Bruce Crumley

Enterprising officials from the Minnesota town of Warren are using drones equipped with thermal sensors to gauge heat seepage from local buildings and houses as part of a public service to help homeowners cut spending on energy.

Work for businesses on the move in their UAV inspection, surveying, or mapping activities may get a little bit easier with the unveiling of HexTruck – a pickup-mounted automated drone hangar platform compatible with any off-the-shelf craft.

In the wake of last week’s unveiling of a Swedish single-seat personal electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle, Israeli company Air One now introduces a two-seat rival to allow individual consumers to fly themselves around.

As far as UAV flights go, this one supremely qualifies as beyond visual line of sight. Last month, Swedish specialized drone services company Everdrone successfully controlled the delivery of an automated external defibrillator (AED) from a distance of 800 kilometers away – and an entirely different country.

Automated middle-mile cargo drone manufacturer and service company Dronamics has announced it has chosen the island of Malta as the initial European operational base for its automated uncrewed delivery business. 

Authorities in the UK are examining a request to take a test UAV project live. It would involve extending experimental drone use monitoring coastal nuclear power plants for marine life that risks getting sucked into their cooling tubes to a real, increasingly troubling example of that in Scotland.

The saga of several dogs trapped for weeks by lava flows from the La Palma volcano has taken a mysterious new twist, following reports that a group has managed to whisk them to safety even as a drone airlift rescue was being readied.

Efforts to rescue dogs trapped by surrounding lava flows from an erupting volcano on the Spanish island La Palma are reportedly advancing. Practice flights of drones intended to airlift the hounds up, over, and out of their molten prison have passed tests with flying colors.

Against the growing number and increased destruction of wildfires across the planet over the last several years, it’s become more frequent to hear reports of UAV assisting firefighters in the battle to put them out. Now the Australian state of Victoria is using drones to light fires as well.

Proving once again it’s a tech company that just happens to be a world leader in drones, DJI today released its professional-grade DJI Ronin 4D cinema camera, featuring (among a slew of other things) a full-frame Zenmuse X9 gimbal camera, 4-axis stabilization system, and LiDAR focusing system.

Talk about a lousy day. After 14 of his free range sheep plunged to their deaths in a ravine when spooked by a drone repeatedly buzzing them, the upset shepherd was then himself beaten by the pilot – and charged by police charged to boot – for having smashed the harassing UAV as payback.

Australians in many cities have suffered through brutally long COVID-19 lockdowns over the past year, including one since June shutting Sydney residents within a five-kilometer radius of their homes. Now a filmmaker and drone pilot has produced a stunning ocean video within a restricted radius of the city’s coastline, featuring a local maritime star known as Alex the seal.

The diversity and depth of Apple products at times suggests there’s no limit to what kind of tech the company can produce, or what new activities it might decide to get involved with. Now, a new patent filing raises the question of whether Apple is contemplating a launch into the drone sector – albeit a defined and contained part of it.

With strict rules on drone operation now gradually relaxing in India, European UAV manufacturer Fixar has announced plans to begin marketing its craft in the giant south Asian market with local partner Paras Aerospace, focusing first on its flagship fixed-wing Fixar007.

If you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em. That, apparently, is the attitude of Brussels Airport, which has taken a 50% stake in a specialized service startup that provides safe and efficient operation of the very drones currently banned in the air around Belgium’s busiest aviation hub.

Leading global drone delivery company Wing is undertaking more innovation of its operational model by introducing store-prepared orders in new service to the Dallas-Fort Worth area – its biggest urban market to date.

As late US President Ronald Reagan might (again) say, “there you go again.” Militants of widening bans on Chinese tech sold in the US have again locked DJI drones into their sites as security threats  – with the crosshairs this time belonging to the senior Republican commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

Much attention has been turned to the spectacular destructive forces of continuing volcanic activity on the Spanish island of La Palma. Now two groups are using drones to care for overlooked victims of the volcano: Dogs left stranded and starving by advancing lava flows.

Given the unthrottled interest and anticipation uncorked by repeated leaks ahead of DJI’s expected Mavic 3 Pro launch next month, it seems likely nothing could possibly threaten the world’s newest drone – apart, perhaps, from the world’s worsening supply chain problems.

The gigantic wholesale fresh food market serving the Paris region has gotten a taste of its tech future, thanks to a series of drone flights testing the viability of last-mile produce deliveries around the massive facility.