to be addressed.
Quite simply, the accessibility, and ability to aerial photography -  a Drone, gives everyone - professional or otherwise, the 'Birds Eye view', To see things from the air, previously inaccessible by anything other than by manned aircraft on specific sighting patrols.

So, of course, we're seeing more and more reports of sharks - mainly due Drones being out there looking for them - and beaches being continually closed as a result. And they're just the patrolled ones - and even those outside of hours where sharks are known to patrol and feed.

Shark spotting, using drones, according to 'the news', is a big, new thing. In fact it's not.

At Dronestar™, we've been developing and deploying software and hardware systems for shark patrols, for leading agencies across Australia for years. In fact, we started patrols originally back in 2015, when drone hardware had matured to a point that it could be specifically purposed for tasks such as shark and croc patrols. And that's what we did - not as Dronestar™ at the time, but with Chief Remote Pilot Darren Froggatt, now founder, and co-owner of Dronestar™ Pty Ltd.

And so, the journey now continues, but with new technology and internal assets.

Shark patrol, as an example,  (but no different to any threat detection, or species monitoring and tracking), has always been flown either manually, using a human pilot, or remotely - again, using human pilots. Those pilots, and/or spotters then have to manually identify targets and verify. This takes time and completely stalls the process of finding threats which may be far higher. The current regulation from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), although evolving in its maturity, and ability to adapt to incredibly rapidly advancing new technology, is still the bottleneck to progressing intelligence into these operations, is doing its best. But things are changing.

During this period, A.I. finds its home.

Dronestar™ have been very, very busy behind the scenes for a few years now, taking the 'human' out of the loop (in terms of identifying and tracking threats such as sharks and crocodiles), and having shark A.I. models, trained on the last 10 years of 'real' shark/croc behavioural video we've captured across Australia, in real-world scenarios, at times when shark and croc threat activity is high, and loading these into our models - which, as of writing this article (July 2026) are reaching a deployable stage after a year of real-world testing.

The way we've built this system is completely real-time, and delivers a product that is machine learning out of the box. That means, it already knows what threats are, where they are, when they're a threat and what 'isn't  a threat. These models are adaptable, and allow a human pilot to fly anywhere, anytime, 24/7, remotely or otherwise, with a system that automatically identifies, and tracks the chosen 'model', in real-time, anytime. This fills a significant gap in current deployment, with Surf Lifesaving nationwide that don't operate at times when threat detection is critical.

More than that, the Dronestar™ solution identifies those threats that we know have been problematic in the past, identifies and clears those that are harmless - For sharks ; Grey Nurse sharks for example. Our system also targets and flags (and sends exact location and coordinates to anyone needs them - Surf Lifesaving / Marine Rescue for example),  and those known  to be aggressive, excludes those that aren't, , and then matches behavioural profile video we have captured over the years - Bull Sharks and White sharks are the two species that generally cause issues close to shore at particular times of the day - and opportunistic at others.

There are no other companies in Australia that have what we have. Not just the courses to train your staff, but the in-house systems development and programming expertise we have, added to the vast experience of management here at Dronestar™ - qualification in manned and unmanned aviation. There's just no comparison.

And as always, you'll see that right away when you train with us. You'll know that right away when you speak with us.

We can supply all DJI Enterprise - and DJI Dock based solutions, (AIO systems essentially), install them, install our A.I. systems if you need, train you, and deploy. Sharks, Crocs, Cattle, emergency services.  Simple, automated, real time, 24/7 identification and tracking.