A UK Royal Navy research ship is on a mission in one of the most remote and isolated spots on the planet using camera and sensor-equipped drones to study the effects of climate change on penguin populations of Antarctica’s South Sandwich Islands.

This week on the weekly DroneDJ live stream, Yifei, Seth, and site publisher Seth Weintraub discuss this year’s biggest stories and recap what happened in the crazy year that was 2021.

This year we saw a good number of new DJI products hit the shelves, but what awaits us next year? A leaked timeline could clue us in.

Anyone who dreams of what it will be like to throw a few switches in their car that enable it to take off into the skies should probably swing by stand 3535 LVCC at next month’s CES 2022 tech conference in Las Vegas, where they can get an immersive cockpit preview of the ASKA Drive and Fly vehicle.

Leading autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV) manufacturer EHang has unveiled its new, fully integrated 5G flight center in the Chinese city Guangzhou, from which it will trial air taxi and other urban air mobility (UAM) services awaiting their commercial launch in coming months.

UAV pilots, both tested veterans and uninitiated neophytes, cannot be reminded enough that flying too close to wildlife can be tantamount to harassment when the creatures react in fear. That message was reiterated again this week after conservationists in Cornwall, England, witnessed a drone spooking a group of resting seals to bolt into the sea.

The first shipment from Autel Robotics’ new drone series, EVO Lite and EVO Nano, has finally arrived at the US warehouse and should reach distribution partners in the next few days. Unlike Autel’s previous enterprise and prosumer offerings, these drones are meant for beginners and veterans alike. As such, the drone manufacturer has released a new, easy-to-use Autel Sky app to make shooting, editing, and sharing easier at the touch of a button.

The first shipment from Autel Robotics’ new drone series, EVO Lite and EVO Nano, has finally arrived in North America today. Originally announced in September 2021, the drones will now be displayed for the first time in public at the upcoming CES technology industry trade show in Las Vegas.

Okay, any way you slice it, this story is really weird. News reports in Mississippi say a woman was struck and injured by a decorative boat anchor dropped on her by a drone in what was not an isolated incident. How could that ever be a thing?

COVID-19-related complications have forced the city of Melbourne to cancel its much-anticipated New Year’s Eve drone show – a 350-craft spectacle that had been touted as the largest ever planned in Australia.

The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is getting creative with its drone development by awarding Phase Two contracts to produce uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUV) that hostile forces might well ignore as nothing more than manta rays. Because that’s just what they’re designed to look like.

As an exploit, it may not rank up there with UAVs saving lives on first responder missions or locating people desperately lost in the inhospitable wilds, but an Australian farmer is celebrating what he believes to be the world’s first sunflower crop to be entirely planted by a drone.

World champion drone manufacturer DJI has long said its tech activities extend well beyond UAVs. The Chinese giant seems to be proving that again in announcing the expansion of its DJI Automotive division producing key components for autonomous driving smart cars.

Leading autonomous air vehicle (AAV) maker EHang stepped up its business development in Japan with a pair of notable deals, including securing the first order for its VT-30 long-range craft and deepening its work preparing the nation for looming urban air mobility (UAM) operations.

A large Japanese cleaning company has adapted its use of vacuum technology – as well as drones – to develop an efficient tool for the dangerous and occasionally deadly work of breaking up wasp nests.

The Embraer group’s urban air mobility (UAM) unit, Eve, has signed another deal to sell its future electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles to a US passenger airline, and will also examine the craft’s development for potential defense and security clients through a partnership with the UK’s BAE.

Bird watchers in the UK were outraged at seeing a drone fly in and break up a recurring mass flight phenomenon by starlings known as murmurations. The interruption last week near Brighton’s pier was also denounced for the dangers that the craft’s propellers posed to the performing creatures.

XAG, one of the top three commercial drone manufacturers of 2021, has launched five new products that will become available globally in 2022. And as was expected, XAG’s new autonomous solutions, which include both drones and ground robots, pack in more efficiency, precision, and safety than the company’s previous models.

CES 2022 is back in person this year (at least for now), and we hope to see some great new gadgets on display and share them with you. Yifei and Seth discussed what they were looking forward to in the latest DroneDJ video on our YouTube channel.

The tumult in the UK over drones live-streaming horse races to provide an advantage to clients in betting rings has reached a new pitch, with clearly displeased and disapproving politicians joining the debate. Their earnest outrage notwithstanding, the desire to thwart the lucrative practice continues to be undermined by a confounding consideration: The activity isn’t illegal under existing laws.

Israel is nearing the halfway mark of its national drone initiative – an ambitious pilot program seeking to test and prepare operational capacities for UAV use in daily life and business, and place participating companies at the forefront of rapidly approaching aerial services.

A century-old unit of the UK’s Royal Navy may be getting an aerial makeover. At least that’s what officials hope in examining whether drones can be used to assist the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) transport supplies to large naval ships around the globe.

The end of 2021 is proving a busy time for Embraer’s urban air mobility unit (UAM) Eve, which in the space of a few hours announced the securing of two major electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft orders, as well as its plans to join the rising number of sector companies introducing their stocks on Wall Street.

Yifei and Seth discussed the top stories from the last week over on DroneDJ’s YouTube Channel this week. Check out the video below.