Drone technology could be used to revolutionise search and rescue operations in remote sections of Western Australia's Goldfields region, following a spate of people going missing in the outback.

Goldfields police superintendent Darryl Gaunt said there was a concerning number of prospectors going missing in the region, with two people becoming lost in the past fortnight.

A woman in her 50s spent a night in the bush last week after wandering from her campsite just outside of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, 550 kilometres east of Perth, while a man in his 30s became lost while prospecting just days earlier.

In December an elderly man was found dehydrated and suffering from heat exhaustion after spending hours lost near Coolgardie on a 40 degree Celsius day.

And late last year a Perth grandfather survived six days lost in the Goldfields by eating black ants.

Superintendent Gaunt said it was an alarming trend.

"Two in two weeks would tell me that the prevalence of it is increasing," he said.

He said search and rescue operations were expensive to run, and usually involved police, Special Emergency Services personnel and aircraft.

"It depends on the duration and the isolation," he said.

"But these things do run into the tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars very quickly."

Superintendent Gaunt said WA Police were looking at drone technology closely.

"We certainly have an appetite for them [drones]," he said.

"They offer us a quality product, it's highly portable and it's also far more cost efficient than aircraft."

Drones 'more efficient' at spotting people than manned aircraft

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) robotics professor Jonathan Roberts said search and rescue was a logical application for drones.

"It's relatively easy to operate them in areas that are uncluttered," he said.

"The great expanses of the country where people do go missing, almost by definition are uncluttered.

"The technology does exist for a drone to go out, fly a search area, fill in the search area with pictures on the ground, and even do automatic detection to look for people."

Professor Roberts said drones could be more efficient at locating people than spotters in an aircraft.

"Because the unmanned aircraft have got GPS on board it's very easy to give exact GPS coordinates to that location," he said.

"A spotter in the air might be able to give rough GPS coordinates when they find someone on the ground."

Goldfields drone enthusiast Tim Neeson holds drone-making workshops, and agrees the devices could help.

"Because of what's been happening in the news and people going missing, the penny just dropped," he said.

"I thought, 'here's a perfect application for them'."

However Superintendent Gaunt said Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) regulations presented an obstacle, and police would have to ensure contractors met standards required by the coroner and by legislation.