Haye Kesteloo is the Editor in Chief and Main Writer at DroneDJ, where he covers all drone-related news and writes product reviews. He also contributes to the other sites in the 9to5Mac group such as; 9to5Mac, 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, and Electrek.
Haye can be reached at haye@dronedj.com or @hayekesteloo
This video was just uploaded to YouTube and it shows you how the Skydio R1 drone views the world as it is following you completely autonomously. This is called the “Voxel view” and it is the view that the R1 drone creates with help of the 12 obstacle avoidance cameras and the one main 4K camera primarily meant to track the subject.
About one week ago new images surfaced on Twitter showing what could be a DJI Phantom 4 Pro V2.0 model. Last Friday, we were notified of two new FCC filings (controller, drone) from DJI, indicating that the photos are likely legit.
DJI may be about to release a new version of the DJI Phantom 4 Pro V2.0 or “Platinum Edition” during the NAB 2018 event in Las Vegas in April. The introduction of a new Phantom 4 could also mean that we will not see a new DJI Phantom 5 until October or November of this year.
Good morning, let’s start the with some breaking news. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport has been approved by the FAA to operate drones over the airfield and in the terminal. This is the first airport in the nations with special FAA authorization to do so. Very exciting stuff! We have some more for you as well.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) just approved first responders at the fourth busiest airport in the world, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to fly their drones directly over the airfield. DFW Airport will be the first airport in the US that is allowed to do so.
Skydio just came out with their fully autonomous R1 drone a few weeks ago and here is the first software update. Some of the improvements include short processing time of the video footage after flights, automatically attempt to reconnect in case of a disconnect during flight, better USB handling when connecting to a computer, and other improvements.
Bee populations have been shrinking around the world for years now and scientists are pointing to the use of pesticides as a reason for the decline. This is a major concern for agriculture as the winged-insects are the world’s pollinators. Walmart is trying to solve this problem and applied for a patent for ‘drone-pollinators’ earlier this month.
Russian billionaire Abramovich tried to confiscate a drone from the co-founder of Droneworks Studios in the Caribbean with an anti-drone device. Last Thursday co-founder Justin Oakes posted a video on YouTube in which he explains the bizarre story of almost losing his drone to the Russian billionaire mid-flight. The incident took place in December while Justin and his wife Elaine were on vacation.
Earlier this month Drone Delivery Canada conducted its first drone test flights in the US. The company made the news back in February when it received a compliance certificate from Transport Canada that allows them to fly beyond line-of-sight. the test flights took place at one of the seven FAA-designated UAS Test Sites, Grifiss International Airport.
Good morning, we have had a bit of a busy weekend flying the Skydio R1 drone but more about that in a later post. Last week ended with a photo of what supposed to be the new Mavic Pro II drone. As soon as we saw it we were suspicious as it seemed exactly the same as the original Mavic Pro. A little while later, our hunch was confirmed with a series of tweets from OsitaLV claiming that it was his friends Mavic Pro. In his own words, OsitaLV was playing a ‘guessing game’ with all of his followers and he was ‘tired of being treated as a leaker’ even though that’s exactly how he positioned himself only a few weeks ago.
Just as I write that things have been quiet on the DJI Mavic Pro II for the last two weeks, this photo appears. OsitaLV tweeted it out about an hour ago with the text: “BANG!!! Guess what it is,” creating the impression that this is, in fact, the new DJI Mavic Pro II. But is it? Let’s take a closer look.
It has been very quiet on DJI Mavic Pro II rumors over the last couple of weeks. Instead, what we have heard is more news on the Phantom 5. Earlier this week there were photos of what seems to be the new interchangeable lens system for DJI’s upcoming quadcopter. Today, we see another beautiful sketch of the upcoming Phantom 5 from @OsitaLV, in which he draws an aluminum grey and black quadcopter. Interestingly, his drawing seems to match news we got from Europe.
Boulder City, Nevada is looking to make some extra money and have turned their eyes on recreational and commercial drone pilots. In an effort to shore up the city’s budget, they are now proposing to charge $25 per day for recreational drone flying and $100 per day for commercial drone flying.
Good morning, here are yesterday’s headlines as well as an amazing drone video of Masada in Israel. Enjoy!
Union Pacific Corp. has started using drones to monitor their workers and see if safety guidelines were being adhered to. The response from the railroad workers has been to flood the Union Pacific safety hotline complaining that the drones, in fact, make their work more dangerous.
It seems that all of a sudden car manufacturers are becoming interested in drones. Mercedes-Benz is testing with drone deliveries in Zurich. Porsche has a drone in their latest EV commercial. Ford participates at the FAA UAS Symposium and would like to sell you a drone with your next F150 pickup truck. And now BMW is involved in developing the fastest racing drone in a partnership with Drone Racing League (DRL). It makes you wonder who will be next?
Drone delivery is a hot topic this week. Last Tuesday, Amazon received yet another patent that may help to make a more efficient and greener way to deliver packages, a reality sooner than you think. This latest patent protects a method to literally ‘drop’ packages from as high as 25 feet on your doorstep or patio. The packages and their contents would be protected by an airbag.
In England, ten people, all from the West Midlands, have been charged with using drones on a large scale to smuggle drugs and phones into prisons. The eight men and two women have been charged with three counts of conspiracy to supply drugs, psychoactive substances and banned items.
Drones are becoming more capable every day. Now, scientists have developed a drone with an extendable origami arm that can pick up objects in hard to reach places.
In a study that was published in Science Robotics, the workings of the origami arm are explained as follows, it is made of seven plastic actuators. These rectangular boxes are stacked on top of each other and when unfolded they extend to 27.5″. The arm folds almost completely flat and can easily be mounted underneath a drone and not cause any problems while flying.
Good morning, today we have the headlines you may have missed, including photos of what may be the new interchangeable lens system for the new Phantom 5, as well as a deal on the current Phantom 4 and more. Grab your coffee and follow along!
The Marine Corps just released specification of what in their view would be the ideal mega-drone. The unmanned aircraft would be able to perform Verticle-Take-Off-and-Landing (VTOL), fly up to a 700-mile radius with a full payload of 9,500 pounds at a cruising speed from 200kt to 300kt (370 km/h to 556 km/h), escort the MV-22 Osprey and other aircraft, network with other manned platforms and provide offensive air support. Like we said… a mega-drone.
Rumors have been going around for a while now that the new DJI Phantom 5 could have interchangeable lenses. There would be four different lengths available, a 16mm, 24mm, 35mm, and 50mm lens. The current Phantom 4 Pro sacrifices portability over the highest possible image quality for a prosumer drone. It would make sense that the new Phantom 5 would retain that same focus. The option to change lenses would effectively turn the Phantom 5 into a mini Inspire 2 with Zenmuse X7 camera and lenses at a much lower price point. Now, that is something to get excited about!
Amazon Prime Air and other companies may begin delivering packages by drone as soon as this summer, according to federal regulators and industry officials. Since late last year, the White House has started to put more pressure on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to work with companies to make delivering packages by drone and other drone applications a reality.
At the FAA UAS Symposium last week, it became clear that drone deliveries may be here sooner than we think as federal officials promised drone proponents: “We’ll help you get there.”
Good morning, today we have a beautiful video of Greenland as well as the news you may have missed, so let’s start with yesterday’s headlines.
In a blog post, Ford announced that they are seriously looking into drones as an addition to their product portfolio. The post covers two concepts: using the anti-collision lights of drones for identification purposes which we covered here, and a customizable UAV development platform. We will look into the second one in more detail in this post.