Ishveena Singh is a versatile journalist and writer with a passion for drones and location technologies. She has been named as one of the 50 Rising Stars of the geospatial industry for the year 2021 by Geospatial World magazine.
In a first for Japan, renewable energy firm afterFIT has received approval to fly autonomous drones beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) at night. The approval has been granted by the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism.
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US researchers are building a drone-based communication network that would leverage the laws of quantum physics to make information exchange ultra-secure. While this system can prove beneficial in several scenarios, one prominent use case is warfare wherein quantum drones could provide one-time crypto-keys to relay critical messages that spies and enemies would not be able to intercept.
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Ocean acidification is a serious threat to marine ecosystems. When carbon dioxide (CO2) is absorbed by seawater, chemical reactions occur that reduce seawater pH. This affects the ability of marine organisms such as corals and crabs to build and maintain their shells. The Gulf of Alaska’s cold waters naturally hold more carbon dioxide. And in an era of climate change, it’s always at risk of reaching a tipping point. This is why researchers are now hoping that a 7-foot-long, bright pink underwater drone will help them get a deeper understanding of the ocean’s chemistry.
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There’s no question that the brains inside Skydio drones are rather impressive. These things are masters of AI and autonomy, capable of carrying out tasks that can prove challenging for other drones. The team, naturally, knows everything there’s to know about building autonomous robots at scale. And now, it’s ready to share its learnings with the wider robotics community by making public SymForce – the library that powers the motion planner and computer vision systems used by Skydio drones.
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We’re working toward a future where passenger air taxis and drone deliveries are to become a part of everyday mobility. But how will these autonomous systems access important information, such as deteriorating weather conditions, to complete each flight safely? To address this issue, NASA researchers are exploring the creation of a decentralized data and reasoning hub that would help autonomous aircraft to make critical safety decisions rapidly.
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Snap’s new pocket-sized Pixy selfie drone, which is available for purchase only in the US and France, comes with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) “Open” category CE C0 class identification label stamped on its battery compartment.
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Parrot says its new ANAFI Ai 4G drone will be accessible from the cloud for mission planning, real-time video streaming, and fully remote management of the fleet. This capability is being enabled through the joint efforts of the drone maker and French software company UAVIA.
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Skydio and Axon’s strategic partnership is coming along rather nicely. Public safety agencies flying Skydio drones and using Axon Respond real-time operations platform can now access live video feeds from their Skydio 2 and Skydio X2 aircraft for better situational awareness.
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UK’s National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) is launching trials to fully automate the corrosion inspection of electricity transmission pylons with the help of autonomous drones.
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DJI, the world’s top drone maker, has suffered yet another leak. Actual photos of the DJI Avata FPV drone have surfaced online, fanning speculation that the rumored CineWhoop product may just see a summer launch.
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Flyability, the Switzerland-based maker of the popular Elios range of drones for indoor and confined-space inspections, is ready with its next offering: Elios 3. It’s the world’s first collision-tolerant drone equipped with a LiDAR sensor for indoor 3D mapping.
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A passenger aircraft approaching the Berlin-Brandenburg Airport (BER) last week was forced to maneuver to avoid a drone in its path, German news media is reporting. According to Brandenburg police, the drone in question was flying some 3,000 feet (1,000 meters) above the premises of Tesla Gigafactory Berlin which is located close to the airport.
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The DJI Fly app has finally received an update a lot of us have been waiting for: The app now supports the new DJI Mini 3 Pro. At the same time, the Mini 3 Pro drone’s first firmware update is also being rolled out, unlocking features such as obstacle sensing and the full suite of intelligent shooting modes.
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Commercial air taxi manufacturer Joby Aviation says its pre-production aircraft has met the “revolutionary low” noise targets the company had set for itself during acoustic testing with NASA. As per preliminary results, the all-electric air taxis should barely be perceptible in urban environments.
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French energy giant TotalEnergies is launching a drone-based methane emissions detection program across all its upstream oil and gas operated sites. The global campaign will use a greenhouse gas measuring technology called Airborne Ultralight Spectrometer for Environmental Applications (AUSEA) that TotalEnergies has developed in collaboration with the French National Research Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Reims Champagne Ardenne.
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The official announcement for Mini 3 Pro drone is barely out of the way, and the DJI leaker community has already dug up a new rumored product worthy of our attention! We’ve long suspected that DJI is working on a new, mini version of its popular FPV drone. Turns out, it might be styled like a CineWhoop, capable of flying indoors, and go by the name Avata.
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With drone-in-a-box (DiaB) solutions emerging as a growth segment within the drone industry, Norway-based Nordic Unmanned has entered into an acquisition agreement with DiaB specialist DroneMatrix.
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With diabetes patients in Ukraine’s conflict zones cut off from insulin supplies, drones are being roped in to deliver life-saving medication to the people who need it the most.
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SkySpecs, a Michigan-based company whose drone software is used to monitor about 45% of all wind turbine blades in North America, has scooped up a cool $80 million in strategic funding to grow its product portfolio as well as geographic footprint. The funding round was led by Goldman Sachs with participation from NextEra Energy Resources and existing investors.
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Enforcing local drone rules can be extremely challenging for communities. Too often the rules are simply not presented to drone pilots broadly enough. And many a time, their compliance becomes dependent on posted signs that can be easily missed. It’s a problem that 6,600 US state parks desperately want to solve. Aloft Technologies says its new geospatial data platform, Aloft Geo Portal, can help.
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DJI has rolled out a significant firmware update for its flagship commercial drone Matrice 300 (M300) RTK and Zenmuse L1 LiDAR surveying camera. The V4 update packs in a ton of new and optimized features including compatibility with DJI FlightHub 2 and Zenmuse H20N, reduced flight times in mapping missions, and the introduction of a new file format standard for Waypoints.
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Despite leaks and rumors painting an extremely vivid picture of DJI’s new drone over the past few days, it’s a pretty exciting moment when a new product officially drops. The DJI Mini 3 Pro is available to pre-order now, with shipping expected later this month. But before you consider buying the drone, here are the top 10 things you need to know.
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Alex Vanover started racing drones as a teenager. Today, the 2019 Drone Racing League (DRL) Champion, flies professionally. When he’s not competing across real-life, esports, and metaverse drone racing events, Vanover can be found filming immersive FPV footage for Michael Bay films, Justin Bieber music videos, and other A-list celebrities. He credits his mother, Cathy Vanover, as his biggest advocate. So, this Mother’s Day, we talked to Cathy to understand how she nurtured a sporting prodigy.
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The official Twitter account of Canada’s Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) asked its 50K+ followers an all-important question this week: “How are illegal guns reaching the hands of criminals in Canada?” But the department already knew part of the answer, thanks to a drone that had seemingly crossed the border from the United States carrying a shopping bag full of Glock semiautomatic pistols.
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