Drones have what seem to be limitless potential as they are finding their spot in many industries like farming, transportation, and surveying. Amongst many great uses, there are also those who wish to misuse these small, unmanned aircraft as they are agile and hard to detect. Many ideas on how to take down these rogue drones have been proposed and tested but RoboTiCan is taking a different approach using brute force.
Usually, whenever drones and wildfires are in the news together it’s because these small aircraft are interfering with larger, manned aircraft tasked with delivering water and retardant to extinguish the flames. In a change of events, firefighters of South Oregon are using gas-powered drones to scan wildfire areas and detect hotspot during the night.
In an effort to combine the practicality of an airplane with the endurance of a satellite, Airbus has developed the Zephyr, a drone that flies at extremely high altitudes and is powered 100% by solar energy. There are two different variations of the aircraft: Zephyr S, a smaller aircraft that is already in production, and the Zephyr T, a larger scale version that is still in development.
With DJI dominating headlines in the consumer drone market with the expected release of the Mavic 2, Yuneec has quietly released a folding drone of their own called the “Mantis Q” that will only be available in Europe. Upon first glance, this drone might look like any other Spark or Mavic Air competitor, but after a closer look, you’ll come to find it has a decent set of specs. Let’s discuss what makes this drone stand out.
After a little over six months of flying the DJI Mavic Air, I’ve gotten to experience how even small drones have incredible potential. Slated between the Spark and Mavic Pro, DJI could have done a lot more with this product but chose not to because of how it’s positioned in their current offerings. This mixture of creating the best drone possible and trying not to compete with their other products leaves the Mavic Air as an almost perfect drone.
On July 30th the Defense Department awarded a contract worth nearly $800 million towards the research and development of unmanned underwater drones. In its 2019 fiscal year budget, the DoD allotted $9.6 billion to unmanned systems. According to the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, this is a 28% increase from the previous year which solidifies the department’s interest in unmanned systems is growing. The Pentagon has selected 23 different companies to share the contract with expected completion by July of 2023, just 5 years from now.
With the states in the west of the United States seeing historic wildfires, efforts to extinguish the flames are at an all-time high. In a massive, 100,000 acre wildfire devastating Idaho, all aircraft were forced to land for an hour and a half after a drone was spotted in the airspace, according to Channel 4 Utah.
Lucid, Inc based in Raleigh, North Carolina is using drones to clean the exterior surfaces of buildings. Andrew Ashur and his two friends David Danielson and Adrian Mayans got the idea after seeing workers cleaning tall skyscrapers. They knew there had to be a safer, more efficient way to complete this task, so they began to put their plan into action.
With its smaller design, the Spark features a smaller battery which as a result decreases the flight time. Extra batteries are pretty cheap at $49 a piece, but once you start carrying around your drone, batteries, and extra accessories, things can get hard to pack in your bag. This is why the DJI Spark Portable Charging Station has become my favorite accessory that I own.
The RoboMaster annual competition combines advanced engineering and gaming to bring an entertaining event for spectators to watch. Each team has one base and six different robots, all of which are given different assignments in the overall objective to take out the opponent’s base. This year the competition was sponsored by DJI, the world’s largest drone manufacturer that is well known for their aerial photography platforms.
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The DJI Spark was unveiled over one year ago on May 24th, 2017 at a keynote event held in New York City. This is the least expensive drone that DJI offers (the Tello is offered by Ryze), appealing to beginner pilots and average consumers who don’t want to drop some serious cash. This however does not mean the Spark is a low-end drone. It is packed with plenty of software features and power to experience the thrill of flying. Even being a year old, which is forever in terms of technology, it’s still the best beginner drone available for purchase.
One of the biggest challenges the drone industry faces is flight time. Consumer drones from DJI have touched 30 minutes while high altitude commercial drones like the PHASA-35 plan to stay in the air for years at a time using solar energy. More realistically, drones that fly closer to the ground require the operator to feed new batteries constantly. To combat this, Skysense has developed a creative way to charge and store your aircraft.
The PHASA-35 is a high altitude, long endurance aircraft that is currently in development through a collaborative effort between BAE Systems and Prismatic. The two companies behind this UAV have their eyes set on the long haul with intentions to keep this aircraft airborne for over a year.
Airbus, a French company, has its eyes set on the unmanned aerial vehicle market with their Zephyr high altitude drone. You may be familiar with Airbus as a company who develops passenger aircraft, like the A380 that was recently captured by a drone while taking off, commercial jets, and even helicopters. Their goal is entirely different with this project as the Zephyr S and Zephyr T offer a wide range of possibilities.
Drone use in the real estate business is skyrocketing. The aerial perspective drones offer to help real estate agents sell homes as it gives home buyers an even better view of their future purchase. Taking a high-resolution photo with a drone is not hard as even smaller, more inexpensive drones like the DJI Spark take incredible images. Operators must have careful control over their drone to utilize these high-resolution cameras and take photos that make a home stand out. Now, let’s go over 5 tips to take your drone real estate photography to the next level.
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Avid drone flyers often times buy their aircraft depending on the transmission system it operates on. Depending on your needs, this could be the first thing you worry about or the last. Being one of the largest drone companies, DJI uses a range of proprietary transmission systems and it’s incredibly important to know the differences between them. Let’s go over a quick summary.
In the near future, one marine could have the ability to send out multiple drones from a single tablet. These aircraft would have the ability to swarm the enemy, jamming their communications and eradicating designated targets. The end goal is to have up to 15 drones in the air, each flying for hours at a time without needing to land.
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A company out of North Dakota, SkySkopes, is a professional drone flight operator that specializes in delivering data to companies in the energy industry. Their new idea is helping companies string power lines between tall towers.
Multiple wildfires within the B.C. Interior have sprung up over the past week after lightning struck the forest. The fires were aided by a mixture of hot and dry weather. According to BC Wildfire Service; air operations were suspended and firefighting aircraft were diverted on Monday after the sighting of a drone above the Wilson Creek fire, located 19km east of Nakusp.
The border between The United States and Mexico is seeing a rise in drone use by both drug traffickers transporting narcotics and law enforcement looking to stop criminal activity. This situation proves to be a race between both sides as technology evolves in the drone industry and as new systems are developed to stop them.
Drones are without a doubt the future of delivery with faster and more efficient transit times. The problem with current ideas is that all of them are the same, they carry light payloads over short distances. Dronamics looks to separate themselves from the pack with a cargo drone called Black Swan that can carry payloads weighing up to 800 pounds over a range of 1,550 miles.
Since its beginning in 2015, Anil Nanduri has led Intel’s drone group with titles of Vice President and General Manager. Through exploring different commercial applications, Intel has done things like light shows with hundreds of so-called ‘Shooting Star’ drones flying in synchronization as well as advanced aerial surveying with their drone hardware and software applications. As a part of NASA’s Advisory Council Aeronautics Committee, Nanduri will meet regularly with NASA Administrators to offer advice.
On July 12th a small drone was recovered on the tarmac near a fence within San Francisco International Airport. While not impeding any flights, this incident certainly raises questions about how airports can ensure safety to manned aircraft that are taking off and landing. Although it might look harmless, the fear is that these small drones can have a big impact on the integrity of the larger manned aircraft in case of a collision. According to the FAA rules, you’re not allowed to fly your drone within a 5-mile radius of any airport, unless you have obtained special permission. It is unclear at this point in time, what kind of drone has been found, who flew it and why it was flown so close to the airport.
The Mystic drone developed by Airlango is the new Mavic clone on the block but has two eye-catching downward facing motors in the front and one stand out feature that separates it from the pack. Powered by AI, this drone has different intelligent flight modes that allow the Mystic to fly autonomously.