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
Houthi forces captured a U.S. Navy Unmanned Underwater Vehicle or drone 0ff the coast of Yemen according to a video uploaded to Youtube on Monday by the U.S. Naval Institute (USNI). The short video clips shows four members of the “Houthi Navy” in dive gear swimming and cheering around what seems to be a bright yellow REMUS 600 UUV, called Smokey.
Millions of people around the world have received drones for Christmas this Holiday Season. In the UK alone the number of drone users is expected to have doubled after this year’s shopping season. So, can you now charge the batteries and go fly right away or are there some things you should learn before you try out your new toy? Hint: for U.S. drone pilots register your drone.
If you are going to CES2018 and have been wanting to try out drone flying than this may be your chance. DJI will set up a special booth where you can safely try out and fly their drones. Expect to be able to fly the Spark, Mavic Pro, and Phantom drones. Not sure if they will have an Inspire for you to try out. Probably not.
Good morning on this blistering cold day, at least here in New York. After a small hiatus, we are back with our DroneRise daily update on drone news. There is a lot to catch up on so here goes:
At some point, DJI will come out with the next generation of the DJI Mavic Pro drone. That may happen as soon as next week at the CES 2018 event in Las Vegas or it may happen much later in 2018. We honestly have no idea. What we do know though is the list of improvements, we’d like to see realized in the DJI Mavic Pro 2.
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Ahead of the CES 2018 event in Las Vegas, the rumor mills start speeding up. Today, we learned that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) certified the DJI OSMO Mobile 2 on December 11, 2017. Does this mean that DJI will unveil a new OSMO 2 at the largest consumer electronics show? Maybe, but not necessarily. In the same FCC filing, you can see that the photos are embargoed until January 25, so the OSMO Mobile 2 may also be released at a later point in time.
DJI will be at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, NV this year. The DJI booth will be at the Las Vegas Convention Center South Hall #26002 where you can experience their entire product portfolio of camera drones and image stabilization systems.
There’s no definitive word on likely new Drones from DJI, but anticipation is high that CES 2018 is the perfect venue for a launch pad. We’re keeping our eyes peeled for information and if we find out anything in the next week, we will post it here on DroneDJ.
*** Update 1/7/18: DJI reveals Osmo Mobile 2 and Ronin S ***
Silicon Valley drone company, Zipline has teamed up with the Rwandan health ministry to deliver blood and other urgently needed medical supplies to hospitals around the country much faster than before. Blood deliveries by drone have reduced the time it takes to get blood to where it is needed, from four hours on average to half an hour. The Zipline delivery drones can fly up to 65 mph and have a 47-mile service radius. Over the last year, the drones have completed over 5,500 units of blood, often in life-saving situations to 12 regional hospitals. The use of unmanned aerial vehicles has helped to reduce maternal deaths, a quarter of which are the result of blood loss during childbirth.
This is a somewhat older video, that you may or may not have seen. We’re covering it here today, as the design of this ball-catching drone is mind-blowing. Normal drones or quadcopters, the ones that are typically flown by professionals and amateurs, have their four rotors positioned in a single plane. For the drone to move or fly in a certain direction it has to first tilt. The ball-catching drone or omnicopter works differently. It was designed by researchers Dario Brescianini and Raffaello D’Andrea from the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control (IDSC), ETH in Zurich, Switzerland. The unmanned aerial vehicle has eight rotors, positioned in four different planes and all the rotors can spin forward and backward, enabling the drone to fly in all three directions, at any velocity, and at any altitude with ease and precision.
Previously aerial photos could only be made from helicopters or airplanes and therefore it was the almost exclusive terrain of professional photographers who could afford to rent these aircrafts for special assignments. However, with the arrival of affordable consumer drones, such as the DJI Mavic Pro and Phantom series, aerial photography has become much more accessible. As a result, mere mortals now deliver some of the most amazing photos, we’ve ever seen.
The soccer game between the towns of Yeovil and Crawley in the UK, was interrupted by the referee after he spotted a drone flying over the stadium. The game was stopped in the 80th minute but resumed after an 11-minute delay when an unmanned aerial vehicle was seen flying over the Huish Park stadium. The soccer match ended in Crawley beating nine-man Yeovil 2-1.
Happy New Year to all of you! We hope that 2018 may bring you health and happiness to you and yours and… of course lots of drone flying!
Here is how New Year’s Eve is celebrated in the Amsterdam, The Netherlands. As seen from a drone. Captured by Jeremy Smith.
Pascal Partouche from Holon, Israel, flew his drone over what seems to be the Mediterranean ocean and took a bunch of photos. One of which was a guy swimming or snorkeling. Only when Pascal came home and took a closer look at the pictures, did he discover the shark lurking right behind the swimmer. The guy in the wetsuit was totally unaware of the danger lurking behind him in the turquoise water. The shark seems to be around 8 feet long. Surely big enough to do some serious damage. We have no information on the kind of shark but have reached out to Pascal for more information.
Local interpreter and journalist Aung Naing Soe was seen leaving the prison on Friday morning.
Roughly six weeks ago, we reported on a Singaporean and Malaysian journalist together with their interpreter and driver being jailed for two months after having flown their drone to close to Myanmar’s parliament. They have now been released according to authorities. All four of them worked for Turkish broadcaster TRT and were serving a two-month sentence for not complying with local aviation rules and regulations.
Hold My Beer – while I weaponize this drone with Roman candles! This short video clip is going viral yet again. The original footage was uploaded to YouTube in March of 2015. Today, somebody posted a gif version of the clip on Reddit where it sparked a whole new thread within hours with over 400 comments.
The video shows how a few guys rig a drone with Roman candles and light them up. Two of them run away on to a frozen lake wearing nothing but bathing suits, while the drone pilot chases them and tries to shoot them with the fireworks attached to the drone. Quite accurately, I might add. At one point the drone seems to hit one of the guys while running through the snow. All in all, it is just a bunch of friends having a laugh. Not everybody agreed though, however.
Good morning. Grab yourself a cup of coffee and catch up on the latest news from yesterday. Today we also have a very cinematic video of this year’s Burning Man event.
Blood delivered by drone may soon be a reality in Palo Alto, California as the Palo Alto and Stanford Blood Center is making a pitch to the Federal Aviation Administration. Blood-carrying drones may start making their first deliveries early 2018.
For this project, the city has partnered with Stanford Blood Center and drone manufacturer Matternet on a proposal to the Federal Aviation Administration. If the name Matternet sounds familiar, that would be correct. That is the same company that is currently testing drone deliveries with Mercedes-Benz in Zurich, Switzerland.
Under the FAA pilot program, the proposal is seeking an “approved flight path” between the Stanford Blood Center and Stanford Hospital, west of Junipero Serra Boulevard.
SolarDrone is a startup company that was established from the laboratory of National Taiwan University in partnership with specialists from photovoltaic and UAV technologies to overcome the limited flight time of most drones. The unmanned aerial vehicles with solar panels will be showcased at CES 2018.
Elroy Air, a San Francisco, California-based cargo drone start-up company announced that is has raised $4.6 million in funding. The cargo drones, Elroy Air is planning to produce, will be capable of transporting up to 150 pounds of cargo for up to 300 miles. Most of the funding came from Levitate Capital, Homebrew, Shasta Ventures, and Lemnos, according to Quartz.
Good morning! Today we have drone news from China twice, flooding in the Philipines, drugs delivered by drone and a beautiful drone video of Italy. Get a cup of coffee and catch up on the latest news!
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The first ever FAI World Fly-In Expo was held from November 4 to 7, in Wuhan, China. The show featured hundreds of aircraft, including jets, helicopters, hot air balloons and of course drones. According to an article in the NY Times, the drones were actually the stars of the event.
After this holiday shopping season, there will be more drones in the hands of consumers than ever before. Governments and aviation authorities around the world are concerned that the increase in the number of amateur drone pilots will lead to more drone incidents, such as drone sightings close to airports, near-misses and potentially more actual drone and airplane collisions. This raises the question, how much damage a drone would cause to an airplane in case of a collision? Scientists have used computer simulations to try and answer this question.
The Chinese aviation authorities went one step further and created an actual cockpit mockup, mounted it to a rocket and launched it at a drone at the usual airplane speed.
Last week, deadly storm, Tembin brought flash flooding and mudslides to the Philippine island Mindanao, resulting in more than 180 people missing or dead up from 130 reported earlier. This short drone video shows the extent of the damage and flooded areas on Mindanao.
On Tuesday, a Southern California man and woman got busted by the police for delivering drugs by drone to their customers in a nearby parking lot. The couple, Benjamin Paul Baldassarre, 39, and Ashley Lauren Carroll, 31, lived with a 9-year-old girl in their drug littered home. They were charged with possession of controlled substances for sale, possession of drug paraphernalia and child endangerment, City News Service reported.